definitive-opensource
A definitive list of the best of everything open source
Why another list?
There's plenty of awesome lists on GitHub, many focusing on open source specifically. However I've found them to be either far too cluttered with long-deprecated apps or missing a lot of modern open source projects.
This list aims to be highly curated including only the best open source projects. This is, to some extent guaged with popularity. Only projects with over 5000 stars are generally included, however there can be exceptions. There's plenty of extraordinary projects with just a couple thousand stars.
Guaging the quality of software based on popularity alone is not the best way, I do admit, but to keep this list functioning at scale it is the most reliable method.
Contents
Applications
Terminal
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| Kitty |
Cross-platform, fast, feature-rich, GPU based terminal |
Cross-platform |
24.2k |
| Wezterm |
A GPU-accelerated cross-platform terminal emulator and multiplexer written by @wez and implemented in Rust |
Cross-platform |
17.2k |
| Waveterm |
An open-source, cross-platform terminal for seamless workflows |
Cross-platform |
4.2k |
| Alacritty |
A cross-platform, OpenGL terminal emulator. |
Cross-platform |
56k |
| Hyper |
A terminal built on web technologies |
Cross-platform |
43.3k |
| Tabby |
A terminal for a more modern age |
Cross-platform |
58.8k |
Code-editor
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| Zed |
Code at the speed of thought – Zed is a high-performance, multiplayer code editor from the creators of Atom and Tree-sitter. |
MacOS |
48.4k |
| Helix |
A post-modern modal text editor. |
Cross-platform |
33.4k |
| Lapce |
Lightning-fast and Powerful Code Editor written in Rust |
Cross-platform |
34.4k |
| Vim |
The official Vim repository |
Cross-platform |
36.4k |
| Neovim |
Vim-fork focused on extensibility and usability |
Cross-platform |
82.5k |
| Lunarvim |
🌙 LunarVim is an IDE layer for Neovim. Completely free and community driven. |
Cross-platform |
18.2k |
| Spacevim |
A modular Vim/Neovim configuration |
Cross-platform |
20.3k |
| Nvchad |
Blazing fast Neovim config providing solid defaults and a beautiful UI, enhancing your neovim experience. |
Cross-platform |
24.6k |
| VSCode |
Visual Studio Code |
Cross-platform |
163k |
| VSCodium |
binary releases of VS Code without MS branding/telemetry/licensing |
Cross-platform |
25.2k |
| CodeEdit |
CodeEdit App for macOS – Elevate your code editing experience. Open source, free forever. |
MacOS |
21k |
IDE
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| IntelliJ Community |
IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition & IntelliJ Platform |
Cross-platform |
17.2k |
LLM-Gui
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| Open-webui |
User-friendly AI Interface (Supports Ollama, OpenAI API, ...) |
Cross-platform |
42.9k |
| gpt4all |
GPT4All: Run Local LLMs on Any Device. Open-source and available for commercial use. |
Cross-platform |
70k |
| Jan |
Jan is an open source alternative to ChatGPT that runs 100% offline on your computer. Multiple engine support (llama.cpp, TensorRT-LLM) |
MacOS, Linux |
22.7k |
| Lobe-chat |
🤯 Lobe Chat - an open-source, modern-design AI chat framework. Supports Multi AI Providers( OpenAI / Claude 3 / Gemini / Ollama / Azure / DeepSeek), Knowledge Base (file upload / knowledge management / RAG ), Multi-Modals (Vision/TTS) and plugin system. One-click FREE deployment of your private ChatGPT/ Claude application. |
Cross-platform |
42.8k |
| Chatbox |
User-friendly Desktop Client App for AI Models/LLMs (GPT, Claude, Gemini, Ollama...) |
Cross-platform |
21.2k |
| Text Generation WebUI |
A Gradio web UI for Large Language Models. |
Cross-platform |
40.1k |
Browser
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| Zen |
🌀 Experience tranquillity while browsing the web without people tracking you! |
Cross-platform |
14.9k |
| Brave |
Brave browser for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows. |
Cross-platform |
17.7k |
| Ladybird |
Truly independent web browser |
Pre-Alpha |
21k |
Graphics
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| Graphite |
2D vector & raster editor that melds traditional layers & tools with a modern node-based, non-destructive, procedural workflow. |
Browser |
7.9k |
| FreeCAD |
This is the official source code of FreeCAD, a free and opensource multiplatform 3D parametric modeler. |
Cross-platform |
19.5k |
| Blender |
Official mirror of Blender |
Cross-platform |
13k |
File-Manager
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| Spacedrive |
Spacedrive is an open source cross-platform file explorer, powered by a virtual distributed filesystem written in Rust. |
Cross-platform |
32k |
| Files |
A modern file manager that helps users organize their files and folders. |
