Most of the software people pay for every month has a free version made by someone else. Some of it is open source, some of it is a generous free plan, and a lot of it is as good as the paid tool for the way most people actually use it.
This is the list I keep for myself. For every paid tool there's a free alternative, a short note on what it does well, and a link so you can go and try it. The first half is the list from my video, the second half is the extras I think are worth knowing about.
The list at a glance
| You pay for | Free alternative | What it is |
|---|---|---|
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 |  | Open source |
 |  | Free |
 |  | Open source |
 |  | Free to self-host |
   |  | Open source |
 |  | Open source |
  |  | Free to self-host |
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Design and photo editing
Free Adobe Creative Cloud alternative: ArtCraft
ArtCraft is a suite of open source apps that copy the Adobe line-up one for one: PhotoCraft for Photoshop, VectorCraft for Illustrator, FilmCraft for Premiere, LightCraft for Lightroom, PdfCraft for Acrobat, EffectCraft for After Effects and DesignCraft for InDesign. There are Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Figma stand-ins too. One developer built it in a few weeks, mostly with Claude writing the code, and it went viral in October 2026.
- Thirteen apps and one installer, for Mac, Windows and Linux
- The layouts and shortcuts are deliberately close to Adobe's, so there's little to relearn
- No subscription. Some AI features inside the apps use paid credits.
Free Photoshop alternative: Photopea
Photopea is Photoshop in a browser tab. Nothing to install, and it opens PSD files with layers, masks and smart objects intact.
- Layers, masks, adjustment layers, blend modes, pen tool, healing brush, content-aware fill
- Opens PSD, AI, XD, Sketch, Figma and RAW files, and saves back to PSD
- Free with ads. The paid plan (about US$5 a month) removes them and adds more history steps.
If you want a desktop app instead, GIMP is the long-running open source option, and Affinity below does photo editing too.
Free Illustrator alternative: Inkscape
Inkscape is the open source vector editor. It's what people reach for when they need logos, icons and illustrations and don't want to pay for Illustrator.
- Full pen and node tools, paths, boolean operations, gradients, text on a path, trace bitmap
- Works natively in SVG and opens PDF, EPS and AI files
- Mac, Windows and Linux, with a big extension library
Free InDesign alternative: Affinity
Canva bought Affinity and in late 2025 made it one free app that covers page layout, vector design and photo editing. It's the closest thing on this list to a drop-in Adobe replacement, and it isn't a stripped-down version.
- Three studios in one app: Pixel (Photoshop), Vector (Illustrator) and Layout (InDesign)
- Opens PSD, AI, PDF and IDML files, with CMYK and print-ready PDF export
- Free with no time limit. The AI tools like generative fill need a Canva Premium subscription.
Free Lightroom alternative: darktable
darktable is open source RAW processing. Import a card of photos, edit non-destructively, batch the edits across a shoot and export.
- RAW support for pretty much every camera, with colour-managed, non-destructive edits
- Masks, colour grading, denoise, lens correction, tethered shooting
- Mac, Windows and Linux. Catalogue stays on your computer, not in a cloud you pay for.
Free Figma alternative: Penpot
Penpot is an open source design and prototyping tool that runs in the browser. It's built around the same web standards developers use, so what you design is what gets built.
- Design, components, auto layout, prototyping and design tokens
- Unlimited projects and collaborators on the hosted version, or self-host it
- Exports clean SVG and CSS, and has a plugin system
See Figma in the library for what you'd be giving up.
Free Procreate alternative: Krita
Krita is open source digital painting, made by and for illustrators. If you draw rather than edit photos, it's the one.
- Brush engines, stabilisers, layer styles, colour management and HDR painting
- Frame-by-frame animation built in
- Opens and saves PSD, runs on Mac, Windows, Linux and Android tablets
Free Topaz Gigapixel alternative: Upscayl
Upscayl uses AI upscaling models to enlarge images without the mush. Drop an image in, pick a scale, done.
- Upscales 2x to 16x with a choice of models for photos, art and faces
- Batch mode for whole folders
- Runs on your own graphics card, offline. Mac, Windows and Linux.
Topaz Labs still wins on the hardest photos, but Upscayl is free and handles most jobs.
Free Cinema 4D alternative: Blender
Blender is the open source 3D suite used on real films and games. It's a lot more than a Cinema 4D stand-in.
