Sponsorship answers
Too often we see the catastrophic results of deploying a web server haphazardly in a commercial environment, only to appeal to the community too late with too little information for a problem that takes too long to solve at that point—an incident that could have been mitigated with proper training and support.
Our take on sponsorships is that all professional and business users of Caddy are expected to invest in a sponsorship, just as we expect tree branches to provide nutrition to their trunk and roots. Our sponsorships are not just feel-good donations. They provide crucial value to companies while sustaining ongoing maintenance.
The original author of Caddy, Matt Holt, operates Dyanim, LLC to maintain the project and direct development alongside a global community. Sponsorships are fulfilled by Dyanim, LLC.
Are these software licenses?
NO. Sponsorships are separate products which provide support, development and training services, marketing, and various project management features for individuals, organizations, and companies. Your license to the software remains the same regardless of sponsorship status.
What are professional services?
These include any services that are supplemental to routine project maintenance, such as onboarding, training, presenting, and custom development work.
I need something not listed above.
That's OK - contact us and tell us what you need!
Is the only way to pay through GitHub?
Nope, our higher tiers can accommodate various forms of payment such as invoices, ACH, wire transfer, or even physical check if needed.
Will we have to approve a new vendor?
Not likely! Our sponsorship subscriptions are managed by GitHub, which is often already an approved vendor for most businesses.
Why sponsorships?
Professionals and businesses have numerous requirements that are not satisfied by open source licenses, but the wider community has numerous requirements that are not satisfied by proprietary licenses. For example, companies require support and advanced features that are simply too difficult to provide or develop without a business relationship.
To bridge that gap, we offer sponsorships so that our software can remain freely usable while providing businesses the assurances they need when committing to such a crucial technology choice.
We also have a lower tier for individuals who just want to support the project without the means of company funding.
Our software is compelling because sponsorships keep it fully open without expensive, paid-only features that segment and divide the community. Instead, everyone running Caddy for their homelab or school project is using the same version of the software deployed by large enterprises around the world. That's really amazing, and sponsors make it possible.
What if we fall into a category we can't budget for?
We would ask your product manager why they are deploying software without the means to support it. That said, a well-established business, for example, could sign up for a Startup-tier sponsorship if that is all the budget allows; it would be better than no safety net at all. However, your overall satisfaction will be higher with an appropriate sponsorship tier since we will be able to accommodate your situation better.
Can we do a one-time sponsorship?
Yes! We call those donations, and welcome them warmly with gratitude.
Sponsorships are better
Neither companies nor projects are sustainable at scale by open source licenses alone. Some sort of business relationship must be entered to support the company's operations as well as the project's ongoing development.
Typically this is solved by charging for the software or specific features, purchasing insurance, hiring a consultant, or tasking an in-house developer to learn and maintain the technology.
Sponsorships offer a simple and profound solution to this problem with many advantages over the alternatives:
Consultants
Consulting fees are high ($250-500/hr.) to offset the variable nature of the profession, and typically billed hourly, which can be stressful for customers trying to minimize their costs.
Consultants vary and may have mixed skill sets rather than expertise in the topic at hand, for example a specific web server. You may also need to approve them as a vendor before doing business.
Sponsorships have an affordable regular rate without a hard limit of hours to dispell stress lower your costs. You'll get direct access to the world experts on the software, and you can pay through a known vendor, GitHub.
Insurance
Sponsorships are not insurance -- they don't pay back money when there's an incident and can't legally be classified as any kind of coverage. Instead, they help reduce the likelihood and magnitude of incidents in the first place with a comprehensive integration strategy. We'll get to know your setup and help you deploy in the best way possible.
Working with insurance is tedious and expensive, but sponsorships are much easier with less paperwork and legal complications.
In-house hire
The math is simple: a skilled, in-house developer salary may be $180,000/year. A sponsorship is one or two orders of magnitude less, usually $3k-12k/year, and it gives you access to the world experts.
Sponsorships circumvent HR and hiring processes, and because of their ability to train your existing employees, you can still retain that knowledge in-house.
If a hire leaves your company, so often does that knowledge. A sponsorship ensures that the skills can persist with your organization through turnover.
Nothing
It should go without saying that having direct access to the maintainers of the software you rely on is better than having no support, no safety net, and no influence over the project's priorities.
With open source software, you're solely on your own. You can appeal to the community, but you won't have a high-attention relationship that can adjust the priorities of the maintainers.
Tangible business results
Sponsorships help you keep your competitive edge, reduce your costs, and may even increase customer loyalty. You'll be able to meet requirements you never thought possible with pure open source.
Software assurance
It's not insurance. It's better. Gain the peace of mind knowing that your sponsorship helps sustain continued development of the project and that you have direct access to the maintainer.
Increased customer loyalty
Customers feel more loyal toward companies that openly sponsor projects, especially those they use. Tens of thousands of Caddy users are more likely to become and stay your customers when you sponsor the project.
Lower costs, higher margins
Operate more efficiently with a Caddy sponsorship, which can prevent consulting fees, hiring expenses, catastrophic production failures, and inefficient configurations.