{
  "name": "Best GitHub repos for startups",
  "url": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups",
  "description": "Fifty GitHub repos for startups ranked by stars, with category, licence and when to adopt.",
  "snapshot": "2026-10-21",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0",
  "attribution": "Cafiyn Pulse, https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups",
  "sources": [
    {
      "label": "deps.dev",
      "url": "https://deps.dev"
    },
    {
      "label": "ungh.cc, an unauthenticated GitHub mirror",
      "url": "https://ungh.cc"
    }
  ],
  "count": 50,
  "totalStars": 4845644,
  "categories": [
    {
      "id": "backend",
      "name": "Backend and databases",
      "repos": 6,
      "stars": 361211
    },
    {
      "id": "frontend",
      "name": "Frontend and mobile",
      "repos": 5,
      "stars": 503502
    },
    {
      "id": "ai",
      "name": "AI and LLM infrastructure",
      "repos": 10,
      "stars": 1039264
    },
    {
      "id": "automation",
      "name": "Automation and internal tools",
      "repos": 4,
      "stars": 355720
    },
    {
      "id": "analytics",
      "name": "Analytics and monitoring",
      "repos": 5,
      "stars": 242768
    },
    {
      "id": "security",
      "name": "Auth and security",
      "repos": 5,
      "stars": 164959
    },
    {
      "id": "business",
      "name": "Business and customer ops",
      "repos": 6,
      "stars": 263963
    },
    {
      "id": "devops",
      "name": "Deploy and infrastructure",
      "repos": 4,
      "stars": 210043
    },
    {
      "id": "learn",
      "name": "Free lists and learning",
      "repos": 5,
      "stars": 1704214
    }
  ],
  "repos": [
    {
      "rank": 1,
      "name": "Public APIs",
      "repo": "public-apis/public-apis",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/public-apis/public-apis",
      "website": null,
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#public-apis",
      "category": "learn",
      "categoryName": "Free lists and learning",
      "stars": 491066,
      "created": "2016-03-20",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "MIT",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "day1",
      "summary": "A list of free APIs across dozens of categories.",
      "replaces": [
        "Scraping"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 2,
      "name": "System Design Primer",
      "repo": "donnemartin/system-design-primer",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/donnemartin/system-design-primer",
      "website": null,
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#system-design-primer",
      "category": "learn",
      "categoryName": "Free lists and learning",
      "stars": 375005,
      "created": "2017-02-26",
      "lastPush": "2026-09-15",
      "licence": "CC BY 4.0",
      "licenceType": "content",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "growth",
      "summary": "How to design large systems, and how to prepare for the interviews about them.",
      "replaces": [
        "Paid courses"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 3,
      "name": "roadmap.sh",
      "repo": "kamranahmedse/developer-roadmap",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/kamranahmedse/developer-roadmap",
      "website": "https://roadmap.sh",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#developer-roadmap",
      "category": "learn",
      "categoryName": "Free lists and learning",
      "stars": 369907,
      "created": null,
      "lastPush": null,
      "licence": "Custom licence",
      "licenceType": "content",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "day1",
      "summary": "Visual roadmaps for developer roles and skills.",
      "replaces": [
        "Random learning guides"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 4,
      "name": "Awesome Selfhosted",
      "repo": "awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted",
      "website": "https://awesome-selfhosted.net/",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#awesome-selfhosted",
      "category": "learn",
      "categoryName": "Free lists and learning",
      "stars": 328356,
      "created": null,
      "lastPush": null,
      "licence": "CC BY SA 3.0",
      "licenceType": "content",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "day1",
      "summary": "A list of free software network services you can run yourself.",
      "replaces": [
        "SaaS subscriptions where self hosting makes sense"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 5,
      "name": "n8n",
      "repo": "n8n-io/n8n",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n",
      "website": "https://n8n.io",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#n8n",
      "category": "automation",
      "categoryName": "Automation and internal tools",
      "stars": 208229,
      "created": "2019-06-22",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "Sustainable Use Licence",
      "licenceType": "source",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "users",
      "summary": "Workflow automation with a visual editor, code steps and hundreds of integrations.",
      "replaces": [
        "Zapier",
        "Make"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 6,
      "name": "Ollama",
      "repo": "ollama/ollama",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/ollama/ollama",
      "website": "https://ollama.com",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#ollama",
      "category": "ai",
      "categoryName": "AI and LLM infrastructure",
      "stars": 184166,
      "created": "2023-06-26",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "MIT",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "day1",
      "summary": "Run open models such as Llama, Gemma and Mistral on your own machine with one command.",
      "replaces": [
        "Paid API calls during development"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 7,
      "name": "Dify",
      "repo": "langgenius/dify",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/langgenius/dify",
      "website": "https://dify.ai",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#dify",
      "category": "ai",
      "categoryName": "AI and LLM infrastructure",
      "stars": 159140,
      "created": "2023-04-12",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "Apache 2.0 with added conditions",
      "licenceType": "source",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "users",
      "summary": "A visual platform for building and running AI apps and agents.",
      "replaces": [
        "Custom LLM backends",
        "No code chatbot tools"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 8,
      "name": "Open WebUI",
      "repo": "open-webui/open-webui",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui",
      "website": "https://openwebui.com",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#open-webui",
