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For every yin , there ’s a yang ; for every military action , a response ; and for every piece of proprietary computer software , there ’s an open source alternative . Or something like that .
Theissue of “ receptiveness ” in technologyhas seldom been so front and center in the public awareness as it has these past twosome of years . Twitter’ssteady demisehas make millions toexplore option , many of whichare open source . And the OpenAI power struggle last year alsoshone a spotlighton what “ open source”might actually mean in the context of use of the burgeoning AI rotation .
The consumer package world has long offer “ open ” alternatives to the established officeholder , be thatLibreOfficeinstead of Microsoft Office;GIMPover Photoshop ; orThunderbirdin place of Outlook . There might be any number of reasons why an individual or business organization might prefer to journey down the open source route : Maybe it ’s the added transparency and security system compared to the proprietary players or the customizability it offers . Or some might just care to support a software growing ethos that favors freedom and collaboration over walled gardens and marketer lock - in .
Dub.co.Image Credits:Dub
There are potential downside to open up source software , such as a lack of formal client support , special lineament , or expert hurdles around deployment . But it ’s still honorable to know your options if you ’re face to bring a piddling more openness to your app stack — without compromising too much on your productivity .
With that in thinker , TechCrunch has pulled together some heart-to-heart source alternatives to pop productivity apps . These might attract to prosumers , freelancers , or minuscule line of work appear to get out the clutches of the usual Big Tech players .
Penpot: Design and prototyping
Penpotis an undefendable source web - based invention tool , pop the question a range of planstargeting everyone from person to endeavor .
Althoughregulatory headwind ultimately put an endto Adobe’s$20 billion bidfor Figma last yr , Penpot saw signups surge when news show of the plans first emerged — and the startup went onto enhance $ 8 million off the back of this .
Excalidrawis also a neat open source whiteboarding dick with collaborative features built in ; it ’s also deserving learn out .
Cal.com: “Scheduling infrastructure”
Everyone sleep with Calendly , thescheduling political platform ( deserving $ 3 billion)that helps hoi polloi mastermind meetings without having to engage in multiple back - and - forth emails , messages and phone calls .
There ’s also an open beginning challenger calledCal.com , touted as “ programming infrastructure for absolutely everyone . ” Cal.com can be ego - hosted or hosted by the companionship itself as part of a SaaS offering , withmultiple plans on crack . The company also raise a fairly chunky$25 million Series Around of investment in 2022 .
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Screenity: Screen recording
Loomemergedas one of the beneficiariesof the speedy changeover to remote work , enabling asynchronous video communication through uncounted screencasting , recording and communion feature . As with many inauguration , Loom struggledas the humanity give to some colour of normality , and the companyexited to Atlassian last year for just shy of $ 1 billion .
Still , remote piece of work is n’t going off , and anyone looking for an open source Loom alternative that does n’t sit under the auspices of a billion - dollar corp could do worse than checking outScreenity . However , it islimited to the Chrome browserfor now .
Jitsi: Video conferencing
Zoom wasone of the big winnersof the rapid shift to distant work , but that does n’t mean there is n’t room for a fully self - hostable and configurable telecasting - conferencing alternative . That ’s exactly what ’s offered byJitsi , an unfastened source community - driven project start up by founder Emil Ivov right smart back in 2003 .
Users can head tomeet.jitsi.comand instantly start a meeting . And while Jitsi is loose origin and free for anyone to deploy as they please , its parent company , 8×8,offers a pay servicewith additional features . It ’s deserving observe that 8×8acquired Jitsi from Atlassian in 2018 .
Nextcloud: Cloud storage
Nextcloudis both a client - side and server - side answer for filing cabinet storage . Other swarm storage supplier , such asShadow Drive , practice Nextcloud ’s infrastructure under the goon .
user can self - host their Nextcloud instances or use a third - party provider suggested by Nextcloud , which help users manage the setup and maintenance process .
Nextcloud can be used by hobbyist or enterprises look to sidestep industry incumbent such as Dropbox , with a potent stress on privateness , security and data sovereignty .
Ghost: Publishing
Ghostis an undefendable source publishing political program developed by former WordPress engineer John O’Nolan in 2013 . While WordPress is also an clear seed solution , Ghost offers a tinny alternative with a care hosting representative and does n’t take any fees from publisher on subscriptions .
Ghostraised $ 300,000through crowdfunding during the projection ’s initial phase in 2013 , with notable backer like Seth Godin , Leo Babauta and Microsoft .
TabbyML: Coding copilot
GitHub Copilothas emerged as the bill child of the AI - power pair - progamming space , though Googleand Amazonhave introduced similar smarts .
Regardless , none of these incumbents ’ coding assistant is open source and they ca n’t be ego - hosted — somethingTabbyMLhopes to address . Founded by two former Googlers last year , TabbyML raised $ 3.2 millionin seed financial backing for an early iteration of what it calls an open reference GitHub Copilot alternative , one that can be entirely ego - host .
Chatwoot: Customer support
As one of the major role player in the client relationship outer space , Zendeskneeds small introduction . But theprivate fairness - ownedfacet of Zendesk might not be to everyone ’s partiality . Plus Zendesk is , well , entirely proprietary .
Chatwoot , on the other hand , touts itsopen source chopsthat tolerate businesses to self - innkeeper the client battle platform , thus proceed all their data in - theatre .
PhotoPrism: Photo management
In 2020,Google exposure ended its free unlimited grade . The same year , a Berlin - based squad operate under the namePhotoPrismemerged as an alternative of sorts , with the ability to take to the woods a self - hosted host on your desktop ( Windows , Mac , or Linux ) along with DigitalOcean , Raspberry Pi , FreeBSD , and many mesh - attach store ( NAS ) equipment .
PhotoPrism includes support for backing up photos , as well as tools for convert file cabinet , detecting duplicate , and recognizing friend - and - kinsperson faces in photos . The companionship offers arange of plansdesigned for individuals and organizations alike , with ego - hosted and hosted options uncommitted .
Bitwarden: Password management
From LastPass to Dashlane and 1Password , there are no shortages of countersign - management tools out there that return gruelling - to - guess passwords and salt away them in a secure digital burial vault . ButBitwardenhas do itself aside by operating largely under an open source model , raising a chunky $ 100 millionin funding in the process .
Bitwarden ’s core components are open root , allowing anyone to take in , change and distribute the code . However , certain features are only usable under a proprietary “ source available ” license , which still offers transparentness , albeit with not bad restrictions on what the goal user can do with it .
AppFlowy: Task management
AppFlowyis an receptive source alternative toNotion , the$10 billionworkplace productivity and collaboration puppet .
constitute in 2021 , AppFlowy pitch a ego - hostable solution replete with shaft formanaging projects , read notes , create written document , and tracking the status of individual project items and deadlines . The caller raised$6.4 million in fundinglast year from a who ’s who of investors , including the founders of Automattic and YouTube .
Dub.co: Link management
For connexion shortening and direction , Spectrum Equity owned Bitlyis one of the popular tool , while Google recently put a net nail in itsURL shortening service ’s coffin . If you are looking for an open source alternative , Dub.cocould be your answer .
Former Vercel employeeSteven Tey started this as a side project in 2022 , transubstantiate it into a company two year later . While Dub.co furnish a lot of its own URL direction services , including time - series data , personalization and a means to use branded link , it also allows you toself - boniface its answer .
