Introducing Poken
Poken is launching in open beta today. Read about the motivation behind Poken, how it works, and how you can be a part of it from the beginning.
The time to monetize npm packages is now
Open Source is great. In many cases though, it’s not sustainable. Many library authors put in a lot of time and effort into their projects, without any chance of being properly compensated for it. Poken is a new way to monetize npm packages, sparing publishers the hassle of setting up payment and delivery systems and making it easy for package consumers to purchase packages without having to deal with complex configuration.
Poken for package authors
Start charging for your libraries
We believe you deserve to be compensated for your work. Poken makes it easy to start charging for your libraries, without making it complicated for consumers.
- Connect to GitHub
Install the Poken GitHub app in your repository. This allows Poken to access your package and distribute it to people who purchased it.
- Create Stripe account
Create a Stripe Connect account via Poken in order to be able to receive the payments for your package sales.
- Start selling
Set a price for your package and share the unique link to your packages storefront. You get notifications for every sale.
Works with all popular package managers
From the blog
Thoughts on packages and how to monetize them.
Frequently asked questions
- What is Poken’s goal?
Poken allows software library authors to monetize their work. Our goal is making this as easy as possible for both the publisher and the consumer of a package.
- How does publishing a package via Poken work?
Using the Poken backend, package publishers connect a private GitHub repository containing their package, create a Stripe Connect account, and publish their Poken listing. Each package has it's own storefront (poken.dev/package-name) and will be listed in the Poken directory.
- How does using a package published on Poken work?
Developers purchase a package via the packages storefront (poken.dev/package-name) and pay the price specified by the author via Stripe Checkout. After purchasing, they’ll receive a custom install link including a token (e.g.
npm i https://poken.dev/demo/1.0.0/30a6acb5-4dc1-4f60-9a93-0d6c62409d5a), which they can use to install the package in their project.- What does distributing via Poken cost?
The package author defines the price that the package will be sold for on Poken. The platform will keep a 15 % commission on every sales transaction.
- Where does the name Poken come from?
Poken is a portmanteau of “package” and “token.” The name reflects Poken’s basic premise, which is purchasing packages and consuming them via tokens.