      "category": "ai",
      "categoryName": "AI and LLM infrastructure",
      "stars": 156351,
      "created": "2023-10-06",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "BSD 3 Clause with a branding clause from v0.6.6",
      "licenceType": "source",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "users",
      "summary": "A self hosted chat interface for Ollama and OpenAI style APIs.",
      "replaces": [
        "Per seat chat subscriptions"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 9,
      "name": "LangChain",
      "repo": "langchain-ai/langchain",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/langchain-ai/langchain",
      "website": "https://docs.langchain.com/langchain/",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#langchain",
      "category": "ai",
      "categoryName": "AI and LLM infrastructure",
      "stars": 148205,
      "created": "2022-10-17",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "MIT",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "users",
      "summary": "A framework of building blocks for LLM apps: models, tools, retrieval and agents.",
      "replaces": [
        "Glue code between models and tools"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 10,
      "name": "Next.js",
      "repo": "vercel/next.js",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/vercel/next.js",
      "website": "https://nextjs.org",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#nextjs",
      "category": "frontend",
      "categoryName": "Frontend and mobile",
      "stars": 143094,
      "created": "2016-10-05",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "MIT",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "day1",
      "summary": "The React framework for full stack web apps.",
      "replaces": [
        "Hand rolled React plus Express",
        "Gatsby"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 11,
      "name": "free for dev",
      "repo": "ripienaar/free-for-dev",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/ripienaar/free-for-dev",
      "website": "https://free-for.dev/",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#free-for-dev",
      "category": "learn",
      "categoryName": "Free lists and learning",
      "stars": 139880,
      "created": "2015-03-18",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-20",
      "licence": "CC BY 4.0",
      "licenceType": "content",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "day1",
      "summary": "A curated list of SaaS, PaaS and IaaS offerings with free tiers.",
      "replaces": [
        "Googling pricing pages"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 12,
      "name": "shadcn/ui",
      "repo": "shadcn-ui/ui",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/shadcn-ui/ui",
      "website": "https://ui.shadcn.com",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#shadcn-ui",
      "category": "frontend",
      "categoryName": "Frontend and mobile",
      "stars": 126128,
      "created": "2023-01-04",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-20",
      "licence": "MIT",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "day1",
      "summary": "Copy and paste React components built on Radix and Tailwind.",
      "replaces": [
        "Material UI",
        "Chakra UI",
        "Paid UI kits"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 13,
      "name": "Browser Use",
      "repo": "browser-use/browser-use",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/browser-use/browser-use",
      "website": "https://browser-use.com",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#browser-use",
      "category": "ai",
      "categoryName": "AI and LLM infrastructure",
      "stars": 118758,
      "created": "2024-10-31",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-20",
      "licence": "MIT",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "users",
      "summary": "Lets an AI agent drive a real web browser.",
      "replaces": [
        "Brittle Selenium scripts",
        "Manual data entry"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 14,
      "name": "Supabase",
      "repo": "supabase/supabase",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/supabase/supabase",
      "website": "https://supabase.com",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#supabase",
      "category": "backend",
      "categoryName": "Backend and databases",
      "stars": 112763,
      "created": "2019-10-12",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "Apache 2.0",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "day1",
      "summary": "A Postgres database with auth, storage, realtime and edge functions built around it.",
      "replaces": [
        "Firebase",
        "Auth0 for basic login",
        "Heroku Postgres"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 15,
      "name": "Tailwind CSS",
      "repo": "tailwindlabs/tailwindcss",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss",
      "website": "https://tailwindcss.com/",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#tailwindcss",
      "category": "frontend",
      "categoryName": "Frontend and mobile",
      "stars": 97957,
      "created": "2017-10-06",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-19",
      "licence": "MIT",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "day1",
      "summary": "A utility first CSS framework.",
      "replaces": [
        "Bootstrap",
        "Hand written CSS files"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 16,
      "name": "vLLM",
      "repo": "vllm-project/vllm",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm",
      "website": "https://vllm.ai",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#vllm",
      "category": "ai",
      "categoryName": "AI and LLM infrastructure",
      "stars": 94749,
      "created": "2023-02-09",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "Apache 2.0",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "growth",
      "summary": "A fast, memory efficient engine for serving LLMs.",
      "replaces": [
        "Slower serving stacks",
        "Some managed inference at scale"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 17,
      "name": "Vite",
      "repo": "vitejs/vite",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/vitejs/vite",
      "website": "http://vite.dev",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#vite",
      "category": "frontend",
      "categoryName": "Frontend and mobile",
      "stars": 83432,
      "created": "2020-04-21",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "MIT",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "day1",
      "summary": "A fast build tool and dev server for modern front ends.",
      "replaces": [
        "Webpack",
        "Create React App"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 18,
