Open-source infrastructure for founders and communities who would rather not run their lives through US platforms and US compute. Everything here is free software you can inspect, fork and self-host, rated honestly by what it can do today, not what its roadmap promises.
Check the maturity badge before you depend on anything.
Messaging and calls your community can run without a US platform in the middle.
Federated chat you host yourself: the UK-governed open standard behind Element, used by governments and public bodies across Europe.
UK · AGPL-3.0 (Apache-2.0 client SDKs) · self-hostable
Synapse/Element are AGPL with a CLA enabling Element's commercial dual-licensing: open-core at the edges. A busy homeserver needs real admin attention.
The benchmark for encrypted messaging, but a centralised service run from the US, so it is context here, not sovereign infrastructure.
US · AGPL-3.0 (server) / GPL-3.0 (apps)
Code is open but there is no federation; self-hosting is impractical, so you depend on the Signal Foundation's US-run infrastructure.
Encrypted messaging with no user IDs at all, built by a London company; communities can run their own relay servers.
UK · AGPL-3.0 · self-hostable
Active (v6.5 stable, v7.0 beta, mid-2026) and independently audited, but a small team; groups and desktop are rougher than Signal.
Peer-to-peer messaging over Tor, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth: no servers to seize, and it keeps working when the internet goes down.
global community · GPL-3.0-or-later · self-hostable
Android-first (desktop still limited); serverless by design: an optional Mailbox app on a spare phone handles offline delivery. Slow, deliberate release pace (1.5.17, March 2026).
Chat that rides on ordinary email: any mailbox works, or run a chatmail relay for your community on a small server.
Germany · GPL-3.0 apps / MPL-2.0 core · self-hostable
Publicly funded (EU/NLnet); 2026 releases cut server-visible metadata to near zero and added native calls. Niche user base compared with Signal or Matrix.
The veteran open messaging standard; Prosody runs a community chat server on the smallest of machines.
UK (Prosody) / France (ejabberd) · MIT (Prosody) / GPL-2.0 (ejabberd) · self-hostable
Both servers actively maintained through 2026. Client quality varies; for a polished out-of-box experience pair with a curated distribution such as Snikket.
Off-grid text messaging over cheap LoRa radios: neighbourhood mesh networks with no SIM, no internet and no radio licence.
US / global community · GPL-3.0 · self-hostable
Runs licence-free on 868 MHz in the UK. Delivery is best-effort and text-only: brilliant for resilience and events, not a Slack replacement.
Video calls in the browser with no accounts needed; self-host the whole stack on your own server.
US (steward 8x8); global project · Apache-2.0 · self-hostable
Stewarded by US firm 8x8, but fully open and self-hostable so there is no service dependency. End-to-end encryption only works reliably in smaller calls.
A virtual classroom you run yourself: whiteboard, breakout rooms, polls and recordings, widely used in education.
Canada · LGPL-3.0 · self-hostable
Built for teaching rather than quick meetings; wants a dedicated Ubuntu server with decent specs. Steward Blindside Networks; 3.0.x actively maintained (July 2026).
Peer-to-peer messaging for apps that want no servers at all: the transport underneath the Status app.
Switzerland (IFT), distributed team · MIT / Apache-2.0 · self-hostable
Formerly Waku. nwaku still 0.x (v0.38, May 2026); Status runs on it, but the incentivised public network remains research/testnet-stage, not production for third parties.
Encrypted messaging with Bitcoin built in: send sats inside the conversation, keys stay yours.
US · Unverified (built on the Signal protocol)
Launched July 2026 by the Cake Wallet team, which financially supports Signal. The app's own source was not verifiably published at listing time, so FOSS status is unverified.
Open-source team chat organised into topic threads, unusually good for structured asynchronous discussion in communities and organisations.
USA (Kandra Labs), large open community · Apache-2.0 · self-hostable
Stewarded by a US company, though fully self-hostable with nothing gated; Server 12.1 shipped 26 June 2026 and releases run like clockwork.
Self-hosted Slack alternative for team messaging, calls and workflow tooling, widely deployed in defence and public sector.
USA (Mattermost Inc., California) · AGPL-3.0/MIT (core), source-available enterprise · self-hostable
US company and the richer enterprise features sit behind a paid licence, but the free core is genuinely open and shipping monthly, v11.8.3 as of July 2026.
Self-hosted team chat platform with federation and omnichannel support, one of the most deployed open Slack alternatives.
US-incorporated, Brazilian roots (Rocket.Chat Technologies) · MIT (core) with proprietary EE modules · self-hostable
Steadily more enterprise-gated, with clustering, auditing and AI behind paid licences; core remains MIT and v8.6.0 landed 3 July 2026.
Low-latency, self-hosted encrypted voice chat that has run community and gaming servers reliably for two decades.
