Developer program
We host your open-source app. You get paid every month it runs.
Caliber Node runs managed hosting for self-hostable open-source applications. When a customer deploys yours, we pay you for it -- every month, for as long as it is running.
- 201
- Apps in the catalog
- $0.50
- Per install, per month
- None
- Exclusivity required
- None
- Work on your side
What you earn
$0.50 per active install, every month
A flat rate per running install. Not a share of revenue you cannot see, and not a one-time listing fee -- if people keep running your app, you keep getting paid.
| Active installs | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | $5 | $60 |
| 50 | $25 | $300 |
| 100 | $50 | $600 |
| 500 | $250 | $3000 |
An install counts for a month when it is deployed and running on a paid subscription. Trials, apps a customer has stopped, and suspended accounts do not count.
How it works
Four steps, and three of them are ours
- 01
You get in touch
Tell us what your app is and where the image lives. If it already runs in Docker this is usually a short conversation.
- 02
We package it
We write the deployment recipe, wire up the database and secrets, and test it end to end. You review it before it ships.
- 03
It goes in the catalog
Customers deploy it in a few clicks. We handle updates, backups, TLS, domains and support.
- 04
You get paid
We count the active installs each month and pay you quarterly. You can see the count any time by asking.
What we need
What makes an app a good fit
Most actively maintained self-hostable projects already meet all of this.
A Docker image that runs
Published anywhere we can pull it -- Docker Hub, GHCR, your own registry. If people already run your app in Docker, you have almost certainly done this part.
Configuration through the environment
Ports, secrets and settings read from environment variables rather than a file somebody has to edit by hand. This is what lets us deploy it for a customer who will never open a terminal.
Data that survives a restart
State in named volumes, and a database the container does not keep inside itself. We recreate containers to apply updates and resource changes, and anything written to the container's own filesystem is gone when we do.
An OSI-approved licence
It has to permit commercial hosting. If your licence restricts that -- SSPL, BUSL, a commons clause -- talk to us anyway, but it will be a different conversation about terms rather than this one.
What we don't ask for
The things you keep
The point of this is to pay maintainers for work they are already doing, not to acquire anything from them.
No exclusivity
List with everyone else. We are not asking for the right to be your only host, and nothing here stops you running your own hosted offering alongside it.
No licence change, no fork
We package your published image. We are not asking you to relicense, to accept a CLA, or to maintain a special build for us.
Nothing to maintain on our side
We handle deployment, updates, backups and support. You keep shipping your project the way you already do -- if you never think about us again, you still get paid.
You can leave
Ask us to delist and we will, and we will tell your users why rather than quietly letting the app rot in the catalog.
The details
How payment actually works
What counts. An install earns for a month if it is deployed and running on a paid subscription during that month. Apps on cancelled, suspended or unpaid accounts do not count, and neither do our own test deployments.
When we pay. Quarterly, once your balance passes $50. Below that it rolls over rather than expiring -- a payment smaller than the fees to send it does neither of us any good. We pay by PayPal or bank transfer.
Tax. We will need a W-9 from you if you are a US person, or a W-8BEN if you are not, before the first payment. That is a requirement on us as the payer, not a hurdle we invented.
Changes. If we ever change the rate, it applies from the following quarter and we will tell you before it does, not after.
Anything here you want in writing before committing, ask. We would rather answer awkward questions now than have you discover the answer later.
Got an app we should be hosting?
Tell us what it is and where the image lives. If you maintain it, we want to pay you for it.