Find free and non-subscription alternatives to popular services.
A free and open-source file archiver with a high compression ratio. Excellent alternative to WinRAR (shareware/paid) or WinZip (paid).
A program which makes remembering things easy. Because it's a lot more efficient than traditional study methods, you can either greatly decrease your time spent studying, or greatly increase the amount you learn. Free (except iOS app).
A digital audio workstation (DAW) suitable for recording, mixing, and mastering audio and MIDI projects. Professional features. Alternative to Pro Tools, Logic Pro X, Cubase.
An open-source password manager offering secure storage and sync across devices. Excellent free tier, with optional self-hosting. Alternative to LastPass Premium or 1Password.
A free and open-source disk space cleaner, privacy manager, and computer system optimizer. Alternative to CCleaner (which has free/paid tiers and past privacy concerns).
A comprehensive free and open-source 3D creation suite. Covers modeling, sculpting, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing, and even video editing. Professional alternative to Autodesk Maya, 3ds Max.
A free file renaming software for Windows. Allows easily renaming multiple files and folders based on flexible criteria. Alternative to manual renaming or simple batch renamers.
A comprehensive free and open-source e-book management tool. Allows organizing, viewing, converting, and syncing e-books.
An open-source antivirus engine for detecting trojans, viruses, malware & other malicious threats. Primarily used on servers (email scanning) but usable for manual desktop scans. Not a direct replacement for real-time paid AV.
A free and open-source multiplatform music player and library organizer inspired by Amarok 1.4.
A partition and disk imaging/cloning program. Helps you do system deployment, bare metal backup and recovery. Runs from bootable media. Alternative to Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost.
A self-hostable, open-source online office suite based on LibreOffice Technology. Provides editing for documents, spreadsheets, presentations in the browser. Self-hosted alternative to Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 online.
A popular online platform to create, save, and share color palettes. Offers a generous free tier. Alternative to paid palette generators or Adobe Color.
An advanced clipboard manager with editing and scripting features. Stores clipboard history and allows searching and manipulating items. Alternative to paid clipboard managers.
An open-source photography workflow application and raw developer. A virtual lighttable and darkroom for photographers. Alternative to Adobe Lightroom Classic.
A professional non-linear video editing application with advanced tools for color correction, visual effects, and audio post-production. Offers an extremely capable free version.
Free multi-platform database tool for developers, database administrators, analysts and all people who need to work with databases. Supports all popular databases. Alternative to Navicat, DataGrip, SQL Developer.
An advanced open-source digital photo management application. Runs on Linux, Windows, and macOS. Comprehensive alternative to Adobe Bridge or Google Photos (for local management).
A free cross-platform open-source file manager with two panels side by side. Inspired by Total Commander. Alternative to Windows File Explorer or paid dual-pane managers.
A free online and desktop diagramming tool. Excellent alternative to Microsoft Visio or Lucidchart for flowcharts, network diagrams, org charts, etc.
Free, open-source backup software that securely stores encrypted, incremental, compressed backups on cloud storage services and remote file servers.
An integrated development environment (IDE) used in computer programming. Contains a base workspace and an extensible plug-in system for customizing the environment. Strong Java support. Alternative to IntelliJ IDEA or VS Code (for Java).
A free, open-source, cross-platform FTP, FTPS, and SFTP client with a graphical user interface. Essential tool for web developers and server administrators. Alternative to paid FTP clients like Transmit or CuteFTP.
A free and open-source personal finance manager. It helps you track expenses, income, budgets, and savings. Self-hosted alternative to YNAB or Mint.
Powerful yet simple to use open-source screenshot software. Offers annotation tools directly after capture. Alternative to SnagIt or Greenshot for annotated screenshots.
A blazing fast, beautiful and free font manager for designers. Available for Mac, Windows and Linux. Free tier is very capable.
An advanced freeware audio player for the Windows platform. Known for its highly customizable interface and support for a wide range of audio formats. Focuses on high-fidelity playback.
A free and open-source parametric 3D modeler made primarily to design real-life objects. Suitable for mechanical engineering, product design, architecture. Alternative to SolidWorks, AutoCAD.
A free and open-source software application for creating mind maps and electronic outlines. Fork of FreeMind.
A free, self-hostable RSS feed aggregator. Lightweight, easy to work with, powerful and customizable. Alternative to Feedly Pro or other paid/cloud-based RSS readers.
A professional-grade image editor that can replace Adobe Photoshop. Perfect for photo editing, digital art, and graphic design.
