In most contexts in society, getting something for free, seldom comes with great scrutiny or serious entitlement from the receiver. Logical of course, as you “got it for free”, and maybe also were told “given as is”. For open source however, the story is often quite different.

If you run a startup that requires following up users beyond basic reachouts such as “How can I reset my password?” or, “If I want to use feature X, what price plan must I have?”, you are likely to benefit from having a system that is more than just a standard customer support tool.

Most businesses, and even many open source projects today, think very traditional about how to provide support to their users. Usually it goes something like this: Code support should be provided from a core team member or outsourced through a hired consultancy firm.

Open source is the backbone of most if not all software-based innovation and allows us all to benefit immensely. Despite this, open source developers are often expected to sacrifice their time and finances to satisfy the needs of the masses.

Having your project used by an enterprise is a milestone for many. But a great number of projects make that feat close to impossible when not having a support system in place. Available support might be an absolute requirement for many within the largest user categories.

So you just started your Open Source project. The traction is decent, hobbyists like it and even a few commercial actors are adopting your code. You feel like you have wind in your sails, although a manageable amount of requests are piling up in periods. Is it any reason to think about getting a support system in place this early?

Have you ever thought to yourself? I am providing a lot of support to my users for free. I wish I could have charged them a small amount in a simple and flexible way.

Some may say that “the hype is real”, while others may wrinkle their nose at such a claim. So what should you believe?

On various forums you can see people ask why Red Hat Enterprise Linux is chosen by so many over Ubuntu. Accepting the premise saying that both serve many of the same application needs, the short answer is often, support and documentation.

Today many users of code, commercial and hobbyists, have gotten spoiled with not only getting the code for free, but also having the person or team representing the project that created the code, helping out with implementation, dependencies, best practices and misinterpretations without getting a penny in return.