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While mainstream productivity apps have their advantages, breaking free from subscriptions doesn’t mean compromising on features. Open-source options provide flexibility, control, and all the essential features—without the price tag
9Nextcloud
Nextcloud is a self-hosted cloud storage and file-sharing solution that puts you in complete control over your data. As an open-source alternative to OneDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox, it can be self-hosted on a homeNAS (Network Attached Storage)or deployed on the cloud using third-party hosting services.
Once set up, you may browse your photos, documents, and media collection on any device with internet access. You can alsouse Nextcloud on Android, though the setup can be tricky. It also boasts a slew of collaboration tools, such as Nextcloud Office, a LibreOffice-based online office suite, and Nextcloud Talk, which offers private audio and video conferencing.
8Thunderbird
Thunderbird is a simple email client capable of managing multiple email accounts. What makes it unique is its extension support. It’s an open-source, cross-platform email client with an excellent spam filtering system that uses your address book or classification by server-based spam filters like SpamAssassin for spam detection.
While the Thunderbird UI may feel dated compared to Outlook, it’s not a dealbreaker. A few unique features of Thunderbird include the tabbed email, which loads emails in separate tabs; a unified inbox, which combines multiple email accounts into a single inbox for easy management; an extensive library of add-ons to add more features; and an integrated RSS reader to read news and blogs directly from the app.
Whether you are a writer, student, or journalist, Zotero makes it easy to collect and organize your research and references. It also offers Word and Google Doc integration for easy citation management.
You can add citations using the desktop, mobile app or a browser extension (Zotero Connector). The extension makes it easy to add citations directly from the web browser while also also capturing screenshots for reference.
Zotero is an open-source tool and offers 300MB of storage on its free plan. If you need more space, you can upgrade to 2GB for $20/year or unlimited storage for $120/year. If you don’t want to pay for storage, it also supports WebDAV, allowing you to add extra storage to third-party cloud services like Google Drive.
Joplin is your open-source answer to a clean note-taking app that saves your notes locally on your device’s storage. With features like a web clipper that allows you to save web pages and screenshots from your web browser, it’s anexcellent free alternative to Evernote.
As a cross-platform utility, Joplin syncs across devices via third-party cloud services like Nextcloud, OneDrive, or Dropbox, all protected by end-to-end encryption. Its clean interface and Markdown support make it an ideal note-taking app for those who prefer a fast, minimalist writing experience over complex rich-text formatting. However, it also offers multiple text editor options for added customization.
Joplin is free to use. But if you need team collaboration features, you can opt for one of its Cloud plans, starting at 28.69 Euros (approx. $30) a year. These plans offer increased attachment size, more storage space, and better team collaboration features.
Cal.com is a powerfulmeeting scheduling tooland an alternative to popular paid calendar tools like Calendly. As an open-source tool, you’re able to self-host it and use it for free or opt for a hosted solution provided by Cal.com.
Like other scheduling tools, Cal.com lets you connect to your personal/work calendar, set availability, and share meeting links. With support for over eight calendar apps and over 15+ video conferencing tools, it makes meeting scheduling simple and flexible.
4Screenity
If you likeLoom, you’ll certainly like Screenity—an open-source screen recorder extension for Chromium-based browsers like Google Chrome, Edge, etc. It lets you record your screen along with your camera without limits and offers annotation tools to add text, arrows, shapes, and more to your recording. Plus, it supports AI-powered camera backgrounds to enhance your video.
A standout feature of Screenity is the built-in video editor, which lets you trim, cut, mute, crop, or add audio to your recordings. You can also save the video directly to Google Drive or download them in .mp4 or .webm format. While Screenity doesn’t offer direct link sharing like Loom, you can still use Google Drive integration to store videos in the cloud and create shareable links.
If Screenity excels at screen recording,ShareX is my go-to tool for capturing screenshots on Windows. It’s highly customizable, packed with useful features, and is completely free.
ShareX offers a range of screen capture options. It also gets an integrated GIF maker, a decent screen recording tool, an excellent image editor with essential tools, a magic eraser to remove unwanted elements or mask sensitive information and OCR support to copy text from an image.
Plus, you’re able to configure it to automatically upload your screenshots directly to your preferred cloud service.
2OnlyOffice
Microsoft Office dominates the office suite space, and for good reasons, but if you’re looking for a free, open-source alternative, OnlyOffice is an excellent choice.
With an interface that closely resembles Microsoft Office, OnlyOffice makes the transition seamless for users switching from Microsoft’s suite. It supports all Office file formats and includes real-time collaboration tools, allowing teams to work together on documents effortlessly.
The 6 Best Free Alternatives to Microsoft Office 365
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If you are into Kanban boards, WeKan is an open-source tool for visual task management. you may create boards, lists, and cards to organize workflows. Each task can be moved between the lists to change its status (To-Do > In Progress > Done).
You can also set deadlines, add labels for better categorization, assign tasks to team members, and even attach files or comments for better collaboration. Since it’s self-hosted, WeKan offers more privacy, making it an alternative project management platform for those who want greater control over their system.
Whether you need cloud storage, email management, note-taking, or collaboration tools, these open-source options with a robust set of features offer flexible options without recurring costs. Apart from being cost-effective, they also offer greater control over your data.
