Open source software
worth switching to.
A curated directory of free, open and self-hostable tools - each one a credible replacement for the proprietary app you're paying for.
Ollama
Run open LLMs locally with a simple CLI, REST API, and model library
Dify
Open-source LLM app development platform for workflows, RAG pipelines, and agent apps
Open WebUI
Self-hosted AI platform for running local and API-backed models offline
Firecrawl
API that scrapes live sites into clean Markdown for AI agents
Excalidraw
Open source virtual whiteboard for hand-drawn style diagrams, wireframes, and collaborative sketches
RustDesk
Open-source remote desktop app with self-hosted server options and cross-platform clients
Godot Engine
Free, open source 2D and 3D game engine with one-click exports to desktop, mobile, web, and consoles
Immich
Self-hosted photo and video management with mobile backup, browsing, search, and organization
Whisper
General-purpose speech recognition model for multilingual transcription, translation, and language identification
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Escape the subscription treadmill
The software that quietly costs the most is what a whole team logs into every day - the Notion and Slack tier of SaaS, priced per seat and raised whenever the vendor likes. Moving to open, self-hosted equivalents turns a recurring bill into a one-time setup, and puts your documents and conversations back on hardware you own.
Start with Notion alternatives →Own your notes for the next decade
Notes are the data you keep longest - years of ideas, research, and half-finished plans that will almost certainly outlive whatever app you write them in today. The tools here store your writing in open formats like Markdown and plain files, so it stays readable long after the editor is gone, and the ones that sync can do it through a server you run yourself.
Browse note-taking apps →Self-host your password vault
A password manager is the one app you have to trust completely, because it holds every credential you own. Open source vaults earn that trust in a way closed ones cannot: the encryption code is public, independent audits actually happen, and most can run on a server you control - so a vendor breach or a sudden price hike never locks you out of your own logins.
Browse password managers →You own your data
Every listing is FOSS-licensed and, where possible, self-hostable. No lock-in, no surprise pricing.
Auditable, by design
We surface real GitHub signals - stars, last commit, license - so you can judge what is actively maintained.
Curated by humans
No pay-to-rank. Listings earn their place on merit and community trust, reviewed by maintainers.
What this directory is, and how we curate it
Most of the software people pay for every month has a credible open source counterpart - one you can run yourself, inspect line by line, and keep using no matter what a vendor decides about pricing or features. The hard part is finding the version that is genuinely maintained and ready to depend on, not a half-finished clone. That is the gap this directory exists to close: a curated map from the proprietary app you already know to the open source tools that can actually replace it.
Listings are chosen on merit, never paid placement. To be included, a project has to ship under an open source license and solve a real, nameable job - the kind of tool you would recommend to a colleague. We lean toward software you can self-host or run locally, so your data stays on infrastructure you control. Nothing here can buy its way up the page; ranking reflects the project, not a budget.
To keep the picture honest, each entry surfaces live signals pulled straight from the project's public repository - stars, license, and how recently it was worked on - so you can judge momentum for yourself rather than trust a logo. We run no analytics and set no tracking cookies of our own: the directory is here to help you switch, not to follow you around afterward.
Because that only works if the signals stay current, the repository data behind each listing is refreshed on a schedule, so a project that has quietly stalled stops looking healthy on its page. Human review sits on top of the automation: entries are re-checked as projects evolve, and a tool is removed when it is abandoned for good, relicenses away from open source, or no longer does the job we listed it for. A directory that only ever grows is one you eventually stop being able to trust, so pruning matters as much as adding.
None of this is aimed at a purist who thinks all software should be free. It is for the person who has simply noticed that the monthly-subscription default is a choice, not a law of nature: the developer standing up a home server, the small team that would rather own its stack than rent it, the switcher who wants their files to stay their own, and anyone tired of watching a familiar app grow more expensive and less theirs every year. You do not have to self-host everything to belong here. Even knowing that a credible open alternative exists changes the terms of every renewal you agree to.
New to open source? Start here.
If terms like open license, self-hosting, and FOSS are new to you, our plain-English guide explains what open source software actually is, how it differs from freeware and proprietary apps, and why any of it matters for the tools you rely on every day.