Windows |
34.2k |
| nnn |
n³ The unorthodox terminal file manager |
Linux, Android |
19.2k |
| Yazi |
💥 Blazing fast terminal file manager written in Rust, based on async I/O. |
Cross-platform |
15.6k |
| Ranger |
A VIM-inspired filemanager for the console |
Cross-platform |
15.5k |
| Electerm |
📻Terminal/ssh/telnet/serialport/RDP/VNC/sftp client(linux, mac, win) |
Cross-platform |
11.1k |
| If |
Terminal file manager |
Cross-platform |
7.7k |
| Superfile |
Pretty fancy and modern terminal file manager |
Cross-platform |
5.8k |
KnowledgeBase
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| Logseq |
A privacy-first, open-source platform for knowledge management and collaboration. |
Cross-platform |
32.5k |
| Anytype |
Official Anytype client for MacOS, Linux, and Windows |
Cross-platform |
4.3k |
| AppFlowy |
Bring projects, wikis, and teams together with AI. AppFlowy is an AI collaborative workspace where you achieve more without losing control of your data. The best open source alternative to Notion. |
Cross-platform |
59.6k |
| Affine |
There can be more than Notion and Miro. AFFiNE(pronounced [ə‘fain]) is a next-gen knowledge base that brings planning, sorting and creating all together. Privacy first, open-source, customizable and ready to use. |
Cross-platform |
41.3k |
| Outline) |
The fastest knowledge base for growing teams. Beautiful, realtime collaborative, feature packed, and markdown compatible. |
Cross-platform |
27.8k |
| Siyuan |
A privacy-first, self-hosted, fully open source personal knowledge management software, written in typescript and golang. |
Cross-platform |
19.5k |
NoteTaking
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| Joplin |
Joplin - the privacy-focused note taking app with sync capabilities for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS. |
Cross-platform |
45.5k |
| Notesnook |
A fully open source & end-to-end encrypted note taking alternative to Evernote. |
Cross-platform |
9.7k |
| Trilium |
Build your personal knowledge base with Trilium Notes |
Cross-platform |
27.1k |
Markdown
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| Zettlr |
Your One-Stop Publication Workbench |
Cross-platform |
10.3k |
The following also support markdown editing but have been placed in the knowledge base category.
ProjectManagement
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| Plane |
🔥 🔥 🔥 Open Source JIRA, Linear, Monday, and Asana Alternative. Plane helps you track your issues, epics, and product roadmaps in the simplest way possible. |
Cross-platform |
29.8k |
| Focalboard |
Focalboard is an open source, self-hosted alternative to Trello, Notion, and Asana. |
Cross-platform |
21.6k |
| Huly |
Huly — All-in-One Project Management Platform (alternative to Linear, Jira, Slack, Notion, Motion) |
Cross-platform |
14.6k |
| Openproject |
OpenProject is the leading open source project management software. |
Cross-platform |
9.3k |
Productivity
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| Super Productivity |
Super Productivity is an advanced todo list app with integrated Timeboxing and time tracking capabilities. It also comes with integrations for Jira, Gitlab, GitHub and Open Project. |
Cross-platform |
11.7k |
TextEditor
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| Quill |
Quill is a modern WYSIWYG editor built for compatibility and extensibility |
Cross-platform |
43.5k |
AI-Image-GUI
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| DiffusionBee |
Diffusion Bee is the easiest way to run Stable Diffusion locally on your M1 Mac. Comes with a one-click installer. No dependencies or technical knowledge needed. |
MacOS |
12.5k |
| Auto1111 |
Stable Diffusion web UI |
Cross-platform |
141k |
| Upscayl |
🆙 Upscayl - #1 Free and Open Source AI Image Upscaler for Linux, MacOS and Windows. |
Cross-platform |
30.5k |
| ComfyUI |
The most powerful and modular diffusion model GUI, api and backend with a graph/nodes interface. |
Cross-platform |
53.2k |
| InvokeAI |
Invoke is a leading creative engine for Stable Diffusion models, empowering professionals, artists, and enthusiasts to generate and create visual media using the latest AI-driven technologies. The solution offers an industry leading WebUI, and serves as the foundation for multiple commercial products. |
Cross-platform |
23.4k |
| WebUI Forge |
No description, website, or topics provided. |
Cross-platform |
8k |
| Fooocus |
Focus on prompting and generating |
Cross-platform |
40.8k |
| StableSwarmUI |
StableSwarmUI, A Modular Stable Diffusion Web-User-Interface, with an emphasis on making powertools easily accessible, high performance, and extensibility. |
Cross-platform |
4.5k |
| StabilityMatrix |
Multi-Platform Package Manager for Stable Diffusion |
Cross-platform |
4.6k |
Screen-recording
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| OBS Studio |
