Beekeeper Studio founder Matthew Rathbone explains why the GPLv3 SQL client sells extra commercial features as source-available code, saying donations peaked at roughly $30 a month even after the app passed a million downloads and that paid features launched in 2022 were what finally let him work on the project full time in 2026. He contrasts the model with donation-funded projects and with open-core unicorns such as Kafka, and says the project never removes a free feature once shipped, routinely moves paid features into the free edition, and keeps user-contributed features free.
Beekeeper Studio Explains Its Source-Available Path to a Sustainable Open Source Project
Beekeeper Studio founder Matthew Rathbone explains why the GPLv3 SQL client sells extra commercial features as source-available code, saying donations peaked at roughly $30 a month even after the app passed a million downloads and that paid features launched in 2022 were what finally let him work on the project full time in 2026. He contrasts the model with donation-funded projects and with open-core unicorns such as Kafka, and says the project never removes a free feature once shipped, routinely moves paid features into the free edition, and keeps user-contributed features free.
Source: Beekeeperstudio