10 Open-Source, Self-Hosted Alternatives for Your Projects

Matomo

The alternative to Google Analytics

Matomo isn't just an activity tracker for your websites on top of being the main alternative to Google Analytics, it's above all a platform that emphasizes respecting user data as much as possible.

Unlike the American giant's solution, Matomo does not track a user's browsing across several consecutive sites, nor over several days.

You can even find an article dedicated to Matomo's GDPR compliance, directly on their official blog.

Link to Matomo's website

Gladys Assistant

The alternative to Google Home

If there's one service where you wouldn't expect to find a serious open-source alternative, it's voice assistants. And yet Gladys is a project incorporating voice recognition, integration with several services, calendar management and, above all... managing your home automation.

All of it installable on a Raspberry Pi! And as an extra detail, its creator is French, his name is Pierre-Gilles Leymarie and I invite you to follow him on Twitter if the project interests you.

Link to Gladys' website

Commento

The alternative to Disqus

Disqus is a "comment box" solution that can be easily integrated into any site, including features like moderation, a community, reactions, etc...

But Disqus brings two big problems:

• A number of calls to third-party scripts that track users in an abnormal way and slow down the page (this article covers it very well)
• Ads appear without warning on the site once a certain amount of traffic is reached, without being indicated as belonging to Disqus.

I used to use Disqus on this blog, but since I became aware of these issues I migrated to Commento, which is a more simplified version (fewer features), but much healthier, and just as easy to set up (not counting hosting).

Link to Commento's website

Gitlab

The alternative to Github

Gitlab is probably one of the best-known alternatives on this list, it covers the vast majority of the features offered by Github and offers a Saas version (with a free plan) or a self-hosted version.

Many major projects have switched to GitLab since Microsoft acquired GitHub in 2019, which once again proves that the platform is comprehensive enough for all the needs of dev projects.

Link to GitLab's website

Jitsi

The alternative to Google Meet and Zoom

Jitsi is a set of video-conferencing solutions that notably allows replacing classic VoIP solutions with Jitsi Meet, but which also allows integrating text/audio/video chat solutions directly into your applications.

One of the platforms using Jitsi's services that made headlines during the lockdown is Work Adventure, a virtual office in the form of a top-down view game.

Link to Jitsi's website

Mattermost

The alternative to Slack

With prestigious clients like CERN, Samsung, Bosch, Airbus and even Valve, the real-time communication platform Mattermost is a solution that offers both all the necessary features (750+ integrations) and for which the security of transmitted data is the main concern.

Link to Mattermost's website

Focalboard

The alternative to Trello, Asana and Notion

The advantage of Focalboard is that you don't need to deploy a server to run the solution if you're working alone: just install the Windows, Mac or Linux client to start organizing your projects.

Card management, task management, boards, knowledge base, everything is present and centralized in a single tool, with the possibility of collaborating by hosting your own server.

Note that Focalboard is published by Mattermost, and that the platform is currently in public beta phase.

Link to Focalboard's website

Supabase

The alternative to Firebase

Supabase's goal is to manage to implement all the services available in Google Firebase. For now the platform offers simplified authentication management (like Firebase Auth) and data storage (Firestore).

The roadmap includes being able to serve heavy files, as well as running serverless functions.

Link to Supabase's website

Baserow

The alternative to AirTable

No-code arrives in self-hosted form with Baserow, which lets you create a database with no technical skills, with specific plugins for integration with various services as well as a REST API to query your data without having to set up a data server!

Link to Baserow's website

As a bonus

Discourse

Discourse isn't really an alternative to a well-known proprietary solution, but it's one of the best modern forum creation solutions I know of, so I couldn't help but put it on the list.

Like all the other solutions, Discourse is open-source and self-hosted!

Link to Discourse's website