About

Open source projects are easy to find and hard to compare. A repository page tells you how many people starred it, but not whether it does what the commercial tool you use today does, what it takes to run it yourself, or whether the license suits your business. This directory answers those questions one app at a time, and groups the apps by the job they do and by the proprietary product they can replace.

The directory currently covers 225 apps in project management, notes & knowledge base, file storage & sync, workflow automation, scheduling, backend as a service, deployment platforms, uptime & monitoring, error tracking, feature flags, web analytics, crm, email newsletters, forms & surveys, customer support, team chat, video conferencing, password managers, design & whiteboards, photo management, media servers. More categories are added once each one has been reviewed in full.

How we review apps

Every listing is written from primary sources: the project's repository, its LICENSE file, its official documentation and its own website. We do not copy descriptions from other directories, and we leave a fact out rather than guess it.

• License. We read the LICENSE file in the repository instead of relying on GitHub's automatic detection, and note when parts of a project, such as an enterprise directory, are under different terms.
• Self-hosting. We describe the documented installation method and the databases or services it needs, so you can judge the effort before you start.
• Hosted versions. We say whether the developers offer a hosted service, but we do not list prices, because they change often. Check the project's website for current plans.
• What it replaces. An app is listed as an alternative to a proprietary product only when its features cover that product's main job, and each page says where it falls short.

Where the GitHub figures come from

Stars, forks, open issues, the date of the last commit and the latest release are read from the GitHub API once a day, and every app page shows the date of the last update. GitHub counts open pull requests together with issues, so that figure is shown as "open issues and pull requests". Stars measure interest, not quality: a young project with fewer stars can be the better fit, which is why each page also explains features and limits.

Project names and logos belong to their owners and are shown only to identify each project. The logos are the avatars of the projects' GitHub accounts.

Independence

Projects do not pay to be listed or to be placed higher, and the order of each list follows GitHub stars unless you choose another sort. The site is funded by advertising, which is shown separately from the listings and does not influence them.

Suggest an app or a correction

If a project is missing, a fact has changed or a listing is wrong, the contact page explains how to tell us. We check every suggestion against the project's own sources before changing a page.

The company that publishes OpenSourcePicks is identified in our privacy policy. You can reach us at [email protected].