Have there been any considerations for self-hosting? I understand that is your “secret sauce”, in a way, but I thoroughly believe there’s a compromise here. Perhaps offering source code via GitHub (with no binaries) and then offer the full source code + binaries via purchasable licenses? Similar to TagSpaces business model of selling binaries to their app, while maintaining it openly on GitHub: https://www.tagspaces.org/products/https://github.com/tagspaces/tagspaces
Either way, will definitely be keeping an eye on your app, it seems ducking cool ;)
Ente was first a piece of hardware, then a self-host-able project, but we had a hard time monetizing both, which lead to the E2EE pivot.
TIL about TagSpaces, thanks!
Our server can be open-sourced, but we're unsure of the value E2EE will provide, with services like Photoprism[1] and Immich[2] already doing a good job of serving customers who prefer to self host. In this context E2EE might become a constraint, rather than a feature.
Either way, will definitely be keeping an eye on your app, it seems ducking cool ;)