Today I am very excited to introduce you to PkgHub - a platform for licensing and distributing commercial packages.
Why PkgHub?
When I was looking for a way to fund my open source projects in 2021, one idea was to provide several commercial add-ons. To my surprise, I discovered that there was no straightforward method for selling npm packages, which led me to register the domain pkghub.io.
The goal: Make licensing and distribution of packages both simple and affordable.
This idea has been brewing in my mind for over 2 years, and I am thrilled to finally announce the release of the first version.
How PkgHub works?
PkgHub provides private package registries that you can use to publish your packages. Unlike other registries, such as the default npm registry, PkgHub allows both you and external users, like your customers, to access private packages.
To enable this, PkgHub provides an extensive license management system that can even be integrated into your workflow via API.
Thanks to various integrations, such as our Lemon Squeezy integration, you can automatically grant your customers access to your packages after a successful payment.
PkgHub is built around packages, tokens, and licenses:
- Packages: A package is a collection of files that you want to distribute. Currently, only npm packages are supported, but more package managers will follow soon.
- Tokens: A token is a unique identifier that you can use to publish your packages. You should therefore keep your tokens secret.
- Licenses: A license grants a user access to a package. You can create as many licenses as you want and assign them to your customers.
Your customers then only have to enter the token when installing packages.
Future plans
We have a lot of plans for the future. On one hand, we aim to support many other package managers, such as pypi for Python. On the other hand, we are working on integrating with various payment providers, including Stripe and GitHub Sponsors.
We'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas! Make sure you follow us on X so you don't miss any future updates.
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