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9 jobs 路 18 apps

Best open source software for startups

For a startup, a self-hosted stack starts with Twenty for customers and deals, Gitea for projects and issues and Rocket.Chat for team chat. Each section takes the top-ranked apps in one catalog category, scored on GitHub stars, commits in the last year, Docker images, open-source licenses, project websites and recent commits.

A startup stack built only from self-hostable apps, one or two per job, ranked with the startup profile: stars, development activity, Docker images, open-source licenses and recent commits.

Updated 路 data from GitHub, refreshed nightly

Top picks

  1. Rank 1:

    Twenty

    twentyhq/twenty

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

    CRMTypeScriptDocker

    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. Rank 2:

    Krayin

    krayin/laravel-crm

    CRM solution for SMEs and Enterprises for complete customer lifecycle management.

    CRMPHPDocker

    Krayin has 23,970 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 483 commits in the last year; it replaces Salesforce and HubSpot.

1 of 9 路 2 picks

CRM

  1. 1

    Twenty

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

    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

    Krayin

    CRM solution for SMEs and Enterprises for complete customer lifecycle management.

    Krayin has 23,970 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 483 commits in the last year; it replaces Salesforce and HubSpot.

2 of 9 路 2 picks

Project management

  1. 1

    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.

    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.

  2. 2

    Plane

    Track issues, epics, and product roadmaps in the simplest way possible (alternative to JIRA, Linear and Height).

    Plane has 60,414 GitHub stars, uses the AGPL-3.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 678 commits in the last year; it replaces Jira and Asana.

3 of 9 路 2 picks

Team chat

  1. 1

    Rocket.Chat

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

    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

    Novu

    Notification infrastructure for developers.

    Novu has 40,118 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 2,234 commits in the last year; it replaces Twilio SendGrid.

4 of 9 路 2 picks

Docs and wiki

  1. 1

    SiYuan

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

    AI-nativeSiYuan 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. 2

    BookStack

    Simple, self-hosted, easy-to-use platform for organising and storing information.

    BookStack has 19,075 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 435 commits in the last year; it replaces Confluence.

5 of 9 路 2 picks

Product analytics

  1. 1

    Umami

    Simple, fast, privacy-focused alternative to Google Analytics.

    Umami has 39,188 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 1,087 commits in the last year; it replaces Google Analytics.

  2. 2

    Metabase

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

    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.

6 of 9 路 2 picks

Backend

  1. 1

    Supabase

    Postgres development platform with auth, realtime, storage and edge functions, the open-source Firebase alternative.

    Supabase has 111,147 GitHub stars, uses the Apache-2.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 6,123 commits in the last year; it replaces Firebase.

  2. 2

    Appwrite

    End to end backend server for web, native, and mobile developers 馃殌.

    Appwrite has 57,577 GitHub stars, uses the BSD-3-Clause license, ships a Docker image and had 10,376 commits in the last year; it replaces Firebase and Supabase.

7 of 9 路 2 picks

Helpdesk

  1. 1

    FreeScout

    Email-based customer support application, help desk and shared mailbox (alternative to Zendesk and Help Scout).

    FreeScout has 4,585 GitHub stars, uses the AGPL-3.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 679 commits in the last year; it replaces Zendesk and Intercom.

  2. 2

    Frappe Helpdesk

    Helpdesk software which helps you streamline your company's support, offers an easy setup, clean user interface, and automation tools to resolve customer queries efficiently.

    Frappe Helpdesk has 3,418 GitHub stars, uses the AGPL-3.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 3,107 commits in the last year; it replaces Zendesk and Freshdesk.

8 of 9 路 2 picks

Monitoring

  1. 1

    Uptime Kuma

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

    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.

  2. 2

    Prometheus

    Metrics-based monitoring and alerting toolkit with a powerful query language, built for cloud-native systems.

    Prometheus has 66,381 GitHub stars, uses the Apache-2.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 2,592 commits in the last year; it replaces Datadog and Grafana Cloud.

9 of 9 路 2 picks

Identity and SSO

  1. 1

    Keycloak

    Open-source identity and access management with SSO, OIDC, SAML and user federation.

    Keycloak has 37,156 GitHub stars, uses the Apache-2.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 3,157 commits in the last year; it replaces Auth0 and Okta.

  2. 2

    Authelia

    Single sign-on and two-factor authentication portal for protecting web apps behind a reverse proxy.

    Authelia has 29,182 GitHub stars, uses the Apache-2.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 2,474 commits in the last year; it replaces Auth0 and Okta.

FAQ

Questions and answers

Still curious? Email info@appsgit.com.

What open source software should a startup use?

For a startup, a self-hosted stack starts with Twenty for customers and deals, Gitea for projects and issues and Rocket.Chat for team chat. Each section takes the top-ranked apps in one catalog category, scored on GitHub stars, commits in the last year, Docker images, open-source licenses, project websites and recent commits.

Why would a startup self-host instead of buying SaaS?

To avoid per-seat pricing as the team grows and to keep customer data in its own infrastructure. The trade-off is operations time, so many startups self-host only the tools that get expensive per seat.

Is Twenty free?

Yes. Twenty is open-source software released under the AGPL-3.0 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?

All 18 apps here publish Docker images, including Twenty, Krayin 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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