The archive · Developer & Business Tools · Product decision · 2024–2026
HeyForm open-sources its profitable form builder — 389 HN points, 9k stars
A two-person team open-sources the form builder that already pays them, betting trust and community beat closed SaaS; the hosted version stays the business.
HeyForm
What the business is
HeyForm is an open-source online form builder for small businesses: conversational forms, surveys, quizzes and polls with conditional logic, brandable themes and integrations, built by a two-person team that sells the hosted service while the AGPL-3.0 code stays free to self-host.
How it started
On 2024-04-01, 'dearroy' posted Show HN: I just made my profitable online form builder open-sourced, linking the repo. In the thread he explained the step was to 'tap into global collaboration for faster innovation, and ensure transparency and trust'; asked whether it was a marketing move, he answered 'We do, but this is not the main reason.' Both founders work part-time on HeyForm and were 'satisfied with the revenue it generates.'
What happened
The 389-point, 122-comment thread debated whether giving the code away shrank the market, whether a SaaS should fear self-hosted cannibalization, and the licensing: commenters argued the docs' GPL-with-extra-conditions framing did not match the intent for a web product and pointed to AGPL — which is the license the repo carries today. The repo kept building out: by the 2026-09-04 crawl it had 289 commits in a monorepo (Node server, React web app, embed library and form renderer), and the README pitched the hosted service as the way to support development.
How it ended up
Still live as of the 2026-09-05 write-up. The 2026-09-04 crawl shows 9.0k GitHub stars, 704 forks and 289 commits under AGPL-3.0; heyform.net describes the project as open source and fully bootstrapped — 'built by its users, not investors' — with 33k+ users and 100k+ deployments (company-reported). The materials show no funding, shutdown or acquisition.
Background
HeyForm is an open-source online form builder aimed at small businesses: conversational forms, surveys, quizzes and polls with conditional logic, brandable themes and integrations like Zapier and Make.com. The AGPL-3.0 code is free to self-host, and the same two-person team sells the hosted service at my.heyform.net — reliability, backups and security on top of code anyone can run.
The bet, announced on 2024-04-01, was that a profitable product should be given away as code: the founder posted Show HN ('I just made my profitable online form builder open-sourced') and said the rationale was global collaboration for faster innovation plus transparency and trust. Marketing was part of it — 'We do, but this is not the main reason' — with the hosted version kept as the revenue engine.
The thread drew 389 points and 122 comments. Commenters asked whether free code shrank the market, whether self-hosting would cannibalize the SaaS, and whether the license matched the intent — several argued a web product needed AGPL rather than GPL with extra conditions, which is the license the repo carries today. The founders answered that both work part-time, are satisfied with the revenue, and would welcome more.
By the 2026-09-04 crawl the repo had grown to 9.0k stars, 704 forks and 289 commits, with the README still leading with the hosted service; heyform.net (checked 2026-09-05) calls the project open source and fully bootstrapped. The bet has no dramatic resolution on record — no funding or exit data appears — but the product kept running and the community kept growing.
What has to be true
- Verifiable attention: the 2024-04-01 Show HN drew 389 points and 122 comments, and the repo reached 9.0k stars and 704 forks by the 2026-09-04 crawl.
- The bet is sharp and stated in public: give away a revenue-generating codebase to buy trust and collaboration, keep the hosted version as the business.
- The licensing subplot is transferable: for a web SaaS, the community demanded AGPL-style network copyleft, not GPL with extra conditions.
- The record stays honest: no funding or revenue numbers are disclosed in the materials, so the case documents the move and its traction rather than a claimed fortune.
What can be applied
A small profitable SaaS can open-source its core to buy trust and distribution while the hosted version keeps revenue — but a web product needs AGPL, or the community will question the license.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-05 HeyForm is still running as an open-source product plus hosted service: the 2026-09-04 crawl of heyform/heyform recorded 9.0k stars, 704 forks and 289 commits under AGPL-3.0, and the README still positions the hosted cloud as the way to support development. The company homepage describes HeyForm as open source and fully bootstrapped — 'built by its users, not investors' — and self-reports 33k+ users and 100k+ deployments. No funding, revenue, shutdown or acquisition figures appear in the materials, so whether the open-source bet scaled the business is not verifiable from them.
Sources
- heyform/heyform — Open-Source Form Builder (9.0k stars at 2026-09-04 crawl)
- Show HN: I just made my profitable online form builder open-sourced
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe what you are building, and see who is betting on the same thing.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card