“What do we build for, if not to lessen each other’s hardship?”
A community-maintained catalog of open-source alternatives to proprietary software, with practical information about where each project runs, how to install/use it, and important limitations before you switch.
The repository includes a dependency-free static website for GitHub Pages with:
- instant search across proprietary products and open-source alternatives;
- English / Persian language switching with LTR/RTL support;
- focused A–Z categories such as Video Editing, Video Players, Image Editing, IDE & Code Editors, LLM Runtimes, API Clients, CAD, GIS, Password Managers and more;
- filtering by platform, category, licensing model, and fit;
- per-project Install / use links;
- Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Web, Docker, CLI, VS Code, JetBrains and other runtime tags;
- concise Things to know / limitations tags;
- shareable search/filter URLs, responsive design, and light/dark themes.
Build it locally:
python scripts/validate.py
python scripts/build_site.py
python -m http.server 8000 --directory distThen open http://localhost:8000.
See Static website and Internationalization.
| If you use… | Start with… |
|---|---|
| Figma | Penpot |
| CapCut / Premiere Pro | Kdenlive, Shotcut |
| Photoshop | GIMP, Krita |
| Illustrator | Inkscape |
| Lightroom | darktable, RawTherapee |
| PowerDVD / paid video players | VLC, mpv |
| Maya / 3ds Max | Blender |
| AutoCAD / SolidWorks | FreeCAD |
| Microsoft Office | LibreOffice |
| Notion | AppFlowy |
| Slack | Mattermost, Zulip |
| Zoom / Google Meet | Jitsi Meet |
| Dropbox / Google Drive | Nextcloud |
| Google Photos | Immich |
| 1Password / LastPass | KeePassXC, Vaultwarden |
| TeamViewer / AnyDesk | RustDesk |
| Postman | Bruno, Hoppscotch |
| GitHub | Forgejo, Gitea |
| Docker Desktop | Podman, Rancher Desktop |
| Terraform | OpenTofu |
| LM Studio | Ollama |
| GitHub Copilot | Continue |
| Google Analytics | Matomo, Plausible, Umami |
| Heroku | Dokku, CapRover |
| MATLAB | GNU Octave |
| ArcGIS | QGIS |
The focused category index is generated from the catalog and kept alphabetically sorted:
Project metadata is normalized so installation/platform information is defined once even when one open-source project replaces several proprietary products.
data/
├── alternatives.yml # mappings: proprietary product -> project
├── projects.yml # project URL, setup URL, license, platforms, limitations
├── categories.json # stable category IDs
├── locales.json # enabled languages
└── locales/
├── en.json # UI, categories, tags, mapping notes
└── fa.json
│
├── scripts/validate.py
├── scripts/generate.py ──→ categories/*/README*.md
└── scripts/build_site.py ─→ dist/ → GitHub Pages
Adding another language does not require frontend changes. Add the locale file and register its language code; see docs/i18n.md.
Contributions are welcome: new alternatives, better setup links, platform corrections, license/model corrections, translation improvements, and clearer limitation tags are all valuable.
Read CONTRIBUTING.md. CI validates that every project has a setup link, at least one platform, at least one constraint/limitation tag, and complete locale coverage.
No catalog can literally contain every open-source alternative forever. Projects launch, archive, fork, change platforms, and relicense. The goal is a high-quality, continuously maintained catalog, not an unverifiable claim of completeness.
The repository's original content and helper scripts are released under the MIT License. Each linked project retains its own license, trademarks, and copyrights.