For every yin there is a yang; for every action there is a reaction; and for every proprietary software there is an open source alternative. Or something like that.
The topic of “openness” in technology has rarely been as central to public consciousness as it has been in recent years. The steady decline of Twitter has led millions to seek alternatives, many of which are open source. And last year’s power struggle over OpenAI has also shone a spotlight on what “open source” might actually mean in the context of the burgeoning AI revolution.
The world of consumer software has long offered “open” alternatives to the incumbents, whether it’s LibreOffice instead of Microsoft Office, GIMP instead of Photoshop, or Thunderbird instead of Outlook. There can be many reasons why an individual or company might want to go the open source software route: perhaps it’s because of the greater transparency and security compared to proprietary vendors, or the customization options that open source offers. Or some simply want to support a software development philosophy that favors freedom and collaboration over siloed systems and vendor dependency.
Open source software also has its drawbacks, such as a lack of formal customer support, limited features, or technical hurdles to deployment. Still, it’s good to know your options if you want to make your app stack a little more open—without compromising too much on your productivity.
With this in mind, TechCrunch has compiled some open source alternatives to popular productivity apps that might be of interest to prosumers, freelancers, or small businesses looking to escape the clutches of the usual Big Tech players.
Penpot: Design and prototyping
Penpot is an open source web-based design tool that offers a range of plans for everyone from individuals to enterprises.
Although regulatory headwinds ultimately derailed Adobe’s $20 billion bid for Figma last year, Penpot saw a sharp increase in signups when news of the plans first surfaced – and the startup was able to raise $8 million on that backing.
Excalidraw is also a handy open source whiteboarding tool with built-in collaboration features that is also worth a look.
Everyone loves Calendly, the scheduling platform (valued at $3 billion) that helps people organize meetings without having to send numerous emails, messages, and phone calls back and forth.
There is also an open-source challenger called Cal.com, which is touted as “scheduling infrastructure for absolutely everyone.” Cal.com can be self-hosted or hosted by the company itself as part of a SaaS offering, with several plans offered. The company also closed a rather generous $25 million Series A investment round in 2022.
Screenity: Screen recording
Loom proved to be one of the beneficiaries of the rapid transition to remote work, enabling asynchronous video communication through myriad screencasting, recording and sharing features. Like many startups, Loom struggled as the world returned to some degree of normality, and the company was sold to Atlassian last year for just under $1 billion.
Still, remote work isn’t going away, and anyone looking for an open source alternative to Loom that isn’t under the auspices of a billion-dollar corporation could do worse than check 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 alternative to video conferencing. That’s exactly what Jitsi, a community-driven open source project launched by founder Emil Ivov back in 2003, offers.
Users can go to meet.jitsi.com and start a meeting instantly. And while Jitsi is open source and free for anyone to use as they wish, parent company 8×8 offers a paid service with additional features. It’s worth noting that 8×8 acquired Jitsi from Atlassian in 2018.
Nextcloud: Cloud storage
Nextcloud is both a client-side and server-side file storage solution. Other cloud storage providers like Shadow Drive use Nextcloud’s infrastructure in the background.
Users can host their Nextcloud instances themselves or use a third-party provider suggested by Nextcloud to help them manage the setup and maintenance process.
Nextcloud can be used by hobbyists or companies looking to bypass industry leaders like Dropbox, with a strong emphasis on privacy, security and data sovereignty.
Ghost: Publish
Substack has built a business focused on providing tools for writers to create newsletters and similar content, but Substack is a closed ecosystem, similar to Medium.
Ghost is an open-source publishing platform developed in 2013 by former WordPress developer John O’Nolan. Although WordPress is also an open-source solution, Ghost offers a cheaper alternative with a managed hosting instance and does not charge publishers for subscriptions.
Ghost raised $300,000 through crowdfunding during the project’s early stages in 2013, with notable backers including Seth Godin, Leo Babauta, and Microsoft.
TabbyML: Coding Copilot
GitHub Copilot has become a prime example of AI-powered pair programming, even as Google and Amazon have introduced similar intelligent technologies.
Regardless, none of these established providers’ coding assistants are open source, and they can’t be self-hosted—a problem TabbyML aims to solve. Founded last year by two former Google employees, TabbyML raised $3.2 million in seed funding for an early version of what it describes as an open source alternative to GitHub Copilot that can be fully self-hosted.
Chatwoot: Customer Support
As one of the biggest players in the customer relationship management space, Zendesk needs no introduction. But the private equity investment in Zendesk may not be for everyone. Plus, Zendesk is, well, entirely proprietary.
Chatwoot, on the other hand, touts its open source expertise, which allows companies to host the customer loyalty platform themselves and thus keep all their data in-house.
PhotoPrism: Photo management
In 2020, Google Photos’ free unlimited offering was discontinued. In the same year, a Berlin-based team developed a sort of alternative called PhotoPrism that allows you to run a self-hosted server on your desktop (Windows, Mac, or Linux) along with DigitalOcean, Raspberry Pi, FreeBSD, and many Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices.
PhotoPrism supports photo backup, as well as tools for converting files, detecting duplicates, and recognizing faces of friends and family in photos. The company offers a range of plans for individuals and organizations, with self-hosted and hosted options available.
Bitwarden: Password management
From LastPass to Dashlane to 1Password, there are plenty of password management tools that generate hard-to-guess passwords and store them in a secure digital vault. But Bitwarden stands out by operating largely on an open source model and raising a whopping $100 million in funding in the process.
Bitwarden’s core components are open source, so anyone can view, modify, and distribute the code. However, certain features are only available under a proprietary “Source Available” license, which, while still providing transparency, imposes greater restrictions on what the end user can do.
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 self-hosted solution with tools for Manage projects, take notes, create documents, and track the status of individual project elements and deadlines. The company raised $6.4 million in capital last year from a number of high-profile investors, including the founders of Automattic and YouTube.
Dub.co: Link management
For shortening and managing links, Bitly, a Spectrum Equity company, is one of the most popular tools, while Google recently put the final nail in the coffin of its URL shortening service. If you’re looking for an open-source alternative, Dub.co could be your answer.
Former Vercel employee Steven Tey started this as a side project in 2022 and turned it into a company two years later. While Dub.co offers many of its own URL management services, including time series data, personalization, and a way to use branded links, you can also host its solution yourself.
