1,319 open-source desktop apps
Open source software for Windows, Mac and Linux
Open-source desktop software publishes its source code under a license that lets anyone use, study and change it, and most of it is free to download. appsgit lists 1,319 open-source desktop apps on GitHub: 1,013 for Windows, 1,062 for macOS and 981 for Linux. Each page shows the platforms, license, GitHub stars, install commands and the commercial software it replaces.
- Open source desktop apps
- 1,319
- Official
- 292
- Categories
- 25
- Updated
- Oct 8, 2026
Trending now
Open source desktop apps gaining stars fastest
Ranked by growth since launch: average GitHub stars per day since the repository was created, weighted toward projects launched in the last 180 days. appsgit now records daily star snapshots, and this list switches to stars gained this week once a week of history exists.
Photocraft
storytold/photocraft
An open-source, clean-room reimplementation of Adobe Photoshop in pure Rust.
~1,329 stars/day since launch
Image editing & photoWindowsmacOSLinuxOrca
stablyai/orca
Orca is the ADE for working with a fleet of parallel agents.
~426 stars/day since launch
OfficialCode editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxVoiceStudio
debpalash/VoiceStudio
VoiceStudio is the open-source, fully-local ElevenLabs alternative — voice cloning, voice design, video dubbing, dictation, transcription & audiobook creation in 646 languages.
~302 stars/day since launch
Audio & music productionWindowsmacOSLinuxCoucou
Louis-CFM/coucou
A tiny friend in your Mac's notch and on your iPhone that keeps an eye on your AI coding agents: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Antigravity and more.
~289 stars/day since launch
AI desktop appsWindowsmacOSLinuxFilmcraft
storytold/filmcraft
An open-source, clean-room reimplementation of Adobe Premiere Pro built in pure Rust.
~255 stars/day since launch
Video editing & screen recordingWindowsmacOSLinuxVorssaint Utils
vorssaint/vorssaint-utils
Free and open-source macOS menu bar toolkit.
~208 stars/day since launch
Archivers, cleaners & system utilitiesWindowsmacOS
Most starred
Top 12 desktop apps
Ranked by GitHub stars. Every page has the platforms, license, install commands for Flathub, Homebrew, winget or Chocolatey when available, and the paid software it replaces.
yt-dlp
yt-dlp/yt-dlp
A feature-rich command-line audio/video downloader.
OfficialDownloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxVisual Studio Code
microsoft/vscode
This repository ("Code - OSS") is where we (Microsoft) develop the Visual Studio Code product together with the community.
OfficialCode editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxOllama
ollama/ollama
Get up and running with Kimi, GLM, MiniMax, DeepSeek, gpt-oss, Qwen, Gemma and other models.
OfficialAI desktop appsWindowsmacOSLinuxScrcpy
Genymobile/scrcpy
Display and control your Android device.
Code editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxClash Verge Rev
clash-verge-rev/clash-verge-rev
A modern GUI client based on Tauri, designed to run in Windows, macOS and Linux for tailored proxy experience.
Password managers, encryption & privacyWindowsmacOSLinuxCc Switch
farion1231/cc-switch
A cross-platform desktop All-in-One assistant for Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, OpenClaw, Grok Build & Hermes Agent.
AI desktop appsWindowsmacOSLinuxPowerToys
microsoft/PowerToys
Microsoft PowerToys is a collection of utilities that supercharge productivity and customization on Windows.
OfficialArchivers, cleaners & system utilitiesWindowsRustDesk
rustdesk/rustdesk
An open-source remote desktop application designed for self-hosting, as an alternative to TeamViewer.
OfficialRemote desktop & accessWindowsmacOSLinuxGodot Engine
godotengine/godot
Godot Engine – Multi-platform 2D and 3D game engine.
OfficialGaming & emulationWindowsmacOSLinuxTerminal
microsoft/terminal
The new Windows Terminal and the original Windows console host, all in the same place!
OfficialCode editors & developer toolsWindowsNeovim
neovim/neovim
Vim-fork focused on extensibility and usability.
OfficialCode editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxStirling-PDF
Stirling-Tools/Stirling-PDF
#1 PDF Application on GitHub that lets you edit PDFs on any device anywhere.
