Awesome list of open-source startup alternatives to established SaaS products. Maintained by folks at
Also checkout our ROSS index: fastest-growing open-source startups, every quarter.
Open-source company is added to the list if:
- Its product is strongly based on an open-source repo
- It has a well-known closed-source competitor, solving a similar business problem
- It is a private for-profit company, founded in the last 10 years
- Its repo has 100+ stars on GitHub
Things change really fast in the startup world, so this list can neither be fully complete, nor 100% up to date.
Don't hesitate to contribute and add new startups. Let's build the most comprehensive list together.
Any questions or suggestions? Feel free to DM project maintainer @garrrikkotua
All startups in the list are sorted by categories and sorted in alphabetical order. If you click on the stars badge you will get to the product's repo. Have a good search!
| Category | Company | Description | GitHub Stars | Alternative to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| API Gateway | Apache APISIX | Cloud Native API Gateway under the Apache Software Foundation |  |
apigee |
| API Platform | Fusio | API management platform |  |
Postman |
| API Platform | Hoppscotch | API development ecosystem |  |
Postman |
| API Platform | Keploy | e2e Testing and Data Mocking |  |
Smartbear, Newman |
| API Platform | Step CI | API Testing and Monitoring |  |
Checkly, Postman |
| Auth & SSO | BoxyHQ | Enterprise Readiness made simple |  |
Auth0 |
| Auth & SSO | Cerbos | Granular access control |  |
Okta, Auth0 |
| Auth & SSO | FusionAuth | User authentication and session management framework |  |
Okta, Auth0 |
| Auth & SSO | Hanko | Passkey-first authentication framework |  |
Okta, Auth0 |
| Auth & SSO | Keycloak | User authentication and session management framework |  |
Okta, Auth0 |
| Auth & SSO | OPAL (Permit.io) | Authorization administration framework (Open Policy) |  |
Okta, Auth0 |
| Auth & SSO | Ory | Identity platform |  |
Okta, Auth0 |
| Auth & SSO | Oso | Authorization building framework |  |
Okta, Auth0 |
| Auth & SSO | Supertokens | User authentication and session management framework |  |
Okta, Auth0 |
| Auth & SSO | Zitadel | User authentication and session management framework |  |
Okta, Auth0 |
| Backend as a service | AceBase | Backend server with REST APIs to manage core backend needs |  |
Firebase |
| Backend as a service | Amplication | Backend server with REST and GraphQL APIs to manage core backend needs |  |
Firebase |
| Backend as a service | Appwrite | Backend server with REST APIs to manage core backend needs |  |
Firebase |
| Backend as a service | Encore | Backend Development Engine for cloud-based apps, APIs, and distributed systems |  |
Firebase |
| Backend as a service | Kuzzle | Backend server with REST APIs to manage core backend needs |  |
Firebase |
| Backend as a service | Nhost | Backend server with GraphQL |  |
Firebase |
| Backend as a service | PocketBase | Backend server with REST APIs to manage core backend needs |  |
Firebase |
| Backend as a service | Supabase | Backend server with REST APIs to manage core backend needs |  |
Firebase |
| Business Intelligence | Metabase | Business intelligence software |  |
Tableau, Power BI, DataStudio |
| Business Intelligence | Preset | Modern BI platform powered by Apache Superset |  |
PowerBI, Tableau, Mode Analytics |
| CMS | Builder | Drag and drop page builder and CMS |  |
Contentful |
| CMS | Concrete | CMS for teams |  |
Contentful |
| CMS | Directus | Data platform which wraps any database with an intuitive app |  |
Contentful |
| CMS | Netlify CMS | Git-based CMS for static site generators |  |
Contentful |
| CMS | Plasmic | The headless page builder for singe-page frameworks |  |
Contentful |
| CMS | Strapi | Node.js Headless CMS to build customisable APIs |  |
Contentful |
| CMS | Sulu | Modern Symfony based CMS |  |
Contentful |
