Githelp

Repository

What is Githelp today

How to get started

How to use Githelp

Pricing for users

Commission

Planned roadmap

Want to read more about how the service works for users of support?

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Last updated: December 04, 2024

What is Githelp today

Githelp is a platform that connects businesses, organizations and solo developers with open source projects. For users, with an aim of improving the support functions and lowering the barriers of using OS. And for the repositories, with an aim of establishing an extra source of funding and hopefully positively influence adoption rates, by making it easier for users to put their faith in OS projects of all sizes.

For users in need of support, the connection is currently established through the browsing function on the Githelp website, where they can access the support landing pages of various OS projects, and create tickets there. Or, by going to registered OS projects´ Discord servers and using our assistant, for projects who have installed that.

Within the assistant, the actual support is offered in three different ways:

Paid expert help - from core teams and/or validated experts
Free Community help
Free AI-support

To see upcoming functionality and plans going forward, head to our Planned roadmap.

Paid expert help - from core teams and/or validated experts
Free Community help
Free AI-support

To see upcoming functionality and plans going forward, head to our Planned roadmap.

Which repositories do we provide support for?

We try to provide support for most OS repositories registered on Github, however divided into two categories. If the project has registered on our platform, the support is more extensive, as this means we have established a connection directly to the core team of the project. For the unregistered proejcts, the support is more limited, due to lack of such connection. Users are encouraged to request a core team connection for any OS project they want help for. It is completely free for them to do so, and done from the support landing page of the repository in question.

Registered repositories

For registered repositories we offer:

Expert help instantly (if experts are online)
Community help* (free)
AI-support* (free and repo-specific)

*Community help and AI-support require that the repository has installed our assistant at their Discord server, normally in their help channel.

For more information on what you will get as a registered user, see How to get started

For registered repositories we offer:

Expert help instantly (if experts are online)
Community help* (free)
AI-support* (free and repo-specific)

Unregistered repositories

For unregistered repositories we offer:

Expert help within 48 hours
AI-support* (free and repo-specific)

*AI-support is only offered for unregistered repositories if requested by the users.

For unregistered repositories we offer:

Expert help within 48 hours
AI-support* (free and repo-specific)

*AI-support is only offered for unregistered repositories if requested by the users.

How to get started

Start with registering yourself. If you are an OS project with a repository, the right user category would be Repository. You can make the registration here. Individual team members acting as helpers/providers of support must register as Provider of support. That can be done through the same link.

If you want to use the service as multiple user groups, register one at a time.

When registered

After the registration we reach out, and coordinate these details directly with you:

Which persons you want to validate as helpers/providers of support. It can be only yourself, or multiple people inside or outside your team.
What percentage does your repository want to take for itself per transaction - 0-10%
If more than 0%, where do you want to receive payouts

You can of course add, remove or change this information later if you want.

After the registration we reach out, and coordinate these details directly with you:

Which persons you want to validate as helpers/providers of support. It can be only yourself, or multiple people inside or outside your team.
What percentage does your repository want to take for itself per transaction - 0-10%
If more than 0%, where do you want to receive payouts

You can of course add, remove or change this information later if you want.

Inform your team and validate helpers

Every person you validate for support, will have to register as a provider of support. That is something we coordinate directly with each individual, if they are not already registered. We will in that context also provide them with the necessary information on how to use the service and provide support, in a similar format as this documentation.

We do also recommend that you as the repository owner inform your helpers in soothing communication channels yourself, about the support setup. That could be Discord, email or any other channel you are using.

How to be visible

When you have registered your repository and validated your helpers, we create a repository-specific support landing page for you, and share details on how to install the Discord assistant. Installing the Discord assistant is of course optional.

Discord assistant

If you have a Discord server for your project, you can choose to install the Githelp assistant in for example your help channel there. Having the assistant installed, gives your users the possibility to get community help and AI-support, in addition to paid expert help, in the same place.

Support landing page

Githelp creates a repository-specific support landing page for your project when you register your repository. This support landing page is visible on Githelp´s website through the browsing function, or in any other channel or platform you decide to make it visible. One recommended option is to make the support visible from the proejct´s GitHub readme page, as shown here.

One can´t expect a lot of activity starting up. However, having a visible support option for your users, would only add value to your proeject, regardless of whether people are using the support or not.

How to use githelp

When you have gotten a dedicated support page and/or installed the support assistant to your Discord guild, your users can start to request support. Githelp will then coordinate everything related to scheduling, payments and ticket details.

What happens if someone asks for help?

Someone asks for help

Asking for help happens using the support landing page of your project, or the installed support assistant.
A ticket is then created and submitted by interacting with one of these options.

The support landing page currently only provides paid expert help, while the support assistant also covers community help and AI-support as an integrated part of the interaction.