OfficialPDF editors & toolsWindowsmacOSLinux
Browse by category
Open source desktop apps by category
- PDF editors & tools37 desktop appsStirling-PDF, Tesseract OCR, OCRmyPDF
- Office & spreadsheets15 desktop appsVisidata, Wealthfolio, Genoffice
- Image editing & photo28 desktop appsAseprite, PicGo, Photocraft
- Vector, design & publishing12 desktop appsCustomTkinter, Pencil, Open Pencil
- Video editing & screen recording37 desktop appsOBS Studio, Lossless Cut, ScreenToGif
- Audio & music production22 desktop appsVoiceStudio, Spleeter, Ultimate Vocal Remover
- CAD & 3D modelling25 desktop appsFreeCAD, Blender, OrcaSlicer
- Diagrams & mind maps9 desktop appsdraw.io Desktop, Mind Map, Drawio Skill
- Media players82 desktop appsLx Music Desktop, IINA, mpv
- Downloaders & converters36 desktop appsyt-dlp, Motrix, Aria2
- Archivers, cleaners & system utilities139 desktop appsPowerToys, Netdata, Mole
- Data recovery & backup23 desktop appsVentoy, Rufus, Restic
- Remote desktop & access24 desktop appsRustDesk, Lazydocker, Puter
- Browsers19 desktop appsLadybird, Zen Browser, Nw.js
- Email & calendar14 desktop appsFolo, Mailspring, NetNewsWire
- Notes & writing57 desktop appsAppFlowy, AFFiNE, Marktext
- Password managers, encryption & privacy75 desktop appsClash Verge Rev, Sniffnet, Algo
- File sync & transfer47 desktop appsLocalSend, Syncthing, Rclone
- Code editors & developer tools163 desktop appsVisual Studio Code, Scrcpy, Terminal
- Science, GIS & engineering19 desktop appsQGIS, Shadowbroker, Stellarium
- Education, flashcards & reference19 desktop appsAnki, Koodo Reader, Calibre
- Gaming & emulation94 desktop appsGodot Engine, shadPS4, Mindustry
- Chat & communication36 desktop appsTdesktop, Zulip, Signal Desktop
- AI desktop apps123 desktop appsOllama, Cc Switch, NextChat
- Other164 desktop appsPowerShell, Brew, EasySpider
What is the best open source software for Windows?
By GitHub stars, the most popular open-source apps that run on Windows are yt-dlp, Visual Studio Code, Ollama. appsgit lists 1,013 Windows apps; 793 of all listed apps also run on macOS and Linux.
Is open source software free?
Open-source licenses let anyone use, copy and change the software, and almost every app listed here is a free download. 1,315 of the 1,319 apps use an OSI-approved or FSF-free license; 4 are source-available (the code is public but the license restricts use) and are labelled on their pages.
Which open source apps replace paid software?
156 apps are marked with the commercial software they are commonly used instead of, for example Krita or GIMP instead of Photoshop, FreeCAD or LibreCAD instead of AutoCAD, RustDesk instead of TeamViewer. Each app page lists what it replaces.
How are these desktop apps chosen?
Apps come from desktop awesome lists (Awesome Linux Software, awesome-mac, awesome-windows, awesome-electron and the media and file sections of awesome-cli-apps), more than 70 GitHub topics such as desktop-app, electron-app, tauri-app, gtk, qt, macos-app, pdf-editor, cad and remote-desktop, and a hand-picked list of flagship apps. An app is listed only if it has a license (one GitHub detects, or one appsgit checked by hand), a README and a commit in the last six months, is not archived or a fork, and has 1000+ GitHub stars (topics), 500+ (awesome lists) or 100+ (hand-picked). It must also be an end-user application with a desktop signal: installers in its releases, install instructions for Windows, macOS or Linux, or a Flathub, Homebrew, winget, Chocolatey, Snap or AUR package. Libraries, frameworks, themes, plugins and servers are left out, and source-available apps are labelled as such. Official means the repository belongs to the project or foundation behind the app, such as GNOME, KDE, Mozilla, VideoLAN, Blender, LibreOffice or OBS (a fixed, hand-checked allow-list), or to a GitHub organization with a verified domain, rather than a fork or third-party build.