MONETIZATION.md

Business model

Community

Free, self-hosted, local-first.

Includes:

• 1 Harbor Node
• local UI
• local policies
• local audit log
• core Harbor Ports
• local action API
• Dock import of safe manifests
• local Harbor Pack import/export
• community updates

Pro

Paid, individual or small-team premium layer built around cloud account services plus better coordination.

Includes:

• multiple Harbor Nodes
• paid member space
• node enrollment visibility
• license-backed premium unlocks
• premium feature unlocks
• selected Premium Integrations
• backups/exports
• notifications
• future centralized audit aggregation
• future policy sync

Use docs/UXPolish/PREMIUM_FEATURES_END_TO_END_PLAN.md as the current source of truth for premium wording and Phase 1 tier presentation.

Business

Paid, team and org oriented.

Includes:

• team/member management
• role-based access later
• multi-site policy inheritance later
• longer audit retention
• richer approval workflows
• premium support
• advanced remote coordination

Member surfaces

Public member space

This is the paid-user product surface.

It should handle:

• sign-in
• plan and license visibility
• enrolled node visibility
• downloads and upgrade guidance
• future billing and subscription management

It should not handle:

• Harbor runtime execution
• direct secret storage for third-party integrations
• becoming the primary operator UI for Harbor Node

Internal admin space

This is not a monetized user-facing product.

It exists for Breakwater operations:

• account lookup
• license support
• enrollment troubleshooting
• premium flag and feature operations
• future billing support workflows

Monetization principles

Do not paywall the core trust story. Do not make the free version the insecure version.

Premium should unlock:

• convenience
• scale
• management
• orchestration
• team features
• advanced connectors
• premium cloud/member workflows

Not:

• the ability to be secure at all
• the basic local Harbor trust boundary
• the ability to keep connector secrets local

Recommended packaging order

1. Community must remain fully credible on its own.
2. Pro should add account, licensing, Premium Integrations, and managed convenience.
3. Business should add team and coordination features only after the member and admin foundations exist.

Do not jump straight to Business packaging before Pro account/member flows are real.

What should likely be paid first

Good early paid candidates:

• multiple enrolled nodes under one member account
• Premium Integrations and connector packs
• premium notifications and update visibility
• cloud-backed license and entitlement management
• future backups/export convenience

Bad early paid candidates:

• local audit log existence
• local policy controls
• local approval controls
• single-node local Harbor operation
• basic secure secret handling

OAuth and monetization

OAuth itself should not automatically mean paid.

Better rule:

• community can support some OAuth-backed local integrations when they fit the trust model
• paid tiers can unlock Premium Integrations, managed provider setup convenience, and better multi-node/member coordination

Do not couple basic OAuth viability to cloud custody of user credentials.

Partnership opportunities

The product can recommend or integrate with:

• bring-your-own VPS providers
• private mesh networking tools
• optional remote relay providers
• optional billing providers

The company should prefer partner/referral leverage over becoming a full hosting company.