Open Source Marketing, Forms & Emailing alternatives in 2026
Surveys, forms, newsletters and short links with your own data.
Quick comparison
Sorted by featured first, then GitHub stars as a tiebreaker — the same rule we use across the whole site.
| Tool | License | Minimum RAM | GPU | Docker | GitHub |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ghost Lightest option100% FOSSMost popular on GitHub | MIT | ~1GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~55,100 |
| Dub | AGPL-3.0 | ~4GB | — | — | ★ ~24,600 |
| Formbricks Lightest option | AGPL-3.0 | ~1GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~12,900 |
| Shlink Lightest option100% FOSS | MIT | ~1GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~4,700 |
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Alternative to Bitly
Link shortener with analytics, an open source alternative to Bitly.
Alternative to Typeform
Surveys and forms with in-app targeting, an alternative to Typeform.
Alternative to Substack, Medium
Blog and paid newsletter, a mature open source alternative to Substack.
Alternative to Bitly, Rebrandly
URL shortener server with API and analytics, an alternative to Bitly.
Frequently asked questions
Which Marketing, Forms & Emailing tools are 100% free?
2 out of 4 are 100% FOSS. The rest are Open-Core: the core is free, but some advanced feature may stay paid — we call it out on each tool's page.
Do I need a GPU to use these tools?
No, none of the 4 tools in this category need a GPU — they all run fine on CPU alone.
How much RAM do I need at minimum?
The lightest option on this list is Ghost, which runs on as little as 1GB of RAM — enough for a cheap VPS.