List of top Open Source alternatives to popular products.

Publish Date: May 26 '20

898 83

So I am collecting new and amazing tools for a directory app I am making, v2 of Appydev.

I found out there are some great alternatives to some very popular products. Here's a list of some interesting things people pay for.

Although, the title say's don't pay, most of these OSS projects are made by independent developers on their free time, consider donating them on github sponsors or opencollective etc.

Shopify

Slack/Microsoft Teams

Firebase

Appwrite

ngRok

Localtunnel

Postman

Sendgrid, Mailchimp

Mail For Good

Bitly

Google analytics

Github/Bitbucket

Gitlab

Intercom/Livechat

Salesforce

Trello/Asana

Zapier

n8n
Huginn

Algolia

Typeform

Filmora/Adobe Audition

Audacity

MS Office/Google Doc

Lastpass

Bitwarden

Google maps

Openstreet maps - (Leaflet.js wrapper)

Google Chrome

Google Drive/Dropbox

NextCloud

Wix

Grapejs

Comments 83 total

Maciej CieslikMay 26, 2020
Taiga isn't open source, it just have free tier.
- Fayaz AhmedMay 26, 2020
  github.com/taigaio
  - Maciej CieslikMay 26, 2020
    Ok, my mistake, sorry
Corentin BettiolMay 26, 2020
Openoffice is nearly dead, I would not use it :/
- Fayaz AhmedMay 26, 2020
  Just an alternative, would definitely add something if you know anything similar.
  - Corentin BettiolMay 26, 2020
    All kde applications have a great UI and are easy to use :)
    - Fayaz AhmedMay 26, 2020
      Adding this
      - Corentin BettiolMay 27, 2020
        Thanks :)
  - Ali AljowaherMay 26, 2020
    Take a look at WPS office
Itachi UchihaMay 26, 2020
Thank you. I’ll share this in Turkish. Can I? I’ll mention this URL.
- Fayaz AhmedMay 26, 2020
  Sure, please go ahead
SimmeMay 26, 2020
Great list! However, money needs to come from somewhere. It's unsustainable to expect great technology to just be free.

If you use any of these projects, consider also supporting them on opencollective.com, GitHub Sponsors, ko-fi.com, or patreon.com - wherever they might accept donations or support. Every dollar makes a difference!
- Fayaz AhmedMay 26, 2020
  Agreed, the title might be misleading.
- Fayaz AhmedMay 26, 2020
  Added a small note about this. Thanks.
- Jordi CabotMay 26, 2020
  Fully agree. Even if a certain user cannot contribute to the open source project with a monetary donation, there are many different ways to contribute to open source projects, e.g. by publicizing it so that it reachers others that can help with the funding
  - Fayaz AhmedMay 26, 2020
    Yes totally agree, Not paying to these awesome people who make these open source tools and Projects was not my motive, instead the other way around.
Supun KavindaMay 26, 2020
Google Analytics is free and others are paid 🤔 Start paying?
- Fayaz AhmedMay 26, 2020
  Open source, that was the point of this list, people cant take a hint.. I guess I'll have to update the title.
  - Daragh ByrneMay 26, 2020
    The picture you chose says "Stop Paying" so I got confused :)
Vincenzo ButtazzoMay 26, 2020
There is also owncloud.org/ as alternative for Google Drive/Dropbox.
- Matthieu CneudeMay 26, 2020
  And Nextcloud!
  - Fayaz AhmedMay 26, 2020
    Nextcould is already added
- Ben SinclairJun 2, 2020
  And Syncthing for a different approach.
Matthieu CneudeMay 26, 2020
A humble suggestion: ActivityWatch, an open source version of RescueTime with privacy.
Pacharapol WithayasakpuntMay 26, 2020
Firebase is a series of products...

What's a safe alternative to Firebase Auth / Google Auth, or do you collect Oauth2 client ID / secrets, by yourself?

Firebase Auth is a guaranteed way to work with Google OAuth2, BTW. I have problem with getting permission from Facebook and Twitter...
- Fayaz AhmedMay 26, 2020
  Auth0 & Okta are good alternatives. Or you could directly implement oAuth 2.0 client authentication with respective sdk's
  - Pacharapol WithayasakpuntMay 26, 2020
    Not sure if Auth0 is better or cheaper than Firebase Auth. Actually, I moved from Auth0 to Firebase Auth.
    
