CodeshareKeeping the core free, on purpose
Every one of our products gives away the thing it exists to do. That is a deliberate decision with real consequences, not the absence of a business model.
Beatra plays music, Sylon guards a server, MCStat serves data, JustDiscord lists servers, JustAnime tracks what you watch, Dotrai answers questions. None of those sit behind a paywall.
Why
A Discord server should not need a credit card to get a music bot. Most of the communities using ours are small, run by people who will not expense a subscription, and the point of the product is to be there when they need it.
There is a practical argument too. A paywalled core means you spend your effort converting rather than improving, and you start optimising for the people who might pay instead of the people actually using the thing. We would rather it simply be good for everyone using it.
What that forces on us
- Efficiency stops being optional. A free product has no revenue to hide waste behind.
- Scope has to be honest. A feature nobody uses still costs something to run, so it has to earn its place.
- Closing something is always on the table. A product that is not being used is consuming attention the used ones need.
That last point is not abstract. It is how we ended up closing our marketplace.
Where money does come in
Optional extras, on the products that have them, for people who want convenience beyond the core. The line we hold is that the thing a product exists to do stays free. Extras sit on top of it, never in the middle of it.
Free forces efficiency. There is nothing to subsidise a wasteful product with.