Forking is how software gets better on DuckSubs. You find a tool on the Open Shelf, clone it into your own dashboard, improve it, and sell your version. The developer you forked from earns a cut of every sale you make. Everyone wins.
This page explains exactly how it works — the money, the rules, the chain mechanics, and the edge cases.
Find a tool on the Open Shelf
Every product on the Open Shelf is forkable. You'll see a “Fork it” link on each card and a “Fork this tool” button on the product page.
Click “Fork This Tool”
You need a DuckSubs account (sign in with GitHub). Clicking fork creates a draft copy of the product in your dashboard — name, description, price, everything. It's yours to modify.
Improve it
Change the name, rewrite the description, set your own price, upload new screenshots. Most importantly: make the software better. Add features, fix bugs, redesign the UI — whatever you want.
Write your attestation
Before you can publish, you must describe what you changed. This is your improvement note — it's displayed publicly on your product page so buyers can see exactly what's different from the original. Minimum 20 characters.
Publish and sell
List your fork on the Open Shelf. Set whatever price you want ($1–$500). Every time someone buys your fork, the money splits automatically.
DuckSubs always takes 10%. On a direct sale (no fork), the developer keeps 90%. On a fork sale, the developer who forked keeps 70%, the developer they forked from gets 20%, and DuckSubs gets 10%.
Direct sale (no fork)
Fork sale
Forks can be forked. There's no depth limit. The 20% royalty always goes one level up — to the developer you directly forked from, not the original creator.
Every product page shows its full lineage — who created the original, who forked what, all the way down. Buyers can see the entire history.
You can fork your own product. This is the upgrade mechanism on DuckSubs. When you self-fork, the 20% royalty pays yourself — so it's effectively 90/10, same as a direct sale.
Self-forks show up as “Create Update” in the UI instead of “Fork.” When you publish a self-fork, you choose what happens:
Publish as a new listing
The update appears as a separate product on the shelf with its own price. The original stays listed. Buyers of the original don't automatically get the update — this is buy-once software, not a subscription. Use this for major version jumps where both versions should coexist.
Replace the original
Push your changes into the original listing. The old version is archived (you can restore it later), and buyers see the updated product. Use this for bug fixes, small improvements, or when you don't want two versions floating around.
You get notified. Your dashboard shows who forked what and when. You can see their fork, read their improvement note, and even fork it back if they added something good. This creates a natural back-and-forth between builders.
Your original product also displays a fork counter — “12 forks of this product” — as social proof that developers think your work is worth building on.
Three things:
1. Attestation is required
You must describe what you changed before publishing. This improvement note is displayed publicly. “I changed nothing” is a hard sell.
2. The market decides
If your fork is identical to the original, nobody will buy it. The original has more reviews, more trust, and a track record. Lazy forks die on the shelf.
3. Full lineage is visible
Every product page shows the complete fork chain. Buyers can see exactly where this product came from and judge for themselves whether the improvements justify a separate listing.
No forks. The Closed Shelf is for developers who want to sell their software without anyone cloning it. You keep 90%, nobody can fork your work, and that's that. If you want the fork ecosystem, publish to the Open Shelf.
Right now, forking is free. You click the button, get a copy, and start building. You only pay DuckSubs when you make a sale.
In the future, some developers may be able to require a purchase before forking — if you want to fork a $100 tool, you buy it first. But that's not how it works today.
Browse the Open Shelf, find a tool worth improving, and make it yours.
