In my opinion this is a very interesting, good, but possibly misworded, question. I would like it if you rephrased the headline alone and asked it again because I am interested in the answer. If you phrased it as "What are some options to maintain a bug bounty program for a small company on a budget?" or something along those lines and include all of the introduction and explanation that you provided earlier, then I would be surprised to see it closed, because it is an interesting question.

The problem, as mentioned in the comments is that you will never get a definitive answer for this question, and rephrasing it so as not to encourage a definitive answer prevents answerers from having to begin with "Well I know that this is perhaps not the best possible answer but one solution might be..."

Perhaps you're original question could have been easily edited to fit Security SE's guidelines, but that's not a big deal. I hope you re-ask the question in a way that encourages suggestions rather than definitive answers because it is a tangible, real-world question worth asking.

In my opinion this is a very interesting, good, but possibly misworded, question.

The problem, as mentioned in the comments is that you will never get a definitive answer for this question, and rephrasing it so as not to encourage a definitive answer prevents answerers from having to begin with "I know that this is perhaps not the best possible answer but one solution might be..."

I think the original question could be edited to fit Security SE's guidelines by rephrasing it to something along the lines of 'What are some options for a small company on a budget to maintain a bug bounty program?'.