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State of Open Source Usage: The Scarf Report 2023

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State of Open Source Usage: The Scarf Report 2023

Analytics for open source
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Last year we published our first aggregated report on open source usage data on Scarf and since then we’ve been pleased to see Scarf data cited by others, whether discussing open source or advocating for it. This latest edition of The Scarf Report covers the quarterly numbers for Q4 2023, as well as 2023 in its entirety.

Overall Open Source Usage in Q4 and 2023

Overall Open Source Software Usage - 2023

Q4 2023 saw a 176 million increase in OSS downloads compared to Q3 2023, a 40% increase. This was paired with an increase of 800,000 unique origins, (Scarf’s closest approximation of a unique downloader of software) compared to the previous quarter.

Over the course of 2023, Scarf tracked a total of 1.6 billion OSS downloads from 15.4 million unique origins. Monthly uniques roughly doubled from the start to end of the year.

Open Source Software Usage across Fortune 500 Companies

Enterprise Open Source Usage - Q4 2023

In the last quarter of 2023, top Fortune 500 companies heavily involved in open-source software included Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Cisco. In Q4 alone, we identified 470 organizations engaging with OSS through Scarf.

Enterprise Open Source Usage - 2023

A few companies that consistently ranked in the Top 10 for OSS usage throughout the year, we observed:

  • Apple
  • Cisco
  • Oracle
  • Microsoft
  • Disney
  • IBM

With 94% of the Fortune 500 seen interacting with open source software tracked with Scarf in Q4 2023, data from Scarf serves as compelling and concrete evidence that open source is critical to enterprises globally. This is also further evidence that Scarf and approaches like it can uncover commercial open source usage that would otherwise go unreported. 

Regional Usage of Open Source Software

Open source usage is global, but looking at the geographical statistics of Scarf downloads continues to show interesting results and trends. Significant growth in certain regions can be attributed to a number of potential factors: increased traction of Scarf itself, increased regional traction of particular projects that use Scarf, or increase in regional popularity of open source as a whole.

Regional Open Source Usage - Q4 2023

Regional Open Source Growth - Q4 2023

Regional Open Source Growth - 2023

Open Source Usage in the Public Sector

Scarf data shows that governments around the world leverage open source for application development and day to day operations. All IP addresses are tagged with a `connection_type`, representing if the internet connection belongs to an ISP, a business, a hosting provider, an educational institution or a government organization. Analyzing the unique organizations on `government` connection types give a unique view into the public sector adoption of open source worldwide.

Public Sector Open Source Usage - 2023

Container Registries

While Scarf tracks downloads of various artifact types, the most popular kind of artifact container images. Container downloads on Scarf have surfaced the rapid rise to prominence of GitHub Container Registry, but Docker Hub remains the dominant container registry by a wide margin, still receiving twice as much volume of pulls on Scarf. 

Container Registries Usage - Q4 2023

Over the course of the year, the share of artifacts pulled through Scarf from Docker Hub has continued to increase, with its share of pulls increasing 16% between the first and last quarter of the year.

Container Registries - Q4 2023

Our Takeaways

As large organizations in both the private and public sector increase their reliance on open source, opportunities for successful commercialization of open source software also becomes increasingly achievable. We are confident that this upward trajectory will foster innovation, growth, and expansion within the open source community.

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State of Open Source Usage: The Scarf Report 2023

Published

March 5, 2024

This article was originally posted on

Hackernoon

Last year we published our first aggregated report on open source usage data on Scarf and since then we’ve been pleased to see Scarf data cited by others, whether discussing open source or advocating for it. This latest edition of The Scarf Report covers the quarterly numbers for Q4 2023, as well as 2023 in its entirety.

Overall Open Source Usage in Q4 and 2023

Overall Open Source Software Usage - 2023

Q4 2023 saw a 176 million increase in OSS downloads compared to Q3 2023, a 40% increase. This was paired with an increase of 800,000 unique origins, (Scarf’s closest approximation of a unique downloader of software) compared to the previous quarter.

Over the course of 2023, Scarf tracked a total of 1.6 billion OSS downloads from 15.4 million unique origins. Monthly uniques roughly doubled from the start to end of the year.

Open Source Software Usage across Fortune 500 Companies

Enterprise Open Source Usage - Q4 2023

In the last quarter of 2023, top Fortune 500 companies heavily involved in open-source software included Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Cisco. In Q4 alone, we identified 470 organizations engaging with OSS through Scarf.

Enterprise Open Source Usage - 2023

A few companies that consistently ranked in the Top 10 for OSS usage throughout the year, we observed:

  • Apple
  • Cisco
  • Oracle
  • Microsoft
  • Disney
  • IBM

With 94% of the Fortune 500 seen interacting with open source software tracked with Scarf in Q4 2023, data from Scarf serves as compelling and concrete evidence that open source is critical to enterprises globally. This is also further evidence that Scarf and approaches like it can uncover commercial open source usage that would otherwise go unreported. 

