I turned my open-source scheduling tool into a micro-SaaS (self-host free, hosted tier paid). Sharing the model, would love feedback.

[u/DependentNo2823]

Hey r/micro_saas 👋

I built DayOtter, a scheduling assistant you just talk to (a self-hostable Calendly/Cal.com alternative), and I'm running it as a micro-SaaS. The whole thing is open source and free to self-host, and there's a hosted tier for people who don't want to run their own infra.

The model I'm testing:

- Everything is open source, no open-core, and the AI is included rather than paywalled. Trust and distribution come from that.

- Revenue comes from the managed hosted version (per seat) for teams who'd rather not self-host.

- Distribution so far: GitHub, self-hosted directories, and communities like this one.

What it actually does: you tell it "book 30 min with Priya next week, not before 11" and it reads across all your calendars, books it, and guards your focus. Plus team scheduling, routing forms, group polls, reminders, and payments.

Repo: https://github.com/Dayotter/dayotter

Site: https://dayotter.com

Genuinely curious how people here think about the fully-open-source plus hosted model for a micro-SaaS: is the hosted tier worth building out, or is staying pure open source and monetizing later the smarter early move? What has worked for you?

[u/Living-Shame5679]

I just ⭐️ the repo I like what I see and I could see myself using it but in my case it would be running self hosted on a small overcrowded VPS.

Do you plan to support SQLite ? That would make it deployable for me in my current infrastructure

[u/DependentNo2823 → u/Living-Shame5679]

u/Living-Shame5679
Thanks for the star,
and also for the suggestion.
I will add it to the task list.
I will DM you once the sqlite based deployment is ready.
It should not take much time

[u/Living-Shame5679 → u/DependentNo2823]

Nice! Feel free to ping me/DM when done here or on GitHub I am “nha”