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Open source software: the best free apps by category (2026)

The best open source software, one top pick per category, includes Excalidraw for note-taking & editors, Etherpad for office suites and Gitea for project management. Each pick is the highest-ranked open-source app in its catalog category on GitHub stars, commits in the last year, Docker images, open-source licenses and recent commits, and an app appears only once.

One top open-source pick for each of the most-searched kinds of software, from documents and project management to accounting, backups and AI. Each pick is the highest-ranked open-source app in its catalog category, so the list covers everyday needs instead of repeating one kind of app.

Open source means the code is published under an OSI-approved license: you can use it for free, read and change it, and run it on your own server.

Updated · data from GitHub, refreshed nightly

Top picks

  1. Rank 1:

    Excalidraw

    excalidraw/excalidraw

    Virtual hand-drawn style whiteboard for diagrams and sketches.

    UtilitiesTypeScriptDocker

    Top pick for note-taking & editors: Excalidraw has 133,574 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 272 commits in the last year; it replaces Figma and Lucidchart.

  2. Rank 2:

    Etherpad

    ether/etherpad

    Highly customizable online editor providing collaborative editing in real-time.

    Office SuitesTypeScriptDocker

    Top pick for office suites: Etherpad has 18,563 GitHub stars, uses the Apache-2.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 922 commits in the last year; it replaces Google Docs and Dropbox Paper.

  3. Rank 3:

    Gitea

    go-gitea/gitea

    Git with a cup of tea! Painless self-hosted all-in-one software development service, including Git hosting, code review, team collaboration, package registry and CI/CD.

    Project ManagementGoDocker

    Top pick for project management: Gitea has 58,319 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 1,696 commits in the last year; it replaces GitHub and GitLab.

1 of 7 · 5 picks

Work and productivity

  1. 1

    Excalidraw

    Virtual hand-drawn style whiteboard for diagrams and sketches.

    Top pick for note-taking & editors: Excalidraw has 133,574 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 272 commits in the last year; it replaces Figma and Lucidchart.

  2. 2

    Etherpad

    Highly customizable online editor providing collaborative editing in real-time.

    Top pick for office suites: Etherpad has 18,563 GitHub stars, uses the Apache-2.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 922 commits in the last year; it replaces Google Docs and Dropbox Paper.

  3. 3

    Gitea

    Git with a cup of tea! Painless self-hosted all-in-one software development service, including Git hosting, code review, team collaboration, package registry and CI/CD.

    Top pick for project management: Gitea has 58,319 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 1,696 commits in the last year; it replaces GitHub and GitLab.

  4. 4

    Super Productivity

    Advanced todo list app with integrated timeboxing and time tracking capabilities. Integrates with Jira, GitHub, GitLab, Redmine and OpenProject.

    Top pick for task management: Super Productivity has 22,570 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 3,655 commits in the last year; it replaces Todoist.

  5. 5

    SiYuan

    A privacy-first personal knowledge management software, written in typescript and golang.

    AI-nativeTop pick for wikis & knowledge bases: SiYuan has 46,636 GitHub stars, uses the AGPL-3.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 8,702 commits in the last year; it replaces Notion and Evernote.

2 of 7 · 2 picks

Documents and utilities

  1. 1

    Stirling-PDF

    Local hosted web application that allows you to perform various operations on PDF files, such as merging, splitting, file conversions and OCR.

    Top pick for document management: Stirling-PDF has 93,634 GitHub stars, uses the Apache-2.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 1,925 commits in the last year; it replaces Adobe Acrobat.

  2. 2

    penpot

    Web-based design and prototyping platform meant for cross-domain teams.

    Top pick for utilities: penpot has 60,729 GitHub stars, uses the MPL-2.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 4,842 commits in the last year; it replaces Figma and Canva.

3 of 7 · 2 picks

Communication

  1. 1

    Rocket.Chat

    Communications platform that puts data protection first (alternative to Gitter.im and Slack).

    Top pick for team chat: Rocket.Chat has 46,213 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 2,155 commits in the last year; it replaces Slack and Discord.

  2. 2

    Jitsi Meet

    WebRTC application that uses Jitsi Videobridge to provide high quality, scalable video conferences.

    Top pick for video conferencing & VoIP: Jitsi Meet has 30,044 GitHub stars, uses the Apache-2.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 797 commits in the last year; it replaces Zoom and Google Meet.

4 of 7 · 6 picks

Business

  1. 1

    Twenty

    A modern CRM offering the flexibility of open source, advanced features, and a sleek design.

    Top pick for CRM: Twenty has 57,949 GitHub stars, uses the AGPL-3.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 7,656 commits in the last year; it replaces Salesforce and HubSpot.

  2. 2

    Odoo

    Free open source ERP system.

    Top pick for accounting & invoicing: Odoo has 54,848 GitHub stars, uses the LGPL-3.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 10,679 commits in the last year; it replaces QuickBooks and Square POS.

