OSSDrop

Drop your open-source tool. Discover, share, and discuss open-source software — a curated home for the tools developers actually use.

_{AI & Coding Agents · Developer Tools & CLI · Web & APIs · Data & Databases · DevOps & Self-Hosted · Files & Sync · Security & Privacy · Productivity · Notes & Knowledge · Communication & Social · Automation & IoT · Finance & Business · Science & Education · Creator / Media}

What is OSSDrop?

OSSDrop is a curated home for open-source tools — a community-maintained place to discover, share, and discuss developer tools, self-hosted apps, and libraries. Makers drop their own project with a single pull request. Every entry is a real open-source project: public repository, OSI license, honest one-line description. Star counts, icons, and trending update automatically, and no placement on this list is paid.

Browse by category below, explore the same tools ranked at ossdrop.com, discuss on r/OSSDrop, or drop your tool — it takes one PR and it's free.

Trending this week

_{The biggest star gains among listed tools in the last 7 days — measured, not editorialized.}

  

Most starred

_{The heaviest hitters on the list — recomputed nightly.}

  

AI & Coding Agents

Tool	What it is	License	Stars	Links
Ollama	Run open large language models locally with a simple CLI and API — pull a model and start chatting or building.			code
Transformers	Hugging Face's library of pretrained models for text, vision, and audio — the standard toolkit for transformer models.			code
Codex CLI	Terminal-based coding agent from OpenAI that reads, edits, and runs code in your local repository.			code
OpenHands	AI agent platform that writes code, runs shell commands, and browses the web to complete software engineering tasks.			code
MetaGPT	Multi-agent framework that simulates a software company's roles to turn one-line requirements into code.			code
Open Interpreter	Terminal coding agent that lets open models such as DeepSeek, Kimi, and Qwen read, write, and run code.			code
Cline	Autonomous coding agent for VS Code that can create and edit files, run terminal commands, and use a browser.			code
crewAI	Framework for orchestrating role-based, collaborative multi-agent workflows, built independent of LangChain.			code
Goose	Extensible AI agent that can install, execute, edit, and test code locally with any LLM backend.			code
Grok-1	Open-weights release of xAI's 314B-parameter Grok-1 large language model, with JAX example code.			code
Aider	AI pair programming in your terminal; edits files in your local git repo and commits as it goes.			code · docs
LangGraph	Low-level framework from the LangChain team for building stateful, multi-step AI agents as graphs.			code
Continue	Open-source AI coding assistant for VS Code and JetBrains that works with the models you choose.			code
Gemma	Google DeepMind's open-weight LLM library, with JAX tooling to run and fine-tune the Gemma models.			code
RecurrentGemma	Google DeepMind's open-weight language model based on the Griffin architecture for fast, memory-efficient inference.			code
projectmem	Local-first, event-sourced memory + judgment layer for AI coding agents; warns before repeating a failed fix.			code · paper

Developer Tools & CLI

Tool	What it is	License	Stars	Links
VS Code	Microsoft's open-source code editor with rich extensions, debugging, and Git — the core of Visual Studio Code.			code
Go	Google's open-source programming language for building simple, reliable, and efficient software.			code
Neovim	Hyperextensible, Vim-based text editor with a built-in language server client and Lua scripting.			code
Playwright	Microsoft's framework for reliable end-to-end browser testing across Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit.			code
MCP Servers	Reference server implementations for the Model Context Protocol, the open standard connecting AI assistants to tools and data.			code
Zed	High-performance, multiplayer code editor written in Rust, from the creators of Atom and Tree-sitter.			code
fzf	General-purpose command-line fuzzy finder for files, history, and processes; integrates with the shell and Vim.			code
lazygit	Simple terminal UI for Git commands.			code
act	Runs GitHub Actions workflows locally in Docker, for testing CI before pushing.			code
ripgrep	Fast recursive regex search over directories that respects your .gitignore.			code
bat	A cat clone with syntax highlighting and Git integration.			code
Starship	Fast, customizable command-line prompt for any shell — shows git status, versions, and context at a glance.			code
lazydocker	A terminal UI for managing Docker containers, images, and volumes.			code
Helix	A modal terminal text editor with built-in LSP support, in the tradition of Vim and Kakoune.			code
fd	A simple, user-friendly alternative to the Unix find command for searching files.			code
zoxide	A smarter cd command that learns your most-used directories, for faster navigation.			code
k9s	A terminal UI for interacting with and managing Kubernetes clusters.			code
delta	A syntax-highlighting pager for git, diff, grep, and blame output.			code
Atuin	Replaces default shell history with a searchable database that can sync across machines.			code

