NETROOM
The canonical "run your own Google Drive", though it outgrew files long ago: calendar, contacts, mail, notes, tasks, video calls via Talk, and collaborative document editing through Collabora or OnlyOffice. Anything else comes from the app store, which has hundreds of entries. Clients exist for every platform, and WebDAV access works everywhere. AGPL-3.0. Be aware it is a PHP monolith with a database - on weak hardware or cheap shared hosting it drags, so give it a VPS or a home box with an SSD.
A media server for your own films, series, music, books and photos - no subscriptions, no telemetry, no central servers. It transcodes to suit the client (GPU included), does Live TV with DVR, fetches metadata and artwork, supports multiple users with restrictions, and has SyncPlay for watching together. Clients exist almost everywhere: browser, Android, iOS, Roku, Fire TV, Android TV, Kodi, desktop. Written in C# on .NET, forked from Emby 3.5.2 after that project closed its source. GPL-2.0.
Your own Google Photos: the mobile app backs up photos and videos from the phone to your server, and from there you get albums, shared libraries, multiple users, RAW, 360° images, EXIF viewing and offline access. Search goes beyond metadata - there is face recognition and CLIP-powered semantic search over image content. Deploys via Docker Compose, AGPL-3.0, entirely free. Development moves fast, and the authors are upfront that this is not a backup: keep the 3-2-1 rule.
The default self-hosted Git service: repositories, code review, issues, kanban boards, wikis, a package registry covering 20+ formats and built-in CI via Gitea Actions, which reuses GitHub Actions syntax. It is a single Go binary that runs on SQLite, MySQL, PostgreSQL or MSSQL, on x86 and ARM down to a Raspberry Pi. MIT licensed with unlimited users and repos. Gitea Cloud (30-day trial) and Gitea Enterprise with SSO and audit logs are sold separately, starting around $9.50 per user per month.
The main home automation platform, built around local control: over 1500 integrations covering a thousand device brands, all working without internet access. Conditional automations, drag-and-drop dashboards, the Assist voice assistant, energy monitoring, companion mobile apps with presence detection and NFC tag triggers. Apache 2.0, and the project belongs to the non-profit Open Home Foundation, so it cannot be bought or shut down. First-party hardware exists too: Home Assistant Green plus Zigbee, Thread and Z-Wave adapters.
A real-time strategy game about ancient warfare - roughly Age of Empires, only free and open all the way down. Thirteen civilisations from the Hellenes to the Britons, skirmishes against AI, multiplayer and an active modding scene. Volunteers at Wildfire Games have been building it since 2009; Release 28 'Boiorix' landed in February 2026 as the first build to drop the Alpha label. Code is GPL v2, art and audio CC-BY-SA 3.0. Windows, Linux and macOS builds. No ads, no freemium, no in-game purchases.
A one-shot file-sharing service: upload a file or a snippet, get a link, set a password and a download cap, and the link dies after that. It does chunked uploads with resume, instant hash-based transfer when the file already sits on the server, image compression and format conversion, plus previews for video, audio and documents. Interface is Chinese and English only. Go 1.23 with Echo and Redis, a Nuxt 3 front end, Docker images, AGPL-3.0. The public demo at send.fudaoyuan.icu returned HTTP 500 when checked.
One-time links for secrets: a password, API key, SSH key or file is encrypted in your browser with AES-256-GCM, only ciphertext reaches the server, and the link destroys itself once opened. The key rides in the URL fragment, so it never leaves the client at all. Lifetime is configurable from one hour to 30 days, view counts from one to ten, and files go up to 80MB. Extras include a password generator, QR codes, a CLI and a browser extension for Chrome, Edge and Brave. The service is up, free, needs no signup.
Your own server for two-factor codes: all your TOTP, HOTP and Steam Guard accounts in one web interface reachable from any device, rather than chained to one specific phone. Add entries by scanning a QR or by hand, sort them into groups, and the secrets are encrypted in the database. Login can be locked behind a hardware key such as a Yubikey, and sessions expire on inactivity. By default it is single-user - registration closes after the first account. Needs PHP 8.4+ and any Laravel-supported database. AGPL-3.0.
A full PBX you install on your own Windows or Linux server, or take hosted from 3CX. It bundles call queues, IVR, call recording, video conferencing, website live chat and messaging channels - WhatsApp, Facebook, SMS - into one console, and speaks SIP to most trunk providers and desk phones. Important: this is proprietary software, not open source, despite the free tier. That free tier covers roughly 10 users and is trimmed - no call recording, CRM integration or SMS. The free terms changed during 2026, so check the current pricing page.
