Just wanted to get some thoughts on how to incentivize community apps. We were thinking that we can setup a system so that for each paid customer on the erpnext.com cloud that installs a community app, we will pay some amount to the developer. Here are my thoughts:
The app should have a grade based on complexity. A small app can have a small payout, a large app, larger one.
Based on if the app is consistently updated, there can be a year-on-year amount.
What if the app is maintained by multiple individuals / organizations?
Sounds interesting. Maybe you could make 3 categories, with 3 different percentage of payment depending on how much work or utility do you think the app brings.
@rmehta maybe the relevance of the app, is most important than the size:
Let me show one example, based on my last contribution
The Error Snapshot is a silly app, It dont have more than 500 lines of code, it’s not complex, but increase the value while we are talking about Debug.
I can go ahead, simplicity matter, good apps, have a simple code, a organized ui and super powers.
Maybe you can add a rating system.
How many stars a app have, and less issues, and more updates, during the time the app will receiving more and more.
Eg:
Diamond apps, are very supported, very updated and have various high stars from the users
Gold apps, or are very maintained and very updated, or very updated and very starred or very starred and very maintained.
Silver apps, or are very maintained, or are very updated or are very starred
Bronze apps are new apps, that dont have score yet, and this score will be adquired in 3 or 6 months;
[quote=“max_morais_dmm, post:4, topic:9244, full:true”]Maybe you can add a rating system.
How many stars a app have, and less issues, and more updates, during the time the app will receiving more and more.
Eg:
Diamond apps, are very supported, very updated and have various high stars from the users
Gold apps, or are very maintained and very updated, or very updated and very starred or very starred and very maintained.
Silver apps, or are very maintained, or are very updated or are very starred
Bronze apps are new apps, that dont have score yet, and this score will be adquired in 3 or 6 months;
[/quote]
The problem with using users rating is that they can be gamed easily. People can create lots of identities and rate themselves and it is very difficult to stop. As subjective and prone to bias as it could be, I think it is better that the ErpNext developers are the ones judging the apps.
This is awesome news, I am customizing and creating new apps for the Thai market to meet specific demand here and will share once done with the community. I am wondering on how one should differentiate between the customization in what needs to stay open source and shared with the community and what can be sold. What do you think? Are there any existing guidelines for this?
@max_morais_dmm That reminds me that we also need to work out a way to incentivize contributions. We can do that at the second phase. But in the first phase we need to have a system of getting apps approved and listed on the erpnext.com cloud.
I like a grading system.
Level 1: Simple functionality or API integration, 1 doctype, few custom fields, 2-3 integration points / reports (e.g S3 Integration, Base VAT integration) - $10 per install
Level 2: Medium level functionality API integration, 4-5 doctypes, 10-15 integration points / reports (like web-shop connector, country wise reports etc) - $50 per install / $20 on renewal
Level 3: Full module app, 5-10 doctypes and deep functionality (or complex API integrations) - $100 per install / $50 on renewal
i got some suggestion …
1st… portal of what peoples do need
2nd…we got to give some to erpnext so let say 70:30 (30 goes to erpnext)
3rd…every vendor need to review the codes when there were a major update
4th… erpnext team need to review every apps so its sure doesnt crash the system
5th… i think it best to let the contributor to decided the price on its own (but we might give some tierring like just an option 10/50/100/200)
6th… i think all apps need to be yearly renewed , so the contributor can keep their apps updated…
anyway i think we need some features to be able to change config / menus so when we update the custom reports or tools are still there and we dont need to make them to be separate apps…because some times we better put the menu inside the default menus…
@bobzz_zone I don’t think you understood correctly, we are not asking the user to pay more for an app (else they will go for self-hosting). This is revenue shared from customers that are on erpnext.com cloud, so there is a limit on what we can pay.
Idea seems interesting. Our team must be having many small or big apps which can be uploaded after validation check of coding.
I suggest payment/remuneration should be based on usage. Don’t know how to track the users of any APP. But more the users of any APP, accordingly remuneration should be drawn.
@Francois_Ifitwala thanks for sharing. Just saw that ownCloud has also started with 2 version (enterprise and community)
Our model is a bit different as we are monetizing from the erpnext.com cloud. I am also thinking more about @bobzz_zone 's suggestion of a traditional app store model.
Let developers price their apps and then we can do a 30/70 split on the revenue. This way at least the problem of fair remuneration is solved. That was our initial thought too but the flip side is that if the cloud customer needs too many apps to run, then they will move to their own server. But that is the call that needs to be taken by the app publisher.
Also since the apps are all open source, it is really easy for someone to clone an app and add their branding and offer it for free. Hence we thought of not charging the end user for the apps (they are free for their own hosting & cloud hosting) but a way to encourage the ecosystem to build more apps for the platform.
Edit: I think the ERPNext model will work if everything is really free. We can charge for real services like hosting, implementation, consulting, training etc, but the apps should be free to the end-user.
but i think even we offered an app that makes them pay, i think they will love ERPNext since that will reallize that they need it, and the one they pay for is from ERPNext Team but from another vendor that registered at ERPNext marketplace…
so ERPNext it self still be a Total Open Source…
But actually its a good idea too to make all apps Open Source…it will attract more customer…
