6,000 Github stars and why we open sourced

We just hit a milestone I never dreamed of – 6,000 Github stars ⭐️

I remember back in february we had heated discussions about whether we should Open Source Skyvern or not

There were a ton of reasons not to do it:

1. What if someone stole our code? Rebranded it to their own?
2. What if enterprises decided not to pay us? Just use our open source version?
3. What if people read our scrappy (crappy) code? Roasted us?
4. What if they tried it out and it didn't work?
5. What if they didn't leave feedback?
6. What if the community wants features that we don't agree with?

and the most important...

7. What if we open source and no one cares?

But a few things made us take the bet anyways:

1. Competition – we were in a competitive space, and differentiation became harder and harder
2. Long road to 100% web coverage – Open source could prove as a competitive advantage here
3. Serving cost-sensitive users – there's a small subset of vocal users that always want a cheaper product. Open source is a way to serve them without hurting us
4. Self-hosted enterprise – open source makes it easy to have a conversation w/ enterprises about self-hosting

Looking back now.. it was the best decision we ever made as a company

- Claude announces computer use as a tool? We're differentiated by being open source + model-agnostic
- Twitter's ex-ceo announces they're competing with us? Still closed source and a part of the crowded market we're differentiated from
- Monetization difficult? Turns out enterprise features such as authentication create a powerful sales draw

It's been an honour to share everything with you all so far – hope you keep following our journey!