Several years ago, I set up a WordPress instance for my dad and his friend, which you can visit in alternativasnoviolentas.org. At that point in time, I was not as much into free software as I am now, and I installed a plugin to connect to Google Analytics (yeah, I know) and display some charts in the WordPress admin.
Things were looking good. I mean, the plugin did the job, Google surveilled us all, we got the metrics we wanted, and we were OK with that. One day, my dad called me and said “son, IDK what I did, but I can no longer see some metrics”. I thought my not-so-techy dad had messed the menus again, but when I looked, the charts were gone. Well, not quite. They were blurred. And there was a banner asking to upgrade to the premium version of the plugin to unlock all features.
The freemium business model
The freemium business model is not designed for your benefit as a user or consumer. The sole purpose is to show you a portion of what you can get, and put all the fancy stuff behind a paywall. It’s just proprietary software, and the free part is the bait. The company behind will have no remorse in removing parts of the free features if they want to squeeze some more revenue, or finish the freemium program at all. Once you’re locked in, you’re at their mercy.
The search for free software
I was not surprised to find out there are free software alternatives to Google Analytics and the bridge WordPress plugin. I found Umami, which does the job, has a free software license (MIT) and can be self-hosted. I made the switch, and everything worked smoothly.
Now, many free software projects also have one or multiple vendors that offer the product as a service. They usually impose some restrictions to free usage, such as max storage, historical time period, etc. I don’t have a problem using the free tiers of cloud services as long as they are free software. I don’t have an issue paying for the cloud service either, as long as they are free software. Because I know that I can pull the wire anytime and move to a different provider, or self-host. That is where the freedom kicks in.
Red flags
Not all free software is built the same. Some projects have some properties I consider yellow/red flags, and I try to avoid when I can:
- The open-core model. I hate it when the core is free software, but the juicy plugins that everybody wants to use are proprietary. I try to avoid these projects because, sooner or later, I’ll want to use something that is not in the free package, and I’ll have no choice but paying or moving somewhere else.
- Community vs. PRO edition. Even if I can self-host the community edition and make full use of it, the fact that a PRO edition exists establishes a conflict of interests. For me, this is another version of freemium offering. At some point, the community will want to implement a feature that is included in the PRO edition, and that feature will be rejected. A company’s goal is to make money, not to make you happy. And sooner or later, they’ll pull the lever and gate keep some features. I very much prefer software created and maintained by a non-profit or by an individual. And I’m happy to support the project with donations.
I’m not against a company making money from free software. Actually, I wish I could make a living out of it. I’m against companies using free software as a bait to attract users, and then restrict their freedoms with paywalled features. I’m totally happy to pay for a hosted free software project that is identical to the one I’d get if I decided to self-host.