2023/10/03
That out of ~51672 extensions on the VSCode marketplace, there are only 31 that are marked as commercial software: “Trial” rather than “Free”.
The paying for use of an extension is usually predicated on using a remote API (i.e. remote LLM services) using a paid API key or a subscription associated with an OIDC identity (e.g. a GitHub user account). Most common yet is no monetization scheme, which is understandable – setting up payments isn’t trivial. However, occasionally monetization schemes occasionally appear:
| extension | publisher | license | payment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Database Client | Weijan Chen | MIT | On site, with API call for subscription check |
| DuckDB Sql Tools | Random Fractals Inc. | commercial | GitHub sponsors (probably not checked) |
| Data Sync | Nguyen Ngoc Long | MIT | various sponsors (probably not checked) |
| DVT IDE | AMIQ EDA s.r.l. | commercial | On-site license purchase |
| Local CI | Local CI | GPL-2 | subscription on website; issues license keys |