Key aspects for successful open source software
Frank Karlitschek, the founder and CEO of Nextcloud, gave an inspiring talk at 2025 re:publica conference in Berlin about how to establish a sustainable, enterprise-ready open-source project.
🌐 Link [DE]: re:publica 25: Frank Karlitschek – So baut man ein nachhaltiges Open Source Unternehmen
In his talk he highlights the factors making an open-source project successful. For me, the essence of his talk sums up to:
- Enterprise-ready open-source software only works as a commercial endeavor. In order to achieve the completeness and stability of such software, a project cannot be just run by a skilled community of hobbyists with very limited time. Experience shows that this leads to high turn-over rates, which is not beneficial for the quality of the code and sustainability of the project. Employees and volunteers from the community have equal rights and mutual trust, but there’s a paid team which can allocate a substantial amount of their time to the project.
- Security and privacy have to be core design principles of the software.
- Focus on UI design, usability and accessibility. Software targeting a non-technical audience must be easy to use and have a well-designed UI.
- Nextcloud shows that you can build a profitable open-source company in a modern, socially sustainable way: focussing on an international and diverse team will lead to an increased understanding of the different perspectives, cultural backgrounds and challenges – similar to what the diverse basis of users of the software will experience.
