Free and open-source software, checked by hand
This is a short list of free software people really use for work, with its licence, when its code last changed, and what to watch for. eGig does not make these products and takes no money to list them. Read from each project’s public code page on 31 Oct 2026.
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Office and PDF
| Software | Good for | Licence | Last code change |
|---|
| LibreOffice |
Word, Excel and PowerPoint replacement, on your computer |
GPL-3.0 |
31 Oct 2026 |
| ONLYOFFICE Desktop |
Closest look to Microsoft Office |
AGPL-3.0 |
22 Oct 2026 |
| PDFsam Basic |
Merge and split PDFs on your computer |
AGPL-3.0 |
30 Oct 2026 |
| Stirling-PDF |
Many PDF tasks, run on your own server |
Mixed: MIT, some parts proprietary |
31 Oct 2026 |
Notes and documents
| Software | Good for | Licence | Last code change |
|---|
| Joplin |
Notes that sync across devices |
AGPL-3.0 or later |
30 Oct 2026 |
| AppFlowy |
Notes, tasks and wiki, like Notion |
AGPL-3.0 |
28 Oct 2026 |
| Logseq |
Linked notes kept as files |
AGPL-3.0 |
31 Oct 2026 |
Design and 3D
| Software | Good for | Licence | Last code change |
|---|
| GIMP |
Photo editing |
GPL |
30 Oct 2026 |
| Inkscape |
Logos and vector drawing |
GPL-2.0 or later, a few exceptions |
31 Oct 2026 |
| Krita |
Digital painting |
GPL-3.0 |
31 Oct 2026 |
| Penpot |
Screens and prototypes, like Figma |
MPL-2.0 |
31 Oct 2026 |
| Blender |
3D models and animation |
GPL |
31 Oct 2026 |
Video and audio
| Software | Good for | Licence | Last code change |
|---|
| Shotcut |
Video editing, simple to start |
GPL-3.0 |
31 Oct 2026 |
| Kdenlive |
Video editing with more control |
GPL-3.0 |
31 Oct 2026 |
| OBS Studio |
Screen recording and live streams |
GPL-2.0 |
29 Oct 2026 |
| HandBrake |
Shrink and convert video |
GPL-2.0 |
31 Oct 2026 |
| Audacity |
Record and clean audio |
GPL-3.0 |
30 Oct 2026 |
| VLC |
Plays nearly any file |
GPL-2.0 |
31 Oct 2026 |
Business
| Software | Good for | Licence | Last code change |
|---|
| ERPNext |
Accounts, stock and sales, with an India compliance add-on to check |
GPL-3.0 |
31 Oct 2026 |
| Odoo Community |
Business apps with a free community edition |
LGPL-3.0 |
31 Oct 2026 |
| GnuCash |
Personal and small business books |
GPL-2.0 or 3.0 |
29 Oct 2026 |
| Frappe HR |
HR and payroll |
GPL-3.0 |
30 Oct 2026 |
| Kimai |
Time tracking |
AGPL-3.0 |
31 Oct 2026 |
| EspoCRM |
Customer records and sales |
AGPL-3.0 |
31 Oct 2026 |
| SuiteCRM |
Larger CRM |
AGPL-3.0 |
29 Oct 2026 |
Teamwork
| Software | Good for | Licence | Last code change |
|---|
| Plane |
Issues and projects, like Jira |
AGPL-3.0 |
30 Oct 2026 |
| OpenProject |
Projects with Gantt charts |
GPL-3.0 |
31 Oct 2026 |
| WeKan |
Simple boards |
MIT |
31 Oct 2026 |
| Jitsi Meet |
Video calls with no account |
Apache-2.0 |
30 Oct 2026 |
| Mattermost |
Team chat |
Mixed: AGPL source, MIT builds |
31 Oct 2026 |
| Nextcloud |
Files and sharing on your own server |
AGPL-3.0 |
31 Oct 2026 |
| LimeSurvey |
Surveys and forms |
GPL |
31 Oct 2026 |
Websites, data and developers
| Software | Good for | Licence | Last code change |
|---|
| WordPress |
Websites and blogs |
GPL |
31 Oct 2026 |
| Ghost |
Publishing and newsletters |
MIT |
31 Oct 2026 |
| Metabase |
Charts from your database |
Mixed: AGPL, enterprise parts commercial |
31 Oct 2026 |
| Apache Superset |
Larger dashboards |
Apache-2.0 |
31 Oct 2026 |
| Grafana |
Monitoring dashboards |
AGPL-3.0 |
31 Oct 2026 |
| VSCodium |
Code editor |
MIT |
31 Oct 2026 |
| Git |
Version control |
GPL-2.0 |
30 Oct 2026 |
| DBeaver Community |
Database client |
Apache-2.0 |
31 Oct 2026 |
| Bruno |
Test APIs |
MIT |
30 Oct 2026 |
Security and AI
| Software | Good for | Licence | Last code change |
|---|
| KeePassXC |
Password vault kept on your device |
GPL |
28 Oct 2026 |
| Bitwarden |
Password manager with sync |
Mixed: GPL-3.0 by default |
31 Oct 2026 |
| Ollama |
Run AI models on your own computer |
MIT |
30 Oct 2026 |
| Whisper |
Turn speech into text |
MIT |
31 Aug 2026 |
What “free” and “open source” mean here
Open source means the code is public under a licence that lets anyone read, change and share it. Free only means it costs nothing to use, and a free plan can change. Copyleft licences such as GPL and AGPL have conditions if you change the software and share it or run it for others, while they rarely affect ordinary use. “Self-hosted” tools are free to download, but you pay for the server and the time to look after it.
How we check this page
No paid placements. A licence shown as “mixed” means the project’s licence file puts parts of it under different terms, so read that file before you rely on it. Stars show interest, not quality, so we list them only in our notes. How we check facts.
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