Is GitHub a good solution to distribute free products?

[Yinxi]

Hello,

I want to distribute some audio effects through my WordPress website. I created them using Scriptnode, so they are fairly small plugins.

I was wondering if using GitHub as a hosting platform could be a good solution, or if it’s better to use a CDN like Bunny. I would prefer a free or very low-cost option.

GitHub puts me off a little because I would like people to download the files exclusively through my website rather than ending up on a public GitHub Release page.

Being a very indecisive person , if someone has had a similar situation and can share their choice or experience, it would really help me.

[David Healey]

If it's open source then putting it on github is a good idea. If it's closed source or you want to see download stats and have some control use Bunny.

For sample libraries I wouldn't recommend github, but since yours is an effect it's not a bad choice. I use Github to host Rhapsody releases alongside the source code.

If you're selling them then Gumroad or Payhip offer hosting and payment processing, so might also be a good option for you.

[Christoph Hart]

@Yinxi if they are free and open source then yes I think GitHub is fine.

You should be able to directly link to the latest binary download URL from your website with release/latest

[Yinxi]

@Christoph-Hart Thanks for answering!

I have a side question. I was wondering if open-source licenses require me to include the image files I created from Figma for the UI.

[dannytaurus]

@Yinxi Images are usually treated the same as audio samples. They're data, not code.

You only usually need to provide the code.

EDIT: You only usually need to provide the code as open-source. The assets can be licensed as anything you like.

[modularsamples]

@David-Healey said in Is GitHub a good solution to distribute free products?:

For sample libraries I wouldn't recommend github..

FYI, I've been hosting multi GB sample libraries on GitHub for years now with no problems. Patches go in the repo, with the actual sample content being uploaded to releases. It's not the most elegant arrangement but saves on hosting fees.

[Christoph Hart]

@dannytaurus ideally you make the assets available to users who want to compile the software somehow - if not then the software cannot be used and while it‘s not a legal violation of the GPL it kind of defeats the purpose of sharing it as open source project.

You can obviously license the assets under a different license than GPL.

If you‘re talking about the actual PSD files (or whatever format figma uses), then of course you don‘t need to include those.

[dannytaurus]

@Christoph-Hart Agreed. Sorry, I kinda cut myself off short there. Edited for clarity.