If it can be open-source, it'll be open source

Whether businesses like it or not, open and collaborative approaches to building technology are the foundation for creating long-lasting solutions. In other words, if a business’s value lies solely in closed-source software and nothing else, chances are it will be disrupted by a competitor leveraging open-source software to build a better product.

I emphasized “solely” because some businesses provide value beyond their software, either through infrastructure or connections to external systems that are difficult to replicate. For example, an open-source e-commerce platform that competes with Shopify can be built. In fact, it exists. But what about card readers? Payment processing? Taxes?

On the other hand, Calendly? Done. DocuSign? Done too. GitHub? Absolutely—here’s one example, and another. Even CI, telemetry, and analytics have open-source counterparts.

What do all these successful open-source products have in common? Something money can’t easily buy: stronger communities and better products. When you embrace open collaboration and welcome ideas from diverse perspectives, your product becomes more inclusive and innovative.

The alternative? Designing what you think is the best product from a conference room in San Francisco, assuming it solves problems for people in South Korea. Spoiler alert: it probably doesn’t.

And here’s the best part: AI is reducing the cost of maintaining open-source software, a cost that has traditionally been higher than developing behind closed doors.

At Tuist, we want to set a precedent in the Apple developer tooling space. Too often, closed-source and proprietary solutions emerge,
plastering “contact sales” buttons on their websites and finding shady ways to lock developers into their ecosystems. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

We’re committed to building open solutions for scaling challenges and making them accessible to everyone. We’ll continue to commoditize tools—not just for accessibility but to push the ecosystem to innovate. Because we believe the time for closed-source developer tools is over.