Why we build open-core

MDG Labs builds small software. SlugBase, for bookmarks and short links, follows the model this post describes: open-core.

That means the application source is on GitHub. You can run it yourself. If you prefer not to operate infrastructure, we are building a managed Cloud tier, coming soon, built from the same codebase. Not a fork. Not a stripped-down “enterprise edition.” The same product, two ways to run it.

What we mean by open-core

Community Edition (CE) is the full application, packaged for self-hosting — Docker Compose today, operator docs, migrations, the lot. You own the deployment and the data.

Cloud is the convenience layer: we will run it, patch it, back it up, and bill for the service. Features and behaviour come from the same repo CE uses.

We are not playing a game where the free tier is a demo and the real product hides behind a sales call. CE is meant to be usable on its own.

Why not pure SaaS?

Plenty of tools work only on someone else’s servers. That is fine until it is not — pricing changes, export is painful, the API you built on disappears, or compliance says your data cannot live in a jurisdiction you did not choose.

We would rather ship something you can run on your own machine than something that only works if you trust us forever. Self-hosting is not for everyone; for teams that need it, it should be first-class, not a legacy tier.

Why not pure open source only?

Maintaining software has a cost — security fixes, dependencies, support, hosting docs, CI. A sustainable studio needs revenue that is not donations and hope.

Cloud is meant to pay for that work without turning CE into abandonware. The licence (Elastic License 2.0 for SlugBase) keeps the source available while making it clear that running a competing managed service on our code is not the deal.

The pattern in practice

SlugBase — bookmark manager with workspace-scoped slugs and keyboard-driven navigation. Clone the repo, docker compose up, your bookmarks stay on your infrastructure. SlugBase Cloud, coming soon, is for people who want the product without the ops.

The philosophy behind it: your data, your choice of operator.

What we optimise for

From our About page, unchanged: software should be simple, self-hostable, and respect the people using it — quality over feature count.

Open-core is how we hold ourselves to that. If Cloud ever drifted from CE, you would notice — because the diff is public.

Try it yourself

• SlugBase on GitHub — self-host today; Cloud opening at slugbase.app
• About MDG Labs — who builds this and why

More posts here will cover infrastructure choices, shipping notes, and product deep dives. This one is the frame everything else hangs on.