Open Source Tools That Boost Your Productivity

For every yin, there is a yang; for every action, there is a reaction; and for every piece of proprietary software, there is an open source alternative. Or something like that.

The issue of “open” technology has rarely been as front and center in the public consciousness as it has been over the past few years. Twitter’s steady decline has driven millions of people to explore alternatives, many of which are open source. And the OpenAI power struggle of the past year has also shed light on what “open source” might really mean in the context of the unfolding AI revolution.

The world of consumer software has long offered “open” alternatives to established leaders, whether it’s LibreOffice over Microsoft Office; GIMP over Photoshop; or Thunderbird over Outlook. There are many reasons why an individual or company might prefer to go the open-source route: Maybe it’s the added transparency and security over proprietary players, or the customization they offer. Or some might simply want to support a software development ethos that favors freedom and collaboration over walled gardens and vendor lock-in.

There are potential downsides to open source software, such as a lack of formal customer support, limited features, or technical hurdles to implementation. But it’s still good to know your options if you want to introduce a bit more openness into your application stack—without sacrificing your productivity too much.

With that in mind, TechCrunch has rounded up a few open-source alternatives to popular productivity apps that may be of interest to prosumers, freelancers, or small businesses looking to escape the clutches of the mainstream Big Tech players.

Penpot: Design and Prototyping

Penpot is an open-source web design tool that offers a range of packages aimed at everyone from individuals to enterprises.

Although regulatory headwinds ultimately derailed Adobe’s $20 billion bid to acquire Figma last year, Penpot saw a surge in sign-ups once news of the plans first emerged — and the startup raised $8 million in the process.

Excalidraw is also a great open source whiteboarding tool with collaboration features built in. It’s worth checking out.

Everyone loves Calendly, the $3 billion scheduling platform that helps you schedule meetings without having to send multiple emails, texts, and calls.

There’s also an open-source challenger called Cal.com, billed as “scheduling infrastructure for absolutely everyone.” Cal.com can be self-hosted or hosted by the company itself as part of a SaaS offering, with multiple plans offered. The company also raised a fairly hefty $25 million Series A round of investment in 2022.

Screenity: Screen Recording

Loom emerged as one of the beneficiaries of the rapid shift to remote work, enabling asynchronous video communication with a myriad of screencasting, recording, and sharing features. Like many startups, Loom struggled as the world returned to some semblance of normalcy, and the company spun off to Atlassian last year for nearly $1 billion.

Still, remote work isn’t going away, and anyone looking for an open-source alternative to Loom that isn’t owned by a billion-dollar corporation could do worse than check out Screenity. For now, though, it’s limited to the Chrome browser.

Jitsi: Videoconferencing

Zoom has been one of the biggest winners of the rapid shift to remote work, but that doesn’t mean there’s no room for a fully self-service and customizable videoconferencing alternative. That’s exactly what Jitsi, a community-driven open-source project started by founder Emil Ivov in 2003, offers.

Users can go to meet.jitsi.com and start a meeting immediately. And while Jitsi is open source and anyone can implement it for free as they see fit, its parent company, 8×8, offers a paid service with additional features. It’s worth noting that 8×8 acquired Jitsi from Atlassian in 2018.

Nextcloud: Cloud Storage

Nextcloud is both a client-side and server-side solution for file storage. Other cloud storage providers, such as Shadow Drive, use Nextcloud infrastructure under the hood.

Users can host their Nextcloud instances themselves or use a third-party provider suggested by Nextcloud that helps users manage the setup and maintenance process.

Nextcloud can be used by hobbyists and enterprises looking to bypass industry players like Dropbox with a focus on privacy, security, and data sovereignty.

Ghost: Publishing

Substack has built a business around providing tools for writers to create newsletters and similar content. But Substack is a closed ecosystem, like Medium.

Ghost is an open-source publishing platform developed in 2013 by former WordPress engineer John O’Nolan. While WordPress is also open-source, Ghost offers a cheaper alternative in the form of a managed hosting instance and does not charge publishers any subscription fees.

Ghost raised $300,000 in crowdfunding in its early 2013 iteration, with backers including Seth Godin, Leo Babauta, and Microsoft.

TabbyML: Coding Copilot

GitHub Copilot has become a flagship example of AI-powered pair programming, with similar solutions also being introduced by Google and Amazon.

Regardless, none of these incumbent coding assistants are open source and can’t be self-hosted — something TabbyML hopes to solve. Founded by two former Google employees last year, TabbyML has raised $3.2 million in seed funding for an early version of what it calls an open-source alternative to GitHub Copilot that can be entirely self-hosted.

Chattwoot: Customer Service

As a major player in the customer relationship space, Zendesk needs no introduction. But the private equity aspect of Zendesk may not appeal to everyone. Plus, Zendesk is, well, completely proprietary.

Chatwoot, on the other hand, touts its open-source solutions, which allow companies to self-host their customer service platform so all data remains available internally.

PhotoPrism: Photo Management

In 2020, Google Photos ended its free, unlimited tier. That same year, a Berlin-based team called PhotoPrism emerged as a sort of alternative, with the ability to run a self-hosted server on a desktop computer (Windows, Mac, or Linux) along with DigitalOcean, Raspberry Pi, FreeBSD, and a variety of network-attached storage (NAS) devices.

PhotoPrism includes support for photo backup, as well as tools for file conversion, duplicate detection, and facial recognition of friends and family in photos. The company offers a range of plans for both individuals and organizations, with self-hosted and hosted options available.

Bitwarden: Password Management

From LastPass to Dashlane to 1Password, there’s no shortage of password managers that generate hard-to-guess passwords and store them in a secure digital vault. But Bitwarden has distinguished itself by operating largely on an open-source model, raising a whopping $100 million in funding in the process.

Bitwarden’s core components are open source, allowing anyone to review, modify, and distribute the code. However, some features are only available under a proprietary “source available” license, which still offers transparency, albeit with more restrictions on what the end user can do with it.

AppFlowy: task management

AppFlowy is an open source alternative to Notion, the $10 billion workplace productivity and collaboration tool.

Founded in 2021, AppFlowy offers a self-hosted solution with tools for project management, taking notes, creating documents, and tracking the status of individual project items and deadlines. The company raised $6.4 million in funding last year from investors including the founders of Automattic and YouTube.

Dub.co: Link Management

When it comes to link shortening and management, Bitly, owned by Spectrum Equity, is one of the popular tools, while Google recently put the final nail in the coffin of its URL shortening service. If you’re looking for an open-source alternative, Dub.co might be the answer.

Former Vercel employee Steven Tey started it as a side project in 2022, turning it into a company two years later. While Dub.co provides many of its own URL management services, including time-series data, personalization, and a way to use company links, it also allows you to self-host its solution.