International volunteer community, Norwegian origins · BSD-3-Clause · self-hostable
Volunteer-paced development with a dated interface and minimal text features, but rock-solid in service; 1.5.901 shipped 17 May 2026 with 1.6 in release candidate.
Fully peer-to-peer calls, video and messaging with no central server at all, a GNU project backed by the FSF.
Canada (Savoir-faire Linux), GNU project · GPL-3.0-or-later · self-hostable
Message delivery and multi-device sync can be flaky in everyday use, so treat it as promising rather than dependable; Euclid released April 2026 with feature drops through June 2026.
Paid Swiss messenger requiring no phone number or email, collecting minimal metadata under Swiss jurisdiction.
Switzerland (Threema AG) · AGPL-3.0 (clients only), proprietary server
The server is proprietary and self-hosting exists only as the paid OnPrem enterprise product, so it earns its place on jurisdiction not openness; Android 6.4.3 shipped 10 June 2026.
Encrypted messaging and conferencing with a fully open AGPL server stack, adopted by the German Bundestag in 2026.
Germany/Switzerland (Wire Swiss GmbH, Berlin dev team) · AGPL-3.0 (server), GPL-3.0 (clients) · self-hostable
Now firmly pivoted to government and enterprise, and self-hosting demands serious Kubernetes expertise; server release 5.34.0 landed 7 July 2026 on a monthly cadence.
German encrypted email and calendar service with post-quantum cryptography and fully open-source clients on every platform.
Germany (Tutao GmbH, Hanover) · GPL-3.0 (clients only), proprietary server
A centralised paid service with a closed server, no IMAP and no self-hosting, honest about all three; clients release weekly, most recently 10 July 2026.
The largest encrypted email provider, with open-source clients, zero-access storage and a broader privacy suite attached.
Switzerland (Proton AG), infrastructure moving into the EU · GPL-3.0 (clients only), proprietary server
Centralised, not self-hostable, and its Swiss jurisdiction is in flux as it moves infrastructure to Norway over proposed surveillance law; development remained highly active through mid-2026.
Shares files, hosts sites and chats anonymously over Tor with no server, account or middleman.
US-origin, now community maintained within the Tor ecosystem · GPL-3.0-or-later
Release pace is slow and mostly maintenance since the founder handed over, but v2.6.4 (9 Jun 2026) shipped a timely security fix.
Whistleblower submission system newsrooms run on their own servers to receive documents from anonymous sources.
US non-profit (Freedom of the Press Foundation) · AGPL-3.0-or-later · self-hostable
Operationally heavy, needing dedicated hardware and a Qubes workstation; v2.16.1 landed 8 Jul 2026 with regular audits behind it.
Private messenger, self-custodial wallet and dApp browser using peer-to-peer Waku messaging instead of central servers.
Switzerland (Status Research & Development, Zug) · MPL-2.0
Network is far smaller than mainstream messengers and the unified mobile app is still bedding in; v2.38 shipped June 2026 with active development.
Open-source Android email client, formerly K-9 Mail, with OpenPGP support, offline mail and no tracking or advertising.
USA (MZLA Technologies, Mozilla Foundation subsidiary); K-9 Mail heritage · Apache-2.0
Steward is US-based and donation funded, counter to the hub's non-US preference; version 20.1 released 6 July 2026 on a steady cadence.
The networking layer underneath everything else: routing, anonymity, going off-grid.
The anonymity network. Publish onion services from hardware you control and reach users no platform can block.
US (non-profit, globally operated network) · BSD-3-Clause · self-hostable
Steward is a US non-profit but relays and onion services run anywhere; actively released (Browser 15.0.17, June 2026) and the Rust rewrite Arti is maturing fast.
The networking library under Ethereum, IPFS and Polkadot: peer discovery, transports and encryption for building your own p2p apps.
US origin (Protocol Labs), now global community · MIT / Apache-2.0 · self-hostable
Battle-tested across major blockchain and IPFS deployments, with Go, Rust, JS and other implementations all releasing in 2026; US-rooted stewardship is the main caveat.
Anonymous overlay network built for hosting services inside the network itself; smaller than Tor but fully self-contained.
global community · Public domain / mixed; i2pd is BSD-3-Clause · self-hostable
Alive and active in 2026 (Java I2P 2.12, C++ i2pd 2.60) with post-quantum crypto landing; much smaller anonymity set than Tor and slower to join.
Self-arranging encrypted IPv6 mesh: gives every machine a stable address that works across NATs, VPSes and ad-hoc links.
global community · LGPL-3.0 (with linking exception) · self-hostable
Reliable in daily use and released as recently as February 2026 (0.5.13), but self-describes as an experimental hobbyist project; routing protocol still evolves between versions.
Networking stack for off-grid and unreliable links (LoRa, packet radio, serial, WiFi), with ready-made encrypted messaging apps on top.
