Explain monetization / company direction in the readme

[Gaibhne]

Please confirm if feature request does NOT exists already ?

• I confirm there is no existing issue for this

Describe the usecase for the feature

I would like to use this software, but it is unclear to me what I am getting into. It seems the software is free ... maybe ? On the homepage I found no information about that at all, and nothing clear in the GitHub project readme either. It appears that there is a commercial entity behind this project, but it is totally unclear how it is monetized/profitable.

With the lack of information available, I am unable to ascertain whether adopting this software will lead us down a path where we are charged something, how much, or whether money is made by selling any of my information or other typical monetization schemes.

Suggested Solution

Add a section to the readme (and the website) about:

• whether the software is free and is intended to stay that way, or alternatively a price/feature matrix
• how the company behind the software is intending to make money off of us using it

Additional Context

Being open about what drives the development of NocoDB seems like a good way to build trust in users.

[fulldecent]

Please see this other self hosted / open source project that has a path to revenue using modules:

Project homepage: https://freescout.net/

Modules: https://freescout.net/modules/

Here's how it works:

Installing the main product is great

The main product is slim and does not have a million nice features you want

To get those features, visit the website and buy an activation code (one-time purchase)

Customers turn on those modules with the admin page and enter the activation code

The Free Scout project uses PHP/Laravel so the implementation details of how they code that are not helpful here. But the design is usable for our project here. Modules are all first-party and directly benefit the maintainers of the project. Later they may add a module marketplace.

NocoDB can consider this model for sustainably funding the project.

The first module can be to remove the "sponsor us" button, GitHub/Demo links and other things that are not needed in a production environment.