Software Directory

Password Managers

1Password is a subscription-based password manager storing credentials and passkeys in encrypted vaults, with apps for desktop, mobile, and browsers.

Proprietary Proprietary

Bitwarden is an open source password manager with end-to-end encryption, cross-platform apps, and self-hosting, offered as an alternative to 1Password and LastPass.

Open Source GPL-3.0

KeePassXC is a free, open source password manager that stores credentials in an offline encrypted database, with no cloud dependency and browser integration.

Open Source GPL-3.0

LastPass is a proprietary, cloud-hosted password manager whose closed source vaults were exposed in a major 2022 security breach, prompting many users to look for auditable alternatives.

Proprietary Proprietary

3D Modeling

Autodesk 3ds Max is a proprietary 3D modeling, animation, and rendering application for Windows, widely used in game asset creation, architectural visualization, and motion graphics.

Proprietary Proprietary

Blender is a free, open source 3D creation suite covering modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, and video editing, funded and maintained by the Blender Foundation.

Open Source GPL-2.0-or-later

Cinema 4D is a proprietary 3D modeling and motion graphics application from Maxon, widely used in broadcast design and known for its comparatively approachable learning curve.

Proprietary Proprietary

Autodesk Maya is a professional 3D computer graphics application used for modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, and rendering in film, TV, and game production.

Proprietary Proprietary

ZBrush is a proprietary digital sculpting application known for its pixol-based sculpting engine, widely used to create high-resolution organic models for film, games, and collectibles.

Proprietary Proprietary

Design

Adobe XD was Adobe's proprietary UI/UX design and prototyping tool, launched to compete with Sketch and Figma; Adobe has wound down active development and steered customers toward other tools.

Proprietary Proprietary

Figma is a browser-based interface design and prototyping tool with real-time multiplayer collaboration, used widely for UI/UX design and whiteboarding.

Proprietary Proprietary

Penpot is a free, open source, browser-based design and prototyping platform built on open web standards, offering a self-hostable alternative to Figma, Sketch, and Adobe XD.

Open Source MPL-2.0

Sketch is a proprietary, Mac-only vector interface design tool from Bohemian Coding, an early leader in UI/UX design software that predates Figma's browser-based collaboration model.

Proprietary Proprietary

Development Tools Our picks →

Aider is a free, open source AI pair programming tool for the terminal. It works with Claude, GPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, and local LLMs to edit code in git repos.

Open Source Apache-2.0

Claude Code is Anthropic's agentic coding tool. It runs in your terminal, IDE, or browser, reads your codebase, edits files, runs commands, and manages git.

Proprietary Proprietary

Cline is an open source autonomous coding agent for VS Code, JetBrains, CLI, or SDK use. Supports Claude, GPT, Gemini, and local models.

Open Source Apache-2.0

Continue is an open source AI coding agent for VS Code and JetBrains with autocomplete, chat, and agentic editing. Unmaintained since mid-2026.

Open Source Apache-2.0

Cursor is a proprietary AI-first code editor forked from VS Code, built by Anysphere, offering agentic multi-file editing tied to its own closed source app and subscription.

Proprietary Proprietary

GitHub Copilot is a proprietary AI coding assistant built into VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, and GitHub.com, offered as a subscription add-on locked to GitHub's platform and approved models.

Proprietary Proprietary

OpenHands is an open source AI coding agent (formerly OpenDevin) that writes code and runs sandboxed commands, self-hostable via Docker with a browser UI.

Open Source MIT

Tabby is a free, open source, self-hosted AI code completion server built in Rust, offering GitHub Copilot-style inline suggestions that run entirely on your own infrastructure and GPUs.

Open Source Apache-2.0 (ee/ enterprise directory under a separate license)

Note Taking

Anytype is a local-first, source-available workspace that mirrors Notion's block-and-database model while storing data on-device and syncing peer-to-peer, without requiring a central server.