A minimal bookmarking server: save a link and it fetches the title and favicon by itself, with room for a note on each entry. There is a dead-link checker with archive.org fallback, plus importers for Wallabag and a plain bookmarks.html export. Multiple accounts are supported, so one instance can serve a household or a small team. It is written in Lisp - the author jokes that a bookmark collection is just a list - ships as a single static binary and needs no JavaScript in the browser. The project site is up, currently at version 1.10.0.
Kanban boards without the ceremony: realtime updates with no page refresh, switching between board and list views, assignees and priorities, collapsible checklists and a decent markdown editor inside cards. Trello import, CSV and JSON export, and single sign-on through Google, GitHub or Microsoft. Licensed MIT, so self-hosting is free with no user caps at all. The hosted plans are paid - Pro from £6 per user per month, Enterprise from £10 with a dedicated instance. Actively maintained, latest stable release mid-2026.
A browser text roguelike that opens with a single button - light the fire - and quietly unfolds into a full game about survival, resources and exploring a map. The mechanics reveal themselves as you play, which is the whole trick, so avoid spoilers. Two evenings' worth of game. Plain JavaScript, MPL-2.0, and you can run it locally with Node and yarn or just serve the files statically. 21 interface languages. Playable without installing anything at adarkroom.doublespeakgames.com, with paid ports on iOS, Android and Steam.
Back office for community-supported agriculture - CSA in English, ACP in French, Solawi in German. It handles members, subscriptions, a delivery calendar with absences, drop-off points, member work shifts, QR-coded invoices with payment reconciliation, newsletters and a small add-on shop. Running since 2014 with 40+ farms on board. Note that acp-admin.ch now redirects to csa-admin.org. Source is open under the O'Saasy license; the authors' hosting costs 1% of billed volume, capped at 2,400 CHF a year.
A workspace where the document and the infinite canvas are the same surface: text, tables, databases, sticky notes and shapes all live on one edgeless board. It replaces Notion plus Miro, with built-in AI for slides and mind maps. Data is stored locally with sync and real-time collaboration layered on top. The Community Edition is MIT and self-hosts via Docker; SSO and rebranding are promised for a paid edition. Note: affine.pro returns HTTP 402 to automated fetches, but the project is alive - 72k stars, regular releases.
Minimal analytics for people who don't want Google Analytics: it counts events over a 10-30 day window and prunes older data according to a retention policy you set. The philosophy is collect less, explain less to your lawyers. Pick your storage - MongoDB, PostgreSQL, Redis or SQLite via libsql/Turso - which makes it easy to stay inside free tiers. Deploys to Docker, Vercel, Netlify, Render or Koyeb. MIT licensed. It's a tiny project, closer to a weekend script than a platform, so weigh that before relying on it.
The veteran log analyser: it parses Apache, IIS, nginx, ftp and mail server logs and reports visits, countries, browsers, robots and search terms. No JavaScript tag on the site - it counts what actually reached the log, downloads and bot hits included. It is a Perl script run from cron or as CGI, needing Perl 5.007003+, under the GPL. Important: version 8.0 from August 2025 is the author's final release, and he recommends moving to Matomo from here.
A Go API gateway built around one specific trick: fan a request out to several upstream services in parallel and merge the responses into one, with the merge strategy declared in YAML rather than written in code. If some upstreams fail it returns a partial response with a 206. There is a circuit breaker, retries, rate limiting, JWT auth, mTLS with zero-downtime cert rotation, Prometheus metrics, OTLP tracing and SSE streaming. Plugins are Go .so files, so building needs CGO and a C toolchain. Apache 2.0, still 0.x.
A translation manager for teams that keep localization in the repo rather than in spreadsheets. You sync locale files through the CLI, while translators edit strings and discuss tricky ones in the web UI. The killer feature is full history: who changed what and when, with rollback on any action. A documented GraphQL API is there if you want your own automation. Built by Mirego in Elixir/Phoenix on PostgreSQL, deployable via Docker, Kubernetes or Heroku. BSD-3-Clause, with a public demo instance.
