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.
Backed by the community — see who. Or scroll for the five tiers and what each unlocks.
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 $300/mo, you're keeping Bambuddy independent.
Sponsor on GitHub Tip on Ko-fi