Save $7,840/year. Use these free tools instead.
12 paid tools and a free, self-hostable alternative for each — $653.33 a month, $7,840 a year between them.
All 12 tools, with prices and links
01Vulnerability scanning
Trivy
Instead of
Aikido Security“Find vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, secrets, SBOM in containers, Kubernetes, code repositories, clouds and more”
- Aikido Security costs
- $350/mo · Basic planPrinted as “$350 / month” on their pricing page, read 11 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $4,200Computed: $350 × 12.
- Trivy costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 38.4k stars · 556 contributorsLast commit 11 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 11 Oct 2026.
02Headless CMS
Payload
Instead of
Storyblok“Payload is the open-source, fullstack Next.js framework, giving you instant backend superpowers. Get a full TypeScript backend and admin panel instantly. Use Payload as a headless CMS or for building powerful applications.”
- Storyblok costs
- $99/mo · Growth planPrinted as “$99” on their pricing page, read 12 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $1,188Computed: $99 × 12.
- Payload costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 45.2k stars · 587 contributorsLast commit 10 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 12 Oct 2026.
03Community
Discourse
Instead of
Circle“A platform for community discussion. Free, open, simple.”
- Circle costs
- $89/mo · Professional planPrinted as “$89 /mo*” on their pricing page, read 11 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $1,068Computed: $89 × 12.
- Discourse costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 48k stars · 1,198 contributorsLast commit 11 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 11 Oct 2026.
04Surveys
LimeSurvey
Instead of
SurveyMonkey“LimeSurvey – A powerful, open-source survey platform. A free alternative to SurveyMonkey, Typeform, Qualtrics, and Google Forms, making it simple to create online surveys and forms with unmatched flexibility.”
- SurveyMonkey costs
- $30/user/mo · Team Advantage planPrinted as “$30/ user” on their pricing page, read 12 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $360 per userComputed: $30 × 12.
- LimeSurvey costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 3.8k stars · 383 contributorsLast commit 12 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 12 Oct 2026.
05Error tracking
Sentry
Instead of
Honeybadger“Developer-first error tracking and performance monitoring”
- Honeybadger costs
- $26/mo · Team planPrinted as “$26 /mo” on their pricing page, read 12 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $312Computed: $26 × 12.
- Sentry costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 45.5k stars · 1,098 contributorsLast commit 12 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 12 Oct 2026.
06Appointments
Easy!Appointments
Instead of
Acuity“:date: Easy!Appointments - Self Hosted Appointment Scheduler”
- Acuity costs
- $16/mo · Starter planPrinted as “$16/ month” on their pricing page, read 11 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $192Computed: $16 × 12.
- Easy!Appointments costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 4.4k stars · 112 contributorsLast commit 11 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 11 Oct 2026.
07E-commerce
Vendure
Instead of
Big Cartel“Open-source headless commerce platform built with TypeScript, NestJS, React, and GraphQL”
- Big Cartel costs
- $15/mo · Platinum planPrinted as “$15/mo” on their pricing page, read 12 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $180Computed: $15 × 12.
- Vendure costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 8.5k stars · 314 contributorsLast commit 12 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 12 Oct 2026.
08Time tracking
Kimai
Instead of
Toggl“Kimai is the #1 open-source time-tracking application. From freelancers to companies and organisations - everyone can manage timesheets, generate reports, create invoices and so much more... Web-based multi-user application, available as On-Premise or SaaS version:”
- Toggl costs
- $9/user/mo · Starter planPrinted as “$9 per user per month” on their pricing page, read 11 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $108 per userComputed: $9 × 12.
- Kimai costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 5.1k stars · 87 contributorsLast commit 11 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 11 Oct 2026.
09Personal finance
Firefly III
Instead of
Monarch Money“Firefly III: a personal finances manager”
- Monarch Money costs
- $8.33/mo · Core planPrinted as “$8.33/month billed” on their pricing page, read 11 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $100Computed: $8.33 × 12.
- Firefly III costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 24.9k stars · 204 contributorsLast commit 11 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 11 Oct 2026.
- Twingate costs
- $5/user/mo · Teams planPrinted as “$5 per user per month” on their pricing page, read 11 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $60 per userComputed: $5 × 12.
- Pritunl costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 5k stars · 42 contributorsLast commit 29 Sep 2026, per GitHub on 11 Oct 2026.
11Email hosting
Mailcow
Instead of
Fastmail“mailcow: dockerized - + =”
- Fastmail costs
- $5/mo · Individual planPrinted as “$5 per month” on their pricing page, read 11 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $60Computed: $5 × 12.
- Mailcow costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 13.6k stars · 384 contributorsLast commit 5 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 11 Oct 2026.
12Video calls
MiroTalk
Instead of
Zoho Meeting“Open-source, self-hosted P2P WebRTC video conferencing for fast, private real-time communication. Create browser-based meeting rooms with no downloads or time limits, plus screen sharing, chat, whiteboard, recording, and collaboration.”
- Zoho Meeting costs
- $1/host/mo · STANDARD plan · billed yearlyPrinted as “$1” on their pricing page, read 12 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $12Computed: $1 × 12.
- MiroTalk costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 4.8k stars · 32 contributorsLast commit 12 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 12 Oct 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 2026-10-11 and 2026-10-12, 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.
1 of the 12 free tools describe themselves, in their maintainers' own words, as an alternative to the tool they sit beside. The other 11 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.
All 12 free projects had been committed to within the last 90 days.
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.