Regional Usage of Open Source Software

Open source usage is global, but looking at the geographical statistics of Scarf downloads continues to show interesting results and trends. Significant growth in certain regions can be attributed to a number of potential factors: increased traction of Scarf itself, increased regional traction of particular projects that use Scarf, or increase in regional popularity of open source as a whole.

Regional Open Source Usage - Q4 2023

Regional Open Source Growth - Q4 2023

Regional Open Source Growth - 2023

Open Source Usage in the Public Sector

Scarf data shows that governments around the world leverage open source for application development and day to day operations. All IP addresses are tagged with a `connection_type`, representing if the internet connection belongs to an ISP, a business, a hosting provider, an educational institution or a government organization. Analyzing the unique organizations on `government` connection types give a unique view into the public sector adoption of open source worldwide.

Public Sector Open Source Usage - 2023

Container Registries

While Scarf tracks downloads of various artifact types, the most popular kind of artifact container images. Container downloads on Scarf have surfaced the rapid rise to prominence of GitHub Container Registry, but Docker Hub remains the dominant container registry by a wide margin, still receiving twice as much volume of pulls on Scarf. 

Container Registries Usage - Q4 2023

Over the course of the year, the share of artifacts pulled through Scarf from Docker Hub has continued to increase, with its share of pulls increasing 16% between the first and last quarter of the year.

Container Registries - Q4 2023

Our Takeaways

As large organizations in both the private and public sector increase their reliance on open source, opportunities for successful commercialization of open source software also becomes increasingly achievable. We are confident that this upward trajectory will foster innovation, growth, and expansion within the open source community.

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Connecting Community Efforts in Open Source to Business Success

Connecting Community Efforts in Open Source to Business Success

The success of DevRel (Developer Relations) and community efforts in open source can be challenging to measure, as there is often a disconnect between the goals and expectations of the community and the business. This blog post discusses the challenges of measuring the success of DevRel and community efforts in open source.
3 Keys to Growing the Adoption of an Open Source Project

3 Keys to Growing the Adoption of an Open Source Project

Successful open source projects don't always translate into successful open source businesses. However, by focusing on building a kick-ass product, raising awareness, making the product easier to use, and fostering a strong open source community, you can set the stage for converting users into paying customers.
The Most Neglected and Overlooked Open Source Metric: Production Users

The Most Neglected and Overlooked Open Source Metric: Production Users

Everyone wants a larger open source user base, but very few people effectively measure its growth. Let’s discuss why.
Switching Container Registries With Zero Downtime

Switching Container Registries With Zero Downtime

You can use the open source Scarf Gateway to switch hosting providers, container registries, or repositories without impacting end users in the future.
Understanding Tech Layoffs and the Economy’s Impact on Open Source

Understanding Tech Layoffs and the Economy’s Impact on Open Source

What is driving all this tech layoffs? , What is their impact on the open source software industry? We will walk through all the potential reasons from an economic downturn, herd mentality, excessive borrowing and spending due to low interest rates, and growth at all costs as the main reasons behind the layoffs. Companies can continue to grow in this tight economic market if they are focused on optimizing efficiency and sustaining the right growth.
Why Downloads are an Essential Metric for Open Source Software Projects

Why Downloads are an Essential Metric for Open Source Software Projects

If you're only going to track one thing for your OSS project, track your downloads.
The Open Source Business Metrics Guide

The Open Source Business Metrics Guide

How to Build, Grow, and Measure the Success of an Open Source Business
Messaging and Positioning Considerations for Introducing an Open Source Product

Messaging and Positioning Considerations for Introducing an Open Source Product

At the All Things Open conference, Emily Omier, a seasoned positioning consultant, sat down with Avi Press (Founder and CEO, Scarf) and Matt Yonkovit (The HOSS, Scarf) to discuss how to message, position, and validate your open source product on The Hacking Open Source Business Podcast. You can watch the full episode below or continue reading for a recap.
How to Get the Attention of an Open Source Software Investor

How to Get the Attention of an Open Source Software Investor

On the Hacking Open Source Business podcast, Joseph Jacks aka JJ (Founder, OSS Capital) joins Avi Press (Founder and CEO, Scarf) and Matt Yonkovit (The HOSS, Scarf) to share what you need to know before starting a commercial open source software (COSS) company and how you can set yourself and your project apart in a way that attracts investor funding. As an investor who exclusively focuses on open source startups, JJ provides a VC perspective on what he looks for when evaluating investment opportunities.
Heroic Labs' Journey to Open Source and 5.3M Docker Downloads