      "name": "Caddy",
      "repo": "caddyserver/caddy",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/caddyserver/caddy",
      "website": "https://caddyserver.com",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#caddy",
      "category": "devops",
      "categoryName": "Deploy and infrastructure",
      "stars": 78224,
      "created": "2015-01-13",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "Apache 2.0",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "day1",
      "summary": "A web server with automatic HTTPS.",
      "replaces": [
        "Nginx plus Certbot"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 19,
      "name": "Grafana",
      "repo": "grafana/grafana",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/grafana/grafana",
      "website": "https://grafana.com",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#grafana",
      "category": "analytics",
      "categoryName": "Analytics and monitoring",
      "stars": 77401,
      "created": "2013-12-11",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "AGPL 3.0",
      "licenceType": "copyleft",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "growth",
      "summary": "Dashboards and alerts for metrics, logs and traces from almost any data source.",
      "replaces": [
        "Datadog dashboards at small scale"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 20,
      "name": "NocoDB",
      "repo": "nocodb/nocodb",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/nocodb/nocodb",
      "website": "https://nocodb.com",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#nocodb",
      "category": "automation",
      "categoryName": "Automation and internal tools",
      "stars": 65313,
      "created": "2017-10-29",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "Sustainable Use Licence since January 2026",
      "licenceType": "source",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "users",
      "summary": "An Airtable style spreadsheet interface on top of your own database.",
      "replaces": [
        "Airtable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 21,
      "name": "Coolify",
      "repo": "coollabsio/coolify",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/coollabsio/coolify",
      "website": "https://coolify.io",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#coolify",
      "category": "devops",
      "categoryName": "Deploy and infrastructure",
      "stars": 63350,
      "created": "2021-01-25",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "Apache 2.0",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "users",
      "summary": "A self hosted platform for deploying apps, databases and services.",
      "replaces": [
        "Heroku",
        "Render",
        "Vercel for backends"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 22,
      "name": "LiteLLM",
      "repo": "BerriAI/litellm",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/BerriAI/litellm",
      "website": "https://docs.litellm.ai/docs/",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#litellm",
      "category": "ai",
      "categoryName": "AI and LLM infrastructure",
      "stars": 61733,
      "created": "2023-07-27",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "MIT, with a commercial enterprise folder",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": true,
      "adopt": "users",
      "summary": "A gateway and Python library that calls 100 plus LLMs through one OpenAI style interface.",
      "replaces": [
        "Per provider SDK wiring",
        "Hand built spend tracking"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 23,
      "name": "PocketBase",
      "repo": "pocketbase/pocketbase",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase",
      "website": "https://pocketbase.io",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#pocketbase",
      "category": "backend",
      "categoryName": "Backend and databases",
      "stars": 61524,
      "created": "2022-07-05",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-14",
      "licence": "MIT",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "day1",
      "summary": "A whole backend in one Go file: database, auth, file storage and an admin dashboard.",
      "replaces": [
        "Firebase",
        "A hand rolled API"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 24,
      "name": "Plane",
      "repo": "makeplane/plane",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/makeplane/plane",
      "website": "http://plane.so",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#plane",
      "category": "business",
      "categoryName": "Business and customer ops",
      "stars": 61243,
      "created": "2022-11-19",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "AGPL 3.0",
      "licenceType": "copyleft",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "growth",
      "summary": "Project and issue tracking, an open source alternative to Linear and Jira.",
      "replaces": [
        "Jira",
        "Linear",
        "Asana"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 25,
      "name": "Twenty",
      "repo": "twentyhq/twenty",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/twentyhq/twenty",
      "website": "https://twenty.com",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#twenty",
      "category": "business",
      "categoryName": "Business and customer ops",
      "stars": 58944,
      "created": "2022-12-01",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "AGPL 3.0, with a commercial enterprise edition",
      "licenceType": "copyleft",
      "openCore": true,
      "adopt": "users",
      "summary": "An open source CRM.",
      "replaces": [
        "HubSpot",
        "Salesforce for small teams",
        "Pipedrive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 26,
      "name": "Appwrite",
      "repo": "appwrite/appwrite",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/appwrite/appwrite",
      "website": "https://appwrite.io",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#appwrite",
      "category": "backend",
      "categoryName": "Backend and databases",
      "stars": 57748,
      "created": "2019-04-08",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "BSD 3 Clause",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "day1",
      "summary": "A backend platform with auth, databases, storage, functions and messaging you can self host.",
      "replaces": [
        "Firebase",
        "Auth0"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 27,
      "name": "Expo",
      "repo": "expo/expo",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/expo/expo",
      "website": "https://docs.expo.dev",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#expo",
      "category": "frontend",
      "categoryName": "Frontend and mobile",
      "stars": 52891,
