The list below is filtered from Runa Capital's awesome-oss-alternatives dataset: 215 projects, 181 still active (not archived, committed within the last 12 months), scored for self-hosting through the GitHub API (Dockerfile or docker-compose in the repo), link-checked over HTTP, then ranked by GitHub stars. 3,427,919 stars in total. Data as of 8 September 2026.
Key findings
- 64 of 100 can be deployed straight away with Docker: 22 ship an official docker-compose, 36 document a supported self-host path.
- 60 of 100 carry a licence that lets you sell a hosted version: Apache (34), MIT (22), BSD (4). You can package, extend and resell without publishing your own code.
- 23 projects are AGPL: hosting the original is fine, but if you modify the code and let others use it over a network you must publish the changes.
- The smallest project here still has 9,434 stars — a narrow niche with a community large enough to pay.
Which licences you can sell
- Apache-2.0 (34), MIT (22), BSD (4): the easiest, all you owe is the original copyright notice.
- AGPL-3.0 (23): hosting the original is fine; modify it and you must publish the modified source.
- GPL (12): same as AGPL but without the network clause.
- Fair-code, BSL and FSL (3): you may not sell a standalone product; BSL and FSL usually convert to Apache or GPL after 2–4 years.
- MPL-2.0 (1) and OSL-3.0 (1): only files you modify must stay open.
How to read the list
- Each line: name — stars · category · licence · deploy method · website.
- Deploy: compose, docker and docker-dir mean an official Docker file is in the repo; docs means self-hosting is documented only.
- The full 100-project list is split into three sub-posts below.
Browse by tier
- Tier 1 — Mega (≥40k stars) · 26 projects
- Tier 2 — Sweet spot (15–40k stars) · 51 projects
- Tier 3 — Niche (<15k stars) · 23 projects
Stars measure popularity, not how easy the business is. Projects below 20k stars are usually easier to enter because fewer vendors already run a hosted version.