Red Bean Software

What Red Bean Software does

Red Bean Software is a collectively-owned Internet server and free-software community, hosted in Chicago, Illinois, administered by a group of approximately 40 socially interconnected friends and colleagues around the world under a charter that explicitly states "Red Bean is not a real company." It was created in the mid-1990s as a permanent internet domain — never tied to any institution or product — to give its members a stable email, web, mailing-list, and software-repository presence. Server operations, including the recent migration from a physical host to a virtual machine for faster security patching, are provided via a hosting partnership with onShore.

Its "products" are free-software projects and reference works maintained and distributed via Subversion (SVN) and CVS repositories, including Label Nation (label printing), cvs2cl.pl (CVS changelog generator), OneTime (one-time-pad encryption packaged in Debian), mpt-status (Linux RAID status), ALE (a GNU Emacs-based genetic sequence alignment editor), BKGo (Java-based Go-over-the-internet), HenrysRecords.org (classical music catalog), Bikeshed.com code, and canonical open-source books such as The Subversion Book, Open Source Development With CVS, and Producing Open Source Software. It also stewards the official SGF (Smart Game Format) FF[4] specification, a text-based tree format for board-game records.

The business model is non-commercial: Red Bean explicitly states it does not sell software, has no pricing, and enforces a Prime Directive prohibiting anything that would attach commercial value to the "Red Bean" name (with successful content expected to be migrated to its own domain). GTM is community-led and word-of-mouth only; distribution is entirely via free repository checkout. There are no identified customer logos, paid customer segments, or revenue streams — the entity operates as a stable, consensus-governed, collectively-hosted platform rather than a commercial software business.

Name

Red Bean Software

Legal name

Red Bean Software

Website

https://red-bean.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1995

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Red Bean Software is a collectively-owned Internet server and free-software community of about 40 members, hosted in Chicago, that distributes open-source tools, books, and the SGF file-format specification via SVN repositories on a strictly non-commercial basis.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Open Source Software Development Tools

NAICS

Software Publishers (513210)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Platform Engineering & Internal Developer Platforms (IDP) (BPAEAKAC)

akta.pro secondary industry

Release Engineering & Environment Management (BPAEAKAH)

Keywords

• Version control systems
• Open source software
• Software development tools
• File format specifications
• Free software distribution

Headquarters

HQ city

Chicago

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Infrastructure, Personnel

Revenue model

1. No Revenue Generation: Red Bean Software explicitly states they do not sell software. All products are free software. The organization is a community collective that does not operate as a commercial entity.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels1 record

Core offering

Red Bean Software is a collectively-owned internet operation that develops and distributes free, open-source software via SVN and CVS repositories. Its offerings include developer utilities (label generation, change-log generation, status reporting, encryption), reference books on open-source development and version control, and file format specifications such as the SGF standard. All outputs are released under permissive licenses (e.g., Apache License 2.0) and made freely available to the developer community.

Product overview

Red Bean Software is not a conventional company but a collectively-owned Internet server and free software community. Their offerings include: free software packages (Label Nation, cvs2cl.pl, OneTime, mpt-status, ALE, BKGo), technical books (The Subversion Book, Producing Open Source Software, Open Source Development With CVS), the SGF file format specification for board game records, and hosting services for their community of about 40 members. All software is released as free software.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Label Nation: Label-printing software (address labels, etc.)
• cvs2cl.pl
• The Subversion Book
• Open Source Development With CVS
• Producing Open Source Software
• mpt-status
• OneTime
• ALE
• HenrysRecords.org
• Bikeshed.com
• BKGo
• SGF (Smart Game Format)

