Why would a for-profit company want to invest in Open-Source Software? Our collaborator, prof. Eric-Jan Wagenmakers will tell you why.
CC-BY license from: Kojima T, Oishi K, Matsubara Y, Uchiyama Y, Fukushima Y, Aoki N, et al. (2019) Cows painted with zebra-like striping can avoid biting fly attack. PLoS ONE 14(10): e0223447. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223447In 2025, the IgNobel prize in Biology went to research on “whether cows painted with zebra-like striping can avoid being bitten by flies“. Suppose a fictitious company, ZebraCows, wishes to exploit the insights from this groundbreaking work, and adopts JASP for their quality control analyses.
The head of the data-analytics department at ZebraCows is unfamiliar with open-source software, and two surprises await them:
- Their first surprise is that JASP can be freely installed on all company computers, no strings attached. ZebraCows considers this a big win. Open-source is awesome, they think.
- To receive support and connect JASP even more closely to their needs, ZebraCows starts working together with the JASP Services company through one of their service plans. However, when they read the contracts they are in for a second surprise: all new features that a company requests are immediately added to the JASP open-source code base; this means that everybody in the whole wide world –students, researchers, unrelated and even rival companies– gets to profit from improvements that were requested and paid for by ZebraCows. That seems unfair to ZebraCows, who would prefer the new features to be exclusively available to employees from ZebraCows.
Below, I briefly outline why ZebraCows should in fact be thrilled that the code they paid for is available to the whole world instead of only to them. Essentially, ZebraCows stands to profit from JASP being developed, extended, and improved by others –for free!–, while ZebraCows retains maximum digital autonomy**.
Below is a non-exhaustive list of arguments in favor of open-source software (specifically, JASP) for companies:
1. Unlimited, Free Installation
Open-source software such as JASP can be installed on every computer in ZebraCows business network at zero cost. There are no license fees. There is no per-user pricing, and scalability is complete.
2. Continuous Improvement at No Extra Cost
Open-source features are visible to the global JASP community. External contributors (researchers, developers, students) can refine, extend, and maintain the features that ZebraCows cares about, for decades to come — and all for free.
3. Shared Development Pool
Other companies who also want additional features will invest in JASP too. ZebraCows automatically gains access to their improvements, without paying extra.
4. No Vendor Lock-In
With closed-source software, ZebraCows may need to keep paying for updates just to keep their features working. With open-source, the code is available to ZebraCows forever. Nobody can take it away, restrict access, or increase license fees.
5. Transparency
Adoption of JASP means that ZebraCows attains complete transparency on the process by which JASP produces its results. In contrast to closed-source software, all the code that JASP uses is available for external inspection and public scrutiny. ZebraCows is not forced to rely exclusively on the documentation or the helpdesk and “take their word for it”.
6. Limited Costs for Superior Service
Most open-source service contracts –and certainly those of JASP– are simply a great deal financially. A large commercial software product does not adjust or improve its code to accommodate the wishes of a medium-sized company such as ZebraCows. For only a modest investment, ZebraCows can interact with the JASP Services team and initiate improvements that benefit ZebraCows specifically. Try doing this with <insert the name of any large commercial program here*>!
Conclusion
By investing in the development of open-source software such as JASP, companies gain much more than just the features they pay to see implemented. Companies also gain access to a continual, indefinite stream of free improvements, while being protected from lock-in or forced upgrade costs. This way companies profit from unlimited, future-proof access to a program that is designed to meet their needs.
This piece is a repost (with minor adaptations) from the JASP blog, reproduced here with permission (and encouragement) from the author, Eric-Jan Wagenmakers.
Professor Wagenmakers is a mathematical psychologist at the University of Amsterdam, the CEO of JASP (a popular open-source statistical software), and the proud owner of an IgNobel Prize (2024). Currently he is collaborating with the eScience Center in improving the user experience of the JASP module-making community.
