Ask HN: Monetizing a Web Browser Extension

Let's say you have a proof-of-concept for a Web browser extension... which you just realized could pivot to something that would be very useful to a large number of people (and a bit disruptive of some prominent tech company)... But the hack value alone isn't worth the remaining work to pivot, you don't need open source stars on your CV, and you do need to pay rent, and ideally to have a viable indie startup. Two questions:

1. How do you make money with it?

* Ask for donations, while keeping it closed source? Maybe in the everyday usage part of the UI, since almost no one will see/remember the donation buttons/links in the extension store or documentation? (Does anyone make liveable money this way?)

* Ask for donations, while making it open source?

* Optional paid premium edition of the software, which adds more features than the free edition? (And reconcile that with the browser vendor's add-on store policies.)

* Optional paid subscription service, based on storing the user's data? (I don't really like this one, because I think the data should be private, and if not, the only practical option is to use the browser vendor's own questionable "sync" service.)

* Have an optional paid subscription service, based on providing access to a relevant bespoke database used by the extension? (For one of the two initial markets, there's naturally a curated/vetted bespoke data set that's changing in significant ways throughout each day. Maybe paying users pay for me to do the curation promptly, and they get access to that quickly, or they even get pre-vetted data, and free users get weekly snapshots of post-vetted data.)

* Keep the implementation closed, but demonstrate it to a particular tech company as a solution to a problem they have on their end, which users are attempting to mitigate with this add-on, and hope they buy my non-open implementation. (Though they could do it in-house, if they thought about it. Though there is evidence they are bad at executing on various software work that users have long wanted.)

* (Not by spending my time being appealing to investors, which will inevitably twist the extension to be appealing for an investor exit, probably against the interests of the users, and probably violating their privacy at some point.)

* (Not by selling out to one of the malware companies that buys popular browser extensions.)

2. How do you protect your work from being stolen by others? If not doing it as open source. (Since, knowing the modern Internet, the extension will be appealing to some people, who'll rush to copy&paste&tweak it for other markets, some of which I'd plan to grow into. And even to compete in my initial markets, by starting with what I made, and adding their own features to it, as if it were open source, without me being compensated. Also, LLM copyright violation laundering.)

* JS obfuscation, just to make the IP theft harder to do accidentally, or harder to rationalize?

* Try to put some of the secret sauce in Wasm, just for obfuscation?

* Pay bulldog lawyer more than I'm making, to enforce copyright?

In an ideal world, it would be open source, everyone would respect that, and key contributors would live comfortably due to the value they create for society (or just because they're part of society, and we're all warm-fuzzy socialists who like to spread the wealth around). But that doesn't often work out, so I'm trying to figure out whether this can be indie startup that won't be evil.

1. Keep it closed source, offer a paid vs free model with more options that your power users can subscribe to if they really find what you offer valuable. This is also the best / fastest signal you can get as to if what you have made is going to be able to achieve your goal of becoming a startup and making money or not.

Offering what you have to this tech company is probably the quickest way to get whatever it is that you're doing copied. Companies pretend to be interested in things they have no interest in buying or just want to get a head start on by having you show them in great detail how everything works all while telling you they are seriously interested.

The tech company will only seriously consider buying what you have to gain the userbase you have built with your product, not the technology itself in 99% of cases.

2. There is no way to stop this, especially for browser extensions. Making it more difficult to copy the source code will slow people down, but this is something you will have to deal with especially if you gain any traction and prove that your product is something people are willing to pay for.

You have an enormous advantage over these people if you are the first mover in this space however. Focus the majority of your time on creating a truly great experience for your users that will build loyalty towards your product instead of trying to play a never ending game of cat and mouse with people copying your idea.

neilv · a year ago

I really appreciate your thoughts.

Question: When you say "best/fastest signal" and "prove that your product is something people are willing to pay for", are you speaking of proving to myself, like a bootstrapped small business? Or of proving to prospective investors?

Regarding the paid&free model, just thinking aloud... I suspect that the browser vendors are going to push me to use their extension store, so maybe I have to put the paid features as data/behavior on a server that the extension talks to. Or to send a paying customer an unlock code that flips a trivially-crackable switch in the free extension, but which at least helps keep honest users honest.

jaredsohn · a year ago

I think you should look into making your extension 'private' at least at first and only grant access to people who pay for it. You need to add each user's gmail account to a list in the Chrome Webstore or associate a Google Group with it and then add peoples' emails to that list.

Maybe set up a server where people can pay and people can auth against later on to automate the payments and updating the users list.

soasdfg · a year ago

I would say both in this case, you can make the decision if you think you need investment money or not and the number of paid users you have can be can be a valuable point of data used to help determine this.

You have the advantage of being able to start and potentially get something into the market without needing to take investor money and promise larger than life returns on the money you take. Use this time wisely to make an honest judgement of what you think this business could turn into, if it's just something that pays your rent then let it be that. If you grow like crazy and need investment money, only then pursue it.

Dealing with investors is a really big headache, so only accept money from them if you really think it will make a difference in being able to grow the business.

Yes you will almost certainly have to use one or many extension stores, you will also need to setup a secure way to handle subscriptions and give elevated access to users that pay.