Heroic Labs' Journey to Open Source and 5.3M Docker Downloads

On The Hacking Open Source Business podcast, CEO Chris Molozian and Head of Developer Relations Gabriel Pene at Heroic Labs elaborate on their usage and shift to open source and how it accelerated their adoption.
How to Keep Open Source Projects Open Source

How to Keep Open Source Projects Open Source

In this recap of the first episode of the Hacking Open Source Business Podcast, co-hosts Matt Yonkovit and Avi Press, Scarf Founder and CEO, dig into a recent controversy that highlights the challenges open source projects face trying to create sustainable revenue streams to support a business or a non-profit that funds the project’s growth.
How Buoyant Drives Open-Source-Led Growth with Linkerd

How Buoyant Drives Open-Source-Led Growth with Linkerd

Building a business around an open-source project is hard. Learn more about how Buoyant drives product-led growth with Linkerd.
Alex Biehl: Open Sourcing a Tool to Generate Haskell Server Stubs

Alex Biehl: Open Sourcing a Tool to Generate Haskell Server Stubs

Alex is a software engineer at Scarf who recently open sourced a tool to generate Haskell server stubs called Tie.
Tanner Linsley: Building Sustainable Open Source Projects

Tanner Linsley: Building Sustainable Open Source Projects

Tanner Linsley joined us to explain how he got started in open source and how he has made working in open source sustainable.
Stefano Maffulli: An Exploration on Standards for Open Source Packaging and Distribution

Stefano Maffulli: An Exploration on Standards for Open Source Packaging and Distribution

Scarf Sessions is a new stream where we have conversations with people shaping the landscape in open source and open source sustainability. This post will give a recap of the conversation Scarf CEO, Avi Press and I had with our guest Stefano Maffulli.
Using OSS Usage Data to Sell your Company

Using OSS Usage Data to Sell your Company

Learn how Nestybox used Scarf to gather better project insights and provide accurate data during their recent acquisition.
A Different Approach to Measuring Open Source Community Health

A Different Approach to Measuring Open Source Community Health

Community is important to the success of open source software. To understand and grow a community, project founders and maintainers need visibility into various technical, social, and even financial metrics. But what metrics should we be using?
Scarf Tech Stack: Relude

Scarf Tech Stack: Relude

This blog post will talk about Relude, a project we use in the majority of our Scarf tech stack
Python Wheels vs Eggs (And How Data-Driven Decisions Must Become The Norm in Open-Source)

Python Wheels vs Eggs (And How Data-Driven Decisions Must Become The Norm in Open-Source)

Should Python eggs be deprecated in favor of wheels? What does the data show? This post explores how the right data can make decisions like this easier for maintainers and Open Source organizations.
Changelog: Company Identification Change

Changelog: Company Identification Change

Announcing a new change to the way we identify companies.
Announcing Python Support

Announcing Python Support

Advanced registry analytics are now available for Python package maintainers
Project Spotlight: Scarf Gateway Stats

Project Spotlight: Scarf Gateway Stats

This Project Spotlight will focus on another exciting open source project, Scarf Gateway Stats.
Scarf Will Block Package Downloads from the Russian Government

Scarf Will Block Package Downloads from the Russian Government

In solidarity with Ukraine, Scarf Gateway will no longer service package downloads from Russian Government sources.
Changelog: New Pixel Snippet

Changelog: New Pixel Snippet

A notice to our Documentation Insights users.
Community Spotlight: nix-community

Community Spotlight: nix-community

This is the second post in a new series from Scarf: Spotlights where we highlight awesome projects and communities.
Changelog: Registry Validation for Auto-package Creation

Changelog: Registry Validation for Auto-package Creation

A summary of the new registry validation feature for auto-package creation.
Three Ways to Build Better Products Through Analytics

Three Ways to Build Better Products Through Analytics

A special guest post from open-source analytics company PostHog
New Year, New Scarf Features

New Year, New Scarf Features

Today, we're launching some of the most frequently asked for features since we launched Scarf Gateway back in March.
The Scarf Tech Stack

The Scarf Tech Stack

How Scarf is built
OSS Project Spotlight: IHP

OSS Project Spotlight: IHP

In a new blog post series, we'll highlight great OSS projects that are using Scarf. Today, we are featuring IHP, a modern batteries-included Haskell web framework
Measuring Downloads of Anything You Distribute

Measuring Downloads of Anything You Distribute

Scarf's core registry infrastructure has leveled up to support any kind of direct file download
Announcing Nomia and the Scarf Environment Manager

Announcing Nomia and the Scarf Environment Manager

Our mission here at Scarf centers around enhancing the connections between open source software maintainers and end users. Learn how Scarf + Nomia can reduce the complexity and increase the efficiency of the end-user open source integration experience.
Announcing The Scarf Gateway

