What should be the motivation behind making free-to-use products such as frameworks?

I would start by thinking of some philanthropical reason behint it but I guess for each dreamer there is a personal view of how they can help the community somehow.

There can be several motivations behind making free-to-use products such as frameworks, including: 1. Giving back to the community: Many developers and companies believe in contributing to the development community by releasing their work as open-source software. 2. Building a user base: By making a product available for free, the creators can attract a large user base and gain valuable feedback that can be used to improve the product. 3. Creating a standard: When a product is released as open source, the people who made it can make it a standard in the industry. This makes it more likely that other companies and developers will use it. 4. Generating revenue through other means: While the product itself may be free, the creators may generate revenue through other means, such as consulting, training, or support services. 5. Creating a more significant market: Making a product free allows creators to reach a wider audience, and by doing that, they may have a bigger market for their paid services and products. 6. Building reputation and brand awareness: Creating a popular open-source product can help boost the creators' and their companies' reputation and brand awareness.

Gauge interest and feedback! plus you can see how your work helps others who need it the most :) i made a free AI-spreadsheet tool and it's really helped out students in school with their data understanding!

I've always seen that you always get more, even if you give a little! Sharing knowledge and experiences as free frameworks will only prove this right always. You don't know who is going to benefit from it and how you're going to be changing lives.

Making a product free empower Makers to reach a more audience, and by doing that, they may have a bigger TAM This requires bigger community building activities, long term win , look at what Mongodb or Altrics or atlassian has done , they have still made money at a longer run. Now Posthog is trying the same