10 free GitHub repos that replace paid software
10 GitHub projects you can run yourself instead of paying for Auth0, BigCommerce, Pipedream and 7 more — $2,594 a year in subscriptions between them.
All 10 repos, with prices and links
01SSO
Authentik
Instead of
Auth0“The authentication glue you need.”
- Auth0 costs
- $35/mo · Essentials planPrinted as “$ 35 / month” on their pricing page, read 28 Sep 2026.
- Over a year
- $420Computed: $35 × 12.
- Authentik costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 25.8k stars · 624 contributorsLast commit 28 Sep 2026, per GitHub on 28 Sep 2026.
02Storefronts
Saleor
Instead of
BigCommerce“Saleor Core: the high performance, composable, headless commerce API.”
- BigCommerce costs
- $29/mo · Core plan · billed yearlyPrinted as “$29” on their pricing page, read 29 Sep 2026.
- Over a year
- $348Computed: $29 × 12.
- Saleor costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 23.4k stars · 328 contributorsLast commit 29 Sep 2026, per GitHub on 29 Sep 2026.
03Automation
n8n
Instead of
Pipedream“Fair-code workflow automation platform with native AI capabilities. Combine visual building with custom code, self-host or cloud, 400+ integrations.”
- Pipedream costs
- $29/mo · Basic planPrinted as “$29/mo” on their pricing page, read 29 Sep 2026.
- Over a year
- $348Computed: $29 × 12.
- n8n costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 206k stars · 807 contributorsLast commit 29 Sep 2026, per GitHub on 29 Sep 2026.
- Xero costs
- $25/mo · Early planPrinted as “$25 per month” on their pricing page, read 29 Sep 2026.
- Over a year
- $300Computed: $25 × 12.
- Akaunting costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 10.2k stars · 136 contributorsLast commit 29 Sep 2026, per GitHub on 29 Sep 2026.
05Hosting
CapRover
Instead of
Render“Scalable PaaS (automated Docker+nginx) - aka Heroku on Steroids”
- Render costs
- $25/mo · Pro planPrinted as “$25/mo” on their pricing page, read 29 Sep 2026.
- Over a year
- $300Computed: $25 × 12.
- CapRover costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 15.2k stars · 77 contributorsLast commit 23 Sep 2026, per GitHub on 29 Sep 2026.
06Databases
NocoBase
Instead of
Airtable“NocoBase is an open-source AI + no-code platform for building business systems fast. Instead of generating everything from scratch, AI works on top of production-proven infrastructure and a WYSIWYG no-code interface, so you get both speed and reliability.”
- Airtable costs
- $20/seat/mo · Team planPrinted as “$20USD per seat/month billed annually” on their pricing page, read 28 Sep 2026.
- Over a year
- $240 per userComputed: $20 × 12.
- NocoBase costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 24.4k stars · 110 contributorsLast commit 28 Sep 2026, per GitHub on 28 Sep 2026.
07Publishing
Ghost
Instead of
Squarespace“Independent technology for modern publishing, memberships, subscriptions and newsletters.”
- Squarespace costs
- $19/mo · Basic planPrinted as “$19 /mo” on their pricing page, read 29 Sep 2026.
- Over a year
- $228Computed: $19 × 12.
- Ghost costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 55.5k stars · 927 contributorsLast commit 29 Sep 2026, per GitHub on 29 Sep 2026.
08Observability
OpenObserve
Instead of
Datadog“Open source observability platform for logs, metrics, traces, RUM (web, android, ios), Session replay, pipelines, SLO and LLM observability. A sophisticated, simple and highly performant alternative to Datadog, Splunk, and Elasticsearch with 140x lower storage costs and single binary deployment.”
- Datadog costs
- $15/host/mo · Pro planPrinted as “$ 15” on their pricing page, read 28 Sep 2026.
- Over a year
- $180Computed: $15 × 12.
- OpenObserve costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 22.2k stars · 158 contributorsLast commit 28 Sep 2026, per GitHub on 28 Sep 2026.
09Video calls
Jitsi
Instead of
Zoom“Jitsi Meet - Secure, Simple and Scalable Video Conferences that you use as a standalone app or embed in your web application.”
- Zoom costs
- $14.16/user/mo · Pro planPrinted as “$14.16 /user per month” on their pricing page, read 29 Sep 2026.
- Over a year
- $170 per userComputed: $14.16 × 12.
- Jitsi costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 30k stars · 774 contributorsLast commit 29 Sep 2026, per GitHub on 29 Sep 2026.
10Deploys
Dokku
Instead of
Railway“A docker-powered PaaS that helps you build and manage the lifecycle of applications”
- Railway costs
- $5/mo · Hobby planPrinted as “$5 credits, then” on their pricing page, read 29 Sep 2026.
- Over a year
- $60Computed: $5 × 12.
- Dokku costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 32.2k stars · 597 contributorsLast commit 29 Sep 2026, per GitHub on 29 Sep 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 2026-09-28 and 2026-09-29, 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. 10 of 10 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 10 free tools describe themselves, in their maintainers' own words, as an alternative to the tool they sit beside. The other 9 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 twelve 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.
