I recently listened to @balloob on the the GitHub ReadMe podcast (vey nice retrospective) talking about the target audience of HA being people who are a bit “settled” in life (so they actually have homes of their own to mark smart) and why HA is open source (being widely accessible to a lot of people and lots of devices / services via integration). When my Nabu Casa bill came this morning I had the following thoughts about that:
While I think HA is the perfect example of an open source project working great to most people (including myself) it is way (WAY!!!) more valuable than the 5$ per month I pay for Nabu Casa. So dont’t get me wrong - HA should remain free forever (money should not be a barrier of entry especially for young and less affluent folks), I also think it would be great if people like me could give a little more to make sure that people can make a living working full-time on HA(OS), ESPHome, … - and make sure, that HA sticks for the long run.
I know it is possible to tip people for their work (it least for some, like @frenck for integrations…), but it’s always a one-time thing and I have to admit it feels a bit weird. I would prefer paying money for a great and valuable service, not handing out tips (which feels a bit like reaching down if you get what I mean).
So here are a few suggestions if I may:
Make it possible to set a rate higher then 5$ / month to pay for Nabu Casa (where I believe the money can be distributed best for the platform as whole).
Make it possible to pay in advance for 3/6/12 months (and communicate clearly that there are no refunds even if you would like to cancel along the way).
(Accept payments in EUR or via Paypal, but that’s just me… )
I appreciate the founders and core team of HA treating lightly when it comes to monetization - but the product is of great value for a lot of people who are not developers and can’t contribute, but want to make sure the plaform thrives.
Maybe the PayPal thing is to do with the country you’re in - since you mention EUR I assume not UK for you. Their FAQ page says they accept Paypal. It also mentions possible annual subscription in the future.
I’m sure many HA users can afford more. Have you noticed how many mention their Teslas?
Somewhere on the Internet, people are asking how they can pay more for their Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, mobile phone plan, electricity, internet, phone apps, etc because they feel they aren’t paying enough.
Not.
But seriously, from all outward appearances, Nabu Casa is thriving. Since its inception in 2018, it has grown to employ eleven people.
FWIW, there are people who claim to give Nabu Casa a “donation” by subscribing to the service but never actually using it. I doubt the IRS sees a distinction but it makes some people feel generous. While waiting for your FR to be implemented, I suppose you can do that.
I think Nabu Casa is walking a fine line here, and doing a good job of it.
There is a real danger in being seen as a for-profit enterprise.
I’ve participated as a volunteer contributor in two projects now which were ultimately sold to large, for-profit corporations. Both times, volunteers left in droves, essentially killing the project. Most of us felt taken advantage of. We’d contributed our sweat equity to support a project we believed in, for the good of the community. Then our efforts became unpaid labor for a company we didn’t particularly like, and others were profiting from our hard work.
I am a subscriber - I just feel the service is worth more than 5$ per month and it would be great if I could volunteer to up the price…
I fully agree which is why I think it’s important that NC as a company can support enough people who can in turn continue HA as an independent company. If a large enterprise starts throwing money at the people in charge… well… nothing you can do about it… - but it makes it less likely if they can pay their bills doing what they appear to like quite a bit.
It appears to be incorporated in Delaware (for the usual tax advantages) with branches registered in CA and CO. Whether it generates a profit depends on their accounting firm’s legerdemain.
If NC could provide the possibility to donate to a foundation that would be great for tax reasons, but my guess is that this would be an accounting and compliance nightmare, so I was solely thinking about paying more for the service.
This is a feature request for NC. You’re proposing a work-around.
NC definitely is a for-profit which is fine. I wasn’t aiming for changing that.
All I am saying is please NC give me (and potentially others) the chance to give you lets say 100 EUR once a year instead of 5 USD every month using credit card.
They’re giving a company “free money” to ostensibly stay in business. It’s simultaneously altruistic and naive.
Nevertheless, I don’t imagine Nabu Casa, or any company, would refuse to be paid more than what they are asking for their goods and services. Who would say no to zealous customers?
Ultimately it makes no difference to your wallet. You want to give them more money, that’s how you can do it now. Nothing prevents you from doubling your monthly rate, starting today.
Yea, I knew what you meant. One of my reasons for leaving SmartThings (3 years ago, I think) was because I couldn’t pay a monthly fee. Most people don’t want the monthly fee and complain when “cloud” companies start charging a fee… I kept reminding people that we all keep buying non-SmartThings devices because the ST devices are too expensive. As we do this ST makes less and less money. I was really worried about them just closing up shop because they don’t make money.
I’m glad you like what we’re doing! The people that want to pay us more are limited and I don’t think that it’s worth the extra complexity. We are working on an overhaul of the payment system to enable annual payments. Hope to launch that later this year.
If you do want to give more, I suggest you find your favorite developer and check if they have GitHub Sponsors enabled. GitHub sponsors allows specifying tiers, but also custom tiers and one time payments (example).
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Voted.
