10 free GitHub repos that replace paid software
10 GitHub projects you can run yourself instead of paying for Adobe Substance 3D, Shopify, Mailchimp and 7 more — $2,096 a year in subscriptions between them.
All 10 repos, with prices and links
01Creative
Material Maker
Instead of
Adobe Substance 3D“A procedural textures authoring and 3D model painting tool based on the Godot game engine”
- Adobe Substance 3D costs
- $59.99/mo · Collection for individuals planPrinted as “$59.99/mo” on their pricing page, read 15 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $720Computed: $59.99 × 12.
- Material Maker costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 6k stars · 41 contributorsLast commit 14 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 15 Oct 2026.
02Selling
WooCommerce
Instead of
Shopify“A customizable, open-source ecommerce platform built on WordPress. Build any commerce solution you can imagine.”
- Shopify costs
- $29/mo · Basic planPrinted as “$29/mo” on their pricing page, read 14 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $348Computed: $29 × 12.
- WooCommerce costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 10.5k stars · 2,128 contributorsLast commit 14 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 14 Oct 2026.
03Marketing
listmonk
Instead of
Mailchimp“High performance, self-hosted, newsletter and mailing list manager with a modern dashboard. Single binary app.”
- Mailchimp costs
- $20/mo · Standard planPrinted as “$20/month† per month†” on their pricing page, read 14 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $240Computed: $20 × 12.
- listmonk costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 23.8k stars · 282 contributorsLast commit 14 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 14 Oct 2026.
- Adobe Photoshop costs
- $19.99/mo · Photography planPrinted as “$19.99/mo” on their pricing page, read 14 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $240Computed: $19.99 × 12.
- GIMP costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 6.5k stars · 1,208 contributorsLast commit 14 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 14 Oct 2026.
- Roon costs
- $12.49/mo · Value plan · billed yearlyPrinted as “$12 .49 / month” on their pricing page, read 15 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $150Computed: $12.49 × 12.
- Navidrome costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 24.2k stars · 267 contributorsLast commit 15 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 15 Oct 2026.
06Work
BigBlueButton
Instead of
Webex“A complete web conferencing system for virtual classes and more!”
- Webex costs
- $12/user/mo · Webex Meet planPrinted as “$12 /user/mo” on their pricing page, read 14 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $144 per userComputed: $12 × 12.
- BigBlueButton costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 9.2k stars · 344 contributorsLast commit 14 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 14 Oct 2026.
07AI
Jan
Instead of
ChatGPT“Jan is an open source alternative to ChatGPT that runs 100% offline on your computer.”
- ChatGPT costs
- $8/mo · Go planPrinted as “$8 / month” on their pricing page, read 14 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $96Computed: $8 × 12.
- Jan costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 44.9k stars · 185 contributorsLast commit 14 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 14 Oct 2026.
08Work
ONLYOFFICE
Instead of
Google Workspace“ONLYOFFICE Docs is a free collaborative online office suite comprising viewers and editors for texts, spreadsheets and presentations, forms and PDF, fully compatible with Office Open XML formats:.docx,.xlsx,.pptx and enabling collaborative editing in real time.”
- Google Workspace costs
- $7/user/mo · Starter planPrinted as “$7” on their pricing page, read 14 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $84 per userComputed: $7 × 12.
- ONLYOFFICE costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 7k stars · 21 contributorsLast commit 14 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 14 Oct 2026.
09Creative
Shotcut
Instead of
Wondershare Filmora“cross-platform (Qt), open-source (GPLv3) video editor”
- Wondershare Filmora costs
- $4.17/mo · Basic planPrinted as “$4.17 /mo” on their pricing page, read 14 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $50Computed: $4.17 × 12.
- Shotcut costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 15.4k stars · 81 contributorsLast commit 14 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 14 Oct 2026.
10Storage
ownCloud
Instead of
Microsoft OneDrive“:cloud: ownCloud web server core (Files, DAV, etc.)”
- Microsoft OneDrive costs
- $1.99/mo · Microsoft 365 Basic planPrinted as “$1.99 per month” on their pricing page, read 15 Oct 2026.
- Over a year
- $24Computed: $1.99 × 12.
- ownCloud costs
- $0 licence, self-hostedYour server and your time are not free.
- Maintenance
- 8.8k stars · 694 contributorsLast commit 14 Oct 2026, per GitHub on 15 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 and 2026-10-15, 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 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.
