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Donations, without expectations

April 19, 2026

I give FairScan to everyone who wants to use it. The app is free and doesn't include any behavior that goes against users' interest: no ads, no tracking, no collection of your data, no premium version... That's possible because FairScan does not have to serve the interests of a business.

I'm an independent developer doing all kinds of tasks for FairScan:

I'm definitely more comfortable for some of those tasks than others, but I see the project as a whole. As part of a normal job, it would be awkward for a developer to spend time on repetitive tasks that can be outsourced like creating "fake" documents and annotating data to train a model. I see it differently because FairScan is "my" project: I do what it takes to make a great app for users.

I spend most of my time on FairScan, and I now consider it as my job, even if I don't make money out of it. My main interest is having a positive impact and seeing people use the software I build. I made money in my previous jobs and, for now, I can afford to work without making money.

When I published FairScan, I received emails thanking me for the app, and that was quite rewarding. Some people wrote that they would like to give me money. I also appreciated those messages, but I hadn't set up a way to receive donations. I didn't see it as a priority as the app had very few users and even fewer potential donors.

I also received emails asking me to implement specific features, and, even though they were always kind, that was harder to manage. What I'm trying to build with FairScan is not the typical open source app. I'm not looking for ideas of features to add and I'm not trying to cover all the various needs of "power users". I'm trying to build an app that is simple and consistent. Something that can be used by everyone, even if not everyone likes it. I had to say "no" or "later" to many feature requests, and that was definitely not easy for me.

Adding money into that would have made things worse. When I received an email that mentioned both giving money and features to add, I took it as a clear signal: a few days later, I added an explicit statement on my website to decline all donations. Accepting money would have led to implicit expectations that I couldn't manage. Even if that wasn't intentional, it would have put pressure on me to implement features I didn't believe in, to diverge from the direction I gave to my project.

Time has passed. Little by little, feedback has helped me improve all areas of the automatic processing, which is the core of the app: document detection, cropping, color detection, brightness and contrast enhancement... This is not about "features", it's what most people would see as the basis of a scanning app without being able to articulate it. In addition to that, I did implement a few of the requested features, and the UI is even a bit simpler than it was. Overall, FairScan got more mature and it gets closer to what I wanted to build: an app that "just works".

The reviews on the Play Store and the messages I receive also tell me that many people enjoy the app and the fact that it's simple. I still feel a bit uncomfortable saying "no" to feature requests but I'm now much more confident about the direction I gave to FairScan.

The app is now quite decent but I know it's still far from perfect. I see a lot of things I would like to improve or start to tackle in FairScan. And based on what I already did, I know it will take time and effort.

I can continue working on FairScan without making money but I'm not sure how realistic it is in the long run and I can't pretend it's a good model for open source development.

I believe that donations could now help me, at least symbolically. It would help me feel some form of support and recognition for the work behind FairScan. That, in turn, could make it easier to find energy to work on tasks that are not quite enjoyable but still necessary.

Let's try something new for me: I'm going to update the website to now accept donations.

If you're willing to donate, I will gratefully receive it provided that we agree on one thing: it should not lead to any kind of expectation from your side. The same way I give FairScan with no expectation to every person who wants to use it. I don't want to commit on implementing any specific feature and, since life is unpredictable, I can't commit to work on FairScan for the next five years. I hope you will understand it.

Working as an independent open source developer is not a typical job and I'm still learning how to frame it. I'm already happy to have made FairScan grow so far and I hope I can make my effort sustainable. I want to keep going as long as it makes sense.