Updated August 2026
    Conditional

    GPL and LGPL Projects — Copyleft on Distribution

    GPL is the middle ground: you can run it on your servers and charge for access without publishing anything, because hosting is not distribution under GPL-2.0 or GPL-3.0. The moment you ship code to a customer — an installer, a Docker image they run, an embedded device — derivative work must be released under the same licence. LGPL narrows that to the library itself if you only link against it dynamically.

    TL;DR • GPL commercial use • as of August 2026

    GPL obligations trigger when you distribute binaries, not when you host the software yourself. A pure SaaS wrapper is usually compliant; shipping a desktop app, appliance or on-prem build is not. This dataset tracks 351 GPL projects (21% of 1665 total), 188 of them actively maintained, led by Vaultwarden with 65k stars. Verified against repository metadata as of August 2026; this is engineering guidance, not legal advice.

    351
    GPL projects
    188
    Actively maintained
    21%
    Share of dataset
    Conditional
    SaaS verdict

    What GPL actually allows

    Internal use

    Running the software inside your own company, without redistributing it, is permitted under every licence family here except undeclared/proprietary code.

    Hosted product

    Usually fine for pure SaaS, because hosting is not distribution — until you ship an on-prem build, appliance or installer to a customer.

    Selling a fork

    Restricted. Either derivative work must be released under the same licence, or the licence explicitly forbids commercialising a fork.

    The 25 largest GPL projects

    Project Category Stars Maintenance Licence
    Vaultwarden Password Managers 65k Actively maintained GPL-3.0
    Jellyfin Media Streaming 56k Actively maintained GPL-2.0
    Odoo Resource Planning 54k Actively maintained LGPL-3.0
    Discourse Communication 48k Actively maintained GPL-2.0
    Paperless-ngx Document Management 44k Actively maintained GPL-3.0
    Sunshine Games 40k Actively maintained GPL-3.0
    ToolJet Software Development 40k Actively maintained GPL-3.0
    qBittorrent File Transfer 39k Actively maintained GPL-2.0
    Halo Software Development 39k Actively maintained GPL-3.0
    ERPNext Resource Planning 38k Actively maintained GPL-3.0
    AdGuard Home DNS 36k Actively maintained GPL-3.0
    ntfy Communication 34k Actively maintained Apache-2.0, GPL-2.0
    Homepage by gethomepage Personal Dashboards 32k Actively maintained GPL-3.0
    Mindustry Games 29k Actively maintained GPL-3.0
    Cloudreve File Transfer & Synchronization 29k Actively maintained GPL-3.0
    Typesense Search Engines 26k Actively maintained GPL-3.0
    Calibre Document Management 26k Actively maintained GPL-3.0
    Tasmota Internet of Things (IoT) 25k Actively maintained GPL-3.0
    Navidrome Music Server Media Streaming 23k Actively maintained GPL-3.0
    SafeLine Web Servers 22k Slowing down GPL-3.0
    Matomo Analytics 22k Actively maintained GPL-3.0
    WordPress Content Management Systems (CMS) 21k Actively maintained GPL-2.0
    Kodi Media Streaming 21k Actively maintained GPL-2.0
    GoAccess Analytics 21k Actively maintained GPL-2.0
    Calibre Web Document Management 18k Actively maintained GPL-3.0

    Every GPL project in the ledger

    Jellyfin

    Media Streaming

    56k

    Media server for audio, video, books, comics, and photos with a sleek interface and robust transcoding capabilities. Almost all modern platforms have clients, including Roku, Android TV, iOS, and Kodi

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-2.0

    Odoo

    Alternative to ERP

    54k

    Free open source ERP system.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    LGPL-3.0

    Discourse

    Alternative to Tribe, Circle, Community management

    48k

    Advanced forum / community solution based on Ruby and JS.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-2.0

    Paperless-ngx

    Document Management

    44k

    Scan, index, and archive all of your paper documents with an improved interface (fork of Paperless).

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-3.0

    Sunshine

    Games

    40k

    Remote game stream host for Moonlight with support up to 120 frames per second and 4K resolution.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-3.0

    ToolJet

    Alternative to Retool, Internal tools

    40k

    Low-code framework to build & deploy internal tools with minimal engineering effort (alternative to Retool and Mendix).

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-3.0

    Halo

    Software Development

    39k

    A powerful and easy-to-use website building tool (documentation in Chinese).

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-3.0

    ntfy

    Alternative to Notification infrastructure, Push notifications

    34k

    Push notifications to phone or desktop using HTTP PUT/POST, with Android app, CLI and web app, similar to Pushover and Gotify.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    Apache-2.0, GPL-2.0

    Mindustry

    Games

    29k

    Factorio-like tower defense game. Build production chains to gather more resources, and build complex facilities.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-3.0

    Cloudreve

    File Transfer & Synchronization

    29k

    File management and sharing system, supports multiple storage providers.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-3.0

    Typesense

    Alternative to Algolia, Digital search experience, Search

    26k

    Blazing fast, typo-tolerant open source search engine optimized for developer happiness and ease of use.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-3.0

    Calibre

    Document Management

    26k

    E-book library manager that can view, convert, and catalog e-books in most of the major e-book formats and provides a built-in Web server for remote clients.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-3.0

    Tasmota

    Internet of Things (IoT)

    25k

    Open source firmware for ESP devices. Total local control with quick setup and updates. Control using MQTT, Web UI, HTTP or serial. Automate using timers, rules or scripts. Integration with home autom

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-3.0

    Matomo

    Alternative to Google Analytics, Web analytics

    22k

    Web analytics that protects your data and your customers' privacy (alternative to Google Analytics).