Web & APIs

Tool	What it is	License	Stars	Links
React	Meta's JavaScript library for building user interfaces from reusable components.			code
Flutter	Google's UI toolkit for building natively compiled apps for mobile, web, and desktop from one codebase.			code
Next.js	Vercel's React framework for production — full-stack rendering, routing, and built-in optimizations.			code
Supabase	Open-source Firebase alternative: a Postgres database with auth, storage, realtime, and auto-generated APIs.			code
FastAPI	Modern, high-performance Python web framework for building APIs, with automatic docs and type validation.			code
Bun	Fast all-in-one JavaScript runtime, bundler, test runner, and package manager, built as a drop-in for Node.			code
Gin	HTTP web framework for Go, built on httprouter, used for REST APIs and microservices.			code
Hoppscotch	API development environment in the browser: REST, GraphQL, and realtime clients; self-hostable.			code · docs
NestJS	Node.js framework for server-side applications in TypeScript, using Angular-style modules and dependency injection.			code
JSON Server	Spins up a fake REST API with CRUD endpoints from a JSON file, for prototyping frontends without a backend.			code
Express	Minimalist web framework for Node.js, used to build HTTP servers and APIs.			code
Traefik	Reverse proxy and load balancer for microservices, with automatic service discovery and HTTPS via Let's Encrypt.			code
Kong Gateway	API gateway that manages, secures, and routes traffic between clients and backend or microservice APIs.			code
Insomnia	Desktop API client for testing REST, GraphQL, WebSocket, SSE, and gRPC requests, an alternative to Postman.			code
HTTPie	User-friendly command-line HTTP client with JSON support and syntax highlighting.			code · docs

Data & Databases

Tool	What it is	License	Stars	Links
Apache Superset	Data exploration and visualization platform for building dashboards and charts on existing databases.			code
Meilisearch	Fast, typo-tolerant search engine with a simple API.			code · docs
etcd	Distributed key-value store used for shared configuration and service discovery, notably within Kubernetes.			code
ClickHouse	Column-oriented database management system for real-time analytics over very large datasets.			code
Apache Airflow	Platform to author, schedule, and monitor data pipelines as directed acyclic graphs (DAGs).			code
Milvus	Vector database for storing and searching embeddings, used for similarity search in AI applications.			code
TiDB	Distributed SQL database that is MySQL-compatible, supporting both transactional and analytical workloads.			code
DuckDB	In-process analytical SQL database; runs OLAP queries inside your app or notebook.			code · docs
Qdrant	High-performance vector database and search engine for embeddings — powers semantic search and RAG.			code
RocksDB	Embeddable, persistent key-value store library optimized for fast storage; used as a storage engine in other databases.			code
Redash	Connects to SQL and NoSQL data sources to build queries, visualizations, and dashboards.			code
PostgREST	Turns an existing PostgreSQL database directly into a RESTful API, generated from the schema.			code
Valkey	High-performance in-memory key-value data store; a community-driven fork of Redis under an open license.			code

DevOps & Self-Hosted

Tool	What it is	License	Stars	Links
Kubernetes	Production-grade container orchestration to automate deployment, scaling, and management of containerized apps.			code
Immich	Self-hosted photo and video backup and management solution, an alternative to Google Photos.			code
Uptime Kuma	Self-hosted uptime monitoring tool with status pages and notifications.			code
Grafana	Open observability platform to query, visualize, and alert on metrics, logs, and traces.			code
Caddy	Web server and reverse proxy with automatic HTTPS by default, configured in a simple, readable file.			code
Ansible	Agentless IT automation tool for configuration management, application deployment, and orchestration over SSH.			code
Prometheus	Monitoring system and time-series database with a query language and alerting.			code
Coolify	Self-hostable platform to deploy apps, databases, and static sites; an open alternative to Heroku and Netlify.			code
Gitea	Self-hosted Git service with code review, package registry, and CI/CD, similar to GitHub or GitLab.			code
Headscale	Self-hosted, open-source implementation of the Tailscale control server.			code
Portainer	Web UI to manage Docker, Swarm, and Kubernetes — deploy, monitor, and control containers from a browser.			code
AdGuard Home	Network-wide DNS server that blocks ads and trackers for every device on a network.			code
restic	Command-line backup program that encrypts and deduplicates data to local or cloud storage.			code
OpenTofu	Infrastructure-as-code tool to provision cloud and on-prem resources declaratively; community-driven fork of Terraform.			code
Authelia	Self-hosted single sign-on and multi-factor authentication portal that sits in front of reverse proxies.			code
OpenSRE	Self-hosted AI SRE for incident investigation with episodic memory, a knowledge graph, Web UI, Slack, and Teams.			code · docs

