Our business model rests on a fundamental principle: sustainable open source software requires sustainable revenue. Whilst our core platform will always remain open source, we generate revenue through thoughtfully designed commercial offerings that deliver additional value to enterprise customers.
The foundation of our ecosystem is our open source UI framework, Avalonia. This community-driven platform forms the bedrock upon which we've built targeted commercial solutions:
Our flagship commercial product helps enterprises modernise their WPF applications. In 2024, XPF demonstrated remarkable growth with a 183.33% increase in licences sold, generating a 76.19% increase in revenue despite a 33% reduction in licence cost. This success validates our approach to creating focused commercial solutions that solve specific enterprise challenges.
Support agreements form a significant pillar of our business, accounting for 30.8% of our total revenue. With a 41.67% increase in support customers and 100% customer satisfaction, we maintain response times well below our SLA commitments - averaging 11 hours for first response and 16 hours for resolution. This success demonstrates how commercial offerings can create mutual value, funding development whilst providing essential services to enterprises.
Our approach to custom development sets us apart - approximately 70% of this work results in improvements to our open source core. We carefully select projects that align with our strategic goals, prioritising those that contribute to the broader Avalonia ecosystem. This approach has led to a 108.33% increase in development service revenue whilst maintaining our commitment to open source.
We believe deeply that developers should evaluate technology on their own terms. This conviction drives our completely inbound sales approach, you won't receive cold calls from us. Instead, we invest our resources in:
This approach has driven significant organic growth, with our community expanding seven times compared to the previous year and our GitHub stars increasing by 25%, making us the most-starred cross-platform UI solution for .NET.
Our journey has taught us valuable lessons about balancing community needs with business sustainability:
When we experimented with lower-cost support agreements for independent developers, we encountered a well-documented phenomenon where vocal demand didn't translate into adoption. Despite community requests, indie-focused tiers accounted for just 0.625% of annual revenue. This experience informed our decision to focus on enterprise offerings that have demonstrated strong product-market fit.
We maintain clear boundaries between our open source core and commercial offerings. Whilst we've received suggestions to make various commercial features freely available, we recognise that sustainable development requires reliable revenue streams. This isn't just about covering costs—it's about generating the resources needed to grow our team and continue improving both commercial and open source offerings. You can read more about our thoughts on our OSS Philosophy.
Almost every euro earned flows back into the business:
Notably, 91.1% of our expenditure goes directly to staff wages, reflecting our commitment to building a strong team that can support both community and enterprise users.
Our sustainable approach enables us to maintain exacting standards whilst continuing to innovate. Whilst we might not move at the pace of venture-backed competitors, we're building something designed to endure. This means:
This measured approach ensures we're building a business that will continue serving our community and customers effectively for years to come.