Ask HN: How can I sustainably run a website without charging a fee?
I have (what I think to be) a pretty good idea for a website. I also have a full-time job that I'm very happy with.
I'm thinking of launching my idea on Heroku, and the monthly fees would run around $300 a month. Mind you, this is with two dynos, two workers, and the "production" level of a few add-ons (Redis, Postgres, etc).
My problem is that I have no interest in charging money or providing an additional tier of features for people who would pay money. I want to try launching my idea, see if it's useful, then scale the site/add-ons to match those needs. I'd also like to open-source the whole site. But what happens if (a very large, hypothetical if) it does turn out to be more useful than I expected?
The only way I can think of breaking even is by asking for donations. Is donationware in the Internet age a viable option? Has anyone done it successfully?
I'm thinking of launching my idea on Heroku, and the monthly fees would run around $300 a month. Mind you, this is with two dynos, two workers, and the "production" level of a few add-ons (Redis, Postgres, etc).
My problem is that I have no interest in charging money or providing an additional tier of features for people who would pay money. I want to try launching my idea, see if it's useful, then scale the site/add-ons to match those needs. I'd also like to open-source the whole site. But what happens if (a very large, hypothetical if) it does turn out to be more useful than I expected?
The only way I can think of breaking even is by asking for donations. Is donationware in the Internet age a viable option? Has anyone done it successfully?