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Awesome open-source alternatives to SaaS

Awesome

Awesome list of open-source startup alternatives to established SaaS products. Maintained by folks at Runa Capital

Also checkout our ROSS index: fastest-growing open-source startups, every quarter.

Criteria

Open-source company is added to the list if:

  1. Its product is strongly based on an open-source repo
  2. It has a well-known closed-source competitor, solving a similar business problem
  3. It is a private for-profit company, founded in the last 10 years
  4. 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


Startup List

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 Firecamp DX first open-source API devtool Postman
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 Warrant Authorization and access control as a service 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 CASE Lightweight Backend-as-a-Service with essential features 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 Ghost Headless Node.js publishing platform Medium, Substack
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
Digital Signature DocuSeal Digital Signing Infrastructure DocuSign
Digital Signature Documenso Digital Signing Infrastructure DocuSign
Digital Signature LibreSign Digital document signer DocuSign
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 Benthos Data streaming processor with yaml-driven pipeline configuration 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
ELT / ETL Selefra An open-source policy-as-code software that provides analytics for multi-cloud and SaaS. 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 ILLA Cloud Low-code platform for developers to build internal tools in minutes. 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) Tolgee Developer & translator friendly web-based localization platform Lokalise, Transifex, Crowdin, POEditor
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 Notesnook A fully open source & end-to-end encrypted note taking alternative to Evernote. Evernote, OneNote
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 Plane Alternative to Linear, JIRA, Trello and Height Linear, JIRA, Trello, Height
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
Social Media Postiz Self-hosted social media scheduling tool Buffer, Hootsuite
Streaming Glimesh Live streaming platform Twitch
Timeseries database CrateDB Distributed SQL database for real-time analytics of time series data Kdb+
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+
Tunnelling Tunnelmole Get a Public URL for your local development enviornment Ngrok
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

Useful Links

  • Great article on open-source challengers by Rajko Radovanovic