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Open-source AI SaaS that makes real money
The open-source AI SaaS making the most verified money is Postiz, an AI social media scheduler: $352,000 a month from 10,300 paying subscriptions (Stripe via TrustMRR, Nov 2, 2026). Comp AI, open-source compliance automation, took in $765,000 in the last 30 days (TrustMRR, Oct 30, 2026), and LLM Gateway was at $78,800 MRR before its payment feed went stale on Sep 7, 2026. The biggest open-core AI tool, n8n, reportedly passed €100M a year (Bloomberg, May 2026; not verified). Most small open-source wrappers make far less: AtomicBot.ai $1,300 and Clawhosters $730 a month.
6 tracked · 4 with live verified data · 1 stale · 1 reported · TrustMRR read Oct 30, 2026 · how we verify · all methods compared
Every business here publishes its code (or a community edition of it) and charges for a hosted version, support or hosting. Revenue for Verified rows comes from Stripe via TrustMRR; the rest is labelled. Only Postiz is on our ranked leaderboard: Comp AI is left off because its MRR captures under 2% of its revenue, and the two OpenClaw businesses are tracked here only.
Open-source AI SaaS at a glance
| # | Business | What it sells | Revenue | Paying subs | GitHub stars | License | Evidence | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Postiz | AI social media scheduler (cloud from $29/mo; self-host free) | $352,000 MRR #1 of 58 on our leaderboard | 10,300 | 40,200 | AGPL-3.0 | Verified | 2026-11-02 |
| 2 | Comp AI | SOC 2 / ISO 27001 compliance automation (Community Edition open source; paid Cloud) | $765,000 in the last 30 days $13,100 MRR; most revenue is not monthly subscriptions | 57 | 2,100 | AGPL-3.0 | Verified | 2026-10-30 |
| 3 | AtomicBot.ai | Desktop and mobile app to run the open-source OpenClaw agent | $1,300 MRR | 44 | — | Open source (per listing) | Verified | 2026-10-30 |
| 4 | Clawhosters.com | Managed hosting for OpenClaw (€19–59/mo) | $730 MRR | 24 | — | Open source (per listing) | Verified | 2026-10-30 |
Not ranked: stale or reported
| Business | What it sells | Revenue | Customers | GitHub stars | Evidence | As of |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LLM Gateway | Open-source API gateway for 35+ LLM providers | $78,800 MRR (last verified) Stripe key expired; last synced Sep 7, 2026. $1,000,000 all-time | 1,400 | 1,700 | Verified | 2026-09-07 |
| n8n | Workflow automation and AI-agent orchestration (fair-code: source-available, Sustainable Use License) | More than €100M a year (ARR) Bloomberg, May 13, 2026, as relayed by ARR Club | 1,400+ enterprise customers (company) | 209,000 | Reported | 2026-05-13 |
Revenue from TrustMRR public profiles (payment data from Stripe) read Oct 30, 2026, except Postiz MRR (our leaderboard re-pull, Nov 2, 2026). GitHub stars and licenses from the GitHub API, Oct 30, 2026. Open-source status as stated on each listing or repo. Leaderboard data checked Nov 5, 2026.
How do open-source AI companies make money?
They give away the code and charge for running it. Postiz sells its cloud from $29 a month with a 7-day $0 trial; the self-hosted version is free. Comp AI publishes an AGPL Community Edition and sells Comp AI Cloud, a separate managed product, priced by framework and company size. LLM Gateway has a free tier plus paid plans. A third model is selling hosting for someone else’s open-source project: Clawhosters charges €19 to €59 a month to run OpenClaw for people who do not want a server.
Does open source help an AI startup get customers?
It is the clearest case in our data. Postiz’s founder says a closed-source version with about four months of paid marketing did not work, so he open-sourced it on September 1, 2024 and launched it on Reddit (self-reported). The repo now has 40,200 GitHub stars. Verified monthly revenue then took off:
| Month | Postiz verified revenue |
|---|---|
| Nov 2025 | $16,000 |
| Feb 2026 | $46,000 |
| May 2026 | $118,000 |
| Sep 2026 | $248,000 |
| Oct 2026 (to Oct 30) | $366,000 |
TrustMRR monthly totals (UTC months), read Oct 30, 2026. September 2026 is about 15x November 2025 (our math). See how much Postiz makes for the full history.
How much do open-source AI wrappers and hosting businesses make?
