Paywalled access to JavaScript & Node packages?
Currently, registries support two types of published modules: public/open source and private. Private packages are for use within your team/organization.
What if you developed JS or Node modules that you want to sell?
You can do that a few ways, but the tooling doesn't play well together with module bundlers or you have to guard it with licenses and hope people follow them.
The service would allow developers to publish packages into the registry, and then charge to access them (one-time or subscription). Consumers of those packages could use their standard JavaScript toolchain to access the packages and get updates for those packages, but would just need to run one login command first:
npm login --scope=@company-scope --registry=https://registry.paywalled-js.io/
npm install @company-scope/some-package <--works like normal
Use cases:
- paid licensed software (e.g., Hands on Table)
- enterprise/pro versions of otherwise public packages
- upgradeable frameworks and boilerplates
- custom code for clients
I can't quite decide if this is a silly idea or not ... Thanks for the replies Indie Hackers!
I've wondered about this myself in the context of selling a "Pro" version of an otherwise public package. You don't see many people doing this though. Whether that's because it's hard to – validating your idea – or some other reason, I don't know.
But the idea of it just working with a few npm commands sounds way better than having the manually update it somehow.