      "created": "2016-08-15",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "MIT",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "day1",
      "summary": "A framework and platform for building React Native apps for iOS, Android and the web.",
      "replaces": [
        "Two native codebases",
        "Ionic style wrappers"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 28,
      "name": "LlamaIndex",
      "repo": "run-llama/llama_index",
      "githubUrl": "https://github.com/run-llama/llama_index",
      "website": "https://developers.llamaindex.ai",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#llamaindex",
      "category": "ai",
      "categoryName": "AI and LLM infrastructure",
      "stars": 52604,
      "created": "2022-11-02",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "MIT",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "users",
      "summary": "A framework for connecting your own data to LLMs.",
      "replaces": [
        "Bespoke retrieval scripts"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rank": 29,
      "name": "Metabase",
      "repo": "metabase/metabase",
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      "openCore": true,
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      "rank": 30,
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      "stars": 49205,
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      "openCore": false,
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        "Calendly"
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      "rank": 31,
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      "category": "backend",
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      "stars": 47680,
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      "rank": 32,
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      "category": "analytics",
      "categoryName": "Analytics and monitoring",
      "stars": 45622,
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      "licence": "Functional Source Licence",
      "licenceType": "source",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "users",
      "summary": "Error tracking and performance monitoring for apps.",
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        "Digging through logs",
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    {
      "rank": 33,
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      "category": "backend",
      "categoryName": "Backend and databases",
      "stars": 45391,
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      "licence": "MIT",
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      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "day1",
      "summary": "A TypeScript CMS and app framework that installs inside your Next.js project.",
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        "Contentful",
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    {
      "rank": 34,
      "name": "ToolJet",
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      "category": "automation",
      "categoryName": "Automation and internal tools",
      "stars": 41093,
      "created": null,
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      "openCore": false,
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      "summary": "An open source low code platform for internal tools and workflows.",
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        "Retool"
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    {
      "rank": 35,
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      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#appsmith",
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      "categoryName": "Automation and internal tools",
      "stars": 41085,
      "created": null,
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      "licence": "Apache 2.0 community edition",
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      "openCore": true,
      "adopt": "growth",
      "summary": "A low code builder for internal tools, admin panels and dashboards.",
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        "Retool"
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    {
      "rank": 36,
      "name": "Outline",
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      "categoryName": "Business and customer ops",
      "stars": 41006,
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      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "Business Source Licence 1.1",
      "licenceType": "source",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "users",
      "summary": "A fast team wiki and knowledge base.",
      "replaces": [
        "Notion for docs",
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    {
      "rank": 37,
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      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#posthog",
      "category": "analytics",
      "categoryName": "Analytics and monitoring",
      "stars": 40374,
      "created": "2020-01-23",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "MIT, with a commercial ee folder",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": true,
      "adopt": "users",
      "summary": "Product analytics, session replay, feature flags, experiments and surveys in one product.",
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        "Mixpanel",
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      "rank": 38,
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      "category": "security",
      "categoryName": "Auth and security",
      "stars": 38573,
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      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "Apache 2.0",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "users",
      "summary": "A scanner for vulnerabilities, misconfigurations and secrets in containers and code.",
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    {
      "rank": 39,
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      "category": "business",
      "categoryName": "Business and customer ops",
      "stars": 38068,
      "created": "2019-08-14",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "MIT, with a proprietary enterprise folder",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": true,
      "adopt": "users",
      "summary": "A customer support inbox for chat, email, social and WhatsApp.",
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        "Intercom",
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        "Crisp"
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      "rank": 40,
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      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#dokploy",
      "category": "devops",
      "categoryName": "Deploy and infrastructure",
      "stars": 37904,
