15 open-source tools to elevate your software design workflow

1. bruno

   1 74 30,895 9.8 JavaScript

   Opensource IDE For Exploring and Testing Api's (lightweight alternative to postman/insomnia)

   

   In contrast to Postman, Bruno aims to be an offline-first API client which stores requests in a local folder. You can still collaborate using Git, but everything else happens on your machine. Bruno turns out to be a great solution when you just want to run HTTP requests. It supports a lot of features you might know from Postman or Insomnia (set environment variables, several authentication methods, and scripted tests, to name a few). Looking at the roadmap, the amount of these is only going to increase.

2. Nutrient

   www.nutrient.io featured

   Nutrient – The #1 PDF SDK Library, trusted by 10K+ developers. Other PDF SDKs promise a lot - then break. Laggy scrolling, poor mobile UX, tons of bugs, and lack of support cost you endless frustrations. Nutrient’s SDK handles billion-page workloads - so you don’t have to debug PDFs. Used by ~1 billion end users in more than 150 different countries.

   

3. dbgate

   2 35 5,733 9.9 Svelte

   Database manager for MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, MongoDB, SQLite and others. Runs under Windows, Linux, Mac or as web application

   

   Link | Github | License

4. bencher

   3 13 631 9.9 MDX

   🐰 Bencher - Continuous Benchmarking

   

   Link | Github | License

5. clearflask

   4 4 331 9.3 TypeScript

   Listen to your users during product development with ClearFlask

   

   Link | Demo | Github | License

6. Claper

   5 9 503 7.3 Elixir

   The ultimate tool to interact with your audience

   

   Link | Demo (free trial) | Github | License

7. all-in-one

   6 192 6,128 9.9 PHP

   📦 The official Nextcloud installation method. Provides easy deployment and maintenance with most features included in this one Nextcloud instance.

   

   Link | Demo | Github | License

8. Newman

   7 319 6,953 7.3 JavaScript

   Newman is a command-line collection runner for Postman

   

   In contrast to Postman, Bruno aims to be an offline-first API client which stores requests in a local folder. You can still collaborate using Git, but everything else happens on your machine. Bruno turns out to be a great solution when you just want to run HTTP requests. It supports a lot of features you might know from Postman or Insomnia (set environment variables, several authentication methods, and scripted tests, to name a few). Looking at the roadmap, the amount of these is only going to increase.

9. CodeRabbit

   coderabbit.ai featured

   CodeRabbit: AI Code Reviews for Developers. Revolutionize your code reviews with AI. CodeRabbit offers PR summaries, code walkthroughs, 1-click suggestions, and AST-based analysis. Boost productivity and code quality across all major languages with each PR.

   

10. ui

    8 10 714 5.9 TypeScript

    Open source wireframing tool written in typescript, react and redux. (by mydraft-cc)

    

    Demo | Github | License

11. BookStack

    9 316 16,020 9.6 PHP

    A platform to create documentation/wiki content built with PHP & Laravel

    

    Link | Demo | Github | License

12. server2

    10 1 1 6.8 TypeScript

    

    It also supports collaboration over a server component, which I have not tested while writing this article.

13. krita

    11 12 7,827 9.8 C++

    Krita is a free and open source cross-platform application that offers an end-to-end solution for creating digital art files from scratch built on the KDE and Qt frameworks.

    

    Link | Download | Github | License

14. vscodium

    12 554 26,339 9.3 Shell

    binary releases of VS Code without MS branding/telemetry/licensing

    

    No matter what project you're developing on, at some point you'll give VSCode (or its open source version) a try. You can use it to develop in a dedicated dev-environment or debug integration scenarios.

15. penpot

    13 231 36,419 10.0 Clojure

    Penpot: The open-source design tool for design and code collaboration

    

    Link | Free Trial | Github | License

16. Code-Server

    14 411 69,766 9.0 TypeScript

    VS Code in the browser

    

    Install | Github | License

17. Umami

    15 126 24,345 9.7 TypeScript

    Umami is a simple, fast, privacy-focused alternative to Google Analytics.

    

    Link | Demo | Github | License

18. coder

    16 39 8,991 10.0 Go

    Coder provisions software development environments via Terraform on Linux, macOS, Windows, X86, ARM, and of course, Kubernetes.

    

    If you're looking for a collaboration tool, try Coder.

19. Nextcloud

    17 619 28,597 10.0 PHP

    ☁️ Nextcloud server, a safe home for all your data

    

    Link | Demo | Github | License

20. forms

    18 7 330 9.8 JavaScript

    📝 Simple form & survey app for Nextcloud

    

    Forms - Share and create online formulas and questionnaires

21. dub

    19 43 19,934 10.0 TypeScript

    Open-source link attribution platform. Loved by modern marketing teams like Twilio, Perplexity, Vercel, and Huberman Labs.

    

    Thank you so much for reading to the end. Of all the tools on this site, Penpot is my absolute favorite. Its modern UI and all the amazing tools at the cost of running a single docker command is a real catch! As a thank you, there's another tool I'd like to present. It's called Dub. It's a link-shortener tool with lots of advanced features for marketing teams and a perfect addition for Umami.

22. SaaSHub

    www.saashub.com featured

    SaaSHub - Software Alternatives and Reviews. SaaSHub helps you find the best software and product alternatives

    

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