Save $6,904/year. Use these free tools instead.
12 paid tools and a free, self-hostable alternative for each — $575.32 a month, $6,904 a year between them.
All 12 tools, with prices and links
01Headless CMS
Strapi
Instead of
Contentful“Strapi is the leading open-source headless CMS. It’s 100% JavaScript/TypeScript, fully customizable, and developer-first.”
- Contentful costs
- $300/mo · Lite planPrinted as “$300 / month” on their pricing page, read 25 Aug 2026.
- Over a year
- $3,600Computed: $300 × 12.
- Strapi costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 73k stars · 1,380 contributorsLast commit 25 Aug 2026, per GitHub on 25 Aug 2026.
02SEO research
Open SEO
Instead of
Semrush“Open source alternative to Semrush and Ahrefs”
- Semrush costs
- $117.33/mo · SEO planPrinted as “$117.33 monthly” on their pricing page, read 25 Aug 2026.
- Over a year
- $1,408Computed: $117.33 × 12.
- Open SEO costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 13.5k stars · 18 contributorsLast commit 23 Aug 2026, per GitHub on 25 Aug 2026.
03Authentication
SuperTokens
Instead of
Auth0“Open source alternative to Auth0 / Firebase Auth / AWS Cognito”
- Auth0 costs
- $35/mo · ESSENTIALS planPrinted as “$ 35 / month” on their pricing page, read 25 Aug 2026.
- Over a year
- $420Computed: $35 × 12.
- SuperTokens costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 15.3k stars · 40 contributorsLast commit 25 Aug 2026, per GitHub on 25 Aug 2026.
04Deployment
Dokploy
Instead of
Vercel“Open Source Alternative to Vercel, Netlify and Heroku.”
- Vercel costs
- $20/mo · Pro planPrinted as “$20 /mo” on their pricing page, read 25 Aug 2026.
- Over a year
- $240Computed: $20 × 12.
- Dokploy costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 36.9k stars · 381 contributorsLast commit 24 Aug 2026, per GitHub on 25 Aug 2026.
05Databases
APITable
Instead of
Airtable“APITable, an API-oriented low-code platform for building collaborative apps and better than all other Airtable open-source alternatives.”
- Airtable costs
- $20/user/mo · Team planPrinted as “$20USD per seat/month billed annually” on their pricing page, read 25 Aug 2026.
- Over a year
- $240 per userComputed: $20 × 12.
- APITable costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 15.6k stars · 74 contributorsLast commit 29 Oct 2025, per GitHub on 25 Aug 2026.
06Automation
Windmill
Instead of
Zapier“Open-source developer platform to power your entire infra and turn scripts into webhooks, workflows and UIs. Fastest workflow engine (13x vs Airflow). Open-source alternative to Retool and Temporal.”
- Zapier costs
- $19.99/mo · Professional planPrinted as “$19.99 /month” on their pricing page, read 25 Aug 2026.
- Over a year
- $240Computed: $19.99 × 12.
- Windmill costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 17.7k stars · 169 contributorsLast commit 25 Aug 2026, per GitHub on 25 Aug 2026.
07Screen recording
Cap
Instead of
Loom“Open source Loom alternative. Beautiful, shareable screen recordings.”
- Loom costs
- $18/user/mo · Business planPrinted as “$18 per user” on their pricing page, read 25 Aug 2026.
- Over a year
- $216 per userComputed: $18 × 12.
- Cap costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 21.2k stars · 77 contributorsLast commit 25 Aug 2026, per GitHub on 25 Aug 2026.
08E-signatures
Documenso
Instead of
DocuSign“The Open Source DocuSign Alternative.”
- DocuSign costs
- $11/mo · Personal planPrinted as “$ 11 /month” on their pricing page, read 25 Aug 2026.
- Over a year
- $132Computed: $11 × 12.
- Documenso costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 14.8k stars · 185 contributorsLast commit 25 Aug 2026, per GitHub on 25 Aug 2026.
09Issue tracking
Plane
Instead of
Linear“Open-source Jira, Linear, Monday, and ClickUp alternative. Plane is a modern project management platform to manage tasks, sprints, docs, and triage.”
- Linear costs
- $10/user/mo · Basic planPrinted as “$10 per user/month” on their pricing page, read 25 Aug 2026.
- Over a year
- $120 per userComputed: $10 × 12.
- Plane costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 58.3k stars · 161 contributorsLast commit 25 Aug 2026, per GitHub on 25 Aug 2026.
10Scheduling
Cal.com
Instead of
Calendly“Scheduling infrastructure for absolutely everyone.”
- Calendly costs
- $10/user/mo · Standard planPrinted as “$10 /seat/mo” on their pricing page, read 25 Aug 2026.
- Over a year
- $120 per userComputed: $10 × 12.
- Cal.com costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 47.9k stars · 969 contributorsLast commit 8 Aug 2026, per GitHub on 25 Aug 2026.
11API testing
Hoppscotch
Instead of
Postman“Open-Source API Development Ecosystem Offline, On-Prem & Cloud Web, Desktop & CLI Open-Source Alternative to Postman, Insomnia”
- Postman costs
- $9/mo · Solo planPrinted as “$9 per month” on their pricing page, read 25 Aug 2026.
- Over a year
- $108Computed: $9 × 12.
- Hoppscotch costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 80.1k stars · 353 contributorsLast commit 25 Aug 2026, per GitHub on 25 Aug 2026.
12Kanban boards
Planka
Instead of
Trello“PLANKA is the Kanban-style project mastering tool for everyone”
- Trello costs
- $5/user/mo · STANDARD planPrinted as “$5 a month” on their pricing page, read 25 Aug 2026.
- Over a year
- $60 per userComputed: $5 × 12.
- Planka costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 12.4k stars · 157 contributorsLast commit 10 Aug 2026, per GitHub on 25 Aug 2026.
Free of licence, not free of cost.
Self-hosting means a server and the time to run it. The free tools here cost $0 to license; the paid prices are the cheapest paid tier in US dollars on the day shown, and they change. “Open source” is only shown where the repository declares an OSI-approved licence.
How these were checked
Every price was read off the vendor's own pricing page, rendered in a real browser on 2026-08-25, taking the cheapest paid tier in US dollars. The page and the date are listed against each one below, so you can check any of them yourself.
Quoted or computed. Each entry shows the price as the page prints it. 12 of 12 appear on the vendor's page word for word. Anything worked out from those figures is labelled computed and shows its arithmetic, so a number we calculated cannot be mistaken for one a vendor published. The only computed figures here are the yearly costs and the totals.
8 of the 12 free tools describe themselves, in their maintainers' own words, as an alternative to the tool they sit beside. The other 4 do not name theirs, so those pairings are not their maintainers' claim, and each one says so. Every description is quoted underneath its tool. Stars, contributors and last commit came from the GitHub API on the same day as the prices.
One project has gone quiet — more than 90 days without a commit: APITable (300 days ago). That is a reason to look before switching, and it is why the figure is here rather than left out.
Self-hosting is not free of cost — it is free of licence. A server and the time to run it are yours to pay either way, and nothing below pretends otherwise.