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      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "Apache 2.0, plus a source available licence for future paid features",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": true,
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        "Heroku",
        "Render"
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    {
      "rank": 41,
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      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#keycloak",
      "category": "security",
      "categoryName": "Auth and security",
      "stars": 37455,
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      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "Apache 2.0",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "growth",
      "summary": "Identity and access management with SSO, OpenID Connect and SAML.",
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        "Auth0 at enterprise tiers",
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    {
      "rank": 42,
      "name": "Langfuse",
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      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#langfuse",
      "category": "ai",
      "categoryName": "AI and LLM infrastructure",
      "stars": 36139,
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      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "MIT, with commercial ee folders",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": true,
      "adopt": "users",
      "summary": "Open source LLM observability: traces, prompts and evals.",
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        "LangSmith",
        "Hand rolled logging"
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      "rank": 43,
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      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#drizzle",
      "category": "backend",
      "categoryName": "Backend and databases",
      "stars": 36105,
      "created": "2021-06-24",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-20",
      "licence": "Apache 2.0",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": false,
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      "summary": "A TypeScript ORM that stays close to SQL and runs on serverless and edge.",
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        "Heavier ORMs",
        "Raw query strings"
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    {
      "rank": 44,
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      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#opentofu",
      "category": "devops",
      "categoryName": "Deploy and infrastructure",
      "stars": 30565,
      "created": "2023-08-16",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "MPL 2.0",
      "licenceType": "copyleft",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "growth",
      "summary": "Infrastructure as code, the open fork of Terraform.",
      "replaces": [
        "Terraform under its BSL",
        "Click ops"
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    },
    {
      "rank": 45,
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      "website": "https://better-auth.com",
      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#better-auth",
      "category": "security",
      "categoryName": "Auth and security",
      "stars": 30409,
      "created": "2024-05-19",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "MIT",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "day1",
      "summary": "A TypeScript authentication library with plugins for 2FA, organisations and SSO.",
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        "Auth0",
        "Clerk",
        "NextAuth"
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    {
      "rank": 46,
      "name": "Infisical",
      "repo": "Infisical/infisical",
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      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#infisical",
      "category": "security",
      "categoryName": "Auth and security",
      "stars": 29896,
      "created": "2022-08-05",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "MIT, with a commercial ee directory",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": true,
      "adopt": "growth",
      "summary": "Secrets management for teams and CI.",
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        "Doppler",
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        "Shared .env files"
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    {
      "rank": 47,
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      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#plausible",
      "category": "analytics",
      "categoryName": "Analytics and monitoring",
      "stars": 29587,
      "created": "2018-12-04",
      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "AGPL 3.0",
      "licenceType": "copyleft",
      "openCore": false,
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      "summary": "Simple, privacy friendly web analytics.",
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        "Google Analytics"
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    {
      "rank": 48,
      "name": "TruffleHog",
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      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#trufflehog",
      "category": "security",
      "categoryName": "Auth and security",
      "stars": 28626,
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      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "AGPL 3.0",
      "licenceType": "copyleft",
      "openCore": false,
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      "rank": 49,
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      "category": "ai",
      "categoryName": "AI and LLM infrastructure",
      "stars": 27419,
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      "lastPush": "2026-10-20",
      "licence": "Apache 2.0",
      "licenceType": "permissive",
      "openCore": false,
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      "summary": "A TypeScript toolkit for streaming chat, tools and structured output from any model.",
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        "Per provider SDK wiring"
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      "rank": 50,
      "name": "Documenso",
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      "page": "https://pulse.cafiyn.com/free/best-github-repos-for-startups#documenso",
      "category": "business",
      "categoryName": "Business and customer ops",
      "stars": 15497,
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      "lastPush": "2026-10-21",
      "licence": "AGPL 3.0",
      "licenceType": "copyleft",
      "openCore": false,
      "adopt": "users",
      "summary": "Open source electronic signatures.",
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}