GitHub introduces sponsor only repositories to help developers

For a long time open-source software developers did not have a structured and regulated manner by which they could make steady income, until they got a job with a large open-source company such as IBMs RedHat, Mulesoft, Databricks and the likes.   

GitHub, a repository which was recently purchased by Microsoft, has tried to address this through a sponsor-only repository feature, where it hopes to rake in corporates and individuals to sponsor developers.   

“Developers and organisations with GitHub Sponsors enabled will now be able to attach a private repository to each of their sponsorship tiers. This will grant respective funders access to the repository,” the company said in a blog post.  

It is not to say that donations for open-source projects didn’t exist, the company already had a feature where developers could add donation links to their projects. Anybody could make direct fund transfers to open-source developers, this new feature takes that to the next level.   

Although the idea of sponsors-only access sounds opposite to the goal of something open-source, GitHub said that the move could be used for early access to beta testing, and also to centralised communications with sponsors through a new discussions feature. Also note that GitHub isn’t the only platform that has gone this route, live streaming service Twitch, Publishing platform Substack and others have also introduced a similar subscription feature.  

Developers will also have the option to set the minimum amount for sponsorship, as well as provide custom messages.   

“The next chapter of GitHub Sponsors will pave the path for more companies to support the open-source projects they depend on. We partner with more companies each week to improve our beta program,” wrote Jessica Lord, Staff Product Manager at GitHub sponsors, in a blog post.