A painless self-hosted Git service. Lightweight and easy to set up, offering core features similar to GitHub or GitLab. Alternative for private or self-managed code repositories.
A free and open-source personal and small-business financial accounting software. Desktop alternative to subscription services like QuickBooks Online or Xero.
A feature-packed, cross-platform game engine to create 2D and 3D games from a unified interface. Completely free and open-source under the permissive MIT license. Alternative to Unity or Unreal Engine.
A free partition editor for graphically managing your disk partitions. Useful for creating, deleting, resizing, moving, checking, and copying partitions. Alternative to paid partition managers.
An open-source web server control panel. Provides an easy-to-use web interface and CLI tools to manage websites, mail, DNS, and databases on Linux servers. Fork of VestaCP. Alternative to cPanel or Plesk.
Free software designed for personal accounting. Easy to use and analyse your finances in detail using powerful filtering tools and graphs. Desktop alternative to online budgeting apps.
Comprehensive Hardware Analysis, Monitoring and Reporting for Windows and DOS. Free version provides extensive system information. Alternative to AIDA64 or Speccy (Free/Paid).
A professional vector graphics editor. Alternative to Adobe Illustrator.
A collaborative open source API design tool for GraphQL, REST, and gRPC. Helps test and debug APIs. Core features are free. Alternative to Postman (paid tiers).
Open-source platform to create & email invoices & proposals, track payments & expenses, & time billable tasks & projects for clients. Self-hosted option is free. Alternative to FreshBooks or QuickBooks Online for invoicing.
A free and open-source media server that lets you stream your own media collection. Great alternative to Netflix, Hulu, or Disney+.
A fully encrypted, 100% open-source video conferencing solution you can use all day, every day, for free — without needing an account. Self-hostable alternative to Zoom or Google Meet.
An open-source note-taking and to-do application with synchronization capabilities. Can import Evernote notes. Excellent privacy-focused alternative to Evernote or OneNote.
A powerful, free and open-source non-linear video editor. Great alternative to Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro for many users.
Free and open-source media player software application developed by the Kodi Foundation. Primarily used as a home theater PC (HTPC) software. Manages local/network media libraries.
A free and open-source raster graphics editor designed primarily for digital painting and animation purposes. Alternative to Photoshop for digital art, or Corel Painter.
Open Source proofreading software for English, French, German, Polish, Russian, and more than 20 other languages. Offers grammar, style, and spell checking. Free tier available, can be self-hosted.
A powerful office suite that can replace Microsoft Office 365. Includes word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, and database applications.
A free and open-source digital audio workstation. Alternative to subscription-based music production software.
A privacy-first, open-source knowledge base that works on top of local plain-text Markdown and Org-mode files. Focuses on outlining, task management, and networked thought. Alternative to Roam Research or Obsidian.
Free design software that keeps your flow with AI tools and built-in graphics. Works online and offline on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Native .sketch file support. Alternative to Sketch or Figma.
Makes deploying a full email stack on a fresh Ubuntu server easy. Provides webmail, IMAP/SMTP, contacts/calendar sync based on open source software. Self-hosted alternative to Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 email.
A free and open-source web analytics application. Gives you full control over your data, ensuring privacy compliance. Self-hosted alternative to Google Analytics.
A secure, decentralized, open-source communication platform (Matrix) with a popular client (Element). Self-hosted alternative to Slack or Microsoft Teams.
A free and open-source learning management system. Alternative to subscription-based educational platforms.
A freeware digital media player and library organizer for Microsoft Windows. Manages large music collections, podcasts, and audiobooks. Alternative to iTunes or paid Windows media players.
A free and source-available workflow automation tool. Easily automate tasks across different services. Self-hosted alternative to Zapier or Integromat/Make.
A self-hosted cloud storage solution that gives you complete control over your data. Perfect alternative to Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive.
Nmap ("Network Mapper") is a free and open-source utility for network discovery and security auditing. Zenmap is its official GUI. Powerful tool for network administrators. Alternative to paid network scanning tools.
A free source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GPL License.
Free and open-source software for video recording and live streaming. Popular alternative to paid screen recorders like Camtasia or streaming tools.
A powerful note-taking and knowledge management app. Alternative to subscription-based note-taking services.
Price: $50.00
Visit WebsiteOpen-source web-based project management software. Offers classic, agile, or hybrid project management. Self-hosted alternative to Jira or Asana.
A free and open-source implementation of classic real-time strategy games. Alternative to subscription-based gaming services.