- Modelling, sculpting, rigging, animation, simulation and two render engines
- Compositing, motion tracking and a usable video editor, so it covers After Effects jobs too
- Grease Pencil for 2D animation inside a 3D scene
Video and audio
Free Premiere Pro alternative: DaVinci Resolve
DaVinci Resolve is professional editing, colour grading, audio and effects in one app, and the free version is the real thing, not a trial.
- Multi-track editing, the best colour grading tools in any editor, Fairlight audio and Fusion effects
- Exports up to 4K at 60fps with no watermark
- The Studio version is a one-off payment, not a subscription, and most people never need it
Free CapCut alternative: OpenCut
OpenCut is an open source editor that runs in the browser and copies the bits of CapCut people actually use: quick cuts, captions, stickers and a timeline that works on a laptop.
- No watermarks, no export limits, no account needed
- Timeline, masks, keyframes, speed and volume control, stickers
- Still in beta and being rewritten, so expect rough edges
If you edit with Claude, Concat is another free CapCut alternative that Claude Code can drive.
Free Final Cut Pro alternative: Kdenlive
Kdenlive is the open source editor that feels most like a traditional desktop NLE. It's the easiest switch if Resolve feels like too much.
- Multi-track timeline, proxy editing for big files, keyframes, titles and transitions
- Hundreds of effects, audio mixing and colour scopes
- Mac, Windows and Linux
Free Audition alternative: Audacity
Audacity is the open source audio editor everyone has used at least once. Record, clean up and export podcasts and voiceovers.
- Multi-track recording and editing, noise reduction, compression, EQ and normalise
- Plugin support (VST, AU, LV2) and batch processing with macros
- Exports MP3, WAV, FLAC and OGG
Free Loom alternative: Cap
Cap is an open source screen recorder for Mac, Windows and Linux. Record your screen and camera, trim it, share a link.
- Studio mode records locally with no time limit and exports up to 4K at 60fps
- Built-in editor for trimming, zooms and background styling
- Shareable links are capped at five minutes on the free plan. Pro removes that, or self-host and use your own storage.
Free Camtasia alternative: OBS Studio
OBS Studio is the open source app every streamer uses, and it's also a great screen recorder for tutorials and course videos.
- Record screen, camera and mic in any combination, with scenes you can switch between
- Live stream to YouTube, Twitch and others at the same time
- Virtual camera so you can use your OBS scene in Zoom or Google Meet
Free Otter.ai alternative: Buzz
Buzz runs OpenAI's open source Whisper speech model on your own computer, so you get transcripts without uploading audio anywhere or paying per minute.
- Transcribes and translates audio and video files offline, in dozens of languages
- Live transcription from your mic
- Exports TXT, SRT and VTT, so it doubles as a free captions tool
Otter and Granola are still easier for meetings. Buzz is for when you've got the recording and want the words.
Documents, office and PDFs
Free Microsoft 365 alternative: LibreOffice
LibreOffice is the open source office suite: Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw and Base in place of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio and Access.
- Opens and saves DOCX, XLSX and PPTX, plus exports straight to PDF
- No account, no subscription, no cloud. Mac, Windows and Linux.
- Formatting can shift on complex Word documents. If that bites, OnlyOffice has better Microsoft compatibility and is also free.
Free Acrobat Pro alternative: PDF24
PDF24 is a free set of PDF tools, as a Windows app and as a website that works on anything. It does the things people pay Acrobat for.
- Merge, split, compress, rotate, convert to and from PDF, OCR, sign, fill forms, redact
- No limits and no watermarks on the desktop or online tools
- Free, supported by the German company behind it, not open source
If you'd rather run it yourself, Stirling PDF is the open source version of the same idea.
Free Outlook alternative: Thunderbird
Thunderbird is Mozilla's open source email app, with calendar and contacts built in. It's had a proper redesign over the last couple of years.
- Works with Gmail, Outlook.com, iCloud and most work accounts in one inbox
- Calendar, tasks, contacts, RSS and chat in the same window
- Mac, Windows, Linux and now Android
Free Grammarly alternative: LanguageTool
LanguageTool checks grammar, spelling and style in more than 30 languages. The core is open source, and the free plan covers most writing.
- Browser extension, plus add-ons for Google Docs, Word and email
- Picks up grammar, punctuation, style and word choice, with a one-click paraphraser
- Free plan checks shorter texts. Premium (a few dollars a month) adds longer texts and more style checks.
