Open Source Community & Social Tools

A curated collection of the best free and open source software for gathering people, covering forums, federated social networks and the platforms that host a community.

Mastodon

A federated social network server on ActivityPub, letting anyone run a community that still talks to the wider fediverse.

Alternative to:

Threads

Decentralized social networking in your control

Stars
50,453
Forks
7,525
Last commit
16 hours ago

Discourse

Open source community platform for forums, real-time chat and discussion, aimed at organizations that want to run their own site.

Alternative to:

Invision Community

Cultivate vibrant online communities with ease

Stars
48,022

Bluesky

The Bluesky social app, a React Native client for the decentralized AT Protocol network, running on web, iOS and Android.

Alternative to:

Threads

Social media reimagined for community and connection

Stars
18,359

Apache Answer

Q&A platform for teams of any size, whether the goal is a community forum, help center or knowledge base.

Alternative to:

Stack Overflow for Teams

Open-source Q&A platform for knowledge sharing

Stars
15,701

PeerTube

A federated video platform where independent instances host, share and stream video without a central company owning the audience.

Alternative to:

YouTube

Decentralized video platform for true digital freedom

Stars
15,370

Flarum

Lightweight forum software for a website, aimed at communities that want discussion without the weight of a traditional platform.

Alternative to:

Invision Community

Modern forum software for vibrant online communities

Stars
16,433

Lemmy

A federated link aggregator and forum written in Rust, for communities that want a self-hosted alternative to Reddit.

Alternative to:

Digg

Build your own federated discussion community

Stars
14,650

Pixelfed

Federated photo sharing that connects to the wider fediverse, for people who want an audience without an algorithm deciding who sees them.

Alternative to:

Flickr

Ad-free photo sharing with privacy and federation

Stars
7,131

Fider

A feedback portal where customers post feature requests and vote on them, available as a managed service or self-hosted with Docker.

Alternative to:

Canny

Open-source platform for collecting and prioritizing feedback

Stars
4,590

Cinny

Matrix client built around a simple, elegant interface, available as a hosted web app, a desktop build or a static site you serve yourself.

Alternative to:

Slack

Secure and elegant Matrix client for seamless conversations

Stars
3,947

LearnHouse

A self-hosted course platform for teachers and training teams, covering authoring, assignments, discussion and certificates in a single instance.

Alternative to:

Kajabi

Create, sell, and manage online courses with full control

Stars
2,427

LogChimp

A self-hosted feedback board where customers post ideas and follow a public roadmap, running entirely under your own brand.

Alternative to:

Canny

Open-source feedback management for product teams

Stars
1,133

Loops

A federated short video platform built on ActivityPub, for communities that want a short form feed under their own moderation.

Alternative to:

TikTok

Federated short videos without corporate control

Stars
461

ClearFlask

Feedback management tool where users post ideas, vote and follow a roadmap, aimed at teams replacing Canny or UserVoice.

Alternative to:

Canny

Open-source ideation tool for product feedback management

Stars
450

Storyden

Modern forum and community platform combining discussion, wiki pages, link sharing and directories, for anyone hosting a community themselves.

Alternative to:

Invision Community

Build lasting communities with modern forum technology

Stars
343

BugPin

Self-hosted visual bug reporting, where testers capture and annotate a screenshot and developers get the console errors and failed requests with it.

Alternative to:

BugHerd

Self-hosted visual bug reporting with screenshot annotation

Stars
47

Sayr

Source-available project management with a built-in public portal, so teams run internal work while users vote on features and follow progress.

Alternative to:

Jira

Bridge internal workflows with public collaboration

Stars
31

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Forks
Last commit

Stars
Forks
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Stars
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Last commit

Stars
Forks
Last commit

Stars
Forks
Last commit

Stars
Forks
Last commit

Open Source Community & Social Tools

A curated collection of the best free and open source software for gathering people, covering forums, federated social networks and the platforms that host a community.

Mastodon

Discourse

Bluesky

Apache Answer

PeerTube

Flarum

Lemmy

Pixelfed

Fider

Cinny

LearnHouse

LogChimp

Loops

ClearFlask

Storyden

BugPin

Sayr

Mastodon

Discourse

Bluesky

Apache Answer

PeerTube

Flarum

Lemmy

Pixelfed

Fider

Cinny

LearnHouse

LogChimp

Loops

ClearFlask

Storyden

BugPin

Sayr

Hey