Files & Sync

Tool	What it is	License	Stars	Links
Syncthing	Continuous, peer-to-peer file synchronization between your devices — private, encrypted, no cloud required.			code
LocalSend	Cross-platform app for sending files between devices on the same local network, an alternative to AirDrop.			code
rclone	Command-line program to sync, copy, and manage files across dozens of cloud storage providers.			code
croc	Command-line tool for sending files and folders between computers over an encrypted relay connection.			code
qBittorrent	BitTorrent client with a Qt-based desktop interface and a built-in web UI for remote management.			code
Nextcloud Server	Self-hosted file sync and share platform with collaboration apps, an alternative to Dropbox or Google Drive.			code
File Browser	Web-based file manager for browsing, uploading, and sharing files stored on a server, accessed through a browser.			code
SeaweedFS	Distributed file and object storage system with an S3-compatible API, built to handle very large numbers of files.			code
Magic Wormhole	Sends files and short messages between two computers, paired using a one-time human-readable code.			code
Duplicati	Backup client that encrypts files and uploads them to cloud storage providers such as S3, Backblaze, and Google Drive.			code

Security & Privacy

Tool	What it is	License	Stars	Links
Vaultwarden	Lightweight, self-hostable server compatible with Bitwarden clients — run your own password manager.			code
Metasploit Framework	Penetration testing framework with exploit development and vulnerability verification tools.			code
Trivy	Scanner for vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and exposed secrets in containers, code, and cloud infrastructure.			code
Keycloak	Identity and access management server with SSO, OAuth2, OpenID Connect, and user federation.			code
Gitleaks	Scans git repositories and files for hardcoded secrets like API keys and passwords.			code
KeePassXC	Cross-platform, offline password manager; community continuation of KeePass.			code · docs
age	Simple file encryption tool and Go library with small explicit keys and no configuration options.			code
sops	Encrypts and decrypts values in YAML, JSON, ENV, and INI files, integrating with cloud KMS providers.			code
Wazuh	Open-source security platform combining SIEM and XDR for endpoint and cloud workload monitoring.			code
Cryptomator	Client-side, password-based encryption for your cloud files, across desktop and mobile.			code

Productivity

Tool	What it is	License	Stars	Links
PowerToys	Microsoft's set of power-user utilities for Windows: window management, bulk rename, color picker, and more.			code
Excalidraw	Virtual whiteboard for sketching hand-drawn-style diagrams and wireframes, with live collaboration.			code
AppFlowy	Open-source Notion alternative for notes, docs, and project boards — local-first and self-hostable.			code
Rectangle	Move and resize macOS windows with keyboard shortcuts and drag-to-snap areas.			code
Super Productivity	Todo list app with built-in time tracking and Jira/GitLab/GitHub integrations.			code
Wekan	Self-hosted kanban board application, an alternative to Trello.			code
Linkwarden	Self-hosted bookmark manager for collecting, annotating, and archiving links.			code
ActivityWatch	Cross-platform automatic time tracker that logs app and website usage locally.			code
Etherpad	Real-time collaborative plain-text and rich-text document editor.			code
FreshRSS	Self-hostable RSS and Atom feed aggregator.			code
Espanso	Cross-platform text expander for snippets and templates, written in Rust.			code
GemType	Free, open-source Grammarly alternative: AI grammar and rewrite for Chrome and Safari.			code
AI Dictation	Cross-platform speech-to-text app for voice typing with offline recognition and optional text cleanup.			code