| CMS | Tina | Visual editor for React websites |  |
Contentful |
| CMS | Webiny | Enterprise serverless CMS |  |
Contentful |
| Cloud Data Warehouse | Databend | Elastic and Workload-Aware Modern Cloud Data Warehouse |  |
Snowflake |
| Cloud Development Environment | Gitpod | Automated provisioning of cloud development environments with multiple git providers & IDEs |  |
Codespaces |
| Cloud Storage | Minio | S3 compatible object storage |  |
Amazon S3 |
| Cloud Storage | Storj | Decentralized cloud storage |  |
Amazon S3 |
| Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform | Deepfence ThreatMapper | Apache v2, powerful runtime vulnerability and compliance scanner for kubernetes, virtual machines, cloud and serverless. |  |
Palo Alto Prisma |
| Communication | Fonoster | APIs for SMS, voice and video |  |
Twilio |
| Communication | Novu | Components and APIs for email, sms, direct and push |  |
Courier, MagicBell, Knock |
| Community Platform | crowd.dev | Suite of community and data tools built to unlock community-led growth for your organization |  |
Orbit, Common Room, Commsor |
| Customer Data Platform | Jitsu | Fully-scriptable data ingestion engine for modern data teams |  |
Segment |
| Customer Data Platform | Rudderstack | Customer data platform for developers |  |
Segment |
| Customer Data Platform | Tracardi | Customer Data Platform with Consumer Journey automation engine |  |
Segment, Zapier |
| Customer Engagement | Chaskiq | Live chat widget |  |
Intercom, Zendesk |
| Customer Engagement | Chatwoot | Live chat widget |  |
Intercom, Zendesk |
| Customer Engagement | Papercups | Live chat widget |  |
Intercom, Zendesk |
| Cybersecurity | CloudQuery | Assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of your cloud assets. |  |
AWS Config, GCP Cloud Asset Inventory, AWS GuardDuty |
| Cybersecurity | CrowdSec | Collaborative IPS able to analyze visitor behavior and to provide an adapted response to all kinds of attacks. |  |
GreyNoise |
| Cybersecurity | Faraday | Open Source Vulnerability Management and Orchestration Platform |  |
Plextrac, Vulcan |
| Cybersecurity | Firezone | VPN Server & Firewall for teams |  |
OpenVPN Access Server |
| Cybersecurity | Gravitl | WireGuard virtual networking platform (VPN) |  |
Tailscale, OpenVPN |
| Cybersecurity | LunaTrace | Dependency Vulnerability Scanner and SBOM Inventory |  |
GitHub Dependabot, Snyk.io, SonaType Nexus |
| Cybersecurity | Matano | Open source cloud-native security lake platform (SIEM alternative) for threat hunting, detection & response, and cybersecurity analytics at petabyte scale on AWS |  |
Splunk, Elastic Cloud |
| Cybersecurity | NetBird | Zero Configuration Mesh VPN for Business |  |
Tailscale, OpenVPN |
| Cybersecurity | Nuclei | Vulnerability scanner based on simple YAML based DSL |  |
Tenable Nessus |
| Design | Modulz | Code-based tool for designing and prototyping |  |
Figma |
| Design | Penpot | Design & prototyping platform |  |
Figma |
| E-commerce | Bagisto | Headless e-commerce platform |  |
Shopify, Ecwid |
| E-commerce | Medusa | Headless e-commerce platform |  |
Shopify, Ecwid |
| E-commerce | Saleor | Headless e-commerce platform |  |
Shopify, Ecwid |
| E-commerce | Shuup | Headless e-commerce platform |  |
Shopify, Ecwid |
| E-commerce | Sylius | Headless e-commerce platform |  |
Shopify, Ecwid |
| E-commerce | Vendure | Headless e-commerce platform |  |
Shopify, Ecwid |
| E-commerce | Vue Storefront | Frontend for e-commerce platform |  |
Shogun |
| ELT / ETL | Airbyte | Data integration platform |  |
Fivetran |
| ELT / ETL | Dagster | Orchestration platform for data assets |  |
Fivetran |
| ELT / ETL | Kestra | orchestration and scheduling platform |  |
Fivetran |
| ELT / ETL | Orchest | No-code data pipelines builder |  |
Fivetran |
| ELT / ETL | Prefect | Data orchestration platform for a modern data stack |  |
Fivetran |
| ERP | DoliCloud | Business management suite (ERP and CRM) |  |
