Directory database · Open-source projects
Where to submit an open-source project: 45 directories
Open-source projects get discovered through curated lists on GitHub, open-source directories and sites that list open alternatives to paid software. Most awesome lists take submissions as pull requests and have strict rules: alphabetical order, one line per entry, a minimum number of stars or months of activity, and no marketing language. Read CONTRIBUTING.md before you open a PR, and match the format of existing entries exactly; maintainers close PRs that don’t. Directories and alternatives sites care about the licence, how active the project is and whether there is a hosted version, so state all three. A README with a screenshot, install steps and a clear one-line description is the single biggest factor in being accepted. Expect listings to send developers and self-hosters rather than buyers, and expect them to keep sending traffic for years.
33 with a verified dofollow link · 42 free or with a free option · 38 reviewed by a person · last checked Sep 23, 2026
By hand, from $79 one-time.
All 45, most popular first
GitHub Marketplace
github.com
GitHub's marketplace of Apps and Actions that extend developer workflows. Devtools with a GitHub integration can list free or paid plans and be found by developers browsing by category.
SourceForge
sourceforge.net
A veteran open source hosting and download platform that also runs a business software directory. Projects can be created or imported from GitHub with free mirror-based downloads and stats; each…
Homebrew
brew.sh
The dominant package manager for macOS (and Linux), with a public index of formulae and casks at formulae.brew.sh. Getting into homebrew/core or homebrew/cask makes a tool installable with a single…
Greasy Fork
greasyfork.org
A large community site for user scripts and user styles that run through managers like Tampermonkey, Violentmonkey and Stylus. Anyone with an account can post a script; it gets a page with…
Flathub
flathub.org
The main app store for Flatpak packages, used by many Linux distributions to install desktop apps. Submissions are made as GitHub pull requests and checked by reviewers; accepted apps get a store…
F-Droid
f-droid.org
A catalogue of free and open-source Android apps that F-Droid builds from source itself. It is popular with privacy-minded Android users, and each app page lists license, anti-features, and links to…
Raycast Store
raycast.com
The extension store for the Raycast launcher on Mac, with extensions published through a public GitHub repository. Shipping an integration puts your product inside a popular productivity tool, with…
Open VSX Registry
open-vsx.org
A vendor-neutral registry for VS Code-compatible extensions, run by the Eclipse Foundation and used by editors such as VSCodium, Gitpod and other VS Code forks. Publishing here makes an extension…
FOSSHub
fosshub.com
FOSSHub is a download host and catalog for open-source and some freeware desktop software, known for serving installers without bundled adware. Projects that are accepted get a program page with…
Jamstack.org
jamstack.org
Jamstack.org is the community site for the Jamstack approach and hosts two well-known lists: static site generators and headless CMSs, each filterable by language, template engine and license…
Changelog News
changelog.com
A Monday newsletter and podcast about software development news, which features community submissions. It is written for developers. Submissions need a URL, a title and a note on why it's…
LinuxLinks
linuxlinks.com
LinuxLinks is an editorial site that reviews and rounds up free and open-source Linux software, with 'best of' lists and individual program write-ups. Suggested programs can end up featured in an…
selfh.st
selfh.st
selfh.st is a self-hosting publication with a weekly newsletter, blog and a large app directory of self-hosted software, companion apps and alternatives. Its directory refreshes every morning and…
OpenUserJS
openuserjs.org
An open-source repository for user scripts, where authors publish scripts (optionally synced from GitHub) and users install them with a userscript manager. Script pages show source, installs…
OpenAlternative
openalternative.co
A curated catalogue of open source projects organised as replacements for well-known proprietary apps. Developers and technical buyers browse it by alternative, category and tech stack, and each…
JavaScript Weekly
javascriptweekly.com
Cooperpress's biggest newsletter: a weekly roundup of JavaScript articles, releases and interesting projects, running since 2010. It's read by JavaScript and web developers. New libraries and tools…
free-for.dev
free-for.dev
A community-maintained list of SaaS, PaaS and IaaS services with genuine free tiers for developers, mirrored on a website. Getting added exposes an infrastructure-oriented product to developers…
awesome-selfhosted
awesome-selfhosted.net
The best-known curated list of free software network services and web apps that can be self-hosted, published as a website and GitHub list. Inclusion puts a project in front of the self-hosting…
This Week in Rust
this-week-in-rust.org
The Rust community's weekly newsletter with project updates, articles, crate spotlights and calls for participation. Its readers are Rust developers. Anyone can propose content by opening a pull…
PyCoder's Weekly
pycoders.com
A free weekly email with Python news, articles, tutorials and new projects. It is read by Python developers. They take link suggestions for projects, articles and events, though not every one is used.
Awesome Go
awesome-go.com
Awesome Go is the long-running curated list of Go frameworks, libraries and software, published on its own site from the GitHub list. Being accepted puts a Go package in the reference list many Go…
Best of JS
bestofjs.org
Best of JS tracks the most popular open-source projects for the web platform and Node.js, ranking them by daily GitHub star trends and tags. A tracked project appears in trend rankings and yearly…
DevHunt
devhunt.org
A launchpad for developer tools, APIs, SDKs, libraries and open-source projects, built as a developer-focused alternative to Product Hunt. Voting and commenting require GitHub login, so the audience…
OpenSourceAlternative.to
opensourcealternative.to
A directory that pairs self-hostable open source projects with the commercial products they can replace. Visitors browse by proprietary tool, category, language and licence; an accepted project gets…
AI Collection
thataicollection.com
A directory of 4,000+ generative AI applications that grew out of a popular GitHub list. A paid listing gets an indexed page, a spot in 'Latest Additions' on the site and the GitHub page, and the…
Public APIs
publicapis.dev
A collaborative, categorised list of 1,400+ public APIs with a companion website. If your product offers a self-serve, documented API, it can be added via pull request and gets a card linking to it.