Free Visio alternative: draw.io
draw.io (also called diagrams.net) is the free way to draw flowcharts, org charts, wireframes and architecture diagrams. It replaces Visio and Lucidchart for most people.
- Runs in the browser with nothing to sign up for, or as a desktop app
- Huge shape libraries, including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and UML
- Saves to Google Drive, OneDrive, GitHub or your computer, and imports Visio files
Free Miro alternative: Excalidraw
Excalidraw is an open source whiteboard with a hand-drawn look. It's the quickest way to sketch an idea with someone on a call.
- Real-time collaboration with a share link, no accounts
- Shapes, arrows, text, images and libraries of ready-made components
- Export to PNG, SVG or a file you can reopen later. The paid Excalidraw+ adds saved workspaces.
For something closer to Miro's infinite canvas with templates, tldraw is also free and open source.
Free Typeform alternative: Tally
Tally is a form builder that looks like a Notion page and gives you almost everything free.
- Unlimited forms and unlimited responses on the free plan
- Conditional logic, calculations, file uploads, signatures, payments and hidden fields
- Connects to Google Sheets, Notion, Airtable, Zapier and webhooks. Pro (US$24 a month) removes the Tally branding.
Tally isn't open source. If that matters, Formbricks is.
Free DocuSign alternative: DocuSeal
DocuSeal is open source e-signing. Upload a PDF, drop in the fields, send it for signature.
- Legally binding signatures, templates, multiple signers and an audit trail
- The hosted free plan gives you 10 signature requests a month
- Self-host it and there's no limit at all
Documenso is the other open source option and works much the same way.
Free Calendly alternative: Cal.com
Cal.com is open source scheduling. Share a link, people book a time that works for both calendars.
- Free forever for one person, with unlimited event types and bookings
- Connects to Google, Outlook and iCloud calendars, Zoom, Google Meet, Stripe and PayPal
- Imports your Calendly events in one click, and you can self-host it
Notes, knowledge and project management
Free Evernote alternative: Obsidian
Obsidian is a notes app that stores everything as plain Markdown files on your computer. Your notes stay yours, and it's free for personal and work use.
- Links between notes, backlinks, a graph view and a canvas for visual thinking
- More than 2,000 community plugins for tasks, calendars, databases and more
- Not open source, but the files are plain text so you can leave any time. Sync is a paid extra, or use iCloud or Git.
If you want open source, Joplin is the closest match to Evernote, with web clipping and free sync through Dropbox or OneDrive.
Free Notion alternative: AppFlowy
AppFlowy is an open source Notion alternative: pages, databases, kanban boards, calendars and AI, with your data kept where you put it.
- Docs, databases with grid, board and calendar views, and templates
- Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android, working offline
- Self-host it, or use the hosted version with a free tier
Free Confluence alternative: Outline
Outline is a fast, good-looking team wiki. It's what Notion feels like when it's only for documentation.
- Markdown editor, nested collections, search and permissions
- Slack, Google and Microsoft sign-in, with integrations for Figma, Loom and GitHub links
- Free to self-host. The hosted version is paid.
Free Trello and Jira alternative: Plane
Plane is open source project management that sits somewhere between Trello and Jira without feeling like either.
- Issues, cycles (sprints), modules, views and pages
- Kanban, list, calendar and spreadsheet views of the same work
- Free plan on the hosted version, or self-host the community edition
For personal to-do lists, Vikunja is the open source Todoist.
Free Airtable alternative: NocoDB
NocoDB turns any database into a spreadsheet-style interface, with forms, views and an API. It's the open source Airtable.
- Grid, gallery, kanban, form and calendar views
- Connect an existing MySQL or Postgres database, or start from scratch
- Free to self-host, with a free tier on the hosted version
Baserow is the other good one and has a more generous hosted free plan.
Free Zapier alternative: n8n
n8n is the automation tool people switch to when the Zapier bill gets silly. It's visual, it has hundreds of integrations and it's free to run on your own server.
- Drag-and-drop workflows with branching, loops and code steps when you need them
- Native AI agent nodes, so it's good for Claude and ChatGPT automations
- Free to self-host with unlimited workflows. The hosted version is paid.
Activepieces is fully open source (MIT) and a bit simpler. Both are in the AI tools library.
Communication and meetings
Free Zoom alternative: Jitsi Meet
Jitsi Meet is open source video calling. Click a link, you're in a meeting, no app and no account for guests.
