Make a payed pro version

[Tesla42]

Hello,

I think QucsStudio should have a payed version. The are mainly two relevant ways to make software successful.

One is the open source way. It’s developed by the community. If someone needs features, bugfixes or other maintenance, he can do it himself or pay developers to do it.

The other way is the proprietary way. The customer pays for usage, directly spending money or indirectly by watching ads. The software seller organizes the development. It often stays closed source to prevent pirating.

But QucsStudio combines the two disadvantages. It is closed source preventing contributions and free of charge, which makes future development and maintenance unlikely to happen. User can’t count on it.

I think, if Qucs-S goes the open source way with all advantages and disadvantages, QucsStudio should go fully into the proprietary way. Maybe all RF stuff should be enabled in the pro version only, for maybe 49€ per month. This may bring enough for at least one full time developer. It looks like, there are at least 100 users for the pro version.

What do you think? Should version 5 have this pro option? Which functionality should be pro at which cost?

[QucsStudio]

Thanks for your post! Indeed, I’ve already spent many thoughts about how to earn money with QucsStudio and keep the project alive this way. But it’s not easy.

I like the idea about open source. There are projects that are successful, but obviously this is not the case with Qucs. And the same holds for QucsStudio, unless some companies appear that pay me for all the work already done. Hm, pretty unrealistic.

On the other hand, I don’t like the idea of going fully into a proprietary, paid application. I also fear that this won’t be successful. But you are right: It’s a big problem that users can’t rely on the further development. I want to change this.

I’m still uncertain what way is the best to go on. Anyway, the next release will come this year, maybe even this month. And, yes, it will be free, and won’t be the last free version. Thanks to all who made a donation!

Currently, my plan is to find sponsors, companies that pay for new features, for support etc. Any hints, help and comments are very welcome here! Does anyone know a company that might be interested? Is there interest for paid tutorial videos, example files etc.? Could a crowd-funded feature list be successful? Or perhaps a paid version with very special features like PDK support?

[Tesla42]

Even you like open source, QucsStudio isn’t open source. Going closed source may be good for ads or sponsorship logos in the software, so no one can fork it and remove this content.

I have an idea: Qucs-S is in active development. It uses C++17 and Qt6, runs on Linux, has more part libraries and more simulations. I think QucsStudio should be more like an addon/plugin for Qucs-S. Currently Qucs-S does not have an integrated addon store, but this would be nice. Maybe there is a way, QucsStudio can use Qucs-S as some kind of library.

The current situation is a dead end of QucsStudio. Why should someone build on something, which is maintained by only one person in spare time and closed source? A product that could be abandoned every moment? Why should someone crowd-fund or donate? – A closed source payed software from a big company with 1000 developpers or an open source software with a big community is much more stable.

I talked to ra3xdh. He said, he is willing to merge QucsStudio and Qucs-S, if possible. That would drastically reduce the amount of work to do for future development. But that means, QucsStudio will be open source again. Paying for features and support will stay possible and may be easier to acquire.

To protect the intellectual property in some way, a trademark can be helpful. Everyone who creates a fork, can’t use the trademark without permission. The sponsors may only rely on the original one. Also the forum with its content can’t be forked. The sponsors can place there logos there. And the forum may be more successful, if there is only one Qucs with both feature sets (Qucs-S and QucsStudio).

Maybe a cloud or web option for collaboration may be interesting. This may also be useful for teaching. That means, monthly income can be generated for cloud access.

Maybe research centers and universities may pay for support. For in person workshops, makerspaces may be a good place. They can organize everything and pay you only for the workshop.

 

[Simon_GEII_Bordeaux]

Thank you for the HUGE amount of work that has gone into the development of QucsStudio so far!

I’m an academic and I use it extensively (about 100 students/year), I also see many universities that are progressively turning to QucsStudio. The main reason is that it is free. This means that students can use this tool autonomously wherever they are (electronics enthusiasts and small businesses do not have the resources to pay for ADS or a monthly subscription to QucsStudio).

On the other hand, it is important to ensure the sustainable development of the software. I would like my department to contribute financially to QucsStudio, but this isn’t possible through donations/sponsorships. However, it is possible through additional features that we would like to purchase, e.g. extensive example files/folders. Could you organise something like this in the near future? (with VAT number and everything… and the must would be to have a French distributor)

Cheers

[Author]

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