OBS Studio - Free and open source software for live streaming and screen recording |
Cross-platform |
59.7k |
Games
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| Endless Sky |
Space exploration, trading, and combat game. |
Cross-platform |
5.8k |
| Cataclysm DDA |
Cataclysm - Dark Days Ahead. A turn-based survival game set in a post-apocalyptic world. |
Cross-platform |
10.3k |
| Unciv |
Open-source Android/Desktop remake of Civ V |
Cross-platform |
8.4k |
| Wesnoth |
An open source, turn-based strategy game with a high fantasy theme. |
Cross-platform |
5.5k |
| Hyper |
A terminal built on web technologies |
Cross-platform |
43.3k |
| Tabby |
A terminal for a more modern age |
Cross-platform |
58.8k |
Chat
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| Signal |
A private messenger. |
Cross-platform |
Total: 50k+ |
Video-Editing
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| Kdenlive |
Free and open source video editor, based on MLT Framework and KDE Frameworks |
Cross-platform |
3.1k |
| Shotcut |
cross-platform (Qt), open-source (GPLv3) video editor |
Cross-platform |
10.9k |
| Olive |
Free open-source non-linear video editor |
Cross-platform |
8.2k |
Development
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| Github Desktop |
Focus on what matters instead of fighting with Git. |
Cross-platform |
19.7k |
Password-Manager
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| Bitwarden |
Open source security solutions for individuals, teams, and business organizations. Explore Password Manager, Secrets Manager, and passkey innovations. |
Cross-platform |
Total: 30k+ |
| Keepass |
KeePassXC is a cross-platform community-driven port of the Windows application “Keepass Password Safe”. |
Cross-platform |
21k |
| Olive |
Free open-source non-linear video editor |
Cross-platform |
8.2k |
Game-Engine
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| Godot |
Godot Engine – Multi-platform 2D and 3D game engine |
Cross-platform |
90.2k |
Remote-Desktop
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| Rustdesk |
An open-source remote desktop application designed for self-hosting, as an alternative to TeamViewer. |
Cross-platform |
74.2k |
Virtual-Machine
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| UTM |
Virtual machines for iOS and macOS |
Cross-platform |
26.6k |
Office-Suite
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| OnlyOffice |
An office suite that combines text, spreadsheet and presentation editors allowing to create, view and edit local documents |
Cross-platform |
2.8k |
| LibreOffice |
No description provided. |
Cross-platform |
2.8k |
Utilities
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| Stats |
macOS system monitor in your menu bar |
MacOS |
25.3k |
Package-Manager
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| Homebrew |
macOS system monitor in your menu bar |
MacOS |
25.3k |
| Yarn |
Yarn is a modern package manager split into various packages. Its novel architecture allows to do things currently impossible with existing solutions |
Cross-platform |
7.4k |
| PNPM |
Fast, disk space efficient package manager |
Cross-platform |
29.5k |
| LibreOffice |
No description provided. |
Cross-platform |
2.8k |
| LibreOffice |
No description provided. |
Cross-platform |
2.8k |
Video-Player
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| mpv |
🎥 Command line video player |
Cross-platform |
28.2k |
| iina |
The modern video player for macOS. |
MacOS |
38k |
| VLC |
VLC is a libre and open source media player and multimedia engine, focused on playing everything, and running everywhere. |
Cross-platform |
14k |
Mail
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| Mailspring |
💌 A beautiful, fast and fully open source mail client for Mac, Windows and Linux. |
Cross-platform |
15.5k |
Calendar
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| Cal |
Scheduling infrastructure for absolutely everyone. |
Cross-platform |
31.9k |
Download-Manager
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| GoPeed |
A modern download manager that supports all platforms. Built with Golang and Flutter. |
Cross-platform |
16.3k |
| AB |
A Download Manager that speeds up your downloads |
Cross-platform |
1.5k |
| Motrix |
A full-featured download manager. |
Cross-platform |
45.4k |
| Persepolis |
Persepolis is a download manager written in Python. |
Cross-platform |
6.3k |
| GoPeed |
A modern download manager that supports all platforms. Built with Golang and Flutter. |
Cross-platform |
16.3k |
| AppLite |
User-friendly GUI macOS application for Homebrew Casks |
Cross-platform |
3.9k |
Other
| Name/Link |
Description |
Platform |
Stars |
| Cork |
A fast GUI for Homebrew written in SwiftUI |
Cross-platform |
2.2k |
| AppLite |
User-friendly GUI macOS application for Homebrew Casks |
Cross-platform |
3.9k |
