Something missing for SuiteCRM seems to be a central location/repository of opensource/free Add-ons that are vetted/reviewed. I personally believe that this is a resource that makes any open-source project more sustainable.
I know a lot of these often contain free versions of add-ons that are little more than adverts for professional paid add-ons, but simply having a repository of add-ons that are available as trials/tasters improves the use of the system.
Having add-ons reviewed/vetted etc also improves confidence and allows some indication to newcomers around the infrastructure and on-going usage of the system .
Just the fact there is something called “Labs” (experiments) AND a post (which also points at another store with a couple of free plugins) seems to me to indicate the need for an “official” and central Suite repository for the free plugins
Yeah, I see your point, but I guess it’s too low-movement to motivate someone to build the site (or page) and curate it.
The guys from the Store are nice enough to have that there - they don’t make money from it, and I guess the “Labs” title is there to politely tell you not to annoy them with requests for support.
I would favor telling everyone who has a free addon to just add it to the Labs page on the official Store.
The reality is that the SuiteCRM user base is quite small. I’m a developer with many plugins on the Marketplace, yet there are months when my revenue is literally $0.
So who is going to spend hundreds of hours building and maintaining free plugins?
Most developers are happy to contribute free software when they already have a stable income. But when it’s already difficult to make a living from the platform itself, it’s hard to expect a steady stream of high-quality plugins to be released for free.
If you find a plugin useful, buying it is one of the best ways to support the developer. In return, you’re much more likely to receive ongoing updates, bug fixes, new features, and dedicated support. That benefits not only you, but the entire SuiteCRM community.
I don’t think making a steady income from SuiteCRM plugins is a viable business model (there might be a few extraordiary ones that are widely used that are an exception). There just aren’t enough users which makes pricing of the plugins unreasonable to consumers. Most plugins need to be priced in the hundreds or thousands of dollars a year to pay for support due to the minimal user base. Users are used to like Wordpress plugins for $99 a year at most. Then because SuiteCRM is so configurable and runs on so many differerent platforms, you create a support nightmare (another reason prices have to be high). You always end up in a chicken or the egg scenario of not enough customers, too high a price. I’ve built a bunch of plugins and give them away for free on my site. Even that has little interest. Basically, I just give them away to my consulting clients at this point as part of other projects. I maintain them because I use most of them myself.
I don’t personally post my plugins in the shop because I want some control of who uses them and how they are used so I don’t end up in a support nightmare for something I give away for free. Or, even if I sold them, if even one customer buys it, could be thousands of dollars in my support time to support it.
I guess such is the struggle with open source software.
There are plugins that sell for a one-time fee of a few hundred dollars, but if you factor in the time spent supporting users and adding features based on their requests, then calculated at an hourly rate, that money is sometimes barely enough to buy a cup of coffee.
I think this is where the SuiteCRM Store could potentially improve its model. What if each provider could clearly separate the plugin price from the support cost?
For example, you could sell the plugin for a relatively low one-time fee, while clearly stating an hourly or support rate for installation, customization, troubleshooting, feature requests, and ongoing support. That way, customers get access to the plugin at a reasonable price, but the developer isn’t expected to provide unlimited support for free.
It would also make the pricing much more transparent. Someone might choose a $100 plugin over a $300 one because they only need the basic functionality, while understanding that any support or customization would be billed separately.
In my opinion, that could make the Store more attractive for both developers and customers. Developers could keep more control over their time and avoid the “one-time fee = unlimited support” problem, while customers could choose how much support they actually need.
That’s not going to work. If you sell a plugin for like $99 bucks and then give an option for $99/month support for example. You’re only going to have people buy the $99 plugin, not buy support and then complain the plugin doesn’t work and they have all kinds of problems with it. Plus, you can’t “sell” a plugin. Its open source. You cannot “sell” it at all. You can only charge for support., maintenance and upgrades availability.
Independent from CRM systems (or CMS, ERP, Software, Hardware, etc.):
Looking at the size of the market, selling something for $10 / month can be profitable.
If you’ve got 2 customers and multiple support requests from them, it wouldn’t make too much sense.
If there are 2.000 customers, it starts to look more like a business model.
Tinkering on a piece of software for 2 customers is very different from building a solid product with documentation, support processes, maintenance, security etc. for 2.000 customers.
As Bastian said, volume is key. Either you have a few users and it’s super expensive, or you have a few thousand users and you can reasonably seel it for $10 bucks a month. Also, you have to consider the business model. Not all CRM’s are open source. A plugin derivative of an open source software like SuiteCRM also needs to be open source, so you can’t really “sell” a plugin, you have to charge for support and updates subscription. Proprietary systems have different economics as well, you can charge an upfront cost because the user can’t sell and re–distribute it. So there are lots of factors to consider in how to generate revenue for your plugins.
Personally, I’m happy just to get a lead of someone who uses SuiteCRM and might potentially hire me in the future in exchange for one of my plugins.