Notes & Knowledge

Tool	What it is	License	Stars	Links
Memos	Self-hosted, lightweight note-taking service built for quick capture, with Markdown support.			code
Joplin	Privacy-focused, open-source note-taking and to-do app with end-to-end encrypted sync across devices.			code
SiYuan	Self-hosted personal knowledge management app with block-based editing and Markdown/WYSIWYG support.			code
Logseq	Privacy-first, local-first knowledge base for networked notes and outlines over plain Markdown files.			code
Trilium	Self-hosted, hierarchical note-taking application for building a personal knowledge base.			code
Anki	Spaced-repetition flashcard program for memorizing information over time.			code
Wiki.js	Self-hosted wiki application built on Node.js with Markdown/WYSIWYG editing and Git-backed storage.			code
Docmost	Self-hosted collaborative wiki and documentation tool, an open-source alternative to Confluence and Notion.			code
Foam	VS Code extension for personal knowledge management using linked Markdown notes, inspired by Roam Research.			code
Notesnook	End-to-end encrypted note-taking app, an alternative to Evernote, with cross-device sync.			code

Communication & Social

Tool	What it is	License	Stars	Links
Mastodon	Self-hosted social networking server using ActivityPub; a federated alternative to X/Twitter.			code
Discourse	Discussion forum and community platform with topics, categories, and moderation tools.			code
Rocket.Chat	Self-hosted team chat with channels, video calls, and integrations; an alternative to Slack. Core is MIT; ee/ subdirectory has a separate…			code
Mattermost	Self-hosted team messaging and collaboration platform, AGPL-licensed; an alternative to Slack.			code
Chatwoot	Self-hosted customer support and live-chat platform; an alternative to Intercom or Zendesk. Core is MIT; enterprise/ has a separate license.			code
Jitsi Meet	Encrypted, self-hostable video conferencing — start or join a meeting from the browser, no account needed.			code
Signal (Android)	Android client for the Signal end-to-end encrypted messaging app.			code
Zulip	Team chat organized by topic threads within channels; an alternative to Slack.			code
Lemmy	Federated link-aggregation and discussion platform using ActivityPub; an alternative to Reddit.			code
OpenPost	Self-hosted social media scheduler for publishing to Bluesky, Mastodon, X, LinkedIn, Threads, and more.			code · docs

Automation & IoT

Tool	What it is	License	Stars	Links
Home Assistant	Open-source home automation that puts local control and privacy first, integrating thousands of devices.			code
Huginn	Self-hosted system for building agents that monitor events and automate actions, similar to IFTTT.			code
Frigate	Local network video recorder with real-time object detection for IP cameras, no cloud video upload required.			code
Tasmota	Open-source firmware for ESP8266/ESP32 smart devices, enabling local MQTT/HTTP control without a cloud dependency.			code
Node-RED	Low-code, flow-based tool for wiring together APIs, devices, and services — visual automation in the browser.			code
ThingsBoard	IoT platform for device management, data collection, processing, and visualization.			code
Zigbee2MQTT	Bridges Zigbee devices to MQTT, letting users control Zigbee hardware without a vendor-specific hub.			code
ESPHome	Firmware framework for ESP32/ESP8266 microcontrollers, configured via YAML files and used to build smart-home devices.			code
Eclipse Mosquitto	Lightweight, widely used MQTT message broker for IoT and machine-to-machine messaging.			code
FreeRTOS	Real-time operating system kernel for microcontrollers, widely used in embedded and IoT devices.			code

Finance & Business

Tool	What it is	License	Stars	Links
Twenty	Customer relationship management platform positioned as an open alternative to Salesforce.			code
Odoo	Modular business application suite covering CRM, inventory, accounting, and e-commerce.			code
Metabase	Business intelligence tool for querying databases and building dashboards without SQL.			code
ERPNext	Enterprise resource planning system covering accounting, inventory, manufacturing, and HR.			code
Actual Budget	Local-first personal budgeting app using envelope budgeting, an alternative to YNAB.			code
Firefly III	Self-hosted personal finance manager to track accounts, budgets, and bills, with reports and rules.			code
Ghostfolio	Tracks investment portfolios across stocks, ETFs, and crypto with performance reporting.			code
Dolibarr	Web-based ERP and CRM for managing invoices, orders, stock, and accounting.			code
Beancount	Double-entry accounting system that stores transactions as plain text files.			code