Any Source Available License (clients/middleware); MIT (any-sync protocol)

Evernote is a proprietary note-taking app for capturing, organizing, and syncing notes, web clippings, and documents across devices, owned by Bending Spoons.

Proprietary Proprietary

Joplin is a free, open source Markdown note-taking app with end-to-end encryption and multi-platform sync, built as a privacy-focused alternative to Evernote and Obsidian.

Open Source AGPL-3.0-or-later

Logseq is a free, open source outliner that stores notes as local plain-text Markdown or Org files, offering bi-directional linking and a knowledge graph as a privacy-respecting alternative to Notion and Obsidian.

Open Source AGPL-3.0

Notion is a proprietary all-in-one workspace combining notes, wikis, databases, and project tracking behind closed-source, cloud-hosted infrastructure.

Proprietary Proprietary

Obsidian is a closed source note-taking app that stores notes as local Markdown files with bi-directional linking, free for personal use but with proprietary sync and publishing add-ons.

Proprietary Proprietary (free for personal use)

Standard Notes is a free, open source, end-to-end encrypted note-taking app focused on long-term, dependable plain-text notes, offered as a privacy-first alternative to Evernote.

Open Source AGPL-3.0

Email Clients

Apple Mail is the closed-source email client bundled with macOS and iOS, supporting standard IMAP/POP3 accounts but limited to Apple's own platforms.

Proprietary Proprietary

Gmail is Google's proprietary, closed-source webmail service, tightly integrated with Google Workspace and hosted exclusively on Google's servers.

Proprietary Proprietary

Microsoft Outlook is a proprietary email client and personal information manager bundled with Microsoft 365, combining email, calendaring, contacts, and task management.

Proprietary Proprietary

Thunderbird is a free, open source email client from the Mozilla Foundation supporting email, calendaring, contacts, and chat through standard protocols like IMAP and CalDAV.

Open Source MPL-2.0

Music Streaming

Apple Music is a proprietary, closed-source music streaming service bundled into Apple's ecosystem, licensing its catalog from rights holders rather than hosting user-owned files.

Proprietary Proprietary

Funkwhale is a free, open source, federated music streaming server built on ActivityPub, letting communities share and stream self-hosted music libraries across independent servers.

Open Source AGPL-3.0

Navidrome is a free, open source, self-hosted music server that streams your own audio library through a modern web player and Subsonic-compatible mobile apps, as an alternative to licensed streaming services.

Open Source GPL-3.0

Spotify is a proprietary, closed-source music and podcast streaming service that licenses its catalog from rights holders and requires an account and internet connection to use.

Proprietary Proprietary

YouTube Music is a proprietary, closed-source streaming service from Google that combines a licensed music catalog with YouTube's video and user-uploaded content.

Proprietary Proprietary

Project Management

Asana is a proprietary work management platform for tracking tasks, projects, and team workflows, hosted exclusively on Asana's cloud infrastructure.

Proprietary Proprietary

Jira is a proprietary issue tracking and agile project management tool from Atlassian, built around Scrum and Kanban workflows for software development teams.

Proprietary Proprietary

OpenProject is a self-hostable, open source project management tool with Gantt charts, agile boards, and issue tracking, offered as an alternative to Asana and Jira.

Open Source GPL-3.0 (Community edition)

Planka is a self-hostable kanban board with a modern interface closely modeled on Trello's board/list/card layout. Its Community edition is free and source-available under a non-OSI license, with paid Pro and Enterprise tiers for additional features.

PLANKA Community License v1.1 (source-available, not OSI-approved); paid Pro/Enterprise tiers add features

Taiga is a free, open source, Scrum- and Kanban-focused project management tool built for agile teams, offered as a lighter-weight, self-hostable alternative to Asana and Jira.

Open Source AGPL-3.0

Trello is a proprietary kanban-board tool for organizing tasks into boards, lists, and cards. Free tier is limited, and team plans require a subscription.

