Open Core

Open core is a business model where a company releases a functional open-source core product for free, then sells proprietary features, enterprise add-ons, or managed hosting on top. GitLab, Sentry, and HashiCorp built on this: the community edition is genuinely usable and open, while SSO, audit logs, advanced security, and support live behind a paid tier. Why it matters: the open core drives adoption, trust, and a contributor community that a closed product can't easily buy, while monetization comes from the features large organizations need most. It's distinct from freemium — the free tier here is open-source code anyone can inspect, self-host, and fork. Practical note: the hard part is drawing the line between free and paid. Put too much behind the paywall and the community feels exploited; too little and you can't fund development. Watch for license shifts too — several open-core companies (HashiCorp, Sentry) moved from true open-source to source-available licenses to stop cloud providers reselling their work.