David Heinemeier Hansson

DHH reflects on the pivot of the ONCE product line from paid self-hostable web apps to open source with permissive licenses. The original model—selling apps like Campfire for a one-time fee—only broke even. Releasing Campfire, Writebook, and the new Fizzy as free open-source projects proved far more successful, driving adoption and community contributions. The ONCE platform now offers a terminal interface for tracking app metrics (RAM, CPU, visitor counts), zero-downtime upgrades, and scheduled backups, positioning itself as infrastructure for self-hosted apps including those built by AI agents.

ONCE (Again)

<p>If this demonstration had taken place in a large venue rather than at his home, he might have become the Steve Jobs of the tech world.</p>