A project tracker aimed at service businesses: projects and tasks in several views, team workload planning, time tracking, discussions and notes, estimates, invoices and payments via Stripe and PayPal. Around since 2007, with 50,000+ teams claimed. One correction to the catalog entry: this is closed-source commercial software, and the pricing page now lists cloud plans only - Plus at $15/month for three members, Pro at $11 per user, Enterprise from 100 seats. The old self-hosted edition is no longer advertised.
A Zapier-style automation builder you can run yourself. You assemble flows from blocks - triggers, branching, loops, HTTP calls and your own TypeScript with npm packages - and there are 700+ ready integrations. On top sits an AI-agent layer with human-in-the-loop approvals. The core is MIT; enterprise pieces like SSO, SCIM and RBAC sit under a commercial license. Deploy via Docker, Helm or any cloud, with dev and staging environments free. A hosted cloud with a no-credit-card free tier exists too.
An automatic time tracker: it records which app and window you were actually in, with no manual timers. Data is grouped into categories, browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox cover websites, and editor plugins cover coding time. The point is that everything stays on your own machine - no cloud, no account, no ads - and you can sync instances across devices if you want. Runs on Windows, macOS, Linux and Android. MPL-2.0 licensed, with no paid tier of any kind.
Personal finance built on envelope (zero-sum) budgeting: every incoming unit of money gets a job, so the budget always balances to zero. The app is local-first, so it's fast and works offline, and you run the sync server yourself via Docker, PikaPods (about $2/month) or Fly.io (about $1.50). You get optional end-to-end encryption, categorization rules, reports, undo, bank sync through GoCardless (EU/UK) and SimpleFIN (US/Canada), plus QIF, OFX, QFX, CAMT.053 and CSV import. Node.js, MIT licensed.
A DNS server that strips ads and trackers at the network level: set it up once on your router or home box and every device is covered, with no client software. It speaks DNS-over-HTTPS, DNS-over-TLS and DNSCrypt both upstream and as a server itself, ships a DHCP server, per-device settings, parental controls and Safe Search. It's a single Go binary for Linux, macOS, Windows and Raspberry Pi, GPL-3.0 licensed. Worth knowing: in-stream YouTube and social ads can't be blocked this way - they share domains with the content.
A database client that fits in a single PHP file: drop it on the server, open it, enter credentials, done. It covers tables, columns, indexes, foreign keys, views, stored procedures and triggers, arbitrary SQL, import/export and a schema diagram. MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MS SQL and Oracle work out of the box; plugins add Elasticsearch, MongoDB and Redis. Against phpMyAdmin it wins on size and speed - roughly 250-500 KB instead of thousands of files. Dual-licensed Apache or GPL 2.
A travel log and trip planner in one: pin locations with photos, notes, ratings and visit dates, build multi-day itineraries with flights, lodging, transport and checklists, and watch a world map fill in with where you've been and where you're headed. A dashboard tracks countries and regions visited, and collections can be shared so a group plans together. It integrates with Immich, Strava, Wanderer and Google Maps. Deploys via Docker, with recipes for Synology, Unraid and Kubernetes. GPL-3.0, with a public demo.
A workshop for LLM applications: build an agent through chat, version prompts, skills and tools with rollback, run evaluations, and inspect a full trace of every run - steps, cost and where it broke. Agents can fire on a schedule or on events, and critical actions can be gated behind human approval. It's a shared workspace, so prompt work isn't locked to engineers alone. MIT licensed and fully self-hostable on your own infrastructure; the authors also run a hosted cloud with a free tier.
Not a ready-made shop but a PHP e-commerce framework: people build storefronts, marketplaces and heavy B2B systems on top of it. It sits on Laravel or TYPO3, exposes JSON REST and GraphQL, and handles multi-vendor, multi-warehouse and multi-channel setups, bundles, subscriptions and vouchers, plus 100+ payment gateways through Omnipay. The project claims billions of items at roughly 20 ms render time. Requires PHP 8.2+ with MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL or SQL Server. Dual-licensed MIT and LGPLv3.
A personal flight log: enter trips by hand or import from MyFlightRadar24, Flighty, TripIt and OpenFlights, then see your routes on a world map alongside stats - distance, hours in the air, airports, airline breakdowns. History is searchable and filterable, with light and dark themes. Multi-user with built-in auth plus OAuth, so a household can share one instance. Built with SvelteKit and installed with a single Docker command on any Linux box. GPL-3.0 licensed, with a public demo you can poke at first.
Editors' picks