For every yin there is a yang, for every action there is a reaction, for every proprietary software there is an open source alternative. Or so it goes.
The issue of “openness” in technology has rarely been more prominent in the public consciousness than it has been in recent years. Twitter’s steady decline has led millions to seek alternatives, many of which are open source. And last year’s OpenAI power struggle has drawn attention to what “open source” might actually mean in the context of the burgeoning AI revolution.
The consumer software world has long offered “open” alternatives to established companies: LibreOffice for Microsoft Office, GIMP for Photoshop, Thunderbird for Outlook. There are many reasons why individuals or companies might prefer the open source route. It might be because of the greater transparency and security compared to proprietary players, or because of the customization possibilities. Or perhaps some want to support the software development ethos that favors freedom and collaboration over closed gardens and vendor lock-in.
Open source software has potential downsides, such as a lack of official customer support, feature limitations, and technical hurdles surrounding deployment. But if you want to make your app stack a little more open without sacrificing productivity too much, it’s worth knowing your options.
With that in mind, TechCrunch has rounded up some open-source alternatives to popular productivity apps that might appeal to prosumers, freelancers, or small businesses looking to escape the clutches of the typical Big Tech players.
Penpot: Design and Prototyping
Penpot is an open source web-based design tool that offers a variety of plans for everyone from individuals to businesses.
Last year, Adobe's $20 billion acquisition bid for Figma ultimately fell through due to regulatory backlash, but Penpot saw a surge in signups when news of the plan first broke, leading the startup to raise $8 million.
Excalidraw is also a clean open source whiteboard tool with built-in collaboration features. It’s worth checking out.
Everyone's favorite Calendly is a scheduling platform (valued at $3 billion) that helps people organize meetings without having to exchange multiple emails, messages, or phone calls.
There is also an open source challenger called Cal.com, which bills itself as “scheduling infrastructure for everyone.” Cal.com can be self-hosted or hosted by the company itself as part of a SaaS offering, and there are several plans available. The company also raised $25 million in Series A funding in 2022.
Screenity: Screen Recording
Rooms emerged as one of the beneficiaries of the rapid shift to remote work, enabling asynchronous video communication with a number of screencasting, recording, and sharing features. Like many startups, Rooms struggled as the world returned to some semblance of normalcy, and the company was sold to Atlassian last year for just under $1 billion.
Still, remote work isn’t going away, and if you’re looking for an open-source Loom alternative that isn’t backed by a billion-dollar corporation, you can’t do much worse than checking out Screenity. However, it’s currently limited to the Chrome browser.
Jitsi: Video Conferencing
Zoom has been one of the big winners of the rapid shift to remote work, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for a fully self-hosted and configurable video conferencing alternative. That’s exactly what Jitsi, an open-source, community-driven project started by founder Emil Ivov in 2003, offers.
Users can start a meeting immediately by going to meet.jitsi.com. Jitsi is open source and anyone can distribute it as they wish, but its parent company, 8×8, offers a paid service with additional features. It is worth noting that 8×8 acquired Jitsi from Atlassian in 2018.
Nextcloud: Cloud Storage
Nextcloud is a client-side and server-side solution for file storage. Other cloud storage providers, such as Shadow Drive, use Nextcloud’s infrastructure under the hood.
Users can host their own Nextcloud instance or use a third-party provider suggested by Nextcloud. The third-party provider helps users manage the setup and maintenance process.
Nextcloud is available for hobbyists and businesses looking to avoid industry incumbents like Dropbox, and focuses on privacy, security, and data sovereignty.
Ghost: Publication
Substack built its business around providing tools for writers to create newsletter-like content, but Substack is a closed ecosystem, much like Medium.
Ghost is an open source publishing platform developed by former WordPress engineer John O'Nolan in 2013. While WordPress is also an open source solution, Ghost offers a cheaper alternative through managed hosting instances and does not charge publishers a subscription fee.
Ghost raised $300,000 through crowdfunding in the early stages of the project in 2013, and received support from high-profile backers including Seth Godin, Leo Babauta, and Microsoft.
TabbyML: Coding Pilot
GitHub Copilot has emerged as a prime example of AI-based pair programming, but Google and Amazon have also introduced similar smart products.
None of these incumbent coding assistants, however, are open source and cannot be self-hosted. That’s the problem TabbyML is trying to solve. Founded last year by two former Googlers, TabbyML raised $3.2 million in seed funding for an early iteration of what it calls an open source GitHub Copilot alternative that is fully self-hostable.
Chatwoot: Customer Support
Zendesk, one of the leading companies in the customer relationship space, needs little introduction. However, Zendesk’s private equity-owned side may not be to everyone’s taste. Plus, Zendesk is completely proprietary.
Chatwoot, on the other hand, boasts open-source technology that allows businesses to host their own customer engagement platform, keeping all data in-house.
PhotoPrism: Photo Management
In 2020, Google Photos ended its free unlimited tier. That same year, a Berlin-based team operating under the name PhotoPrism emerged as something of an alternative, offering the ability to run your own hosted server on your desktop (Windows, Mac, or Linux) alongside DigitalOcean, Raspberry Pi, FreeBSD, and many network-attached storage (NAS) devices.
PhotoPrism includes photo backup support, file conversion, duplicate detection, and face recognition tools for friends and family in photos. The company offers a variety of plans designed for individuals and organizations, with self-hosting and hosted options available.
Bitwarden: Password Management
From LastPass to Dashlane and 1Password, there are plenty of password managers that generate hard-to-guess passwords and store them in a secure digital vault. But Bitwarden stands out by operating under an open-source model, and has raised a whopping $100 million in funding along the way.
Bitwarden’s core components are open source, meaning anyone can view, modify, and distribute the code. However, certain features are only available under a proprietary “source-available” license, which still provides transparency but places greater restrictions on what end users can do with it.
AppFlowy: Task Management
AppFlowy is an open source alternative to Notion, the $10 billion workplace productivity and collaboration tool.
Founded in 2021, AppFlowy offers a tool-packed self-hosted solution. Project management, note-taking, document creation, tracking individual project items and deadlines. The company raised $6.4 million in funding last year from investors including the founders of Automattic and YouTube.
Dub.co: Link Management
Bitly, owned by Spectrum Equity, is one of the popular tools for link shortening and management, and Google recently put the final nail in the coffin of URL shortening services. If you’re looking for an open source alternative, Dub.co may be the answer.
Steven Tey, a former Vercel employee, started it as a side project in 2022 and turned it into a company two years later. Dub.co offers a lot of its own URL management services, including ways to use time-series data, personalization, and branded links, but you can also self-host the solution.
