How to Sell a GitHub Repo, Starter Kit, or Code Boilerplate
Developers have been building and selling code templates for years, but the tooling has always felt awkward: either use a platform built for digital creators (Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy) that treats code like a PDF, or build custom checkout infrastructure just to sell a zip file.
unseal.link works for code because code is just a URL. A GitHub release download, a Google Drive zip, a Dropbox folder: paste the link, set a price, done.
Getting a Downloadable Link for Your Code
The cleanest approach for most projects: create a GitHub release. Tag your version, go to Releases in your repo, upload your project as a .zip asset, and copy the direct download URL. For a public repo it looks like https://github.com/yourusername/yourrepo/releases/download/v1.0.0/yourrepo.zip.
For private repos, GitHub release assets require authentication; use Google Drive instead. Export your project as a zip, upload to Drive, set sharing to "Anyone with the link can download," and copy that URL. Either way, paste it into unseal.link and you have a paywall in under 60 seconds.
The README Badge Trick
Add a buy badge directly to your GitHub README; this is underused and genuinely effective:
[](https://unseal.link/l/your-repo-id)
This renders as a clickable green button visible to every developer who lands on your repo. If your repo has any stars or organic traffic, that's a passive sales channel with zero ongoing effort.
What Developers Actually Pay For
The market for code templates is real but specific. What consistently sells: full-stack SaaS boilerplates with auth and payments already wired up, AI app starters with streaming and tool use configured, mobile app templates with navigation and state management set up, and Chrome extension scaffolds. What doesn't move: incomplete projects, anything with a well-maintained free equivalent, and undocumented code.
Buyers aren't paying for code; they're paying to skip 20-40 hours of setup work they've done before and don't want to do again. The pricing reflects that. Marc Lou's ShipFast sells at $199. Divjoy charges $149. If your boilerplate is production-ready with good docs, $99-$199 is not overpriced.
The Open Core Model
The highest-converting approach for developer products: free tier on GitHub (public repo, core functionality), paid tier behind unseal.link (full production version with all integrations, support, updates). The free version builds stars and credibility. The paid version monetizes the people who need it production-ready.
Even a simple split (free minimal version, paid version with auth + payments + email already configured) creates a clear upgrade path. Developers who find your free version and want to skip the integration work are your buyers.
Handling Updates
When you ship a significant update, generate a new GitHub release, update your unseal.link with the new download URL, and email your buyers. Your unseal.link dashboard has your full buyer list with emails. Most code sellers underestimate how much buyers appreciate update notifications; it's one of the main reasons they recommend your product to others.
FAQs
How do I handle license enforcement?
Include a LICENSE file. Standard options: personal license (one developer, one project), team license (one company, unlimited devs), or source-available with restrictions. You can't technically prevent sharing, but clear licensing plus fair pricing handles 95%+ of cases. Price the team license at 3-5× the individual price and some buyers will self-select into it.
Should I have a free version and paid version?
Yes, if your project is substantial enough to split. The open core model (free core + paid production version) consistently outperforms pure paid products for developer tools because the free version does your marketing for you via GitHub stars and organic search.
What about buyers who want a refund?
Your dashboard has full refund control. Since code is digital and was delivered, you're not obligated, but a no-questions refund window (say, 7 days if they can't get it working) builds trust and the occasional refund costs less than the reputation damage of being known as difficult.
Can I sell a private GitHub repo directly?
Private repo release assets require GitHub authentication to download, which breaks the unseal.link flow. Use Google Drive for private code delivery; it works more reliably for this use case anyway.