Sponsor Drawbridge
Drawbridge is free and will stay free: no ads, no accounts, no tracking, no paid tier. It is built by one person, and the building is unpaid by choice. One thing cannot be done for free: being trusted by your operating system.
Today every macOS download says “Drawbridge is damaged” and every Windows download says “Windows protected your PC”. Nothing is wrong with the app. The builds are unsigned, because signing is a purchase, not a line of code. Sponsors make that purchase, and in return they get a public spot here, on the download page and in the app.
What the money buys
Every cent goes to certificates, store accounts and test hardware. The work — the notarized release pipeline, the Mac App Store sandbox build, the Microsoft Store package, the signed Linux repository, the iPad and Android apps — is done pro bono and is not in this budget.
| Item | Year one | Each year after |
|---|---|---|
| Apple Developer Program — notarized macOS builds (no Gatekeeper dialog), the Mac App Store and the iPad App Store, one membership | $99 | $99 |
| Windows code signing certificate for the installer and the portable build, plus cloud signing or a hardware token | $250–400 | $150–250 |
| Microsoft Store listing — the Store signs the package itself | $0 | $0 |
| Google Play developer account | $25, once | $0 |
| Linux — signed apt repository, verified Flathub listing, signed AppImage | $0 | $0 |
| Test devices — one iPad, one Android tablet | about $600, once | $0 |
| Total | about $1,600 | $250–350 |
$2,000 covers the first year with a buffer for a certificate re-issue. $5,000 settles everything for three years.
Sponsor tiers and the public spot
A sponsorship is a one-off amount, not a subscription. The spot it buys stays for the time listed, and the sponsors of the signed builds are named in the release notes of the release that ships them.
| Tier | Amount | Public spot | For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supporter | any amount | Your name on this page. | one year |
| Sponsor | $500 | Your name and a link on this page, and a thank-you in the release notes. | one year |
| Platform sponsor | $2,000 | Your logo and link on this page and on the download page, your name in the app's About window, a thank-you in the release notes and a public thank-you post. | one year |
| Founding sponsor | $5,000 | Everything above, listed first, plus your logo on the front page — for three years, matching what the amount pays for. | three years |
A logo links to your site with a plain link: no tracking parameters, no pixels, no scripts. The privacy promise holds for sponsors exactly as it holds for everyone else.
Current sponsors
The founding sponsor spot is open. Nobody has taken it yet.
How to sponsor
- By card: any amount through Ko-fi. Put the name or company you want listed in the message.
- By invoice: send a note through the feedback form starting with the word “Sponsor”, leave a way to reach you, and you get an invoice back. Companies usually prefer this.
What sponsoring does not buy
- A say over the roadmap. Features are decided the same way they always were.
- Tracking, analytics or any data about the people who use the app.
- A paid tier. Nothing that sponsors fund is ever held back from anyone.
- A place in the drawing. Logos live on the website and in the About window, never in a diagram or an export.
If a sponsorship cannot be used for what this page says — a store rejects the app, a certificate is refused — it is returned.
Progress
Updated as each purchase is made and each platform goes live. Nothing is funded yet.
| Platform | Status |
|---|---|
| macOS — notarized builds, no Gatekeeper dialog | not yet funded |
| Windows — signed installer | not yet funded |
| Microsoft Store | waiting on the Windows certificate |
| Mac App Store | waiting on the Apple membership |
| Linux — signed apt repository and Flathub | no purchase needed, in the queue |
| iPad and Android | waiting on the test devices |
Smaller amounts are just as welcome on the donate page. Feedback counts too: a sharp bug report is worth as much as a coffee.