10 free GitHub repos that replace paid software
10 GitHub projects you can run yourself instead of paying for Autodesk Fusion, Autodesk AutoCAD LT, Microsoft Copilot and 7 more — $2,262 a year in subscriptions between them.
All 10 repos, with prices and links
01Creative
FreeCAD
Instead of
Autodesk Fusion“Official source code of FreeCAD, a free and opensource multiplatform 3D parametric modeler.”
- Autodesk Fusion costs
- $57/mo · Autodesk Fusion planPrinted as “$57/month, billed annually)” on their pricing page, read 14 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $684Computed: $57 × 12.
- FreeCAD costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 34.3k stars · 1,092 contributorsLast commit 14 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 14 Oct 2026.
02Creative
LibreCAD
Instead of
Autodesk AutoCAD LT“LibreCAD is a cross-platform 2D CAD program. It can read DXF/DWG, and write DXF/DWG/PDF/SVG files. It supports point/line/circle/ellipse/parabola/hyperbola/spline primitives. The GUI is highly customizable, and has dozens of translations.”
- Autodesk AutoCAD LT costs
- $45/mo · AutoCAD LT planPrinted as “$45 / month” on their pricing page, read 14 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $540Computed: $45 × 12.
- LibreCAD costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 6.5k stars · 181 contributorsLast commit 14 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 14 Oct 2026.
03AI
LobeChat
Instead of
Microsoft Copilot“LobeHub is your Chief Agent Operator, organizing your agents into 7×24 operations by hiring, scheduling, and reporting on your entire AI team.”
- Microsoft Copilot costs
- $19.99/mo · Microsoft 365 Premium planPrinted as “$19.99/month” on their pricing page, read 14 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $240Computed: $19.99 × 12.
- LobeChat costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 83.2k stars · 362 contributorsLast commit 14 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 14 Oct 2026.
04Creative
OpenShot
Instead of
CapCut“OpenShot Video Editor is an award-winning free and open-source video editor for Linux, Mac, and Windows, and is dedicated to delivering high quality video editing and animation solutions to the world.”
- CapCut costs
- $19.99/mo · Pro planPrinted as “USD 19.99 /month” on their pricing page, read 14 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $240Computed: $19.99 × 12.
- OpenShot costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 6.6k stars · 65 contributorsLast commit 14 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 14 Oct 2026.
05Creative
MediaCMS
Instead of
Vimeo“MediaCMS is a modern, fully featured open source video and media CMS”
- Vimeo costs
- $12/mo · Starter plan · billed yearlyPrinted as “$12 per month, billed annually” on their pricing page, read 14 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $144Computed: $12 × 12.
- MediaCMS costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 5.1k stars · 48 contributorsLast commit 14 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 14 Oct 2026.
06Creative
darktable
Instead of
Adobe Lightroom“darktable is an open source photography workflow application and raw developer”
- Adobe Lightroom costs
- $11.99/mo · Lightroom planPrinted as “$11.99/mo” on their pricing page, read 14 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $144Computed: $11.99 × 12.
- darktable costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 13.3k stars · 731 contributorsLast commit 14 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 14 Oct 2026.
07Gaming
Moonlight
Instead of
Parsec“GameStream client for PCs (Windows, Mac, Linux, and Steam Link)”
- Parsec costs
- $8.33/user/mo · Individuals (Warp) plan · billed yearlyPrinted as “$8.33 per user/month, paid annually” on their pricing page, read 14 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $100 per userComputed: $8.33 × 12.
- Moonlight costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 19.1k stars · 177 contributorsLast commit 14 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 14 Oct 2026.
08Productivity
Memos
Instead of
Evernote“A personal timeline for quick notes. Write short memos, find them later by search, tag, or date. Open source and self-hosted.”
- Evernote costs
- $8.25/mo · Starter planPrinted as “$8.25 / month” on their pricing page, read 14 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $99Computed: $8.25 × 12.
- Memos costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 63.8k stars · 409 contributorsLast commit 14 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 14 Oct 2026.
09Home
Kodi
Instead of
Plex“Kodi is an award-winning free and open source home theater/media center software and entertainment hub for digital media. With its beautiful interface and powerful skinning engine, it's available for Android, BSD, Linux, macOS, iOS, tvOS and Windows.”
- Plex costs
- $2.99/mo · Remote Watch Pass planPrinted as “$2.99” on their pricing page, read 14 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $36Computed: $2.99 × 12.
- Kodi costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 21.3k stars · 1,310 contributorsLast commit 14 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 14 Oct 2026.
10Home
ZoneMinder
Instead of
Wyze“ZoneMinder is a free, open source Closed-circuit television software application developed for Linux which supports IP, USB and Analog cameras.”
- Wyze costs
- $2.99/mo · Cam Plus planPrinted as “$2.99/mo per camera” on their pricing page, read 14 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $36Computed: $2.99 × 12.
- ZoneMinder costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 5.9k stars · 409 contributorsLast commit 14 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 14 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 2026-10-14, 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.
0 of the 10 free tools describe themselves, in their maintainers' own words, as an alternative to the tool they sit beside. The other 10 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 10 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.