Proprietary Proprietary

Wekan is a free, open source kanban board application that closely mirrors Trello's board/list/card model, fully self-hostable via Docker or Snap.

Open Source MIT

CAD

AutoCAD is a proprietary computer-aided design application from Autodesk used for 2D drafting and 3D modeling across architecture, engineering, and construction industries.

Proprietary Proprietary

FreeCAD is a free, open source parametric 3D CAD application for mechanical engineering and product design, with a modular architecture and Python scripting support.

Open Source LGPL-2.0-or-later

Autodesk Fusion 360 is a proprietary, cloud-connected CAD/CAM/simulation platform popular with makers and product designers, requiring an Autodesk account and subscription.

Proprietary Proprietary (limited free tier for hobbyists)

LibreCAD is a free, open source 2D computer-aided design application for technical drawing, offering a lightweight alternative to AutoCAD's 2D drafting tools.

Open Source GPL-2.0

Web Browsers Our picks →

Brave is a free, open source browser built on Chromium that blocks ads and trackers by default, offering Chrome-level compatibility with stronger privacy.

Open Source MPL-2.0

Google Chrome is a proprietary web browser built on open source Chromium, bundling closed-source components, account sync, and telemetry many users avoid.

Proprietary Proprietary (built on open source Chromium)

Microsoft Edge is a proprietary web browser built on Chromium, bundled as the default browser on Windows and layered with Microsoft account sync and Copilot AI features.

Proprietary Proprietary (built on open source Chromium)

Firefox is a free, open source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation, built on its own Gecko engine and offering strong privacy controls as an alternative to Chromium-based browsers.

Open Source MPL-2.0

LibreWolf is a free, open source Firefox fork that strips telemetry and data-sharing partnerships, applying privacy-hardened defaults and uBlock Origin.

Open Source MPL-2.0

Safari is Apple's proprietary default browser for macOS and iOS, built on the open source WebKit engine but closed source itself and unavailable outside Apple platforms.

Proprietary Proprietary (built on open source WebKit)

Tor Browser is a free, open source Firefox ESR fork maintained by The Tor Project that routes traffic through the Tor network for anonymous, censorship-resistant browsing.

Open Source MPL-2.0

Media Players Our picks →

Celluloid (formerly GNOME MPV) is a simple GTK4 frontend for mpv, providing a clean GNOME-style interface over mpv's powerful playback engine.

Open Source GPL-3.0

Clapper is a free and open source GTK4 media player for Linux built for GNOME, using GStreamer as its backend with hardware-accelerated playback support.

Open Source GPL-3.0

Haruna is a free, open source Qt-based media player for Linux built on the mpv backend, with playlist management, YouTube support, and picture-in-picture.

Open Source GPL-3.0

IINA is a free, open source media player built natively for macOS on top of mpv, offering a modern Mac-native interface as an alternative to QuickTime Player.

Open Source GPL-3.0-or-later

mpv is a free, open source, cross-platform media player with GPU-accelerated video playback, a minimalist on-screen controller, and scripting support.

Open Source GPL-2.0-or-later

QuickTime Player is Apple's default video and audio player for macOS. Supports MOV and MP4 with built-in screen recording, trimming, and export tools.

Proprietary Proprietary

VLC Media Player is a free, open source multimedia player by VideoLAN that plays almost every video and audio format on all major platforms.

Open Source GPL-2.0-or-later

Windows Media Player is Microsoft's default audio and video player for Windows, with CD ripping, playlist management, and media library features.

Proprietary Proprietary

Image Editing Our picks →

darktable is a free, open source RAW photo editor with non-destructive editing and library management, built as a privacy-respecting alternative to Adobe Lightroom.

Open Source GPL-3.0-or-later

GIMP is a free, open source raster graphics editor for photo retouching, image composition, and graphic design, and a popular alternative to Adobe Photoshop.

Open Source GPL-3.0

Adobe Illustrator is a proprietary vector graphics editor for logos, icons, and illustration, distributed only through Adobe's Creative Cloud subscription.

