There’s no such thing as a Free Launch

Rocket, Datastar’s answer to web components, is now freely available to everyone. Free as in MIT-licensed open source!!

But I thought it was a pro feature... #

Rocket was previously part of Datastar Pro. It is, arguably, more complex than Datastar itself. Making it a Pro feature was the right business decision.

However, as people tend to forget, Datastar is not backed by a profit-driven business. Star Federation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a clearly stated mission to support web developers:

“The purpose of Star Federation is to provide free and open-source tools and resources that enhance web developers’ productivity and promote collaboration. We facilitate knowledge transfer and support community building by encouraging cross-pollination of ideas across a diverse range of backend technologies.”

Why the sudden change of heart? #

We’ve long said that you should encapsulate complex frontend logic in web components, and drive them with Datastar. But we’ve never really explained how.

Web components are, after all, a web standard. Why should we explain how to use web standards? You all do read the MDN docs, right? RIGHT?!

We’ve been using Rocket internally for production-grade business applications since the alpha, as have Datastar Pro users. And it’s become an invaluable tool. So much so that it felt wrong to withhold it from the greater Datastar community, and the web development community at large.

Hitting the launch button #

Building and refining Rocket has been a ton of work. And maintaining it will be, too. But we believe the benefit it provides should belong to everyone.

There’s plenty of value in Datastar Pro without Rocket so, after some short deliberation, we decided to release Rocket as a free open source bundle. It was honestly one of the easiest and quickest decisions we’ve ever made.

Help us help you #

We probably don’t do this enough, so let me take the opportunity to remind you how you can support Star Federation, and everything we do.

• Buy a lifetime Datastar Pro license.
• Buy a t-shirt, cap, or mug in the shop.
• Sponsor us for any amount via GitHub Sponsors.
• Make a tax-deductible donation to the 501(c)(3) by emailing us.

Watch the announcement podcast, and the overview of Datastar Core → Datastar → Rocket below.

– Ben