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-3.0

    Kodi

    Media Streaming

    21k

    Multimedia/Entertainment center, formerly known as XBMC. Runs on Android, BSD, Linux, macOS, iOS and Windows.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-2.0

    OpenProject

    Alternative to Asana, Trello

    16k

    Manage your projects, tasks and goals. Collaborate via work packages and link them to your pull requests on Github.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-3.0

    Sonarr

    Media Management

    15k

    Automatic TV Shows downloader and manager for Usenet and BitTorrent. It can grab, sort and rename new episodes and automatically upgrade the quality of files already downloaded when a better quality f

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-3.0

    Transmission

    File Transfer

    15k

    Fast, easy, free Bittorrent client.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-3.0

    LanguageTool

    Miscellaneous

    15k

    Proofread more than 20 languages. It finds many errors that a simple spell checker cannot detect.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    LGPL-2.1

    Radarr

    Media Management

    14k

    Automatically download movies via Usenet and BitTorrent (fork of Sonarr).

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-3.0

    Habitica

    Miscellaneous

    14k

    Habit tracker app which treats your goals like a Role Playing Game.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-3.0, CC-BY-SA-3.0

    Audiobookshelf

    Media Streaming

    14k

    Audiobook and podcast server. It streams all audio formats, keeps and syncs progress across devices. Comes with open-source apps for Android and iOS.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-3.0

    Tinode

    Alternative to WhatsApp, Telegram

    13k

    Instant messaging platform. Backend in Go. Clients: Swift iOS, Java Android, JS webapp, scriptable command line; chatbots.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-3.0

    Luanti

    Games

    13k

    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.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    LGPL-2.1, MIT, Zlib

    Mailcow

    Communication

    13k

    Mail server suite based on Dovecot, Postfix and other open source software, that provides a modern Web UI for administration.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-3.0

    Manticore Search

    Alternative to Elastic Cloud

    12k

    Full-text search and data analytics, with fast response time for small, medium and big data (alternative to Elasticsearch).

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-3.0

    Kavita

    Document Management

    11k

    Cross-platform e-book/manga/comic/pdf server and web reader with user management, ratings and reviews, and metadata support.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-3.0

    Screego

    Communication

    10k

    Screego is a simple tool to quickly share your screen to one or multiple people via web browser.

    Actively maintained
    GPL-3.0

    WooCommerce

    E-commerce

    10k

    WordPress based e-commerce solution.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-3.0

    EverShop

    E-commerce

    10k

    E-commerce platform with essential commerce features. Modular architecture and fully customizable.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-3.0

    Tipi

    Self-hosting Solutions

    9.6k

    Homeserver manager. One command setup, one click installs for your favorites self-hosted apps.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-3.0

    BigBlueButton

    Alternative to Video Conferencing

    9.2k

    Supports real-time sharing of audio, video, slides (with whiteboard controls), chat, and the screen. Instructors can engage remote students with polling, emojis, and breakout rooms.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    LGPL-3.0

    Frappe HR

    Human Resources Management (HRM)

    8.6k

    Complete HRMS solution with over 13 different modules right from employee management, onboarding, leaves, to payroll, taxation, and more.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-3.0

    Tube Archivist

    Media Streaming

    8.4k

    Organize, search, and enjoy your YouTube collection. Subscribe, download, and track viewed content with metadata indexing and a user-friendly interface.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-3.0

    Showing 48 of 351

    GPL licensing FAQ

    Can I use GPL software in a commercial SaaS?

    GPL obligations trigger when you distribute binaries, not when you host the software yourself. A pure SaaS wrapper is usually compliant; shipping a desktop app, appliance or on-prem build is not. GPL is the middle ground: you can run it on your servers and charge for access without publishing anything, because hosting is not distribution under GPL-2.0 or GPL-3.0. The moment you ship code to a customer — an installer, a Docker image they run, an embedded device — derivative work must be released under the same licence. LGPL narrows that to the library itself if you only link against it dynamically.

    How many GPL projects are there in this dataset?

    351 of 1665 tracked projects carry a GPL licence — about 21%. 188 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.

    What happens if I ignore a GPL licence?

    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.

    Is GPL the same as "open source"?

    Yes — GPL 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.

    Is the licence the only thing standing between you and this market?

    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 free

    Open source competition: common questions

    How do I know if my startup idea already exists as open source?

    Search 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.

    Does an open-source alternative mean I should not build my product?

    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.

    What does the saturation score mean?

    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.