Overview of Open Source Alternatives for Popular SaaS (video, 7m)
Fireship explores the evolution of software and the introduction of the SaaS model, which has changed our relationship with software. In the past, consumers would walk into a store, purchase a box containing CDs or floppy disks, and keep that software forever. However, with the rise of SaaS, people now rent software instead of owning it outright, resulting in soaring profits for companies. The host highlights some controversial practices by companies that are harmful to consumers, such as reactivation fees and hidden early termination costs, which have become commonplace in today's technology world. However, in an era where consumers are paying for subscriptions, there are alternatives that allow users access to free and open-source software that doesn’t trap them in subscription models.
In this blog post, the author discusses free alternatives to the most popular paid tools used in offices and remote work. One notable example is LibreOffice, which offers similar functionality to Microsoft Office without the costs and with fewer privacy concerns. Fireship points out that many people are transitioning from paid tools like Airtable to self-hosting NocoDB, significantly reducing expenses. The post also highlights alternatives to Notion like AppFlowy, which not only boasts a visually appealing design but also provides unique features that can compete with expensive tools.
Fireship does not skip over popular customer relationship management tools like Salesforce, proposing free alternatives such as ERPNext. By using open-source solutions, users can avoid fees associated with CRM platforms, which is particularly advantageous for small businesses. In this video, viewers are also given advice on utilizing Mattermost as a substitute for Slack and Jitsi as an alternative to Zoom. The host emphasizes that these free tools not only provide functionality but also full control over data.
For developers, Fireship presents alternatives to popular database tools and backend services. From Convex and Superbase to Instant, there are plenty of open-source solutions available that allow for application building without the risk of being locked into closed platforms. The tools mentioned also enable self-hosting of projects, such as Coolify or Daku, which is an excellent option for developers looking to avoid high costs.
In summary, Fireship concludes with the challenges associated with using software today. Although completely avoiding paid solutions may be challenging, it encourages the exploration of open-source alternatives to keep money in consumers’ pockets. At the time of writing this article, the video boasts over 1,286,310 views and 83,829 likes, reflecting a growing interest in the topic.
Toggle timeline summary
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The speaker reflects on a past where software was purchased and owned as physical products.
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Introduction of SaaS, a model where software is rented rather than owned.
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Discussion of companies exploiting users by implementing high fees.
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Encouraging the use of free and open-source alternatives to escape subscription services.
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Comparison between Microsoft Office and its open-source alternative, LibreOffice.
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Introduction of NocoDB as a cost-effective alternative to expensive tools.
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Mention of AppFlowy as an alternative to Notion for note-taking.
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Promotion of daily.dev, a community for developers to find resources.
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Shift to discussing Salesforce and its alternatives like ERPNext.
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Discussion on the cost-effectiveness and utility of Mattermost as a Slack alternative.
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Introduction of Jitsi as an open-source tool for video conferencing.
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Critique of Jira and promotion of Plain as a simpler alternative.
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Discussion of open-source alternatives for backend services.
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Introduction of self-hosting solutions like Coolify and Daku.
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Critique of Adobe's pricing model and suggestions for open-source alternatives.
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Encouragement to strive for free software solutions despite challenges.
Transcription
Many years ago, long before most of you were conceived, we lived in a utopia where if you wanted to use software, you would walk into a store, buy a box with a CD or floppy disk inside of it, insert it into your computer, and then it was yours to keep forever. But then one day, the devil got a job as a product manager at a software company and had this clever idea called SaaS, or software as a service. When you buy it, you don't actually own it, and just rent it for a monthly fee until the day you die. This caused profits to go parabolic, and nowadays companies are looking to squeeze the lemon even harder, like Peloton's going to charge a $95 reactivation fee if you buy a used bike on Craigslist, Logitech is looking to roll out a pay-as-you-go mouse, which gives a new meaning to pay-per-click, and Adobe was recently sued by the FTC for its predatory hidden early termination fees. The only world that doesn't have this problem is TempleOS, but the reality is that nobody is forcing you to buy these products in a free market, and the best way to escape subscription hell is to use free and open source software alternatives that these big companies don't want you to know about. Before we get into it, make sure to draw and quarter that like button and put the subscription button's head on a pike, it really helps out the channel. Aside from Windows itself, which can easily be replaced by Linux, the most profitable software of all time is likely Microsoft Office. They get kids hooked on it in grade school, so they can grow up to spin the hamster wheels that churn