Open-source animation production software based on Toonz, used by Studio Ghibli. Suitable for 2D animation. Alternative to Toon Boom Harmony or Adobe Animate.
An open-source, easy-to-use FreeBSD based firewall and routing platform. Self-hosted alternative for advanced network management.
A free and open-source, multi-platform desktop application to split, merge, extract pages, mix and rotate PDF files. Alternative for basic PDF manipulation tasks often requiring paid software.
An open-source GUI prototyping tool that's available for all platforms. Easy to install and use to create mockups. Simple alternative to Balsamiq or Visio for wireframing.
The first Open Source design and prototyping platform meant for cross-domain teams. Web-based and adheres to open standards (SVG). Alternative to Figma or Sketch.
A free, open source customized distribution of FreeBSD tailored for use as a firewall and router. Managed via web interface. Powerful self-hosted alternative to commercial firewall appliances.
A server-based application for Browse, organizing, and sharing your personal photo collection. Uses AI for tagging. Self-hosted alternative to Google Photos or iCloud Photos.
A free flat-forum bulletin board software solution that can be used to stay in touch with a group of people or power your entire website. Self-hosted forum software. Alternative to XenForo or vBulletin.
A simple CalDAV (calendar) and CardDAV (contact) server. Allows sharing calendars and contact lists over the network. Self-hosted alternative to Google Calendar/Contacts backend or proprietary calendar servers.
An open-source application providing container management and Kubernetes on the desktop. Allows choosing between containerd or Moby (dockerd) runtime. Alternative to Docker Desktop, especially after licensing changes.
An open-source team communication platform enabling secure conversations across web, desktop, and mobile. Self-hostable alternative to Slack or Microsoft Teams.
Open-source remote desktop software, written in Rust. Aims to be an open alternative to TeamViewer or AnyDesk, offering self-hosting options.
A free and open-source desktop publishing application. Powerful alternative to Adobe InDesign or QuarkXPress for creating professional page layouts.
An open-source, self-hosted file syncing and sharing solution with high performance and reliability. Focuses on team collaboration but works for personal use. Alternative to Dropbox Business or self-hosted Nextcloud/ownCloud.
A free and open-source program that lets you capture or record any area of your screen and share it with a single press of a key. Packed with features. Alternative to SnagIt or paid screenshot tools.
A free, open-source, cross-platform video editor. Supports a wide range of formats and offers a good balance of features for beginners and intermediate users. Alternative to simple paid editors or iMovie/Windows Movie Maker.
A free, open-source, and completely encrypted notes app. Focuses on simplicity, longevity, and privacy. Alternative to Evernote or Simplenote with a strong privacy angle.
A fast, web-based, JavaScript-driven SVG drawing editor. Works in any modern browser. Simple alternative to Inkscape for basic SVG work.
A continuous file synchronization program that works across multiple devices. Alternative to cloud storage services.
A free and open-source desktop email client developed by Mozilla. Manages multiple email accounts, calendars, and contacts locally. Alternative to Microsoft Outlook (desktop version).
Free open source disk encryption software for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux. Successor to TrueCrypt. Used for creating encrypted volumes or encrypting entire partitions/drives. Alternative to BitLocker (Windows Pro/Enterprise) or paid encryption tools.
A free and open-source hosted hypervisor for x86 virtualization. Allows running multiple operating systems simultaneously on one computer. Alternative to VMware Workstation Player (free for non-commercial) or Parallels Desktop (paid).
A free, highly popular source-code editor developed by Microsoft. Excellent for web development, scripting, and general programming. Alternative to Sublime Text (paid license) or JetBrains IDEs (subscription).
A free, open-source, cross-platform multimedia player that plays most multimedia files as well as DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols.
An open-source, self-hosted Trello-like kanban board application. Built with Meteor framework. Alternative to Trello or Asana for visual task management.
A free, online and open source tool for creating beautiful user flow prototypes. No Photoshop skills required. Simple alternative to Balsamiq or Miro for user flows.
An extremely simple yet fast and modern VPN that utilizes state-of-the-art cryptography. Can be self-hosted or configured manually with providers. Protocol alternative to OpenVPN/IPsec often used by paid VPN services.
A full-featured mind mapping and brainstorming tool. Helps visually organize information, manage complexity, and capture ideas. Offers a free version. Alternative to MindManager or MindNode.
A free and open-source Markdown editor for researchers, journalists, and writers focusing on academic or complex writing.