10 free GitHub repos that replace paid software
10 GitHub projects you can run yourself instead of paying for Honeycomb, CustomGPT, Gusto and 7 more — $4,608 a year in subscriptions between them.
All 10 repos, with prices and links
01Tracing
Jaeger
Instead of
Honeycomb“CNCF Jaeger, a Distributed Tracing Platform”
- Honeycomb costs
- $150/mo · Pro planPrinted as “$150 per month” on their pricing page, read 11 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $1,800Computed: $150 × 12.
- Jaeger costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 23.3k stars · 527 contributorsLast commit 11 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 11 Oct 2026.
02Document AI
AnythingLLM
Instead of
CustomGPT“Stop renting your intelligence. Own it with AnythingLLM. Everything you need for a powerful local-first agent experience”
- CustomGPT costs
- $99/mo · Standard planPrinted as “$99/mo” on their pricing page, read 11 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $1,188Computed: $99 × 12.
- AnythingLLM costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 67k stars · 266 contributorsLast commit 11 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 11 Oct 2026.
- Gusto costs
- $49/mo · Simple planPrinted as “$49/mo” on their pricing page, read 11 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $588Computed: $49 × 12.
- Frappe HR costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 8.9k stars · 276 contributorsLast commit 11 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 11 Oct 2026.
04DevOps platform
OneDev
Instead of
GitLab“The Unified and Autonomous Development Platform”
- GitLab costs
- $29/user/mo · Premium planPrinted as “$ 29 per user/month, billed annually” on their pricing page, read 11 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $348 per userComputed: $29 × 12.
- OneDev costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 15.3k stars · 61 contributorsLast commit 11 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 11 Oct 2026.
05Photo hosting
PhotoPrism
Instead of
SmugMug“AI-Powered Photos App”
- SmugMug costs
- $20/mo · Direct planPrinted as “$20” on their pricing page, read 12 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $240Computed: $20 × 12.
- PhotoPrism costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 40.3k stars · 199 contributorsLast commit 12 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 12 Oct 2026.
06PDF tools
Stirling-PDF
Instead of
Smallpdf“#1 PDF Application on GitHub that lets you edit PDFs on any device anywhere”
- Smallpdf costs
- $12/seat/mo · Team planPrinted as “$12” on their pricing page, read 11 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $144 per userComputed: $12 × 12.
- Stirling-PDF costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 94.1k stars · 315 contributorsLast commit 11 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 11 Oct 2026.
07Invoicing
Invoice Ninja
Instead of
Bonsai“A source-available invoice, quote, project and time-tracking app built with Laravel”
- Bonsai costs
- $9/user/mo · Basic planPrinted as “$9/user/month” on their pricing page, read 12 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $108 per userComputed: $9 × 12.
- Invoice Ninja costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 10.3k stars · 116 contributorsLast commit 10 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 12 Oct 2026.
08Help desk
UVdesk
Instead of
Zoho Desk“UVdesk Open Source Community Helpdesk is a comprehensive ticketing support system designed for everyone, offering robust features to streamline customer support and collaboration.”
- Zoho Desk costs
- $7/user/mo · Express plan · billed yearlyPrinted as “$7” on their pricing page, read 12 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $84 per userComputed: $7 × 12.
- UVdesk costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 19.6k stars · 46 contributorsLast commit 7 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 12 Oct 2026.
09Short links
YOURLS
Instead of
Short.io“The standard, self hosted, powerful and customizable, URL shortener in PHP”
- Short.io costs
- $5/mo · Hobby planPrinted as “$ 5 /month” on their pricing page, read 11 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $60Computed: $5 × 12.
- YOURLS costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 12.3k stars · 110 contributorsLast commit 11 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 11 Oct 2026.
10Team chat
Rocket.Chat
Instead of
Microsoft Teams“The Secure CommsOS for mission-critical operations”
- Microsoft Teams costs
- $4/user/mo · Microsoft Teams Essentials planPrinted as “$4” on their pricing page, read 12 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $48 per userComputed: $4 × 12.
- Rocket.Chat costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 46.2k stars · 1,105 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. 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.