out Microsoft profits. Luckily though, there's a free and open source version called LibreOffice, which can do almost everything that Word, Excel, and PowerPoint do, and is compatible with a crazy number of file formats, even dumpster fires like Docx. But it is missing some features from Microsoft Office. Like it doesn't require an internet connection to invade your privacy, it doesn't automatically upload your documents to the cloud where they can someday be breached by hackers or feds, and it doesn't have a bunch of AI garbage built into it. If you really want those features, you should continue to pay Microsoft, but if you're looking for freedom, Libre is the tool. Now many teams have escaped Microsoft Office only to land in other paid tools like Airtable, which itself is a pretty awesome tool, but extremely expensive at $45 per month per seat. What's crazy though is you could likely support hundreds of users on your own VPS for just a few dollars per month by self-hosting NocoDB. It stores data in your favorite SQL database, but turns all the tables into rich spreadsheets, which is ideal for collaboration. But when your boss tells you to stop, collaborate, and listen, you'll likely need to use a note-taking app like Notion, which is another $10 per month. Once again, there's an open source alternative called AppFlowy, which is written in Rust and Flutter. Not only is the UI beautiful and can do things like note-taking, con bonds, and calendars, but Notion's most recent innovation was to shoehorn AI into the platform. Well AppFlowy can do that too, and even lets you choose your own LLM provider. That's pretty awesome, but you might be wondering how I find out about all these amazing open source tools. One incredible resource is daily.dev, the sponsor of today's video. It's a website and rapidly growing community that curates the best developer content on the internet, and the app itself is a free and open source project. Not only will you find the hottest developer trends here, but you can also fine tune your interest by joining squads, where you'll find other experienced developers openly discussing the tech you care about the most. And it's not just a bunch of anonymous bots. These are real people from the real world that you can network with to land a job in real life. Whether you're learning to code or just interested in tech, daily.dev is a website that every developer should visit on the daily. But now it's time to talk about another massive software juggernaut called Salesforce. They provide customer relationship management software that allows salespeople to strategically annoy you until you buy something. There's a bunch of good open source CRMs, but one that stands out is ERPNext, which is not only a CRM, but also an enterprise resource planning tool, which can handle accounting, quality control, and a bunch of other stuff. It's written in Python, and also maintains its own custom web framework called Frappe. But most importantly, you can run it in two minutes with Docker, and cancel your multi-million dollar Salesforce contracts. Now Salesforce also acquired the popular chat app Slack for $27 billion. But another application that you really don't need to be paying for. A better option is to use a tool like Mattermost, which is built with Go and TypeScript, and can be deployed as a single binary with a Postgres database. Not only is it packed with features for chat, but also has integrated voice and video chat. It has front end clients for the web, iOS, Android, and desktop, but most importantly, it gives you total control over your data. A company like Slack can't hold your data hostage and demand a ransom to get it back. But another thing you might be paying for that doesn't even need to store data is Zoom. Back in the pandemic days, I once built my own video conferencing app from scratch with WebRTC and JavaScript, but an even easier approach is to use an open source tool like Jitsi. It uses WebRTC under the hood to handle voice calling, but also provides a ton of other features like mobile applications, raised hands, polls, virtual backgrounds, and everything else you would expect from a Zoom alternative. But if you're unfortunate enough to be a professional developer, your scrub master has likely tortured you with a device called Jira, which forces you to do sprints, epics, burndowns, and tickets. Well the good news is that there's a tool called Plain that makes this torture device free and open source. It's a torture device for developers by developers. But if you're developing something, you might be using a tool like Firebase, a BAS, which stands for Big Ass Backend. Now I like big backends and I cannot lie, but I also don't like paying for them and being locked into a closed source platform. Nowadays there are many great open source alternatives like Convex, Apprite, Superbase, Pocketbase, but there's a newcomer you likely haven't heard of called Instant. It's not a full backend, but if you're looking to build a real-time chat or collaboration tool, it handles the client-server sync challenges for you, which is a lot of work to do correctly on your own. But one thing that's relatively easy to do on your own is host a website, yet many developers choose to pay companies like Vercel or Heroku a high premium to do this for them. You can avoid these taxes with tools like Coolify, the Vercel alternative, or Daku, the Heroku alternative. You can use tools like this to self-host all of the amazing projects that we've looked at so far in this video on a single virtual private server. You get the UI and APIs of a premium hosting platform, just without the massive bills and free-tier rug pulls. But now we need to talk about perhaps the most greedy software developer, Adobe. I speak to you as a hypocrite though, as I edit this video in Adobe Premiere, for which I pay a $59 monthly tribute. As a free human being though, I could trade Adobe Suite for Pirated Adobe Suite, or better yet trade Premiere for DaVinci Resolve, and trade Illustrator for Krita, and trade AfterEffects for Blender. Not every SaaS product has a free and open-source self-hosted alternative. Never paying for software again is going to be a challenge, but remember, as developers, we don't do things because they are easy, we do them because we thought they were going to be easy. Thanks for watching, and I will see you in the next one.