AI Tool List (aitoollist.org)
aitoollist.org
A small awesome-list style AI tools site whose content is generated from a public GitHub repository, grouped into chat, image, audio, productivity, writing and finance. Tools are added by opening a…
APIs.guru
apis.guru
APIs.guru is an open, community-run catalog of machine-readable web API definitions, mostly in OpenAPI format, that other tools and developers pull from through its own API. Getting added means your…
Arch User Repository (AUR)
aur.archlinux.org
The community-driven repository of build scripts (PKGBUILDs) for Arch Linux users. Anyone with an AUR account can publish a package, which gets a page with its upstream URL, votes, popularity and…
Awesome Self-Hosted Apps
awesomeselfhosted.app
Awesome Self-Hosted Apps is an editor-reviewed directory of open-source, source-available and freeware apps you can run on your own server, showing license, repository health and install details…
Best of AI
bestofai.io
A handpicked AI tools directory with 143 categories, pages for 200+ professions, a leaderboard and model and hardware sections, maintained alongside the best-of-ai awesome list on GitHub. Listing is…
Dev Resources
devresourc.es
A searchable collection of 3,000+ developer resources across dozens of categories, backed by an open GitHub repo. Tools are added by pull request and appear as cards linking straight to the product.
devtools.directory
devtools.directory
devtools.directory is an open, wiki-style directory of developer tools, languages, libraries, stacks and learning resources, with all data stored as YAML in a public GitHub repo. Adding a tool…
FreeStuff.dev
freestuff.dev
FreeStuff.dev is a tag-based list of free tools, free tiers and services for developers, from hosting and databases to design assets. The data lives in a public GitHub repo, so adding a tool means…
Golang Weekly
golangweekly.com
A weekly Cooperpress newsletter for Go developers with language news, articles, and new open-source packages and tools. Its readers write Go for servers, CLIs and infrastructure. New Go libraries…
Good First Issue
goodfirstissue.dev
Good First Issue gathers beginner-friendly issues from popular open-source repositories, sorted by language, so newcomers can find a place to start contributing. A listed repo appears with its star…
Haskell Weekly
haskellweekly.news
A weekly newsletter of Haskell articles, packages and community news that also runs the annual State of Haskell survey. It's read by Haskell developers. Anyone can suggest content by opening a…
Self-Hosted.Directory
self-hosted.directory
Self-Hosted.Directory is a curated catalog of self-hostable software organized by category, scenario and deployment style, with reviewed project pages. Makers can submit for free with a badge, or…
SelfHostIndex
selfhostindex.com
SelfHostIndex catalogs open-source, self-hostable apps with health scores, setup difficulty and the proprietary tools each one replaces. Its data is open, and each new app automatically gets its own…
TerminalDock
terminaldock.com
A catalogue of terminal software: CLI utilities, TUI apps, emulators, shells, multiplexers, prompts and fonts, indexed by kind, language and platform. Listed tools get a page showing repo activity…
Up For Grabs
up-for-grabs.net
Up For Grabs is a long-running list of open-source projects that keep beginner-friendly tasks labeled for newcomers. It helps maintainers attract first-time contributors, and each listed project…
WordPress.org Plugin Directory
wordpress.org
The official catalogue of free plugins that WordPress site owners can search and install straight from their dashboard. A listing gives a GPL-licensed plugin its own page with ratings, support forum…
WordPress.org Theme Directory
wordpress.org
The official home for free WordPress themes, searchable from inside every WordPress install as well as on the web. An approved theme gets a public page with a live preview, ratings and download…
DR is Domain Rating by Ahrefs: a 0–100 score of a site’s backlinks, higher is stronger. It isn’t a Google metric. Tranco rank is a research top-sites ranking: lower means more popular. How we check each directory
How to prioritise
- Awesome lists for your exact topic, following each list’s contribution rules.
- Open-source alternatives sites, if your project replaces a well-known paid product.
- Broader OSS directories and developer tool lists.
Questions about this list
How do I get a project added to an awesome list?
Open a pull request that follows the list’s CONTRIBUTING.md: the right section, alphabetical order, one line in their format, no promotional wording. Many lists require a minimum age, activity or star count. If yours doesn’t meet it yet, wait rather than argue.
Should I mention a paid or hosted version?
Yes, honestly. Most lists accept open-core projects if the open-source part is useful on its own, and some ask you to mark paid options. Hiding a paid tier gets entries removed later.
Do links from GitHub lists help SEO?
Links in GitHub READMEs are generally nofollow, so the value is visitors and discovery rather than ranking. Popular lists still send steady, relevant traffic, which is why they are worth the effort.
Which of these directories give a dofollow link?
33 of the 45 had a followed (dofollow) listing link when we checked: GitHub Marketplace, Greasy Fork, Flathub, F-Droid, Open VSX Registry, FOSSHub and 27 more. Directories change their link policy, so check your own listing once it is live.