The Linux Foundation | 10 November 2026
Second annual study of 225 founders and enterprise leaders reveals how companies combine revenue models and enterprise sales to commercialize open source
Summary
- The Linux Foundation's State of Commercial Open Source 2026 report surveys commercial open source software (COSS) decision makers directly to better understand the strategic playbook for commercial open source companies and how they are adapting to new ecosystem developments
- AI is a net positive: 72% of respondents report a net positive impact from AI, and nearly twice as many companies opened up their core product in response than closed them.
- Trust comes first: 57% name brand recognition and trust as their top competitive advantage, and most monetize it through two or more revenue models.
- Developers adopt, executives buy: companies layer enterprise sales on top of product-led growth as they scale, and building that capability is the top scaling challenge (47%).
LISBON, Nov. 10, 2026 – Web Summit 2026 – The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today released The State of Commercial Open Source 2026, a study examining how commercial open source companies generate revenue, convert users into customers and build their businesses.
AI now writes code almost for free, and that raises a hard question for the whole software industry: if code costs next to nothing, where does the value of software lie? Commercial open source companies have been answering that question for more than 30 years. They have built large businesses on code they give away, which makes them a good guide to how software will make money in the age of AI.
Published by Linux Foundation Research in partnership with Serena, with sponsorship from AWS, Red Hat, Futurewei and CNCF, the second annual report draws on a survey of 225 commercial open source founders and enterprise leaders. Revealing findings on operating decisions across pricing, monetization, licensing, go-to-market strategies, conversion economics and AI, the report provides benchmarks for founders, investors and business leaders.
Matthieu Lavergne, Partner at Serena and co-author of the report, will present its key findings at Web Summit on Nov. 10, from 2:40 to 3:00 PM on Stage 5 (Venture Summit), and share how open source companies make money in the age of AI.
AI is a net positive, and it’s pushing companies to open up
Seventy-two percent of respondents report a net positive impact from AI, against 8% negative. So far, the gains show up mostly inside companies. Internal productivity is the most cited benefit (73%), ahead of market expansion (46%) and new monetization opportunities (39%). AI roles are the only hiring category growing on net. COSS strategy is mostly unchanged by AI. But when companies do adapt, they are nearly twice as likely to open more of their core product rather than become more closed.
Brands sell trust, and charge for it in layers
When asked what sets them apart, 57% of companies name brand recognition and trust, well ahead of enterprise features, integrations and community size. They turn that trust into revenue through support and services (63%), managed cloud (49%) and open core (43%). Most combine these: 65% run two or more revenue models. Companies stack models as they grow, rather than switching between them: managed cloud rises from 35% of companies below $5 million ARR to 66% above $20 million. Venture-backed companies lean toward open core (53% vs. 38% for others).
Developers adopt, executives buy, and sales becomes the bottleneck
Open source companies sell to two personas: practitioners use the product and executives buy it. CTOs or VPs of Engineering approve purchases in 46% of cases. That split holds at every revenue stage. Consequently, companies layer go-to-market motions as they grow: 57% of late stage companies run at least two (vs. 40% compared to early stage peers). Three quarters of late-stage companies run enterprise or channel sales. Building a mature enterprise sales capability is the most cited scaling challenge and the top priority for the next two years. The payoff is an efficient funnel: among companies that track it, 4 out of 5 recover their customer acquisition cost within 12 months.
"Commercial open source has matured into a sophisticated business model, but until now, founders have had limited empirical guidance on the strategic decisions that drive success," said Hilary Carter, SVP of research at the Linux Foundation. "This research moves beyond demonstrating the economic value of commercial open source to showing how companies actually build sustainable businesses. As AI creates new opportunities across the ecosystem, these insights provide a valuable foundation for open source entrepreneurs."
Read the full State of Commercial Open Source 2026 report.
Supporting Quotes
“Over the last decade, we’ve watched open source evolve from a disruptive idea into the default foundation of modern infrastructure and AI. The findings from this year's report prove that AI isn’t a threat to commercial open source software—it’s an accelerating tailwind. With 72% of companies viewing AI as a net positive primarily driving internal productivity, the ecosystem is leaning further into collaboration. Companies are nearly twice as likely to open up their core products to attract developers rather than close them off. While technological shifts are moving fast, the ultimate competitive moat remains unchanged: over half of founders point to brand recognition and community trust as their greatest asset.”
– Chris Aniszczyk, CTO, CNCF
“Companies that start with an open source community build a lasting competitive advantage: trust. As they grow, many work with those trusted partners to build revenue through managed cloud offerings. AWS is committed to supporting open source businesses where communities, customers and the bottom line all thrive."
– Stormy Peters, Head of Open Source, AWS
“Open source won the developer. Next, it will win the agent. The 225 founders we surveyed mostly see AI as a productivity gain today, but that’s only the start: agents are set to become open source’s largest users, and they choose what is open, proven and trusted. The founders who build and price for these new users will define the infrastructure of the AI era.”
– Matthieu Lavergne, Partner, Serena
“Red Hat has always balanced the innovation of our open source communities with the needs of our enterprise customers. This report demonstrates that not only have we been successful in striking this balance, but also that our customers and partners continue to explore and innovate with open source themselves. For us, this is an amazing outcome. Just as the rising tide lifts all ships, the more collaboration we see in open source projects, the more quality and innovation there is for everyone.”
– Brian Proffitt, Senior Principal Community Architect - Strategic Insights, Open Source AI Program Office, Red Hat
About Linux Foundation Research
Founded in 2021, Linux Foundation Research explores the growing scale of open source collaboration, providing insight into emerging technology trends, best practices, and the global impact of open source projects. By leveraging project databases and networks and committing to best practices in quantitative and qualitative methodologies, Linux Foundation Research is creating the go-to library for open source insights for the benefit of organizations worldwide.
About the Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation is the world's leading home for collaboration on open source software, hardware, standards, and data. Linux Foundation projects, including Linux, Kubernetes, Model Context Protocol (MCP), OpenChain, OpenSearch, OpenSSF, OpenStack, PyTorch, Ray, RISC-V, SPDX and Zephyr, provide the foundation for global infrastructure. The Linux Foundation is focused on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users, and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.org.
The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of the Linux Foundation, please see its trademark usage page: www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
Media Contact
The Linux Foundation
pr@linuxfoundation.org
About Serena
Serena is a leading European investment firm dedicated to entrepreneurs shaping a better world through innovation and technology. As a mission-driven company with €1 billion under management, Serena invests from inception through to global expansion, backing entrepreneurs across energy, AI, Deep Tech, and physical infrastructure.
Its integrated operational platform, one of the largest in Europe, gives founders a powerful advantage to build sustainable, category-leading businesses and maximize their chances of success.
Serena’s portfolio spans over 150 companies, with success stories like Dataiku, Descartes Underwriting, Electra, Malt, Pelico, The Fork, and Wecasa.
Its recent achievements include two exits to Mistral AI, a strategic player in French and European AI: Koyeb, a serverless cloud infrastructure platform, and Emmi AI, a pioneer in AI models for industrial simulation.
Media Contact
Heba Hitti - CCO
heba@serena.vc