InvoicePlane is a free software and it will never be a commercial product! We appeal everyone to respect the open source InvoicePlane project and our work and refrain from selling the application as their own product!
What you can do: offer paid professional support or hosting for InvoicePlane.
However InvoicePlane is an open source software released under MIT license. This means that you can use the code but the InvoicePlane name and the logo are copyright of Invoiceplane.com and Kovah.de
This means you have to use another name and logo for the product and include the original InvoicePlane license in the code.
InvoicePlane can not ne sold. It’s sourcecode is free and publicly available. But you can charge your Client for the service of installing or hosting it. Anyway you are not allowed to alter/change the Logo & Name.
I would like to extend the application with extra modules, reports, improve Security (eg. 2FA, etc) and turn it into a SAAS solution (Setup/installation is skipped) with single database tenancy. I would like to preserve the look and feel of invoice plane, but under a different name+logo and off course referencing to Invoice Plane as foundation. The revenue model will be asking money for the hosting/creation of each new db and providing support for the use of the system
Unfortunately, the license we use does not permit commercial applications of the source code. If you are researching avenues to generate revenue, you are on the right track. There is nothing restricting you from creating modules, reports, MFA/2FA and implementing those in IP and sell those as add-on modules. You simply cannot charge for IP itself. Examples:
Hosting Services - you are allowed to charge your clients for hosting services and can host IP for them, but not for IP itself.
Modules - you are allowed to create extra modules that add new features to IP and sell those modules in a marketplace (maybe we can offer a marketplace on the IP website that allows users to add these modules to their current installation or even a marketplace feature in IP where they can add them directly to their own instance.
Backup Service - you could develop a module that backs up the files and database for an IP instance and store that backup in a cloud somewhere. This is completely commercial and you could generate serious revenue from this as I have personally lost my data multiple times and it would have been fantastic to have had the option to simply restore the IP instance from a backup service.
Reports - personally think it’s a great idea to possibly do the same as modules and create a marketplace that allows users to purchase custom reports that you create that offer the users greater insight into their data (PnL, etc.).
There are many ways to generate revenue from IP without selling it directly. If you are interested in setting up a marketplace feature within IP, we can discuss in further detail so that more devs can benefit from having a platform to offer their products/services. It’s what we do here in the IP community. We all contribute for the benefit of each other. The product wouldn’t be what it is today without all of the hard work and effort donated by all of you.
I hope this answers your question and if you would like to proceed with discussing this further, let us know and we will reach out.
Modules - you are allowed to create extra modules that add new features to IP and sell those modules in a marketplace (maybe we can offer a marketplace on the IP website that allows users to add these modules to their current installation or even a marketplace feature in IP where they can add them directly to their own instance.
… If you are interested in setting up a marketplace feature within IP, we can discuss in further detail so that more devs can benefit from having a platform to offer their products/services.
Does the above mean that you guys are seriously considering setting up a marketplace in or for IP?
That would be great…
Does this also mean that soon there would be a feature in IP where users could install certain modules, templates and/or other features from that marketplace if they needed them in their current IP version?
That would be even better than awesome…
there would be a feature in IP where users could install certain modules, templates and/or other features from that marketplace if they needed them in their current IP version?