- Unlimited meeting length and no 40-minute cut-off
- Screen sharing, chat, recording, breakout rooms and live streaming to YouTube
- Use it free at meet.jit.si (sign in with Google, GitHub or Facebook to start a meeting) or host your own
Free Slack alternative: Mattermost
Mattermost is open source team chat that works like Slack and runs on your own server.
- Channels, threads, direct messages, voice calls, file sharing and search
- Playbooks for checklists and incident workflows, plus boards for tasks
- Free to self-host for unlimited users with full message history
Rocket.Chat and Zulip are the other two worth a look. Zulip's threaded design is great for teams that hate noisy channels.
Free Intercom alternative: Chatwoot
Chatwoot is open source customer support: live chat, shared inbox and a help centre in one place.
- Website chat widget, plus email, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and SMS in one inbox
- Canned replies, automations, reports and a help centre you can publish
- Free to self-host. The hosted free plan covers two agents.
Security, files and utilities
Free 1Password alternative: Bitwarden
Bitwarden is an open source password manager, and the free plan isn't crippled.
- Unlimited passwords on unlimited devices, with apps for every platform and browser
- Passkeys, two-factor codes, secure notes and sharing with one other person
- Premium is about US$10 a year if you want file attachments and emergency access. Self-hosting is free.
Free NordVPN alternative: Proton VPN
Proton VPN's free plan is the only well-known free VPN with no data cap and no ads, from the Swiss company behind Proton Mail.
- No data limit and no speed throttling
- Strict no-logs policy, independently audited, with open source apps
- One device at a time and a smaller set of countries. Paid plans add streaming and ten devices.
Free Dropbox alternative: Nextcloud
Nextcloud is an open source cloud you run yourself: files, calendar, contacts, photos and office documents, with apps for every device.
- Desktop and mobile sync, sharing links, versioning and collaborative editing
- Calendar, contacts, talk and mail apps, so it can replace most of Google Workspace
- Free to install on a server or a NAS. Storage costs whatever your disk costs.
Free Google Photos alternative: Immich
Immich is a self-hosted photo and video library with the Google Photos experience: automatic phone backup, face recognition and search by what's in the picture.
- iOS and Android apps that back up your camera roll automatically
- Face grouping, object and place search, memories, shared albums
- Runs on a home server or a small box. Your photos never leave it.
Free TeamViewer alternative: RustDesk
RustDesk is open source remote desktop. Control another computer, help a family member, reach your office machine from home.
- Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android, with file transfer and clipboard sharing
- Works through the public relay or your own server for full privacy
- No licence fees and no "commercial use detected" lock-outs
Free WinRAR alternative: 7-Zip
7-Zip has been quietly doing WinRAR's job for free for twenty years.
- Opens RAR, ZIP, 7z, TAR, GZ and dozens more, and creates ZIP and 7z with strong encryption
- Better compression than ZIP with the 7z format
- Windows only. On a Mac use Keka, which is also free.
Free Snagit alternative: ShareX
ShareX is the Windows power user's screenshot tool, and it's open source.
- Region, window and scrolling capture, screen recording to MP4 or GIF
- Annotations, blur, arrows and numbered steps built in
- Upload to Imgur, Google Drive, Dropbox or your own server and copy the link in one step
On a Mac, Shottr is free and does scrolling capture and annotations. Flameshot is the open source option for Mac and Linux.
Marketing, analytics and business
Free Google Analytics alternative: Umami and Microsoft Clarity
Two free tools cover what most sites need. Umami is open source, privacy-friendly analytics with one simple dashboard. Microsoft Clarity adds heatmaps and session recordings, free with no limits.
- Umami: page views, referrers, countries, devices and events, no cookie banner needed
- Umami is free to self-host, and the hosted version has a free tier
- Clarity: heatmaps, recordings and rage-click detection, free for any amount of traffic
umami.is · clarity.microsoft.com
Free Mailchimp alternative: Listmonk
Listmonk is an open source newsletter and mailing list manager. One binary, your own database, millions of subscribers if you want them.
- Lists, segments, templates, campaigns, automation via API and analytics
- Sends through any email service. Amazon SES works out at about US$0.10 per thousand emails.
- Free to self-host with no subscriber limits
Free Substack alternative: Ghost
Ghost is open source publishing: a blog, a newsletter and paid memberships in one, without Substack's 10 percent cut.
