GitHub launches Sponsors

Mona Lisa Octocat. © GitHub.

GitHub has launched Sponsors, a beta version of a system to financially support your favorite developers. Sponsors allows anyone with a GitHub account to fund any Sponsors-registered open-source developer through a recurrent monthly payment. During the first year of a developer’s participation in the program, GitHub will match all contributions made to the developer, up to USD5,000. And for the program’s first 12 months, GitHub will not charge processing fees. The service is similar to Patreon, except that Sponsors is fully integrated in GitHub workflows. When a contributor answers your question, triages your issue or merges your code, you can head to their profile—or simply hover over their username—to sponsor their work.

⇨ The GitHub Blog, “Announcing GitHub Sponsors: a new way to contribute to open source.”

⇨ TechCrunch, “GitHub launches Sponsors, lets you pay your favorite open-source contributors.”