  3. 3

    ERPNext

    ERP system to help you run your business.

    Top pick for point of sale: ERPNext has 39,821 GitHub stars, uses the GPL-3.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 6,664 commits in the last year; it replaces QuickBooks and Square POS.

  4. 4

    Ever Gauzy

    Open business management platform for collaborative, on-demand and sharing economies (ERP/CRM/HRM/ATS/PM).

    Top pick for ERP & inventory: Ever Gauzy has 8,194 GitHub stars, uses the AGPL-3.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 1,967 commits in the last year; it replaces BambooHR and Workday.

  5. 5

    Strapi

    Headless CMS that lets developers build content APIs fast while giving content creators a friendly editing interface.

    Top pick for CMS: Strapi has 73,281 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license and had 1,477 commits in the last year; it replaces WordPress.com and Webflow.

  6. 6

    Metabase

    Easy way for everyone in your company to ask questions and learn from data.

    Top pick for analytics: Metabase has 49,547 GitHub stars, uses the AGPL-3.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 6,378 commits in the last year; it replaces Metabase Cloud and Tableau.

5 of 7 · 3 picks

Photos, media and files

  1. 1

    Immich

    Photo and video backup solution directly from your mobile phone (alternative to Google Photos).

    Top pick for photo galleries: Immich has 115,648 GitHub stars, uses the AGPL-3.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 2,638 commits in the last year; it replaces Google Photos and Adobe Photoshop.

  2. 2

    Jellyfin

    Media server for audio, video, books, comics, and photos with a sleek interface and robust transcoding capabilities. Almost all modern platforms have clients, including Roku, Android TV, iOS, and…

    Top pick for media servers: Jellyfin has 57,817 GitHub stars, uses the GPL-2.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 2,025 commits in the last year; it replaces Plex and Spotify.

  3. 3

    Syncthing

    Syncthing is an open source peer-to-peer file synchronisation tool.

    Top pick for file sync & storage: Syncthing has 89,175 GitHub stars, uses the MPL-2.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 223 commits in the last year; it replaces Google Drive and Dropbox.

6 of 7 · 4 picks

Security and operations

  1. 1

    Vaultwarden

    Lightweight Bitwarden server API implementation written in Rust.

    Top pick for password managers: Vaultwarden has 68,572 GitHub stars, uses the AGPL-3.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 181 commits in the last year; it replaces Bitwarden and 1Password.

  2. 2

    Uptime Kuma

    Easy-to-use self-hosted uptime monitor with status pages and 90+ notification channels.

    Top pick for monitoring & status pages: Uptime Kuma has 92,149 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 1,359 commits in the last year; it replaces Datadog and Uptime Robot.

  3. 3

    Apache Airflow

    Platform to programmatically author, schedule, and monitor workflows.

    Top pick for automation & workflows: Apache Airflow has 47,062 GitHub stars, uses the Apache-2.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 7,745 commits in the last year.

  4. 4

    restic

    Fast, secure and efficient backup program with encryption and deduplication.

    Top pick for backup: restic has 36,436 GitHub stars, uses the BSD-2-Clause license and had 645 commits in the last year.

7 of 7 · 2 picks

AI and home

  1. 1

    Ollama

    Get up and running with Llama 3.3, DeepSeek-R1, Phi-4, Gemma 3, and other large language models.

    AI-nativeTop pick for AI & LLM tools: Ollama has 182,289 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 1,083 commits in the last year; it replaces ChatGPT.

  2. 2

    Home Assistant

    Home automation platform.

    Top pick for home automation & IoT: Home Assistant has 91,266 GitHub stars, uses the Apache-2.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 17,497 commits in the last year; it replaces IFTTT and Nest / SmartThings.

FAQ

Questions and answers

Still curious? Email info@appsgit.com.

What is the best open source software?

The best open source software, one top pick per category, includes Excalidraw for note-taking & editors, Etherpad for office suites and Gitea for project management. Each pick is the highest-ranked open-source app in its catalog category on GitHub stars, commits in the last year, Docker images, open-source licenses and recent commits, and an app appears only once.

Is open source software really free?

Free to use, modify and self-host under its license, yes. You still pay for the server or hardware it runs on, and many projects sell an optional hosted plan or support.

What is the difference between open source and free software?

In practice they describe the same licenses: OSI-approved open-source licenses and FSF free-software licenses both let you use, study, change and share the code. Free of charge is a side effect, not the definition, and source-available licenses are neither.

Is Excalidraw free?

Yes. Excalidraw is open-source software released under the MIT license, so you can self-host it at no cost. You only pay for the server it runs on, and some projects also offer an optional paid cloud plan.

Can I run this stack with Docker?

22 of the 24 apps here publish Docker images, including Excalidraw, Etherpad and Gitea, so most of the stack can run side by side with Docker Compose on one server. Size the server for the heaviest app and add off-site backups.

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