Open-WebUI
Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)
User-friendly AI Interface, supports Ollama, OpenAI API.
Actively maintained
Real momentum
BSD-3-Clause
This is the pragmatic middle of the licence spectrum. BSD-2 and BSD-3 impose nothing beyond attribution, and BSD-3 additionally forbids using the project's name to endorse your product. MPL-2.0 is the licence to reach for when you want contributions back without forcing your whole product open: only files you modify carry the obligation.
BSD is effectively MIT with a no-endorsement clause. MPL-2.0 is weak copyleft: modified MPL files stay open, the rest of your codebase does not. This dataset tracks 92 BSD & MPL projects (6% of 1665 total), 50 of them actively maintained, led by Open-WebUI with 149k stars. Verified against repository metadata as of August 2026; this is engineering guidance, not legal advice.
Running the software inside your own company, without redistributing it, is permitted under every licence family here except undeclared/proprietary code.
Permitted. You can host, modify, close your changes and charge for access with no obligation beyond attribution.
Permitted. Keep the notices, rename the product, and expect competitors to do the same to you.
| Project | Category | Stars | Maintenance | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open-WebUI | Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) | 149k | Actively maintained | BSD-3-Clause |
| Syncthing | File Transfer & Synchronization | 88k | Actively maintained | MPL-2.0 |
| Pi-hole | DNS | 60k | Actively maintained | EUPL-1.2 |
| penpot | Miscellaneous | 59k | Actively maintained | MPL-2.0 |
| Appwrite | Software Development | 57k | Actively maintained | BSD-3-Clause |
| NGINX | Web Servers | 31k | Actively maintained | BSD-2-Clause |
| Redash | Analytics | 29k | Actively maintained | BSD-2-Clause |
| Huly | Software Development | 27k | Actively maintained | EPL-2.0 |
| Saleor | E-commerce | 23k | Actively maintained | BSD-3-Clause |
| Wagtail | Content Management Systems (CMS) | 20k | Actively maintained | BSD-3-Clause |
| ActivityWatch | Time Tracking | 19k | Actively maintained | MPL-2.0 |
| Spree Commerce | E-commerce | 16k | Actively maintained | BSD-3-Clause |
| Mail-in-a-Box | Communication | 15k | Slowing down | CC0-1.0 |
| JupyterLab | Software Development | 15k | Actively maintained | BSD-3-Clause |
| Luanti | Games | 13k | Actively maintained | LGPL-2.1, MIT, Zlib |
| Tyk | Software Development | 11k | Actively maintained | MPL-2.0 |
| Healthchecks | Automation | 10k | Actively maintained | BSD-3-Clause |
| RSS-Bridge | Feed Readers | 9.2k | Actively maintained | Unlicense |
| TiddlyWiki | Wikis | 8.6k | Actively maintained | BSD-3-Clause |
| PrivateBin | Pastebins | 8.5k | Actively maintained | Zlib |
| A Dark Room | Games | 8.2k | Dormant | MPL-2.0 |
| Mumble | Communication | 8.2k | Actively maintained | BSD-3-Clause |
| Open Source Routing Machine (OSRM) | Maps and Global Positioning System (GPS) | 8.0k | Actively maintained | BSD-2-Clause |
| Eclipse Che | Software Development | 7.2k | Actively maintained | EPL-1.0 |
| Flagsmith | Software Development | 6.5k | Actively maintained | BSD-3-Clause |
Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)
User-friendly AI Interface, supports Ollama, OpenAI API.
File Transfer & Synchronization
Syncthing is an open source peer-to-peer file synchronisation tool.
DNS
Blackhole for Internet advertisements with a GUI for management and monitoring.
Alternative to Figma, Collaborative design tool
Web-based design and prototyping platform meant for cross-domain teams.
Alternative to Firebase, Backend-as-a-Service
End to end backend server for web, native, and mobile developers 🚀.
Web Servers
HTTP and reverse proxy server, mail proxy server, and generic TCP/UDP proxy server.
Analytics
Connect and query your data sources, build dashboards to visualize data and share them with your company.
Software Development
All-in-one project management platform (alternative to Linear, Jira, Slack, Notion, Motion).
Alternative to Shopify, Ecwid
Django based open-sourced e-commerce storefront.
Content Management Systems (CMS)
Django content management system focused on flexibility and user experience.
Time Tracking
Automatically track how you spend time on your devices.
E-commerce
Spree is a complete, modular & API-driven open source e-commerce solution for Ruby on Rails.
Communication
Turns any Ubuntu server into a fully functional mail server with one command.
Software Development
Web-based environment for interactive and reproducible computing.
Games
Voxel game engine (formerly Minetest). Play one of our many games, mod a game to your liking, make your own game, or play on a multiplayer server.
Software Development
Fast and scalable open source API Gateway. Out of the box, Tyk offers an API Management Platform with an API Gateway, API Analytics, Developer Portal and API Management Dashboard.