Proprietary Proprietary

Inkscape is a free, open source vector graphics editor built around the SVG standard, offering professional drawing, illustration, and logo design tools as an alternative to Adobe Illustrator.

Open Source GPL-3.0-or-later

Krita is a free, open source painting application for illustrators, concept artists, and comic creators, with a powerful brush engine and animation tools.

Open Source GPL-3.0

Adobe Lightroom is a proprietary RAW photo editor and catalog manager distributed only through Adobe Creative Cloud, distinct from Photoshop's pixel-editing focus.

Proprietary Proprietary

Adobe Photoshop is a professional raster graphics editor for photo editing, digital painting, and image compositing, widely used in photography and design.

Proprietary Proprietary

RawTherapee is a free, open source RAW photo processor with a 32-bit floating-point pipeline and extensive local editing tools, built as an alternative to Adobe Lightroom.

Open Source GPL-3.0-or-later

Video Editing

DaVinci Resolve is a proprietary video editing and color grading suite from Blackmagic Design, free for most features with a paid Studio tier unlocking advanced tools.

Proprietary Proprietary (free edition available)

Kdenlive is a free, open source non-linear video editor built on MLT and KDE Frameworks, offering multi-track editing and many effects.

Open Source GPL-3.0-or-later

Adobe Premiere Pro is a professional non-linear video editor for film, television, and online video, featuring timeline editing and color grading.

Proprietary Proprietary

Shotcut is a free, open source, cross-platform video editor built on the MLT Framework, offering native timeline editing and wide format support via FFmpeg.

Open Source GPL-3.0

Communication Our picks →

Discord is a proprietary chat platform built around persistent voice channels and community servers, widely used by gaming, creator, and hobbyist communities.

Proprietary Proprietary

Element is a free, open source messaging app built on the Matrix protocol, offering end-to-end encryption, decentralized hosting, and team collaboration.

Open Source AGPL-3.0

Mattermost is a self-hosted, open source team messaging platform built for developers and enterprises, offering an MIT-licensed core with an optional paid Enterprise Edition.

Open Source Team Edition: MIT · Enterprise Edition: proprietary commercial license

Microsoft Teams is a proprietary workplace chat, video meeting, and file collaboration platform bundled with Microsoft 365, tying communication to Microsoft's cloud ecosystem.

Proprietary Proprietary

Rocket.Chat is a self-hosted, open source team chat and customer service platform, offering an MIT-licensed Community Edition alongside a paid Enterprise Edition with omnichannel support.

Open Source Community Edition: MIT · Enterprise Edition: proprietary commercial license

Session is a free, open source messenger that requires no phone number or email, routing encrypted messages through a decentralized onion-routing network instead of central servers.

Open Source GPL-3.0

Signal is a free, open source messaging app with end-to-end encryption enabled by default for all chats, calls, and groups, run by a non-profit foundation instead of a for-profit company.

Open Source AGPL-3.0

Slack is a proprietary team collaboration platform offering channels, direct messaging, file sharing, and integrations. Widely used in corporate environments.

Proprietary Proprietary

Telegram is a cloud-based messaging app with open source client apps but a closed source server, offering large group chats and channels rather than end-to-end encryption by default.

Proprietary Client: GPL-2.0/GPL-3.0 (open source) · Server: Proprietary

WhatsApp is a proprietary messaging app owned by Meta, offering end-to-end encrypted chat, voice, and video calls to billions of users worldwide, but tied to a phone number and Meta's infrastructure.

Proprietary Proprietary

Zulip is a free, fully open source team chat app under the Apache-2.0 license, built around topic-threaded conversations designed to keep asynchronous discussions organized and easy to catch up on.

Open Source Apache-2.0

Containerization

Docker Desktop bundles the Docker Engine, CLI, and Compose with a GUI for building and managing containers on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Proprietary Proprietary

Podman Desktop is a free, open source graphical tool for managing containers, pods, and Kubernetes clusters, built on Podman's rootless engine.

