Is Open Source Worth the Investment?

Written by CD Foundation | Mar 2, 2026 7:32:48 PM

This blog post was first published on February 26, 2026 on the CD Foundation website https://cd.foundation/blog/2026/02/26/open-source-roi/ and repurposed here with permission.

By now, most organizations know using Open Source Software (OSS) is great for business. The problem is, many of them hesitate to actively contribute their money and developers’ time. The C-Levels and VCs want to know: “What’s the ROI?”

The most recent ROI for Open Source Software Contribution report, published by the Linux Foundation, answers this question with concrete numbers for the different types of open source contributions.

The Cost of Keeping to Yourself

Based on the report’s data, maintaining private forks can cost up to 5,160 labour hours, or $258,000 USD, per release cycle.

By simply using OSS, organizations get 4.8 x ROI, but why stop there? Being an active member of an open source foundation offers the same bonus. Companies can also unlock further gains by contributing to the code or the community.

As Chris Aniszczyk put it in the report’s foreword:

“Active stewardship in an open source community allows a company to steer roadmaps toward their own strategic goals and even build products faster. Ultimately, moving from passive consumption to active contribution transforms open source from a cost-saving tool into a powerful engine for innovation, market leadership, and institutional resilience.”

— Chris Aniszczyk, Cloud Native Computing Foundation and The Linux Foundation

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