Oracle Fusion ERP Cloud,Odoo,Microsoft Dynamics |
| ERP | ERPNext | Agile, modern, module based Business management suite |  |
SAP Business One, Odoo |
| Email marketing | Keila | Email newsletter tool |  |
Mailchimp, Sendinblue |
| Enterprise Search | AppBase | Search UI components for React and Vue |  |
Algolia |
| Enterprise Search | Jina.ai | Neural search framework for 𝙖𝙣𝙮 kind of data (including images) |  |
Algolia |
| Enterprise Search | Manticore Search | Easy to use open source fast database for search |  |
Elastic Cloud |
| Enterprise Search | Meilisearch | Typo tolerant search engine |  |
Algolia |
| Enterprise Search | Qdrant | Vector similarity search engine with extended filtering support |  |
Google Vertex AI, Algolia |
| Enterprise Search | SeMI's Weaviate | Real-time vector search engine |  |
Google Vertex AI, Algolia |
| Enterprise Search | TypeSense | Typo tolerant fuzzy search engine |  |
Algolia |
| Enterprise Search | Zilliz's Milvus | Vector database for AI applications |  |
Google Vertex AI |
| Enterprise Search | Zinc Labs's Zinc | Cloud native full text search |  |
Elastic Cloud |
| Enterprise Search | deepset | NLP platform to build enterprise-grade semantic search |  |
AWS Kendra, QnA Maker |
| Feature flag and toggle management | FlagSmith | Feature Flag & Remote Config Service |  |
LaunchDarkly |
| Feature flag and toggle management | GrowthBook | Feature flags and A/B testing |  |
LaunchDarkly |
| Feature flag and toggle management | Unleash | Feature flags platform |  |
LaunchDarkly |
| File Hosting | Filestash | A file manager that let you manage your data anywhere it is located |  |
Dropbox, Google Drive |
| File Hosting | Nextcloud | A personal cloud which runs on your own server |  |
Dropbox, Google Drive |
| File Hosting | Owncloud | A personal cloud which runs on your own server |  |
Dropbox, Google Drive |
| File Hosting | Spacedrive | Cross-platform file manager, powered by a virtual distributed filesystem (VDFS) written in Rust |  |
Dropbox, Google Drive |
| Financial Service | Lago | Open Source Billing API |  |
Stripe Billing, Chargebee |
| Financial Service | OpenBB Terminal | Investment research for everyone |  |
Bloomberg |
| Form Building | FormKit | A software to help build attractive forms |  |
Vueform,Typeform |
| Form Building | Formbricks | Build forms and receive & manage submission data in one platform |  |
Typeform, Google Forms, React Hook Form |
| Form Building | Formio | A Form and Data Management Platform for Progressive Web Applications |  |
Vueform,Typeform |
| Forum Software | Discourse | A platform for community discussion |  |
Tribe, Circle |
| Forum Software | Vanilla | A platform for community discussion |  |
Tribe, Circle |
| Graph database | ArangoDB | Graph database and document store |  |
TigerGraph, Amazon Neptune |
| Graph database | Memgraph | In-memory graph database |  |
TigerGraph, Amazon Neptune |
| Graph database | Neo4j | Graph database platform |  |
TigerGraph, Amazon Neptune |
| Graph database | TerminusDB | Knowledge graph and document store |  |
TigerGraph, Amazon Neptune |
| Helpdesk Solution | Peppermint | Ticket Management & Helpdesk system |  |
Zendesk |
| Helpdesk Solution | UVDesk | Ticket Management & Helpdesk system |  |
Zendesk |
| Internal Tools | AppSmith | Low-code platform for internal tools |  |
Retool |
| Internal Tools | Budibase | Low-code platform for internal tools |  |
Retool |
| Internal Tools | Lowdefy | YAML-based low-code platform for internal tools |  |
Retool |
| Internal Tools | Tooljet | Low-code framework for internal tools |  |
Retool |
| Internal Tools | Windmill | Company-wide apps and automations from minimal python or typescript scripts |  |
Retool |
| Localization (i18n) | inlang | Developer-first localization infrastructure built on git |  |
Lokalise, Transifex, Crowdin, POEditor |
| Log Management | Graylog | Log management platform |  |
Splunk |
| Log Management | Quickwit | Cloud-native log management & analytics |  |
