OpenAltFinder

Best Open Source Collaboration & Communication Tools in 2026

Tools for team collaboration, project communication, and file sharing across remote and hybrid teams.

The most popular pick this year is Excalidraw with 122,999 GitHub stars, but all 22 options below are worth considering depending on your needs.

22 open source collaboration & communication tools — ranked by GitHub stars. Browse all

Excalidraw

Excalidraw

Open-source virtual whiteboard for creating hand-drawn style diagrams and sketches.

Alternative to:
MiroMiro
Mastodon

Mastodon

Decentralized social network server that federates with the broader Fediverse — run your own instance instead of relying on Twitter/X.

Alternative to:
Twitter
Plane

Plane

Open-source project management platform — an alternative to Jira, Linear, Monday, and ClickUp.

Alternative to:
JiraJira
Cal.com

Cal.com

Open-source scheduling infrastructure — a self-hostable alternative to Calendly for booking meetings and appointments.

Alternative to:
Calendly
Nextcloud

Nextcloud

The most popular self-hosted cloud platform for file storage, collaboration, and communication.

Alternative to:
Google DriveGoogle Drive
Jitsi Meet

Jitsi Meet

Open-source video conferencing platform — free, secure, and self-hostable.

Alternative to:
Google MeetGoogle Meet
Focalboard

Focalboard

Open-source, self-hosted project management tool — a free alternative to Trello, Notion, and Asana.

Alternative to:
TrelloTrello
Navidrome

Navidrome

Modern, lightweight self-hosted music server compatible with Subsonic/Airsonic clients — stream your music everywhere.

Alternative to:
Spotify
WeKan

WeKan

Open-source kanban board built with Meteor — a free and self-hosted alternative to Trello.

Alternative to:
TrelloTrello
Etherpad

Etherpad

Open-source real-time collaborative text editor you can self-host.

Alternative to:
Google DocsGoogle Docs
OpenProject

OpenProject

Open-source project management software — an alternative to Jira, Asana, Trello, and Monday.com.

Alternative to:
JiraJira
PeerTube

PeerTube

Federated, decentralized video hosting platform built on ActivityPub.

Alternative to:
YouTubeYouTube
Lemmy

Lemmy

Federated link aggregator and community discussion platform — a decentralized, self-hostable alternative to Reddit.

Alternative to:
RedditReddit
Formbricks

Formbricks

Open-source survey and experience management platform for product and customer research.

Alternative to:
Google FormsGoogle Forms
Owncast

Owncast

Self-hosted live video streaming server with built-in chat and Fediverse integration.

Alternative to:
YouTubeYouTube
BigBlueButton

BigBlueButton

Open-source virtual classroom platform built for online education and webinars.

Alternative to:
Google MeetGoogle Meet
CryptPad

CryptPad

End-to-end encrypted collaborative office suite with zero-knowledge privacy.

Alternative to:
Google DocsGoogle Docs
ONLYOFFICE

ONLYOFFICE

Self-hosted office suite with real-time collaboration.

Alternative to:
Google DocsGoogle Docs
Collabora Online

Collabora Online

Open-source LibreOffice-powered collaborative office suite for self-hosted environments.

Alternative to:
Google DocsGoogle Docs
Element Call

Element Call

End-to-end encrypted group video calling built on the Matrix open protocol.

Alternative to:
Google MeetGoogle Meet
4gaBoards

4gaBoards

Straightforward realtime kanban boards for intuitive task tracking with dark mode and collaborative features.

Alternative to:
TrelloTrello
Matcha

Matcha

A beautiful terminal email client built with Go and Bubble Tea. An open source alternative to Superhuman and Outlook for the command line.

Alternative to:
Microsoft OutlookMicrosoft Outlook

How we rank these tools

Tools are ranked by GitHub stars as a proxy for community adoption and trust. Stars reflect how many developers found a project valuable enough to bookmark — a reasonable signal for quality in the open source world. We only list tools that are actively maintained and open source.

Looking for tools you can run yourself? Browse self-hosted collaboration & communication tools →