What’s Next for Stirling PDF: Going Open Core

Stirling PDF has come a long way since our first release 18 months ago.

What started as a small, passion-driven side project quickly grew into a globally adopted open-source tool with millions of downloads and a dedicated, enthusiastic user base. I’m incredibly grateful for the community support that’s brought us this far.‍

As Stirling PDF expands, the community rightly expects increased professional support, regular feature updates, and reliable ongoing development. These demands have grown beyond what I can provide as a part-time project.

That’s why I’m thrilled to announce that Stirling PDF is officially moving to an Open Core business model.

What does going Open Core mean?

Simply put, the existing open-source Stirling PDF features you love aren’t going anywhere. Our commitment to maintaining and improving the open-source core remains as strong as ever.

In addition, we will now offer advanced, enterprise-oriented features such as compliance tools, automation capabilities, and single sign-on support through a paid tier. This approach lets us sustainably fund the project’s development while ensuring the core functionality stays open and freely accessible forever.‍

We’ve partnered with the excellent team at Open Core Ventures to make this transition possible. With their support, we’ve launched a brand-new Stirling PDF homepage, designed to clearly communicate our plans, vision, and product roadmap.

I know this announcement may raise questions, so let me directly address one important point:

Are we closing Stirling PDF’s open-source core?

Absolutely not. The core tools that have always been free will remain open and freely available. Our goal is simply to expand what Stirling PDF can achieve by creating sustainable revenue to fund new, powerful features for business and enterprise customers.

I’m genuinely excited about this next chapter and deeply grateful to now be working full-time on Stirling PDF. Our mission remains unchanged: building the very best open-core PDF tool for our global user base.

Thank you all for your continued support. I’m looking forward to this next stage of our journey together!