Open Source Apache-2.0

Rancher Desktop is a free, Apache-2.0-licensed desktop application from SUSE that bundles a local Kubernetes cluster (k3s) and a container engine, offering an open source alternative to Docker Desktop with no licensing fees.

Open Source Apache-2.0

Cloud Storage

Dropbox is a cloud storage and file sync service that lets users store, share, and access files across devices, with tools for team collaboration.

Proprietary Proprietary

Google Drive is a proprietary cloud storage service tightly integrated with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, hosting files exclusively on Google's servers.

Proprietary Proprietary

Nextcloud is a self-hosted file sync, share, and collaboration platform offering an open source alternative to Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and Microsoft 365.

Open Source AGPL-3.0-or-later

Microsoft OneDrive is a proprietary cloud storage service bundled with Windows and Microsoft 365, hosting files exclusively on Microsoft's servers.

Proprietary Proprietary

Seafile is a file sync and share platform focused on sync performance and file versioning, with an open source Community Edition (AGPL-3.0) and a separate proprietary Professional Edition.

Open Source AGPL-3.0 (server core, Community Edition); Apache-2.0 (Seahub web UI); GPLv2 (desktop clients); Professional Edition is proprietary

Syncthing is an open source tool that syncs files directly between devices over encrypted peer-to-peer connections, with no central server or cloud storage.

Open Source MPL-2.0

VPN

ExpressVPN is a proprietary, subscription-based VPN service known for consistent speeds and streaming access, with closed source apps and premium pricing.

Proprietary Proprietary

Mullvad is a Swedish VPN with open source, GPL-3.0 client apps that require no email or personal information to sign up — accounts are just a random number.

Open Source GPL-3.0 (client apps)

NordVPN is a proprietary, subscription-based VPN with a large global server network. Client apps are closed source, pricing favors multi-year plans.

Proprietary Proprietary

Proton VPN is a VPN from Proton AG (makers of Proton Mail) with open source, independently audited GPL-3.0 apps, plus a genuinely usable free tier.

Open Source GPL-3.0 (client apps)

Game Development

Godot Engine is a free, open source game engine for building 2D and 3D games, featuring a node-based scene system, its own GDScript language, and no royalties or revenue-share requirements.

Open Source MIT

Open 3D Engine (O3DE) is a free, Apache-2.0-licensed 3D engine for AAA-style games, cinema-quality rendering, and high-fidelity simulations, descended from Amazon's Lumberyard engine.

Open Source Apache-2.0

Unity is a proprietary cross-platform game engine used to build 2D and 3D games and interactive applications for desktop, mobile, console, and VR/AR platforms.

Proprietary Proprietary

Unreal Engine is Epic Games' proprietary, source-available game engine known for high-fidelity 3D rendering, distributed free of upfront cost but with a royalty on commercial revenue above a threshold.

Proprietary Proprietary (source-available, royalty-based)

Video Conferencing

Google Meet is a proprietary video conferencing service tied to Google accounts and Workspace, running entirely on Google's cloud infrastructure with no self-hosted option.

Proprietary Proprietary

Jitsi Meet is a free and open source video conferencing tool. No account needed, no time limits, and fully self-hostable for complete data control.

Open Source Apache-2.0

Zoom is a proprietary video conferencing platform for online meetings, webinars, and team chat, widely used by businesses, schools, and individuals worldwide.

Proprietary Proprietary

Office Suites

LibreOffice is a free, open source office suite with word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, and database tools — an alternative to MS Office.

Open Source MPL-2.0

Microsoft Office is a proprietary productivity suite including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, available via Microsoft 365 subscriptions or one-time purchase.

Proprietary Proprietary

ONLYOFFICE is an open source office suite with Word, Excel, PowerPoint-compatible editors, real-time co-editing, and a JS plugin system.

Open Source AGPL-3.0