Helpers are notified

All helpers approved by you, are notified in Discord and/or email. This could be only yourself, or a group of people you have validated. The first one to claim the ticket is assigned to it.

We share similar documentation with all individual helpers you have validated. To see their documentation, go here.

Help is given

The helper who claimed the ticket follow the instructions given, and provide the help to the user. Scheduling, payments and information are handled for both helper and the person who created the ticket.

In use

As the contact person of the registered repository, you will receive two pieces of documentation on a monthly basis:

Statistics on the last month´s help (currently as a PDF)
Monthly payout report (if you have generated any income the prior month)

These documents will be shared to the contact person´s email address between the 5th and 10th of the subsequent month of any usage period.

If you want to learn more about how the service will be used from your helper´ perspective, go here.

As the contact person of the registered repository, you will receive two pieces of documentation on a monthly basis:

Statistics on the last month´s help (currently as a PDF)
Monthly payout report (if you have generated any income the prior month)

Pricing for users

Registering for Githelp is completely free for both individual users and businesses/organizations. An invoice is only shared, if an individual - privately or through their employer - has engaged an expert in helping with a particular issue. There are no other costs for them related to using the service.

Community help and AI-support

Community help and AI-support through the Githelp assistant, are services that are free to use. There are no costs associated with using these functionalities.

Expert Help

If creating a ticket and actively engaging an expert, users are charged a fee if someone claims their ticket and help is initiated. The fee is divided into two main elements - a starting fee and a fee per minute.

Ticket start fee - 15,00 USD
First 60 minutes - 1,50 USD/minute
After 60 minutes - 1,00 USD/minute

If no one claims their ticket, they are not charged any fee.

What happens if a user pauses their help?

Users are charged for the time a helper is actively trying to solve their issue. This means the elapased time of a voice- or video chat. Or the active text chatting time. If they for some reason decide to pause the help and return later, the time in between will not be charged.

If the helper uses any time on his own to do research or trying to solve the issue, outside the active chatting, this time will be included in the the charged help.

Commission

The repository´s commission stems from any support provided by helpers. All fees paid for expert help is split between the helper, the OS project and Githelp. In addition all fees come with a transaction fee from Stripe, equivalent to the cost we have of making the transaction. The commission to the helper and repository always makes up 88-98% of the paid amount.

The commission is meant to act as an alternative to donations for your users, and a potentially valuable additional source of funding for the OS project in question. Accumulated commissions generated from support on unregistered projects are set aside, and paid out to the project upon registration.

You can see the commission rates at the support page of each repository.

Community help and AI-support

As community help and AI-support are services that are free to use, there are no commission associated with these functionalities.

Expert Help

As mentioned in the previous section, if a user creates a ticket and actively engages an expert, the user is charged a fee when someone claims their ticket and help is initiated. The fee paid is the basis for the repository´s commission.

How is the fee split?

First 5,000 USD of support

For the first 5,000 USD of support provided in total related to your repository, Githelp takes no fee. Any paid fees are then split in the following way:

Helper - 83-98% (depending on what share you want to take for the repository)
Repository - 0-15% (depending on what share you want to take for the repository)
Stripe - 2% (estimated transaction fee)

All support from 5,001 USD

For all support from 5,001 USD provided in total related to your repository, Githelp takes a commission. Any paid fees are then split in the following way:

Helper - 73-88% (depending on what share you want to take for the repository)
Repository - 0-15% (depending on what share you want to take for the repository)
Stripe - 2% (estimated transaction fee)
Githelp - 10%

How is the commission paid out?

All commissions are paid out on a monthly basis to the Stripe account associated with the repository. The repository´s contact person chooses the account. This happens between the 5th and the 10th the subsequent month. When processing any payouts Githelp also shares a payout report for the month in question.

Does it cost me anything to be registered on Githelp?

Registering for Githelp is completely free. The only costs related to Githelp for you as a repository are the commission Githelp takes when coordinating a support ticket beyond 5,000 USD in total transactions (10%), as well as the Stripe transaction fee (2%).

Planned roadmap

Githelp is currently at an early stage, but we have great plans for the coming months. We hope that our platform can grow and evolve with the community and its users.

Current roadmap

On a high level, we are planning for the following development and feature introductions:

Slack-assistant - Assistant that can be installed in your own Slack - November 27, 2024
Statistics dashboard that you can log into - November 27, 2024
VS Code GPT extension - Githelp available as a part of the GPT-service in VS Code - November 27, 2024

Do you have feature ideas?

If you have other ideas on what we should focus on, let us know. We appreciate any engagement from the community. Also thoughts related to the already listed features are highly appreciated.

Want to be an early user?

If there are any particular features you are extra interested in, and want to be an early tester/user of, let us know. We will in that case put you on the list of early notifications.