Bambuddy stays independent because real people support it directly. No VC, no acquisition, no enterprise overlord — just a community that wants a local-first alternative to printer clouds, and is willing to put a few dollars a month behind that.
If Bambuddy saves you time, makes your printers more useful, or just feels like the right project to keep around — sponsoring is the most direct way to keep it sustainable. Bambuddy will always be AGPL-3.0 and free for community use; sponsorship pays for the time that goes into bug fixes, feature work, and answering Issues.
Pick whichever fits how much value Bambuddy brings you. Every tier helps; there is no "real sponsor" tier.
Three public goals, visible on Bambuddy's GitHub Sponsors page in real time.
Covers demo and dev infrastructure permanently — the live demo at demo.bambuddy.cool, CI, hosting for project services.
Funds one major release per month without competing with paid work — predictable monthly shipping cadence.
Funds a part-time contributor for documentation and onboarding — a second pair of hands on the wiki and the issue queue.
Every sponsor is listed by name on the project — by tier, with a thank-you. The full list lives on the main repo and updates as soon as new sponsors join.
Not into recurring sponsorships? Ko-fi works too — one-time tips or recurring, your call. No tiers, just a thank-you.
Honesty about scope, so nobody's surprised after they sponsor.
No. Pro Support is a separate commercial service for businesses running Bambuddy in production — SLAs, multi-printer consulting, onboarding help. For Pro Support, email martin@bambuddy.cool directly.
No, and you never will. Bambuddy is AGPL-3.0 and stays free for community use, including private commercial use that fits AGPL's terms. Sponsorship is opt-in support, not a license fee.
It directly weights priorities for the next quarter, alongside maintainer judgment. Safety-critical bugs and core stability work always take precedence — but for feature work, Patron votes are a strong signal. You're voting on what to prioritize, not vetoing things.
Yes. Cancel in the GitHub Sponsors UI any time. Access to sponsor-only resources ends at the close of the current billing period. No follow-up emails, no retention games.
Sponsoring funds project development and gets you recognition + sponsor-tier perks (newsletter, vote, etc.). Pro Support is contract-based commercial service with SLAs, dedicated response times, and consulting hours, for organizations whose printers are revenue-critical. They're parallel — you can do either, both, or neither.
Every sponsor matters. Whether you join at $5/mo or $500/mo, you're keeping Bambuddy independent.
Sponsor on GitHub Tip on Ko-fi