You know what really grinds my gears? When software claims to be “open source,” flaunting their supposed dedication to the community, and then puts up a paywall for pre-built binaries. This is exactly what Ardour does. They advertise themselves as an “open source, collaborative effort” and then go on to charge mandatory fees for their builds, disguising it as “donations.” I’m sorry, but when you make payments mandatory, that’s not a donation. You’re selling a product. Just call it what it is—don’t try to pass it off as something altruistic.
I stumbled across this little gem on Ardour’s website:
“Ardour is an open source, collaborative effort of a worldwide team including musicians, programmers, and professional recording engineers. Development is transparent — anyone can watch our work as it happens. Like a good piece of vintage hardware, you can open the box and look inside. Of course, you don’t have to … but one day the fact that anybody can will be useful.
This openness forces a kind of integrity on the project that is hard to find in proprietary software, and helps us to focus on issues and features that matter to our users rather than stuff that just looks good in advertisements.”
Really? Integrity? You want to talk about integrity while forcing users to pay $45 just to give a major update? Integrity would mean actually letting the community decide how they want to support your project. It’s downright manipulative to charge mandatory fees and still try to wear the open source badge with pride.
Let me tell you a story. I love open source software—I truly do. But as someone who supports open source, even I couldn’t bring myself to “donate” to Ardour. Why? Because their entire approach reeks of dishonesty. I could have given them $1 and technically gotten access to the software, even without major updates. But the way they operate made me say, “Forget it.” Instead, I went and spent 60 bucks on a license for FL Studio. Yes, a proprietary DAW. You know why? Because Image-Line (the creators of FL Studio) are honest. They don’t pretend to be something they’re not. They say, “Hey, we’re a commercial product. You pay once, and you get lifetime updates.” No shady paywalls. No pretending to be a community-driven project. Just straight-up transparency.
And guess what? I love FL Studio now. I happily paid the price because the company didn’t insult my intelligence with manipulative language. Meanwhile, Ardour lost a potential user because they decided to hide behind the facade of “openness.”
Now, let’s talk about some real open source projects that get it right:
- Blender: Fully open source, fully free, and entirely community-driven. The Blender Foundation doesn’t force anyone to pay for anything. Yet they thrive on voluntary contributions from users and organizations who believe in the project.
- Godot Engine: Another incredible example. Completely open source, with zero paywalls. Developers are free to use it, modify it, and even sell games made with it. How does it sustain itself? Through voluntary donations and sponsors.
- Signal: The messaging app that truly puts users first. 100% free, no ads, no trackers, no hidden fees. They rely entirely on donations, and guess what? People donate because they trust Signal’s mission and transparency.
- LMMS: Truly open source and completely free—a direct competitor to Ardour—demonstrates how an open-source project can thrive without paywalls. It offers powerful tools for music production and relies on community contributions, not mandatory fees, to sustain itself.
These projects are successful because they respect their users. They don’t try to strong-arm people into paying. Instead, they foster trust, and in return, people want to support them.
Ardour, on the other hand, seems to think they can guilt-trip users into paying by dangling their binaries behind a mandatory “donation” wall. And let’s not even get started on the $45 minimum for a just one major update. How many people are realistically paying that? I’d wager not many. Their approach doesn’t encourage support; it alienates potential users.
If Blender or Godot had adopted Ardour’s strategy, do you think they would have become the giants they are today? Absolutely not. Their success comes from understanding the core philosophy of open source: freedom, accessibility, and trust.
If Ardour really wants to charge for their builds, fine—then do what Aseprite does. Aseprite charges for pre-built binaries but doesn’t pretend to be fully open source. They openly admit, “We’re not open source; we’re source-available.” And you know what? That’s fine. At least they’re honest about it. Honesty goes a long way in building trust with users.
But Ardour? They want to have their cake and eat it too. They want the prestige of being “open source” without actually embodying the principles that make open source great. It’s insulting, honestly. Their model is no better than what Winamp did with their so-called “open source” transition, which was little more than a ploy to milk the community for free labor while keeping everything under restrictive licenses.
Oh, and here’s the cherry on top of the cake—when you head over to Ardour’s website to download it, they don’t even mention a fee upfront. Nope, not a single whisper about payment until you’re already invested in the process. They politely ask which operating system you’re downloading for, and just when you’re ready to click “Download,” bam! Out comes the mandatory fee request like it’s the final boss of some hidden dungeon. It almost feels like they’re trying to sneak it past you until you’re already committed. But hey, that’s just a theory… A SOFTWARE THEOR- (bleep) Ahem, sorry, I mean an observation.
In conclusion, if you’re going to call yourself open source, then act like it. Drop the mandatory paywalls. Let the community support you voluntarily. Trust your users, and they’ll trust you back. Otherwise, stop pretending.
Ardour, you lost me as a user. And judging by your strategy, I’m probably not the only one. And please don’t tell me anything about ‘hosting fees’ or ‘Windows registration fees.’ Godot, Blender, and even a messaging app like Signal (which costs fricking a lot to host) had those fees too.
Meanwhile, I’ll be here, happily using FL Studio and enjoying lifetime updates from a company that respects my time, money, and intelligence.