Elastic Cloud |
| ML Ops | Cortex | Production infrastructure for machine learning |  |
AWS SageMaker |
| ML Ops | Metarank | AutoML style personalized ranking |  |
AWS Personalize, Tecton |
| ML Ops | MindsDB | In-database machine learning platform |  |
BigQuery ML |
| ML Ops | Ploomber | YAML-based pipeline builder for ML models |  |
AWS SageMaker |
| ML Ops | Seldon | Deployment & monitoring for machine learning at scale |  |
AWS SageMaker, Google Vertex AI |
| ML Ops | Zilliz's Towhee | Platform for generating embedding vectors |  |
AWS SageMaker |
| Marketing SaaS | Dub | Open-source Bitly Alternative with built-in analytics |  |
Bitly |
| Messaging | Element | Enterprise communication platform |  |
Slack |
| Messaging | Mattermost | Enterprise communication platform for developers |  |
Slack |
| Messaging | Rocket.chat | Enterprise communication platform |  |
Slack |
| Messaging | Tinode | General instant messaging |  |
WhatsApp, Telegram |
| Messaging | Zulip | Team chat |  |
Slack |
| Metrics store | Cube.js | Headless business intelligence suite |  |
Looker |
| Metrics store | Evidence | Lightweight BI using SQL and markdown |  |
Looker |
| Metrics store | LightDash | Low-code metrics layer, alternative to Looker |  |
Looker |
| Metrics store | MLCraft | Low-code metrics layer, alternative to Looker |  |
Looker |
| Metrics store | MetriQL | Headless business intelligence suite |  |
Looker |
| No-code database | Baserow | No-code database and Airtable alternative |  |
AirTable |
| No-code database | NocoDB | No-code database and Airtable alternative |  |
AirTable |
| No-code database | Rowy | Extendable Airtable-like spreadsheet UI for databases |  |
AirTable |
| No-code database | Totum | Business database for non-programmers |  |
AirTable |
| Notetaking | AppFlowy | Open-source alternative to Notion |  |
Notion |
| Notetaking | Athens Research | Knowledge graph for research and notetaking |  |
Roam Research |
| Notetaking | Bangle.io | A rich note note taking web app that works on top of your locally saved Markdown files |  |
Notion |
| Notetaking | Boost Note | Collaborative workspace for developer teams |  |
Notion |
| Notetaking | Dendron | Knowledge base plugin for VS Code |  |
Roam Research |
| Notetaking | Joplin | Secure, Cross-platform, Open-Source Markdown Note Taking App |  |
Evernote, Onenote, Roam Research |
| Notetaking | Logseq | Knowledge base manager |  |
Roam Research |
| Notetaking | Notabase | Powerful and easy-to-use note-taking app for networked thinking |  |
Notion, Roam Research |
| Notetaking | Outline | Wiki and knowledge base |  |
Notion |
| Notetaking | Trilium.cc | Personal knowledge base |  |
Evernote, Onenote |
| Observability and monitoring | Chaos Genius | ML powered analytics engine for outlier/anomaly detection and root cause analysis |  |
AWS Lookout, Anodot, Sisu Data, Outlier |
| Observability and monitoring | Grafana | Observability and data visualization platform |  |
DataDog, NewRelic |
| Observability and monitoring | Netdata | Application monitoring and observability platform |  |
DataDog, NewRelic |
| Observability and monitoring | Sentry | Application monitoring with a focus on error reporting |  |
DataDog, NewRelic |
| Observability and monitoring | Signoz | Application monitoring and observability platform |  |
DataDog, NewRelic |
| Observability and monitoring | Uptrace | Application monitoring and observability platform |  |
DataDog, NewRelic |
| Observability and monitoring | VictoriaMetrics | Application monitoring and observability platform |  |
DataDog, NewRelic |
| Password manager | BitWarden | Password manager for teams and individuals |  |
1Password |
| Password manager | Padloc | Password manager for teams and individuals |  |
1Password |
| Password manager | Passbolt | Password manager for teams and individuals |  |
1Password |
| Platform as a service | Coolify | Self-hostable Heroku alternative |  |
