Find the Right Open Source Software for Everything.
Independent, in-depth guides to the best open source and self-hosted tools, from CRM and databases to VPNs and Linux. Compare your options, understand how they work, and set them up yourself.
Software You Own, Explained Clearly
Open source software gives you full control of your tools and your data, without per-seat fees or vendor lock-in. We cover the projects that matter across every category, with honest comparisons and practical setup guidance.
Thirty Guides Across Three Areas
Every guide compares the leading open source projects, weighs the trade-offs, and shows you how to deploy and run them on your own infrastructure.
Business & Productivity
10 Guides
- CRM
- ERP
- Accounting
- HR Software
- Business Intelligence
- Project Management
- Help Desk
- CMS
- LMS
- Office Suites
Honest Guides, No Sponsored Rankings
We recommend tools on their merits, not on who pays the most. Every guide is built to help you make a real decision and actually get the software running.
Built for People Who Self-Host
Proprietary software keeps your data on someone else's servers and raises prices whenever it likes. Open source flips that: the code is yours to inspect, modify, and run wherever you choose. For a growing number of businesses and individuals, that control is the whole point.
Our guides go past the marketing. We explain how each project actually works, compare the real contenders head to head, cover the licensing and security questions that matter, and walk through deployment so you can move from reading to running.
What Every Guide Gives You
- ✓ Side-by-side comparisons of the leading projects
- ✓ Clear self-hosting and deployment steps
- ✓ Licensing, cost, and security in plain language
- ✓ Honest trade-offs, not a sales pitch
- ✓ Updated for the projects that matter in 2026
Open Source Is Better Together
Ask questions, share your self-hosted setups, and compare notes with other people who run their own tools. Our community is open to everyone, from first-time self-hosters to seasoned sysadmins.
Visit the CommunityOpen Source Groups is part of AI Apps API, where we build and write about the software that gives people more control over their technology.