5 jobs · 16 apps
Best open source software for crypto and web3
For a crypto or web3 business, a self-hosted stack starts with BTCPay Server for accepting crypto payments, Ghostfolio for portfolio tracking and Discourse for community chat and forums. Each pick was chosen by hand for its job and is shown with GitHub data from October 2026.
Crypto businesses tend to self-host for the same reason they hold their own keys: no third party between them and their funds or data. These apps cover payments, portfolio tracking, community and security.
Payment processors such as BTCPay Server run against your own wallet, so funds settle directly to you.
Updated · data from GitHub, refreshed nightly
Top picks
- Rank 1:
BTCPay Server
btcpayserver/btcpayserver
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies payment processor.
Finance & BudgetingC#BTCPay Server has 7,786 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license and had 707 commits in the last year.
- Rank 2:
Bitcart
bitcart/bitcart
Cryptocurrencies payment processor and development platform.
Finance & BudgetingPythonDockerBitcart has 987 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 146 commits in the last year.
- Rank 3:
SHKeeper
vsys-host/shkeeper.io
Cryptocurrency payment processor with the unique combination of gateway and merchant allowing you to accept payments in multiple cryptocurrencies without fees and intermediaries.
Finance & BudgetingPythonSHKeeper has 629 GitHub stars, uses the GPL-3.0 license and had 126 commits in the last year.
1 of 5 · 4 picks
Accept crypto payments
- 1
BTCPay Server
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies payment processor.
Finance & BudgetingBTCPay Server has 7,786 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license and had 707 commits in the last year.
- 2
Bitcart
Cryptocurrencies payment processor and development platform.
Finance & BudgetingDockerBitcart has 987 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 146 commits in the last year.
- 3
SHKeeper
Cryptocurrency payment processor with the unique combination of gateway and merchant allowing you to accept payments in multiple cryptocurrencies without fees and intermediaries.
Finance & BudgetingSHKeeper has 629 GitHub stars, uses the GPL-3.0 license and had 126 commits in the last year.
- 4
DePay
Accept Web3 Payments directly into your wallet peer-to-peer.
Finance & BudgetingDePay has 135 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license and had 21 commits in the last year.
2 of 5 · 2 picks
Portfolio and trading
- 1
Ghostfolio
Wealth management software to keep track of stocks, ETFs and cryptocurrencies.
Finance & BudgetingDockerGhostfolio has 9,402 GitHub stars, uses the AGPL-3.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 1,449 commits in the last year; it replaces YNAB and Mint.
- 2
OctoBot
Cryptocurrency trading bot.
Finance & BudgetingDockerAI-nativeOctoBot has 6,679 GitHub stars, uses the GPL-3.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 660 commits in the last year.
3 of 5 · 4 picks
Community
- 1
Discourse
Advanced forum / community solution based on Ruby and JS.
Social & ForumsDockerDiscourse has 47,933 GitHub stars, uses the GPL-2.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 6,794 commits in the last year; it replaces Reddit.
- 2
Element
Fully-featured Matrix client for Web, iOS & Android.
Team ChatElement has 13,542 GitHub stars, uses the AGPL-3.0 license and had 2,689 commits in the last year; it replaces Slack and Discord.
- 3
Synapse
Server for Matrix, an open standard for decentralized persistent communication.
Team ChatSynapse has 4,681 GitHub stars, uses the AGPL-3.0 license and had 817 commits in the last year; it replaces Slack.
- 4
Lemmy
Link aggregator for the fediverse (alternative to Reddit).
Social & ForumsDockerLemmy has 14,615 GitHub stars, uses the AGPL-3.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 301 commits in the last year; it replaces Discord and Twitter / X.
4 of 5 · 3 picks
Security and secrets
- 1
VaultwardenFeatured
Lightweight Bitwarden server API implementation written in Rust.
Password ManagersDockerVaultwarden has 68,572 GitHub stars, uses the AGPL-3.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 181 commits in the last year; it replaces Bitwarden and 1Password.
- 2
Passbolt
Collaborative password manager.
Password ManagersDockerPassbolt has 6,149 GitHub stars, uses the AGPL-3.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 1,530 commits in the last year; it replaces Bitwarden and 1Password.
- 3
Keycloak
Open-source identity and access management with SSO, OIDC, SAML and user federation.
Identity & SSODockerKeycloak has 37,156 GitHub stars, uses the Apache-2.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 3,157 commits in the last year; it replaces Auth0 and Okta.
5 of 5 · 3 picks
Monitoring
- 1
Uptime Kuma
Easy-to-use self-hosted uptime monitor with status pages and 90+ notification channels.
Monitoring & Status PagesDockerUptime Kuma has 92,149 GitHub stars, uses the MIT license, ships a Docker image and had 1,359 commits in the last year; it replaces Datadog and Uptime Robot.
- 2
Grafana
Dashboards and visualization for metrics, logs and traces from Prometheus, Loki and dozens of other sources.
Monitoring & Status PagesDockerGrafana has 77,096 GitHub stars, uses the AGPL-3.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 11,362 commits in the last year; it replaces Datadog and Grafana Cloud.
- 3
Prometheus
Metrics-based monitoring and alerting toolkit with a powerful query language, built for cloud-native systems.
Monitoring & Status PagesDockerPrometheus has 66,381 GitHub stars, uses the Apache-2.0 license, ships a Docker image and had 2,592 commits in the last year; it replaces Datadog and Grafana Cloud.
What is the best open source software for crypto and web3 projects?
For a crypto or web3 business, a self-hosted stack starts with BTCPay Server for accepting crypto payments, Ghostfolio for portfolio tracking and Discourse for community chat and forums. Each pick was chosen by hand for its job and is shown with GitHub data from October 2026.
Do self-hosted crypto payment processors hold my funds?
BTCPay Server, Bitcart and SHKeeper describe themselves as payment processors you run yourself, and DePay sends web3 payments peer-to-peer into your own wallet. Read each project's documentation for how it handles keys before going live.
Is self-hosting safer than a hosted crypto service?
It removes the custodian, but it moves the security work to you: patching, backups, key storage and access control. Keep wallet keys off the payment server where the software allows it.
Is BTCPay Server free?
Yes. BTCPay Server is open-source software released under the MIT license, so you can self-host it at no cost. You only pay for the server it runs on, and some projects also offer an optional paid cloud plan.
Can I run this stack with Docker?
11 of the 16 apps here publish Docker images, including Bitcart, Ghostfolio and OctoBot, so most of the stack can run side by side with Docker Compose on one server. Size the server for the heaviest app and add off-site backups.
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