Heroku |
| Platform as a service | Dokku | An open source PAAS alternative to Heroku |  |
Heroku |
| Platform as a service | Otomi | Self-hosted PaaS for Kubernetes |  |
Heroku |
| Platform as a service | Porter | Kubernetes powered PaaS that runs in your own cloud |  |
Heroku |
| Platform as a service | Pulumi | Universal Infrastructure as Code |  |
Heroku |
| Platform as a service | Qovery | Kubernetes powered PaaS that runs in your own cloud |  |
Heroku |
| Platform as a service | Space Cloud | Serverless cloud deployment platform |  |
Heroku |
| Platform as a service | dyrector.io | Simplify container delivery without vendor lock |  |
Heroku |
| Product Analytics | Objectiv | Product analytics infrastructure |  |
Google Analytics, Amplitude, Mixpanel |
| Product Analytics | PostHog | Product analytics platform |  |
Amplitude, MixPanel |
| Project Management | Focalboard | Alternative to Trello, Notion, and Asana |  |
Trello, Notion, Asana |
| Project Management | OpenProject | Project management software |  |
Asana, Trello |
| Project Management | Taiga | Project management software |  |
Asana, Trello, Jira |
| Project Management | Vikunja | The to-do app to organize your next project. |  |
Todoist, Trello, Asana |
| Relational database | PingCAP | NewSQL database that supports HTAP workloads |  |
Amazon Aurora, Google Cloud Spanner |
| Relational database | Yugabyte | High-performance distributed SQL database |  |
Amazon Aurora, Google Cloud Spanner |
| Remote Desktop Application | RustDesk | Open source virtual / remote desktop infrastructure for everyone |  |
TeamViewer |
| Reverse ETL | Castled | Data synchronization framework focused on external apps |  |
Hightouch, NewRelic |
| Reverse ETL | Grouparoo | Data synchronization framework |  |
Hightouch |
| Robotic Process Automation (RPA) | RoboCorp | Set of tooling that allows to create automation packages |  |
UiPath |
| Scheduling | Cal.com | Scheduling infrastructure, alternative to Calendly |  |
Calendly |
| Session replay software | OpenReplay | Session replay stack for developers |  |
LogRocket, FullStory |
| Signer | LibreSign | Digital document signer |  |
DocuSign |
| Streaming | Glimesh | Live streaming platform |  |
Twitch |
| Timeseries database | InfluxDB | Database designed to process time series data |  |
Kdb+ |
| Timeseries database | QuestDB | Database designed to process time series data |  |
Kdb+ |
| Timeseries database | TDengine | Database designed to process time series data |  |
Kdb+ |
| Timeseries database | TimescaleDB | Database designed to process time series data |  |
Kdb+ |
| VPN as a Service | OmniEdge | No-code P2P layer-2 mesh VPN for enterprise with zero config |  |
OpenVPN, Ngrok, Oray, AWS VPC |
| Video Conferencing | Jitsi | Video conferences platform and SDK |  |
Zoom |
| Video Conferencing | LiveKit | SFU and SDKs for high-performance, scalable WebRTC |  |
Twilio, Agora |
| Video Conferencing | OpenVidu | Platform and SDKs to build on-premises WebRTC video conferences |  |
Twilio |
| Webhooks | Svix | Webhooks as a Service |  |
Pusher |
| Website analytics | GoatCounter | Google Analytics alternative |  |
Google Analytics |
| Website analytics | Matomo | Google Analytics alternative |  |
Google Analytics |
| Website analytics | Plausible | Google Analytics alternative |  |
Google Analytics |
| Website analytics | Swetrix | Google Analytics alternative |  |
Google Analytics |
| Website analytics | Umami | Google Analytics alternative |  |
Google Analytics |
| Workflow automation | Activepieces | No-code business automation tool |  |
Zapier, Tray |
| Workflow automation | N8N | Node-based workflow automation tool for developers |  |
Zapier |
| Workflow automation | Pipedream | Workflow automation and API integration platform |  |
Zapier, Integromat |
| Workflow automation | Temporal | Workflows as code platform |  |
Zapier |
- Great article on open-source challengers by Rajko Radovanovic