Usually little. TrustMRR tracks 187 startups built with the open-source OpenClaw agent, and together they made $148,000 in the last 30 days (Oct 30, 2026). One of them made $105,000 of that. The other 186 average about $230 each (our math). The two open-source ones in our table are typical: AtomicBot.ai at $1,300 a month from 44 subscriptions, Clawhosters at $730 from 24. Hosting someone else’s project is easy to start and easy to copy.
Which open-source AI business models charge the most?
B2B infrastructure. Comp AI took in $765,000 in 30 days with only 57 active subscriptions; most of its revenue is not monthly subscriptions. LLM Gateway averaged about $57 per subscription a month at its last sync (our math). Postiz, a prosumer tool, averages about $34 (our math). Compare B2B AI SaaS ideas that charge $100+ a month.
What about n8n and other big open-core AI tools?
n8n is the largest: it reportedly passed €100M in annual recurring revenue around SAP’s investment in May 2026 (Bloomberg, as relayed by ARR Club), and says it has more than 1,400 enterprise customers and 1.7 million monthly active builders. It is “fair-code” (source-available under its Sustainable Use License), not OSI open source, and its figure is reported, not verified. We do not rank reported numbers; see how much AI companies make for other reported figures.
FAQ
Which open-source AI SaaS makes the most money?
With verified payment data: Postiz ($352,000 MRR, 10,300 subscriptions, Stripe via TrustMRR, Nov 2, 2026) and Comp AI ($765,000 in the last 30 days, Oct 30, 2026). By reported figures, n8n is far larger: more than €100M ARR per Bloomberg (May 2026), but that is not payment-verified.
How do open-source AI companies make money if the code is free?
They sell the hosted version. Postiz charges from $29 a month for its cloud while the self-hosted version is free; Comp AI keeps an AGPL Community Edition and sells a separate managed Cloud product; LLM Gateway has a free tier plus paid plans. Smaller businesses sell managed hosting for someone else’s open-source project (Clawhosters, for OpenClaw).
Does open source help an AI startup get customers?
It did for Postiz. Its founder says a closed-source version with paid marketing did not work, so he open-sourced it on Sept 1, 2024 and launched on Reddit (self-reported). Its repo now has 40,200 GitHub stars (Oct 30, 2026) and its verified monthly revenue grew from $16,000 in Nov 2025 to $248,000 in Sep 2026, about 15x (our math from TrustMRR monthly totals).
How much do OpenClaw hosting and wrapper businesses make?
Usually little. TrustMRR tracks 187 startups built with OpenClaw that made $148,000 combined in the last 30 days (Oct 30, 2026). One of them made $105,000 of that; the other 186 average about $230 each (our math).
Can one person run an open-source AI SaaS?
Postiz's founder described himself as a solo developer in Nov 2025 (self-reported), and it is now at $352,000 a month. See our list of one-person AI businesses for others.
Is this revenue verified?
Rows labelled Verified come from payment-provider data (Stripe) read through TrustMRR. n8n is labelled Reported: the figure comes from a news report, not payment data. LLM Gateway is verified but not ranked because its payment data has not synced since Sep 7, 2026. Open-source status is as stated on each listing or GitHub repo.
Sources
- TrustMRR: Postiz, Nov 2, 2026 (MRR); monthly totals read Oct 30, 2026
- TrustMRR: Comp AI, Oct 30, 2026
- TrustMRR: LLM Gateway (Stripe key expired, last synced Sep 7, 2026), Oct 30, 2026
- TrustMRR: AtomicBot.ai, Oct 30, 2026
- TrustMRR: Clawhosters.com, Oct 30, 2026
- TrustMRR: OpenClaw startups category, Oct 30, 2026
- ARR Club, n8n ARR €100M+ (relaying Bloomberg), May 13, 2026
- n8n blog: SAP strategic investment (1.7M monthly builders, 1,400+ enterprise customers), May 12, 2026
- Nevo David, open-sourcing Postiz (founder post), self-reported
- GitHub repositories (gitroomhq/postiz-app, trycompai/comp, theopenco/llmgateway, n8n-io/n8n): stars and license, Oct 30, 2026
Read next
- How much does Postiz make?
- How much does Comp AI make?
- AI SaaS ideas with real revenue
- One-person AI businesses
- AI startups making $100k a month
- How AI businesses get customers
- Full verified MRR leaderboard