Science & Education

Tool	What it is	License	Stars	Links
TensorFlow	Google's end-to-end open-source platform for machine learning, from research to production.			code
PyTorch	Meta's Python-first deep-learning framework with strong GPU acceleration and dynamic graphs.			code
Manim	Python library for programmatically creating precise mathematical animations and diagrams.			code
JupyterLab	Web-based interactive development environment for notebooks, code, and data across many languages.			code
QGIS	Free, cross-platform desktop GIS for creating, editing, analysing, and publishing geospatial data.			code
Blockly	Library for building visual, block-based programming editors, used in Scratch-like coding tools.			code
OpenRefine	Desktop tool for cleaning, transforming, and reconciling messy tabular data.			code
Stellarium	Planetarium software that renders a realistic 3D sky for astronomy education and stargazing.			code
CodeCombat	Browser game that teaches programming by having players write code to control characters.			code
Open edX Platform	Learning management system built for MOOCs, powering edX and other online course platforms.			code
Moodle	Learning management system for hosting online courses, assignments, and grades, used by schools and universities.			code
Astropy	Core Python library for astronomy and astrophysics, providing common tools for the field.			code
AcadGIS	Publication-ready study-area maps, choropleths, and locator insets for research papers, in Python.			code

Creator / Media

Tool	What it is	License	Stars	Links
yt-dlp	Command-line tool for downloading video and audio from YouTube and many other sites.			code
Whisper	OpenAI's robust multilingual speech-to-text model for transcription and translation.			code
OBS Studio	Free, open-source software for live streaming and screen recording.			code · docs
Jellyfin	Self-hosted media server for streaming your movies, TV shows, and music library.			code
VibeVoice	Microsoft's open-source frontier text-to-speech model for long-form, multi-speaker conversational audio.			code
LosslessCut	GUI tool for fast, lossless trimming and cutting of video and audio files.			code
PhotoPrism	Self-hosted photo app with AI-based search, tagging, and album organization.			code
HandBrake	Tool for converting video from nearly any format to a selection of modern codecs.			code
Blender	Free 3D creation suite: modeling, sculpting, animation, simulation, rendering, and video editing.			code
VLC media player	Cross-platform media player that plays most audio and video formats and streams.			code
Audacity	Multi-track audio editor and recorder for Windows, macOS, and Linux.			code
PeerTube	Federated, peer-to-peer video hosting platform, an alternative to YouTube.			code
ACE-Step	An open-source foundation model for music generation, built for fast, controllable, full-length track synthesis.			code
MLVC	Microsoft's open-source learned video codec — neural-network video compression for real-world, multi-platform deployment.			code

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Drop yours

Built something open source? Add one entry to data/tools.json and open a PR — see CONTRIBUTING.md. One tool per PR. Stars, icons, and trending are computed automatically; descriptions stay honest.

Frequently asked questions

What is OSSDrop? OSSDrop is a curated, community-maintained list of open-source tools, organized into categories spanning AI and coding agents, developer tools and CLI utilities, web and APIs, data and databases, DevOps and self-hosted software, files and sync, security and privacy, productivity, notes and knowledge, communication and social, automation and IoT, finance and business, science and education, and creator and media tools.

Is OSSDrop a Product Hunt alternative for open source? People often describe it that way. Like a product-launch site, OSSDrop is a place to discover new open-source software — developer tools, self-hosted apps, and libraries — and give the good ones votes and discussion. The difference: OSSDrop lists only projects with a public repository and an OSI-approved open-source license, and listing is always free.

How do I add my open-source tool to the list? Fork this repository, add one JSON object to data/tools.json, and open a pull request. Requirements: a public repository and an OSI-approved license. See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Is listing free? Can rankings be bought? Listing is free and rankings cannot be bought. Tables are sorted by live GitHub star count and “Trending this week” is computed from daily star snapshots. The one pinned showcase card is always labeled as pinned.

Where else does OSSDrop live? On the web at ossdrop.com — now live — where the same tools are ranked and open for discussion, and on Reddit at r/OSSDrop. The GitHub organization is github.com/OSSDrop.

Can I reuse this list's data? Yes — the list content is public domain (CC0-1.0), and data/tools.json is the machine-readable source of truth. Each linked tool keeps its own license.

_{Star counts and licenses render live via shields.io; trending is computed from daily snapshots in data/stars.json.}