In a recently released report, the Linux Foundation polled over 500 IT leaders and discovered that businesses working with open source software saw an ROI of up to 5x, whereas passive consumers were facing substantial hidden costs up to $3.5 million.

According to the report, "Findings show that organizations spend hundreds of thousands of dollars maintaining private forks or developing internal workarounds, while those who choose to contribute upstream experience faster responses to security issues, increased development speeds, and easier talent retention." It continues, "Reported benefit-to-cost ratios from OSS [open source software] contributions are 2-5x on average, and the model estimates that contributing organizations yield a 6x ROI from their investments."

The most important points in the report include organizations see a 2-5x ROI on investments, including code contribution, community contribution, and financial contribution; two-thirds of the respondents indicated a greater ROI after contributing to open source projects; between 2018 and 2025, the top open source contributors saw just over $23 billion from just under a $4 billion investment; and organizations that join one or more foundations see an even greater ROI.

The report concluded that when organizations contribute to open source, it lowers costs and drives value. Conversely, not contributing to open source projects tends to incur costs.