Open Source Productivity alternatives in 2026
Notes, project management, calendars and team chat without relying on a SaaS.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AppFlowy Most popular on GitHub1-Click Deploy | AGPL-3.0 | ~1GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~59,000 |
| Plane 1-Click Deploy | AGPL-3.0 | ~2GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~33,000 |
| AFFiNE | MIT | ~2GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~46,000 |
| Joplin 100% FOSS | AGPL-3.0 | ~1GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~46,000 |
| Rocket.Chat 1-Click Deploy | MIT | ~1GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~41,000 |
| Cal.com 1-Click Deploy | AGPL-3.0 | ~1GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~32,000 |
| Mattermost 1-Click Deploy | MIT | ~1GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~30,000 |
| Outline 1-Click Deploy | BUSL-1.1 | ~2GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~30,000 |
| Trilium Notes Lightest option100% FOSS1-Click Deploy | AGPL-3.0 | ~256MB | — | ✅ | ★ ~28,000 |
| Paperless-ngx 100% FOSS | GPL-3.0 | ~2GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~26,000 |
| Wiki.js 100% FOSS1-Click Deploy | AGPL-3.0 | ~1GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~24,000 |
| Focalboard Lightest option100% FOSS1-Click Deploy | MIT | ~256MB | — | ✅ | ★ ~21,000 |
| Zulip 100% FOSS | Apache-2.0 | ~512MB | — | ✅ | ★ ~21,000 |
| Wekan 100% FOSS1-Click Deploy | MIT | ~1GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~19,000 |
| Etherpad 100% FOSS1-Click Deploy | Apache-2.0 | ~1GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~15,000 |
| BookStack 100% FOSS1-Click Deploy | MIT | ~1GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~14,000 |
| Docmost 1-Click Deploy | AGPL-3.0 | ~2GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~14,000 |
| Linkwarden 100% FOSS | AGPL-3.0 | ~1GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~13,000 |
| Huly 100% FOSS | AGPL-3.0 | ~1GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~11,000 |
| wallabag 100% FOSS | MIT | ~1GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~10,800 |
| OpenProject 1-Click Deploy | GPL-3.0 | ~512MB | — | ✅ | ★ ~9,000 |
| Vikunja Lightest option1-Click Deploy | AGPL-3.0 | ~256MB | — | ✅ | ★ ~8,000 |
| Rallly 100% FOSS1-Click Deploy | AGPL-3.0 | ~1GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~5,000 |
| CryptPad Lightest option100% FOSS1-Click Deploy | AGPL-3.0 | ~256MB | — | ✅ | ★ ~5,000 |
| Taiga 100% FOSS | AGPL-3.0 | ~1GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~4,000 |
| Fider 100% FOSS1-Click Deploy | AGPL-3.0 | ~1GB | — | ✅ | ★ ~4,000 |
Already know which one you want?
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Build my stackDetailed profile of each alternative
Alternative to Notion
Notes and database workspace, the open source alternative to Notion.
Alternative to Jira, Asana, Linear
Project and issue management, an alternative to Jira and Asana.
Alternative to Trello
Open source Kanban boards, an alternative to Trello.
Alternative to Calendly
Open source meeting scheduling, an alternative to Calendly.
Alternative to Slack
Self-hostable team chat, an alternative to Slack.
Alternative to Slack, Microsoft Teams
Security-focused team chat and collaboration, an alt. to Slack.
Alternative to Linear, Notion, Slack
Projects + chat + docs in one, an alternative to Linear/Notion/Slack.
Alternative to Confluence, Notion
Fast, elegant team wiki, an alternative to Confluence.
Alternative to Confluence
Documentation organized into books and pages, an alternative to Confluence.
Alternative to Trello
Classic Kanban board, a direct alternative to Trello.
Alternative to Todoist, Asana
Task and project manager, an alternative to Todoist and Asana.