Automation
Listen for pings and sends alerts when pings are late.
Feed Readers
Generate RSS/ATOM feeds for websites which don't have one.
Wikis
Reusable non-linear personal web notebook.
Pastebins
Minimalist pastebin/discussion board where the server has zero knowledge of hosted data.
Games
Minimalist text adventure game for your browser.
Communication
Low-latency, high quality voice/text chat software.
Maps and Global Positioning System (GPS)
High performance routing engine designed to run on OpenStreetMap data and offering an HTTP API, C++ library interface, and Nodejs wrapper.
Software Development
Open source workspace server and cloud IDE.
Alternative to LaunchDarkly, Feature management/ Feature flag
Dashboard, API and SDKs for adding Feature Flags to your applications (alternative to LaunchDarkly).
Alternative to Google Analytics
Easy web statistics without tracking of personal data.
E-commerce
A free, open-source ecommerce platform that gives you complete control over your store.
Communication
Scalable open source cross-platform telephony platform.
Media Streaming
Streaming audio server with Linux/macOS/Windows/Android clients.
Task Management & To-do Lists
Single-page minimalist kanban board; compact, highly readable and quick to use.
Bookmarks and Link Sharing
Personal, minimalist, super-fast, no-database bookmarking and link sharing platform.
Communication
XMPP chat client in your browser.
Web Servers
Small self-contained pure-Go web server with Lua, Markdown, HTTP/2, QUIC, Redis and PostgreSQL support.
Network Utilities
Generates lightweight, embedded honeypot triggers called canary tokens for detecting unauthorized access.
Maps and Global Positioning System (GPS)
Vector and raster maps with GL styles. Server side rendering by Mapbox GL Native. Map tile server for Mapbox GL JS, Android, iOS, Leaflet, OpenLayers, GIS via WMTS, etc.
Miscellaneous
Helps caregivers track baby sleep, feedings, diaper changes, and tummy time.
Internet of Things (IoT)
WebThings is an open source implementation of the Web of Things, including the WebThings Gateway and the WebThings Framework.
Media Streaming
Turn your choice of Linux-capable hardware into an audio and video source for a television or powered speakers (alternative to Chromecast).
Media Management
Web GUI for yt-dlp.
Communication
Scalable no-SPOF IMAP/POP3 mail server.
File Transfer
Simple file sharing solution with robust up-/download-resume and password protection.
Time Tracking
Habit tracking app to save your precious moments in your fleeting life.
Communication
Privacy-focused encrypted email for everyone. All-in-one alternative to Gmail + Mailchimp + Sendgrid.
Software Development
Developer-oriented translation tool.
Automation
Automation engine that models and executes business processes declared in yaml.
Money, Budgeting & Management
Manage your shared expenses, easily.
Analytics
Build Data Dashboards all in SQL. Powered by DuckDB.
Internet of Things (IoT)
Vendor and technology agnostic open source software for home automation.
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BSD is effectively MIT with a no-endorsement clause. MPL-2.0 is weak copyleft: modified MPL files stay open, the rest of your codebase does not. This is the pragmatic middle of the licence spectrum. BSD-2 and BSD-3 impose nothing beyond attribution, and BSD-3 additionally forbids using the project's name to endorse your product. MPL-2.0 is the licence to reach for when you want contributions back without forcing your whole product open: only files you modify carry the obligation.
92 of 1665 tracked projects carry a BSD & MPL licence — about 6%. 50 of them show real momentum (commits in most of the last twelve months plus a recent release), so the practical shortlist is smaller than the raw count suggests.
Licence breach is copyright infringement, and the usual consequence is not a lawsuit — it is a failed diligence review. Acquirers and Series A investors run automated licence scans over your dependency tree; an unresolved copyleft or source-available dependency in a closed product either delays the deal or gets priced into it. The cheap fix is choosing correctly at week one.
Yes — BSD & MPL is an OSI-approved open-source licence family. What varies is the obligation that comes attached, not whether the code is open.
Licence data comes from repository metadata and can lag a relicensing event. Confirm the LICENSE file in the repository before shipping. This page is engineering guidance, not legal advice.
IdeaProof checks whether your idea is already built, how saturated the category is, and where the remaining wedge sits — in about two minutes.
Validate your idea freeSearch this database by category and by the commercial product you would replace. It covers 1665 projects across 130 categories, each mapped to the paid tool it substitutes. If your category shows a "Crowded" verdict, a maintained free version almost certainly exists and your positioning has to account for it.
No. It means free is your price anchor. Plenty of large companies were built next to a good open-source project — the ones that failed were the ones selling the same job at a price the free tool made indefensible. Find the part of the job the project deliberately does not do, and sell that.
Each category gets a 0–100 score built from three inputs: how many implementations exist, what share of them are still actively maintained, and how far ahead the leading project is compared with the category median. 62+ is Crowded, 38–61 Contested, under 38 Open. 11 categories are Crowded and 88 are Open.