shouldiuse.io

VERDICT

Should I use OpenAlternative?

A curated collection of the best open source alternatives to everyday SaaS products. Save money with reliable tools hand-picked for you. - openalternative.co

Worth it. Use it if you're hunting open source or self-hosted swaps for pricey SaaS — it's free, curated, and well-organized. Don't rely on it for security vetting, support, or enterprise-grade buying decisions.

Confidence

Medium. Based on 20+ public sources; depth comes mostly from founder disclosures and directory reviews, not independent user testing.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support qualityNo support evidence in sources
  • Security posture

Pricing

Free

Browse

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly fees~$5.7K
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes
Vendor listing / sponsorshipPaid (amount not disclosed)

Best for

  • Cost-cutting founders
  • Self-hosting hobbyists
  • Indie teams ditching SaaS seats
  • Developers scouting OSS stacks

Not for

  • Enterprises needing SLAs, support, vendor accountability
  • Buyers wanting security-vetted recommendations
  • Non-technical teams that can't self-host
  • Anyone expecting software, not a link directory

Gotchas - check before you buy

high

Curation is not a security audit — verify each project's maintenance and track record yourself

medium

Listed tools often have paid tiers or usage-based pricing — check before switching

medium

Vendors can buy placement; ads drive roughly 65% of revenue, so rankings aren't neutral

low

Founder-run project; catalog upkeep depends on one person staying motivated

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Free to browse; funded by sponsors, not users
  • Curated catalog of 150+ self-hosted alternatives to popular SaaS
  • Open source itself since day one
  • Domain rating 51; strong organic discovery reach per directory reviews
  • Sustained operation: ~$5.7K monthly revenue per TrustMRR

Cons

  • Links out only — no trials, vetting, or vendor accountability
  • Roughly 65% of revenue is ads; expect promotional listings
  • Many alternatives are self-hosted: setup, security, upkeep fall on you
  • Solo side project; curation depth varies by category

Sources & method

Analyzed 9/20/2026 - 11 sources - No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

official x1review x4security x1news x5

Key stats

  • Value for money: 5/5

    Rating

  • Free

    Starting price

  • 11

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 5/5. Free to browse; no paywall
  • Ease of use: 4/5. Searchable categories, per-tool pages
  • Feature depth: 3/5. Huge catalog, but links out only
  • Support quality. No support evidence in sources
  • Security posture: 3/5. Open source repo; no reported issues
  • Free Cost to browse Sponsor-supported, no account
  • 6,621 GitHub stars Community-curated list
  • DR 51 Domain rating Per directory reviews
  • ~$5.7K Monthly revenue Mostly sponsorships/ads

Pricing

Browse

Free

  • Full directory access
  • Sponsor-supported, no account needed

Vendor listing / sponsorship

Not disclosed

  • Placement for tool makers
  • Requires paid placement per directory review

Security

No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

What users say

Reddit users and directory reviewers call it a handy, genuinely open source catalog for finding free SaaS swaps, though independent in-depth user reviews are sparse.

“Yes, OpenAlternative has been open source since day one”
Reddit, r/selfhosted

Alternatives

Compare OpenAlternative with each alternative.

  • AlternativeTo

    Larger crowdsourced catalog; covers free and paid options

    OpenAlternative vs AlternativeTo

  • open-source-alternatives (GitHub)

    The plain GitHub list behind this site, zero ads

  • r/selfhosted

    Community advice before committing to self-hosting

Full analysis

Based on 20+ public sources; depth comes mostly from founder disclosures and directory reviews, not independent user testing.

Free, sponsor-backed directory of open source SaaS swaps — great for discovery, useless for vetting or support.

Methodology

Based on 20+ public sources; depth comes mostly from founder disclosures and directory reviews, not independent user testing.

Sources

  1. OpenAlternative homepageopenalternative.co
    official
  2. Product Hunt — OpenAlternativeproducthunt.com
    review
  3. 2025: A Year in Review — Piotr Kulpinskikulpinski.dev
    news
  4. OpenAlternative — TrustMRRtrustmrr.com
    news
  5. Is OpenAlternative Worth It for SaaS? — Blastrablastra.io
    review
  6. A collection of 150+ self-hosted alternatives — r/selfhostedreddit.com
    review
  7. Best Open Source Tools for Lightweight — SesameDisksesamedisk.com
    news
  8. Submit to OpenAlternative — Directory Review (DR 51)scrolllaunch.com
    review
  9. Why are all indie hackers selling ad spaces now?stealwhatworks.com
    news
  10. HN: A directory of open source alternatives to proprietary softwarenews.ycombinator.com
    news
  11. OpenAlternative security pageopenalternative.co
    security

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