Alternative to Jira
Agile management (Scrum/Kanban), a simpler alternative to Jira.
Alternative to Jira, MS Project
Project management with Gantt and budgets, an alternative to Jira/MS Project.
Alternative to Evernote, OneNote
Hierarchical, encrypted notes, an alternative to Evernote/OneNote.
Alternative to Confluence, Notion
Modern collaborative wiki, an open source alternative to Confluence.
Alternative to Notion
Docs + whiteboard on one canvas, an alternative to Notion.
Alternative to Slack
Team chat organized by threads, an alternative to Slack.
Alternative to Google Docs
Real-time collaborative editor, a lightweight alternative to Google Docs.
Alternative to Confluence
Modern wiki with version control, an alternative to Confluence.
Alternative to Doodle, Calendly
Availability polls for meetings, an alternative to Doodle.
Alternative to Google Docs
End-to-end encrypted office suite, an alternative to Google Docs.
Alternative to Canny
Public feedback and roadmap board, an alternative to Canny.
Alternative to Pocket, Raindrop.io
Bookmark manager with page archiving, an alternative to Raindrop.io.
Alternative to Pocket
Save articles to read later offline, an alternative to Pocket.
Alternative to Evernote, OneNote
Cross-platform encrypted notes, a free alternative to Evernote.
Alternative to Evernote
Digital document archive with OCR, no paid scanning app subscription needed.
Alternative to Paprika Recipe Manager
Recipes, weekly menu and shopping list, an alternative to paid recipe apps.
Alternative to Miro
Hand-drawn-style collaborative whiteboard, an alternative to Miro.
Alternative to Figma
Interface design and prototyping, the open source alternative to Figma.
Alternative to Slack, Discord
Federated, end-to-end encrypted chat server, Matrix protocol, alternative to Slack/Discord.
Alternative to Feedly
Self-hosted, multi-user RSS reader, an alternative to Feedly.
Alternative to Raindrop.io
Bookmark manager with automatic AI tagging, an alternative to Raindrop.io.
Alternative to Sortly
Home inventory with QR labels, an alternative to paid inventory apps.
Alternative to Notion
Lightweight quick notes with hashtags, a minimalist alternative to Notion.
Alternative to Notion
Personal Markdown knowledge base with templates and live queries.
Frequently asked questions
What's the minimum server I need to host Productivity tools?
Most of these (AppFlowy, Focalboard, Outline...) run comfortably on 1-2 vCPU and 2GB of RAM — a ~$12/month plan on DigitalOcean or Vultr. The ones that ship a heavier stack of their own (Postgres + Redis + extra services, like Huly) feel more comfortable with 4GB.
How are backups of the data volumes handled?
Almost all of them store their state in Postgres/SQLite plus a Docker volume for attachments. The typical routine is a scheduled database dump (pg_dump, or SQLite's own .backup) plus a copy of the volume via rsync or restic to another disk or an S3-compatible bucket. Since the containers themselves hold no state, backing up the dump and the volume is enough to rebuild the whole stack from the docker-compose.
Is it safe to expose these tools to the internet, or is a VPN/Tailscale preferable?
Most ship their own login and are meant to be exposed behind a reverse proxy (Caddy/Traefik) with TLS — that's the normal deployment pattern, and it's fine as long as you keep the image updated and use strong passwords (plus 2FA where the tool supports it). If usage is purely internal and doesn't need to be public, putting it behind Tailscale/WireGuard removes the whole "exposed web app" attack surface, at the cost of needing the VPN client on every device.
How do the costs compare against commercial SaaS alternatives?
Compared to Notion ($10/user/month on the Business plan) or Airtable ($20/user/month), a $12/month 2GB VPS covers your whole team with no per-seat cost — the savings grow with team size, not with usage.
Which Productivity tools are 100% free?
16 out of 26 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 26 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 Trilium Notes, which runs on as little as 256MB of RAM — enough for a cheap VPS.