Positioning and the open core model

Positioning for the open core model both the easiest and the hardest, compared to other open source business models.

Easiest because the pure open source version and the commercial version are likely solving exactly the same problem and can be positioned very similarly.

Hardest because you’ll likely encounter a lot of people who want to understand what the difference between the two is and why they should pay you any money.

The challenge is to position the two versions of the product in a way that doesn’t make your open source project sound like a ‘cheaper, crappier’ version of the commercial offering, or to make the commercial offering sound like nothing more than a UI for people who aren’t technical enough to use the command line slapped on to the open soure version. Your positioning should speak to your target market, but obviously shouldn’t insult them, either.

In fact, one of the challenges open core companies run into is that they are constantly explaining the difference between the two versions, which ends up being frustrating for everyone involved. The solution is to make it very clear who each version is for. The positioning, ie the market category or problem the product solves, is going to be the same for each version. But the best user / customer will not be. Your job is to make it crystal clear to customers which one is most appropriate for them.

For example:

An API gateway manager for small, technically-sophisticated teams

vs

An API gateway manager for large teams working on PCI-compliant workloads

The goal of positioning is to cut down on confusion and reduce the number of questions a prospect needs to ask before deciding that this is the right product for his or her needs. Even if the market category for the open core product is the same as the commercial offering, it’s still your job to help prospects (and potential contributors to your OS project) understand immediately which is the right choice.

Need help figuring out how to position your open source project, your commerial offering or both? Reach out.