&gt;it&#x27;s very hard to compete with someone who is giving something away for &quot;free&quot; (note quotes)<p>There&#x27;s at least one very promising competing model: give something away for free (note lack of quotes) and offer people the option to pay.<p>In the software world we usually do that by using the free version as advertisement for a better paid version, Patreon (and Dwarf Fortress etc) show that the model can even work if paying offers no notable advantages.