- Clean editor, themes, SEO handled, newsletters sent from the same post
- Paid subscriptions through Stripe with no platform fee
- Free to self-host. The managed Ghost(Pro) is paid, from a few dollars a month.
Free HubSpot alternative: Twenty
Twenty is an open source CRM built to feel modern, with a flexible data model like Salesforce and a UI like Notion.
- People, companies, deals, pipelines, notes, tasks and email sync
- Custom objects and fields, so you can shape it to your business
- Free to self-host. The hosted version has paid plans.
HubSpot still has the bigger free plan if you don't want to run a server.
Free Buffer alternative: Postiz
Postiz schedules posts across your social accounts from one calendar, and it's open source.
- X, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Threads, Bluesky, Pinterest and more
- Calendar view, team comments, AI help with captions and an API
- Free to self-host. The hosted version is paid.
Free YNAB alternative: Actual Budget
Actual Budget is open source envelope budgeting, the YNAB method without the subscription.
- Local-first, so your money data stays on your computer, with optional sync to your own server
- Bank sync through SimpleFIN or GoCardless, or import CSV, OFX and QIF
- Reports, scheduled transactions and rules that categorise for you
Free Tableau alternative: Metabase
Metabase turns a database into dashboards your whole team can read, without anyone writing SQL.
- Point-and-click questions, charts, dashboards and scheduled email reports
- Connects to Postgres, MySQL, BigQuery, Snowflake, Google Sheets and more
- The open source edition is free to self-host with no user limit
AI tools
Free ChatGPT Plus alternative: LM Studio
LM Studio runs open AI models on your own computer. Download a model, chat with it offline, and nothing you type leaves your machine.
- One-click downloads of open models like Llama, Qwen, Gemma, DeepSeek and Mistral from Hugging Face
- Chat with your documents, and a local server that works with any app expecting the OpenAI API
- Free for personal and work use on Mac, Windows and Linux. A modern laptop with 16 GB of memory runs the smaller models well.
Ollama does the same from the command line and is open source. Jan is the open source desktop app. None of them match ChatGPT or Claude on the hard stuff, but for drafting, summarising and private documents they're plenty.
Free Midjourney alternative: ComfyUI
ComfyUI is the open source app behind most of the AI image and video work you see online. You wire up models in a node graph and generate as many images as your graphics card can handle.
- Runs Stable Diffusion, Flux and the open video models, with full control over every step
- Thousands of shared workflows, so you can start from someone else's setup
- Free and unlimited, but you need a decent GPU (or rent one) and a bit of patience
If the node graph puts you off, Fooocus wraps the same models in a one-box prompt that feels like Midjourney.
How to choose
- Start with the free plan, not the self-hosted version. Most of the open source tools above have a hosted version with a free tier. Try that first. Self-host once you know you'll keep using it.
- Check the file formats before you switch. If your work lives in PSD, AI, DOCX or FIG files, open a few real ones in the new tool before you cancel anything.
- Watch the "free for personal use" line. A few tools here (Cap, Obsidian, LM Studio) are free for work too, but always check, because that's the clause that catches small businesses.
- Export is the real test. A tool you can leave easily is a tool you can trust. Every open source option on this page lets you take your data with you.
Questions people ask
Is free and open source software safe to use?
Usually safer than the paid tool, because anyone can read the code. The risk is downloading from the wrong place. Always install from the official site or GitHub repo linked above, never from a "download" site that shows up in an ad.
What's the difference between free and open source?
Free means you don't pay. Open source means the code is public and you can run, change and share it. Photopea, Tally and PDF24 are free but not open source, so the company could change the deal. Inkscape, Blender and Bitwarden are open source, so nobody can take them away.
Will these open my Adobe, Microsoft and Figma files?
Mostly. Photopea, Affinity and GIMP open PSD. Inkscape and Affinity open AI and PDF. LibreOffice and OnlyOffice open DOCX, XLSX and PPTX. Complex files with fonts, effects and smart objects can lose some formatting, so test with a real file.
Do I need to know how to code to self-host?
No, but you need to be comfortable following instructions. Most self-hosted tools install with one Docker command on a US$5 a month server, and services like Coolify, Elestio and PikaPods will run them for you for a few dollars a month. Or paste the GitHub link into Claude Code and ask it to set the thing up.
What's the catch with free tools?
Time. Open source apps sometimes lag the paid ones on polish, support and AI features, and you'll spend an afternoon learning a new layout. Against that, you keep the subscription money every month and nobody can raise the price on you.