Who’s funding open-source in 2025? A guide for maintainers.

Since September 1st, 2025, Microsoft officially discontinued Azure Sponsored Subscriptions for open-source maintainers. The company now focuses on sponsoring only strategic open-source projects. While Microsoft continues to fund open source in other ways (for example, through its internal FOSS Fund), this marks the end of a program that helped many independent developers run and scale their projects.

The program team had always communicated that support for open-source projects was not guaranteed indefinitely. Thanks to Microsoft’s backing, I was able to run hosting and services for Front Matter CMS or two years at no cost. Now that my sponsored subscription has been converted to a pay-as-you-go model, I wanted to explore what other funding and sponsorship options are out there for open-source maintainers.

Fortunately, the news isn’t all bad. There are many organizations still investing in the open-source ecosystem. Whether through grants, free infrastructure, or company policies that support contributors, these companies are helping keep open source sustainable.

This post is both a thank you to those organizations and a resource for maintainers looking for support.

Why sponsorship and support matter

Open source powers nearly everything we build today. From web frameworks and developer tools to the backend infrastructure behind major apps. But while companies rely on open-source projects, the people behind them often work unpaid and shoulder the cost of hosting, development, and community support.

To make this personal, I maintain a number of open-source tools and services, including:

• visitorbadge.io: A free service used by thousands of developers, generating over >2 million requests per month and currently costing me €90/month to run.
• DemoTime.show: A tool to create smooth, stress-free live coding demos.
• FrontMatter.codes: A Visual Studio Code extension that turns your editor into a full CMS.
• Various NPM packages used widely, like the GitHub Actions reporter for Playwright with 110,000+ weekly downloads.

These are all free and actively maintained, but they come with ongoing costs:

• Domain renewals
• Hosting fees
• CI/CD pipelines
• Support and development time

Sponsorships really make a difference for maintainers. Even a small contribution, like €5 a month, feels like a genuine thank you and a boost of motivation. It is not just about covering costs—knowing someone values your work keeps you going and inspires you to keep improving your projects.

It is not only about money

Financial support is crucial, but free or discounted infrastructure and services can be just as valuable:

• Cloud hosting and credits
• Developer tools (like IDEs, code review platforms)
• CI/CD services
• Error monitoring and analytics tools

This type of support lowers the operational cost of maintaining open-source software and ensures projects can scale without maintainers burning out.

Financial sponsorships and funds

Some companies have built structured programs to fund the open-source software they depend on.

Examples of funding programs:

• Microsoft FOSS Fund: Every quarter a new fund and selection process will distribute up to $12,500 USD across one or more open source project(s).
• Spotify FOSS Fund: Allocates €100,000 annually to support critical open-source dependencies.
• Bloomberg FOSS Contributor Fund: Awards $10,000 each to two or three projects per quarter.

Funding programs like these let companies give back strategically to the software they depend on, while helping maintainers cover everything from infrastructure to security audits.

This kind of funding is most likely for the bigger projects and a large number of users.

Support through services of infrastructure

Many companies provide free or discounted services to open-source maintainers, often replacing costs that would otherwise be out of pocket.

Source Control & Developer Tools

• GitHub: Provides free access to source control, GitHub Actions, and GitHub Copilot Free for open-source projects.
• JetBrains: Offers free non-commercial subscriptions for many of their IDEs to open-source maintainers. Learn more via the JetBrains Open Source License page.
• CodeRabbit: Offers free AI-powered code reviews for public repositories.

Hosting & Cloud Credits

• Netlify: Offers an open source plan. More information can be found on the Netlify open source plan policy page.
• AWS: Provides credits for open-source projects through the AWS Cloud Credits program. Details at AWS Cloud Credits for Open Source Projects.
• Vercel: Offers platform credits for 12 months for open-source projects. Apply at their open source program page.
• Appwrite: Is open source and supports open source maintainers with hosting and infrastructure. For more information and their criteria, go to their open source program page.

It is a win-win situation for both maintainers and companies. When you like a service, you are more likely to contribute back to it, use it for your projects, and advocate for it within your community.

Companies encouraging employee contributions

Some organizations go a step further by making open-source contributions part of their culture.

• Info Support: Actively encourages employees to contribute to OSS during work hours and sponsors several projects.
• Red Hat: Employs hundreds of engineers to work on open source projects like operating systems, containers, developer tools, and so much more!
• Google: Recognizes external contributors via its Peer Bonus Program and funds initiatives like Google Summer of Code.

When companies encourage their teams to contribute to open source, everyone wins. It’s not just about giving back—engineers learn new skills, stay sharp, and build connections in the wider developer community. Plus, it’s a great way for companies to stay close to the tools and projects they rely on every day.

Do you want to share your story?

Are you an open-source maintainer, contributor, or company running a sponsorship program? Sharing your experience can help others discover opportunities, avoid pitfalls, and inspire companies to invest more in open-source software.

Feel free to share also any tips or resources that you found helpful in your journey.