Our first $1M to open-source maintainers
Milestone reflection: what we've learned from distributing over $1M to project creators.
In March 2026, we crossed a milestone we've been working toward since day one: $1M distributed to open-source maintainers through our revenue share model. Here's what we've learned.
The numbers
$1M across 850 maintainers in 18 months. The average monthly payout is $120. The top-funded maintainer receives $2,100/month. 94% of maintainers who receive funding continue maintaining their projects — compared to an industry baseline where burnout affects an estimated 60% of solo maintainers.
What surprised us
We expected the money to matter most. It does — but the second most impactful thing was the dashboard. Maintainers can see how many people run their app, which regions they're in, and how funding trends over time. For maintainers who've felt invisible for years, being seen matters almost as much as being paid.
What we got wrong
Our initial distribution was strictly even: every app gets the same share. We quickly realized that a lightweight utility app and a resource-heavy database shouldn't receive the same funding. We moved to resource-weighted distribution, which better reflects actual usage. It's still not perfect, but it's closer to fair.
What's next
We're increasing the revenue share percentage from 5% to 8%, effective next quarter. We're also launching a maintainer grant program — direct funding for projects that are critical infrastructure but don't have enough CodeHost deployments to generate meaningful revenue share yet.
Open source built the internet. It's time the internet paid open source back. We're just getting started.