In a garage in Barcelona, the developers at Jamgo decided in 2015 that everyone would be paid the same, regardless of their position. In Buenos Aires, the gcoop cooperative has spent 17 years proving that open-source software and collective ownership are compatible with high-tech complexity projects. And in London, the CoTech network brings together dozens of digital cooperatives that share resources and clients under democratic principles.
The model is gaining global traction. Patio, an international network, already connects more than 1,500 tech cooperators from 80 cooperatives across 24 countries. Their proposal challenges Silicon Valley dogma: instead of seeking venture capital investment and quick exit strategies, these organizations prioritize long-term sustainability and democratic control.
A Response That Goes Beyond Salary
What drives programmers who could earn more at Google or Meta to choose this path? The answer goes beyond salary. It is the possibility of voting on which projects to accept, of not having a boss tell you how to manage your time, and of working with open technologies that return knowledge to the community. Ultimately, it is about owning the value they generate with their work.
The figures are modest but revealing: these cooperatives operate with profit margins between 15% and 30% lower than traditional companies, allowing them to compete on price without sacrificing quality. The secret lies in eliminating layers of management and dividends for external shareholders. At Up & Go, a cooperative platform for domestic services, the commission is 5% compared to the 30% charged by its corporate equivalents.
The challenge is cultural. In the United States, where startup culture dominates, tech cooperatives are scarce. Regulation traditionally favors companies with investor capital, and few developers even know that alternatives exist. But in Argentina and the United Kingdom, where the FACTTIC and CoTech federations have created mutual support ecosystems, the model is flourishing.
2025 has been declared by the UN as the International Year of Cooperatives, a boost for the movement just as the tech sector is going through a crisis of trust. While tech giants accumulate power and precarious freelance work increases, these cooperatives demonstrate that another technology is possible: one where algorithms do not decide who works, where transparency is the norm, and where success is measured in collective well-being, not in unicorn valuations.
They are not a universal solution, but they are a real alternative for the 73 million tech freelancers in the United States alone. One that restores dignity and control to those who truly build the digital future: the workers.
