Ask HN: what are examples of successful "open-source alternatives"?

#1

Post by barrrrald » Mon, Jul 01, 2024, 6:46 PM UTC

It seems like every day there's a Show HN post for another "open source alternative" to a popular SaaS app.

And indeed, this search shows 34 pages of results, with clones of everything from Notion to Jira to Hex to Figma to Carta. https://hn.algolia.com/?q=open+source+alternative

I have some personal hypotheses on why this is a common pattern, but I am mostly wondering whether any of these have really succeeded as projects / businesses. Are there any examples of these "open source alternative"-type products really taking off?

This can be taken however you want – either big revenue, or big user base – I'm just looking for some marker of being a breakout hit.

Re: Ask HN: what are examples of successful "open-source alternatives"?

#2

Post by q3k » Mon, Jul 01, 2024, 7:00 PM UTC

A certain (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones.

Re: Ask HN: what are examples of successful "open-source alternatives"?

#3

Post by ZunarJ5 » Mon, Jul 01, 2024, 7:00 PM UTC

Blender.

Re: Ask HN: what are examples of successful "open-source alternatives"?

#4

Post by josephcsible » Mon, Jul 01, 2024, 7:00 PM UTC

Do you mean succeeded as in "has a large user base" or as in "makes a lot of money"?

Re: Ask HN: what are examples of successful "open-source alternatives"?

#5

Post by tommoor » Mon, Jul 01, 2024, 7:03 PM UTC

GitLab, Mattermost, RocketChat would be a few good examples of products that began as OSS alternatives to well-established players.

Outline (https://www.getoutline.com) is successful on most metrics you'd judge a business and OSS project on.

I'm not sure if any of these ever pitched themselves explicitly that way on HN though. I think explicitly labeling as an "Open source alternative" brings a lot of baggage and expectations, and often says more about the maintainers philosophical POV than ability to create a sustainable business ;)

Re: Ask HN: what are examples of successful "open-source alternatives"?

#6

Post by Qwertious » Mon, Jul 01, 2024, 7:03 PM UTC

q3k wrote: post #2

A certain (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones.

[flagged]

Re: Ask HN: what are examples of successful "open-source alternatives"?

#7

Post by jvanderbot » Mon, Jul 01, 2024, 7:04 PM UTC

josephcsible wrote: post #4

Do you mean succeeded as in "has a large user base" or as in "makes a lot of money"?

If it's easy to answer one or the other, perhaps let's start with that one.

Re: Ask HN: what are examples of successful "open-source alternatives"?

#8

Post by bawolff » Mon, Jul 01, 2024, 7:05 PM UTC

q3k wrote: post #2

A certain (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones.

Indeed, that was my first thought. (Almost) Every mainstream best in class open source product was at one point the kind of crappy open source alternative to an established product.

Re: Ask HN: what are examples of successful "open-source alternatives"?

#9

Post by icholy » Mon, Jul 01, 2024, 7:05 PM UTC

ZunarJ5 wrote: post #3

Blender.

Blender didn't start as open source.

Re: Ask HN: what are examples of successful "open-source alternatives"?

#10

Post by barrrrald » Mon, Jul 01, 2024, 7:06 PM UTC

tommoor wrote: post #5

GitLab, Mattermost, RocketChat would be a few good examples of products that began as OSS alternatives to well-established players. Outline ( https://www.getoutline.com ) is successful on most metrics you'd judge a business and OSS project on. I'm not sure if any of these ever pitched themselves explicitly that way on HN though. I think explicitly labeling as an "Open source alternative" brings a lot of baggage and e…

GitLab is a really interesting example, but I don't know if it'd have positioned itself as an "open source alternative"

As for Mattermost, RocketChat, and Outline – I think these are great examples of projects positioned this way that haven't broken out. They all seem great, but it's not clear that being an "open source alternative" to Slack really worked for Mattermost...