Announcing The Scarf Gateway

Understand how your containers are downloaded and decouple your project from your registry
The Open Source Business Metrics Guide 2024
November 21, 2024

The Open Source Business Metrics Guide 2024

Today, the most commonly accepted metrics for open source adoption and growth are heavily focused on the contributors and community (the idea is healthy contributions should equate to healthy adoption). While these are useful metrics, they are only part of the picture. This guide is built for those at open-source-based companies who are responsible for growth and adoption. 
Sara Dornsife
Sara Dornsife
Bringing Open Source Usage Data Directly to Your CRM: Scarf's New Salesforce Integration
November 12, 2024

Bringing Open Source Usage Data Directly to Your CRM: Scarf's New Salesforce Integration

We’ve got some exciting news: Scarf just launched a powerful, native integration with Salesforce, bringing Scarf’s rich open source usage data directly into your CRM. No more bouncing between tools or setting up S3 data exports—you can now get all the insights you need where you already do your work.
Sara Dornsife
Sara Dornsife
ARMO leverages Scarf to find high intent signals: Download + Pricing page = INTENT
October 31, 2024

ARMO leverages Scarf to find high intent signals: Download + Pricing page = INTENT

Scarf, a platform designed to provide open-source projects with deeper insights into their users and usage patterns, was the answer ARMO needed. By integrating Scarf into Kubescape, ARMO was able to regain visibility into which company has been using Kubescape, filling the gap left after their CNCF contribution.
Sara Dornsife
Sara Dornsife

State of Open Source Usage: The Scarf Report 2023

Last year we published our first aggregated report on open source usage data on Scarf and since then we’ve been pleased to see Scarf data cited by others, whether discussing open source or advocating for it. This latest edition of The Scarf Report covers the quarterly numbers for Q4 2023, as well as 2023 in its entirety.

Overall Open Source Usage in Q4 and 2023

Overall Open Source Software Usage - 2023

Q4 2023 saw a 176 million increase in OSS downloads compared to Q3 2023, a 40% increase. This was paired with an increase of 800,000 unique origins, (Scarf’s closest approximation of a unique downloader of software) compared to the previous quarter.

Over the course of 2023, Scarf tracked a total of 1.6 billion OSS downloads from 15.4 million unique origins. Monthly uniques roughly doubled from the start to end of the year.

Open Source Software Usage across Fortune 500 Companies

Enterprise Open Source Usage - Q4 2023

In the last quarter of 2023, top Fortune 500 companies heavily involved in open-source software included Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Cisco. In Q4 alone, we identified 470 organizations engaging with OSS through Scarf.

Enterprise Open Source Usage - 2023

A few companies that consistently ranked in the Top 10 for OSS usage throughout the year, we observed:

  • Apple
  • Cisco
  • Oracle
  • Microsoft
  • Disney
  • IBM

With 94% of the Fortune 500 seen interacting with open source software tracked with Scarf in Q4 2023, data from Scarf serves as compelling and concrete evidence that open source is critical to enterprises globally. This is also further evidence that Scarf and approaches like it can uncover commercial open source usage that would otherwise go unreported. 

Regional Usage of Open Source Software

Open source usage is global, but looking at the geographical statistics of Scarf downloads continues to show interesting results and trends. Significant growth in certain regions can be attributed to a number of potential factors: increased traction of Scarf itself, increased regional traction of particular projects that use Scarf, or increase in regional popularity of open source as a whole.

Regional Open Source Usage - Q4 2023

Regional Open Source Growth - Q4 2023

Regional Open Source Growth - 2023

Open Source Usage in the Public Sector

Scarf data shows that governments around the world leverage open source for application development and day to day operations. All IP addresses are tagged with a `connection_type`, representing if the internet connection belongs to an ISP, a business, a hosting provider, an educational institution or a government organization. Analyzing the unique organizations on `government` connection types give a unique view into the public sector adoption of open source worldwide.

Public Sector Open Source Usage - 2023

Container Registries

While Scarf tracks downloads of various artifact types, the most popular kind of artifact container images. Container downloads on Scarf have surfaced the rapid rise to prominence of GitHub Container Registry, but Docker Hub remains the dominant container registry by a wide margin, still receiving twice as much volume of pulls on Scarf. 

Container Registries Usage - Q4 2023

Over the course of the year, the share of artifacts pulled through Scarf from Docker Hub has continued to increase, with its share of pulls increasing 16% between the first and last quarter of the year.

Container Registries - Q4 2023

Our Takeaways

As large organizations in both the private and public sector increase their reliance on open source, opportunities for successful commercialization of open source software also becomes increasingly achievable. We are confident that this upward trajectory will foster innovation, growth, and expansion within the open source community.