Is Zendesk what I'm looking for? Or what am I looking for?

November 17, 2015 12:56 PM

Zendesk: Paid support for my open source app. Is this a good way to monetize my Open Source Software?

I'm an author of Open Source Software and I'd like to continue to be an author of open source software (the hours are nice and I can't find work anywhere else - really), but I need to monetize my app more as more people are using it, since it's easy for anyone with a cheap hosting account to install (one click! one!).

I've been thinking of adding some paid support channels on a monthly/yearly subscription service, and utilizing something like Zendesk to make this happen. Right now, I don't have any system for prioritized paid support contracts .

Here's what I envision:

You sign up for prioritized support - that gives you access to a manual I've written (already written), a "pro" version of my software with nice perks (already created) and a Zen Desk account login, so if you have a question, you can ask me and I can answer it.

Zendesk would replace the crummy system I have now, where there's a forum on the support site that anyone can use, and of course, people email me directly. All this is stressful for me to field and I don't think my users feel always served well. In the back of my mind I think to myself, (well, you get what you pay for), but that needs to stop. I want people to support the software, by supporting me supporting them (yadda yadda).

I'm hoping Zendesk makes it easy for me create accounts easily, and have a paper trail of the support questions/answers I've given to this client.

QUESTIONS:

I don't know what sort of plugins or tools they have to allow me to make it subscription-based on my side, does their API allow something to ping my system and check if someone has paid support, and if so, allow them in - and if not: don't (and then ask them to pay up!)? (I'm not doing free support via Zendesk, so only paid cusotmers will have access to, well: me)

Which plan for Zendesk do I need to make this viable? It seems their lowest coupla bucks plan is enough for what I have planned: one dude (me!) answered questions from many users. Or am I mistaken in how they view their service to work?

posted by alex_skazat to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

You could certainly script a subscription module through Zendesk's API, but you could also just handle it manually if the volume isn't that large. Support requests come in, you check to see whether the requester has paid, and if not, you send back a canned reply explaining your services with a link to a Stripe/PayPal/Whatever page for them to pay up. You could start with that and build more around it later too.
posted by zachlipton at 2:18 PM on November 17, 2015

They have a free trial so you can test out whatever you want and dig around. Their staff is also great and will answer whatever questions you have.
posted by reddot at 6:57 AM on November 22, 2015