    MongoDB Stitch also have an Auth.
    - Fayaz AhmedMay 26, 2020
      Why not handle the authentication yourself? I did it recently with Nuxt + Node + Mongodb + Google sign in
      - Pacharapol WithayasakpuntMay 26, 2020
        I still need some kind of Object / Image storage, though. But I don't think I should use MongoDB Atlas's 500 MB of GridFS...
        
        That's why I come to Firebase Auth + Firebase Storage.
        
        I use Google Cloud for hosting BTW, not AWS.
        
        Nuxt Auth Module might be nice, but still I fear security and not being able to track...
        
        Fayaz AhmedMay 26, 2020
        Honestly, Mongodb atlas free tier is good for small apps.
        
        If you do need image storage, you could probably use imgur or imgbb
- Lauri OjansivuJul 1, 2020
  keycloak.org
  
  github.com/keycloak/keycloak
  - Pacharapol WithayasakpuntJul 3, 2020
    Still looks complicated, but I will consider...
Shaiju TMay 26, 2020
AppyDev is useful 😄, Is AppyDev Open Source ?
- BinAug 13, 2020
  seems it is not open-sourced 😄
Marko SaricMay 26, 2020
Great list Fayaz and thanks for including Plausible Analytics!
Amritanshu PandeyMay 26, 2020
I think you should put Gitea (gitea.io/en-us/) as a FOSS alternative to Github/Bitbucket.
It is lightweight, simple and self hosted.
Alex BrindleyMay 26, 2020
Probably worth noting that not all open-source is a good alternative to a paid option.

For example magento is historically one of the worst platforms to work in, and definitely not easy for non-dev people. Where as shopify has tools that make it much simpler for average people to get started as well as a whole developer toolkit.
- Fayaz AhmedMay 26, 2020
  Agreed, but I had developers in mind while making this list.
  
  A company I worked for, used magento and handled thousands of orders a month smoothly, I think if you have people in your team who know the stuff they're using, then its not an issue.
Mubasshir AhmedMay 26, 2020
Great !!
Jing XueMay 26, 2020
The link to Polr actually goes to postwoman.
- Fayaz AhmedMay 26, 2020
  Updated
Douglas OkolaaMay 26, 2020
To the list add perfex CRM as alternative to Salesforce
Bernard BakerJun 1, 2020
Awesome list of alternatives.
PauloJun 1, 2020
I'd also add ProtonMail and Tutanota as alternatives to gmail
- Lauri OjansivuJul 1, 2020
  If you mean anonymity related, here more:
  
  fsf.org/campaigns/surveillance
  
  prism-break.org/en/
  
  Also see other campaings at fsf.org/campaigns/
Rodolfo SilvaJun 1, 2020
Heroku

1 - CapRover - caprover.com/
2 - Dokku - dokku.viewdocs.io/dokku/
3 - Flynn - flynn.io/
skoontasticJun 1, 2020
Fathom is a great alternative to Google Analytics, but it's not open source.
Aditya Rachman PutraJun 1, 2020
Fof firebase alternative, I've just found out about Supabase recently and it seems decent :)
Haven't tried it yet btw
Tech2Blog.comJun 2, 2020
Amazing list. Thanks for sharing.
jalpesh VadgamaJun 2, 2020
Also now github is free for teams also.
Felipe MazaJun 2, 2020
Github/Bitbucket -> gitea
Lastpass -> keepass
Vinay HegdeJun 2, 2020
Thoroughly compiled list Fayaz! While apps like Polr, Rocketchat, ElasticSearch, Nextcloud are good free alternatives but there's the effort of hosting, maintaining/debugging & upgrading them.

This would imply only people with the requisite know-how can use them rather than all. Given the complexity of some of those apps, wouldn't that lead people to switch back to paid options?
- Fayaz AhmedJun 2, 2020
  I guess so, but sometimes you need to build something on top of these OSS projects, say a client has a requirement of something like Google Drive for his organization, you dont have to build it from scratch, just build on top of these projects.
  
