Inside PaygOps Community Edition: What’s included in our open-source edition and why it matters

PaygOps
21 hours ago
5 min read

The announcement of PaygOps Community Edition — the free, open‑source and self-hosted version of Masunga's PaygOps platform — sparked strong interest from essential services distributors, microlenders and developers, to organisations thinking ahead about growth and long-term sustainability.

As we begin onboarding the first Early Access testers and discussing potential partnerships, these key points have already become clear:

➡️ Community Edition is far more than a “light” or demo version; it’s a powerful, production-ready platform for organisations that want control, flexibility, and ownership.

➡️ Open source is not only about affordability or flexibility, but also about readiness to scale.

These organisations welcomed the move toward open source, but also asked an important question: How does the Community Edition compare to PaygOps commercial plans?

Alongside questions about features and use cases, several organisations also asked how an open-source, mission-critical platform like this is sustained over time. This piece aims to clarify:

What’s included in the open-source Community Edition, and how it differs from our paid plans (Premium + Microservices)
And why access to a robust, standardised platform can play a critical role in operational maturity and investment readiness

The Philosophy: Open Core, Not Open Lite

Community Edition follows an open-core model, providing open, self-hosted access to the core operational backbone of PaygOps. The goal is not to offer a “lite” version, but to make strong operational foundations available to more organisations, regardless of size or funding stage.

In practice, this means organisations can:

Run real operations end-to-end
Self hosting: Own and control their data
Adapt workflows to local realities
Build on a platform that reflects sector best practices

Based on current usage patterns, more than 80% of day-to-day PaygOps feature usage is covered by Community Edition, making it fully viable for many distributors and service providers.

Community Edition is designed to be self-sufficient, not dependent on upgrades to be usable.

A New Perspective: Why Strong Systems Matter for Growth and Investment

Beyond daily operations, there’s another reason why Community Edition matters, particularly for smaller or growing organisations. As companies scale, access to capital often becomes a critical bottleneck. Yet many promising distributors struggle to attract investment, not because of weak market potential, but because of operational risk.

From an external perspective:

❗️ Spreadsheet-based systems are hard to audit

❗️ Bespoke in-house tools are difficult to assess

❗️ Inconsistent data structures increase due diligence costs

❗️ Limited visibility into operations reduces investor confidence

By contrast, operating on a standardised, well-documented platform signals a different level of readiness. Community Edition helps organisations:

✅ Move away from fragmented tools and spreadsheets

✅ Adopt consistent data models and operational processes

✅ Generate structured, traceable operational data

✅ Demonstrate the ability to absorb and manage growth

Community Edition offers more than a cost-saving measure or lowering barriers to entry; it helps organisations put strong foundations in place early, becoming a shared infrastructure that lowers friction for future scaling and investment.

What PaygOps Community Edition Includes

Community Edition covers the core building blocks needed to manage PAYGO, asset-finance and lending operations, including:

→ Lead and client management, including custom Offers and KYC Forms

→ Cash (lump sum), Credit, Subscription, Usage and Offtaking Contracts

→ Payments tracking, reconciliation, and adjustments

→ Inventory and Asset Management

→ Organisational hierarchies, Configuration tools and API Access

Together, these features support end-to-end operations and provide a consistent data model that can grow with the organisation.

What’s Reserved for commercial edition

While Community Edition is self-sufficient, certain capabilities remain part of our commercial plans, including:

Advanced Automations and Workflows (including User Journey Editor)
Mobile Field Applications and Custom App Designer
Advanced Analytics and Dashboards
Advanced PAYGO device integrations
Advanced Security features (SSO, audit logs)
Managed Cloud Hosting and dedicated Support

These features are designed for organisations operating at a larger scale or with more complex technical and operational requirements.

Main Features (Microservices)	Community Edition	PaygOps Premium
Leads Customisable KYC and prospects management	Basic Lead Management: Manage Leads and Lead Generators Custom KYC Forms Sales Dashboard	Basic Management, plus advanced features: Custom User Journeys Automations Custom Mobile App Designer
One-Off Payments (Clients) CRM for cash contracts and payments	Included ✅
Credit & Subscription Payments (Client) CRM for Loan and Usage Based contracts and payments	Included ✅
Ticketing Manage issues, interactions and monitor after-sales performance	Not Included	Included ✅
Inventory Monitor your stock and movements at all times	Included ✅
PaygOps Mobile Apps Agent Mobile App with offline and customisation capabilities	Not Included	Customisable Agent App Offline Agent App (at an extra fee)
Other Features
Account Management & Settings Accounting tools, users’ permissions and hierarchy management, client groups and bulk SMS campaigns	Included ✅
API Access Connect with third-party tools and extend PaygOps’ capabilities	Included ✅
Offtaking Contracts Manage offtaking agreements to accept produce as repayment	Included ✅
Analytics Get access to relevant data or design your own dashboards	Access to CSV Files	Analytical Database and CSV Files Design, edit and display Custom Dashboards (at an extra fee)
Security Advanced security features and fraud prevention	Advanced Security Settings (session timeout, 2FA)	Advanced Security SSO Login Audit Logs
Device Integrations Token generation and automatic SMS for client activation upon PAYG payment	Only basic OpenPAYGO Token Integration	Included ✅
Task System Create, assign and track tasks effortlessly	Not Included	Included ✅
Hosting and Support Scalable cloud Hosting and dedicated support with assigned account manager	Not Included	Included ✅

Early Access Insights: Why Teams Are Joining

As Early Access progresses, feedback from initial testers is helping validate key assumptions around usability, completeness, and real-world deployment. Several participants joined specifically to:

Test whether Community Edition can fully replace existing tools
Evaluate how well it supports their growth plans
Contribute feedback that shapes the long-term open-source roadmap

These insights will inform documentation, onboarding, and future development ahead of the public release.

Sustaining an Open, Production-Ready Platform

PaygOps Community Edition’s long-term value depends on ongoing maintenance work that is often invisible but essential: keeping the platform secure, reliable, and well-documented. To support this, we are introducing a Sponsorship Programme.

This sponsorship offers a structured way for adopters and ecosystem enablers to help fund long-term maintenance, while benefiting from some advantages. Sponsors contribute to align development priorities with real operational needs. In this context, sponsorship can also be seen as a way for organisations to invest back into shared infrastructure they depend on, reducing long-term risk by gaining greater visibility into the roadmap, clearer communication, and confidence that the platform remains stable and sustainable and actively stewarded over time.