Products and services

• Label Nation Label Nation is a free, open-source tool for generating labels (e.g., CD/DVD, mailing, or media labels) distributed by Red Bean Software. It is aimed at developers and general users who need a flexible label-printing utility without commercial licensing.
• cvs2cl.pl cvs2cl.pl is a Perl script that converts CVS version control log output into a readable GNU-style change log. It is intended for open-source maintainers and developers using CVS who need an automated, formatted change-log generation utility.
• The Subversion Book Version Control with Subversion, commonly known as "The Subversion Book," is a free, authoritative reference book on the Subversion (SVN) version control system hosted and distributed by Red Bean Software for developers and teams adopting Subversion.
• Open Source Development with CVS Open Source Development with CVS is a free technical book hosted by Red Bean Software that documents how to use CVS for open-source software development. It targets developers and project maintainers running or contributing to CVS-based projects.
• Producing Open Source Software Producing Open Source Software is a free book on open-source project governance, community building, and release management, hosted and distributed by Red Bean Software. It targets current and aspiring open-source maintainers seeking guidance on running a healthy project.
• mpt-status mpt-status is a free, open-source status reporting tool distributed by Red Bean Software. It is aimed at developers and operators who need a lightweight utility for reporting service or process status.
• OneTime OneTime is a free, open-source encryption tool offered by Red Bean Software. It is intended for developers and privacy-conscious users who need a simple, permissively licensed encryption utility.
• ALE ALE is a free, open-source software project distributed by Red Bean Software. It is available through the collective's SVN/CVS repositories for developers and users in the open-source community.
• BKGo BKGo is a free, open-source software project distributed by Red Bean Software. It is available via the collective's SVN/CVS repositories for developers and open-source users.
• SGF File Format Specification The SGF (Smart Game Format) File Format Specification is a free, open standard maintained and documented by Red Bean Software. It defines a portable file format used for storing Go game records and is intended for developers of Go-playing software and tools.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• onShoreminorOthersonShore is mentioned as the hosting provider for Red Bean Software. They provide the server infrastructure that hosts red-bean.com and associated services.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• GitLab: Commercial DevOps platform offering hosted Git repositories, CI/CD, and collaboration tools. Overlaps with Red Bean's developer-tooling hosting role but as a much broader commercial product suite.
• GitHub: Dominant commercial code hosting and collaboration platform. Provides the same core function as Red Bean (hosting free software repositories) at vastly greater scale, but with a commercial model and proprietary platform layer.
• SourceForge: Long-standing open source code hosting and distribution platform. Overlaps with Red Bean's SVN/CVS repository hosting function but operates as a commercial entity serving a much broader audience of developers.

Emerging players

• Codeberg: Non-profit, community-run Git hosting platform built on Gitea. Similar ethos to Red Bean in providing free, non-commercial hosting for open source projects, but using modern Git tooling rather than legacy SVN/CVS.

Direct peers

• Apache Software Foundation: Foundation that provides legal, financial, and infrastructure support for open source projects. Comparable to Red Bean as a non-commercial umbrella enabling community-driven software development and stewardship of standards (e.g., Apache License).
• Savannah (GNU): Free software project hosting platform run by the FSF, offering CVS/SVN/Git repositories, mailing lists, and bug tracking. Closest functional analog to Red Bean's SVN/CVS hosting and mailing list services for community-driven projects.
• Software Freedom Conservancy: Non-profit volunteer-supported organization that provides fiscal, legal, and infrastructure support to free/open source software projects. Shares Red Bean's non-commercial, collectively-run model of sustaining FOSS projects without direct product monetization.
• Free Software Foundation (FSF) / GNU Project: Foundational organization promoting and hosting free software, including GNU packages. Red Bean mirrors the FSF's commitment to free software distribution and standards (e.g., SGF alongside GNU coding standards) and its rejection of commercial software licensing.

Others

• Python Software Foundation: Non-profit foundation that holds IP and supports the Python open source community. Related to Red Bean in being a community-funded non-commercial entity supporting open source stewardship, though at significantly larger scale and scope.
• Open Source Initiative (OSI): Advocacy and standards body that maintains the Open Source Definition and approves licenses. Comparable to Red Bean in their shared role stewarding open standards and norms in the FOSS ecosystem, though OSI focuses on licensing rather than code hosting.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Red Bean Software