  I recently read a post by @ben on how someone built a forum/blogging platform on top of dev.to as it is open source. That is a great example actually.
  
  But for individuals, its best to use the free versions of these proprietary software.
  - Vinay HegdeJun 2, 2020
    In that use-case, yes OSS projects would help save time & effort.
Santi ScalzadonnaJun 2, 2020
Thanks Fayaz, great work!!
Just one thing I found outdated, Google Analytics alternatives, the ones that you mentioned are no longer free :(
- Fayaz AhmedJun 2, 2020
  Yes, I need to update this.
  
  You can still host them yourself though.
  - Santi ScalzadonnaJun 2, 2020
    Yes, that's what I'm planning to do, thanks for your response
Rémi LavedrineJun 2, 2020
For Google Drive/Dropbox, you should add Syncthing which is by far the most efficient solution I found to replace Dropbox or Google Drive.
I actually wrote an article about it as I was so enthusiastic about that software.

Do you care about your privacy? Maybe it is time to set up your own Dropbox.

Rémi Lavedrine ・ Sep 13 '18 ・ 5 min read

#productivity #security #opensource
Fayaz AhmedJun 2, 2020
I shd just remove it from the list, lot of people mentioned this.

😂
miguel michelsonJun 2, 2020
Hey Fayaz, Chaskiq.io founder here. Thanks for the mention, greatly appreciated.
- Fayaz AhmedJun 3, 2020
  Thanks for making it
- Fayaz AhmedJun 3, 2020
  I had some questions, would you mind answering them?
  
  I am available on t.me/fayazara or twitter.com/fayazara
  - miguel michelsonJun 3, 2020
    sure, just drop me a line at Chaskiq.io chat :D or send me a DM at twitter @michelson / @chaskiqapp
BasixJun 3, 2020
Mattermost is awesome replacement for Slack too :)
Peter SaxtonJun 3, 2020
Is anyone interested in open source alternatives to "Sign in with Google/Facebook" buttons.
We are in the process of open sourcing did.app (taking a little while we kept user notes in our source in one big mono repo) but we should get there soon.
Seam's like a key piece of the internet that would be good to open source, and would also be awesome if there was more than one option
Oluwatobi OwolabiJun 3, 2020
Great list, you may want to add Mautic as alternaty to MailChimp and Sendgrid although it is more than just email but marketing automation.
Elvis IraguhaJun 4, 2020
I would add httpie a command-line alternative to Postman
Pacharapol WithayasakpuntJun 16, 2020
Trying to see if I can find a Cloudflare alternative, possibly FOSS.

Can I really trust Cloudflare, BTW?

Another downside of Open Source and Free, is sometimes they don't provide hosting / support. And self-hosting, especially VPS, does cost something.
- Fayaz AhmedJun 16, 2020
  You mean the CDN?
  - Pacharapol WithayasakpuntJun 16, 2020
    Proxying, and security shield.
    
    Asset loading performance comes after that. But in the end, it also matters.
- GarretJul 19, 2020
  Why would you not trust cloudflare?
Simon Daniel Haan KristensenJun 17, 2020
You should add Photopea as free alternative to Photoshop! (It's only partially open source, but still such a great alternative, that it should make the cut!)
Liyas ThomasJun 20, 2020
Thanks for featuring Postwoman 🌱✨

GitHub • Sponsor us
Lauri OjansivuJul 1, 2020
As mentioned here crust.tech/products/corteza/

Upstream project of Crust is Corteza:

cortezaproject.org

github.com/cortezaproject
JakeerJul 6, 2020
Salamalaikum,
Jazakallah khair
Nguyen Kim SonNov 14, 2020
Great list! I think you can also Bitwarden, open-source alternative for Dashlane, 1Password.
𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️Feb 4, 2021
Sad to see kong is not on the list
Liyas ThomasJul 4, 2021
Postwoman has been rebranded to Hoppscotch
- Fayaz AhmedJul 6, 2021
  Updated
Saurav PathakAug 31, 2021
Nice Collection of alternatives. May I suggest, if you can add Krayin CRM as in alternative list of Salesforce. krayincrm.com/
NextloopOct 3, 2021
May I suggest adding Grow CRM to list the alternatives for Trello

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Fayaz Ahmed @fayaz