Denmark · Reticulum License (non-OSI, was MIT); MIT community fork available · self-hostable
Not strictly FOSS since April 2025: custom licence bans AI-training and weapons use. MIT-licensed community fork (Reticulum_CE) exists; founder is stepping back.
A live mixnet that hides traffic patterns, not just content. Use it via NymVPN today or as a transport for your own apps.
Switzerland · Apache-2.0 / MIT libraries; GPL-3.0 apps · self-hostable
All code is FOSS and actively shipped (binaries v2026.13, July 2026), but running mixnet nodes requires bonding NYM tokens and NymVPN is a paid service.
GNU's peer-to-peer framework, home of the GNS name system (a censorship-resistant DNS replacement) and plumbing shared with GNU Taler.
Germany/Switzerland (GNU project, GNUnet e.V.) · AGPL-3.0 · self-hostable
Actively released (0.27, March 2026) and GNS is standardised as RFC 9498, but the project itself says it suits early adopters with 'reasonable pain tolerance'.
Framework for building private p2p apps (DHT, encrypted routing, mobile and browser support), from the Cult of the Dead Cow.
US (Veilid Foundation) · MPL-2.0 · self-hostable
Actively developed (veilid-core 0.5.3, March 2026) but almost nothing ships on it in production yet; a promising research bet, not a dependency.
Independent comparison of 40+ VPNs alongside mixnet and mesh alternatives, scored on privacy, security, transparency, value and ethics.
UK (IP3 Studio) · MIT (site) / CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (data)
Published rubric, primary-source audits, and no money taken from listed providers. Disclosure: built by IP3 Studio, which also maintains this map.
Peer-to-peer network for censorship-resistant publishing and file sharing, storing encrypted content across volunteer nodes with no central servers.
International volunteer community, formerly Freenet (founded by Ian Clarke) · GPL-2.0-or-later · self-hostable
Retrieval is slow, the codebase is old and the volunteer team small; three releases shipped in early 2026 including a February security fix.
Self-hosted personal server and identity stack that rebuilds computing from scratch, letting individuals run their own networked applications.
USA (Urbit Foundation and Tlon) · MIT · self-hostable
US-stewarded with 2024 governance upheaval, staff exits and funding strain, so adoption stays tiny; runtime v4.6 and kernel commits shipped July 2026.
Your data on your hardware, syncing between your devices, working offline.
Keeps folders in sync directly between your own devices, peer to peer: no cloud account, no central server, nothing to rent.
Sweden (Syncthing Foundation) · MPL-2.0 · self-hostable
Community foundation, donation-funded, over a decade old; v2 line shipped 2025 and releases are steady. The quiet workhorse of this list.
Self-hosted files, calendars, contacts, documents and video calls: the standard replacement for Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.
Germany (Nextcloud GmbH) · AGPL-3.0 · self-hostable
All code AGPL; the paid tier is support, not withheld features. Widely deployed by European governments. Large installs need real admin effort.
Content-addressed peer-to-peer file network: files are fetched by what they are, not where they live, from whoever holds a copy.
US (Interplanetary Shipyard / Protocol Labs) · MIT/Apache-2.0 · self-hostable
Mature and actively released (v0.42, 2026), but files persist only while someone pins them; plan your own pinning. US-stewarded.
The building block behind most collaborative editors: adds Google-Docs-style live editing and offline merging to your own app.
Germany (independent maintainer and community) · MIT · self-hostable
The most deployed CRDT library in the world; huge ecosystem of editor bindings. A developer library, not an end-user product.
A toolkit for apps that work offline on each device and merge everyone's changes automatically when they reconnect.
US (Ink & Switch) with Cambridge (UK) research roots · MIT · self-hostable
Version 3.0 (Aug 2025) fixed the old memory and speed problems; production footprint still younger and smaller than Yjs.
Syncs your Postgres data down into local apps so they load instantly, work offline and update live; you keep the database.
UK-founded, distributed UK/EU team · Apache-2.0 · self-hostable
1.0 GA March 2025 with named production users; sync engine fully open. Company is rebranding towards AI-agent sync; watch the direction.
S3-compatible object storage you can run across a few second-hand servers in different buildings and still survive an outage.
France (Deuxfleurs non-profit) · AGPL-3.0 · self-hostable
Run in production by its non-profit steward since 2020; stable release April 2026. Built for small clusters, not petabytes.
Encrypted, erasure-coded storage spread across servers that never see your data: a grandparent of the decentralised storage field.
US-born, global community · GPL-2.0-or-later (dual with TGPPL) · self-hostable
Cryptographically solid and stable, but slow-moving: last release December 2024, small community. Expect to invest in operating it yourself.
Decentralised storage with durability guarantees: aims to keep files provably alive without trusting any single provider.
Switzerland-registered IFT, global team · MIT/Apache-2.0 · self-hostable
Formerly Codex. Public testnet paused Sept 2025 for a redesign, mainnet targeted 2027; code active (v0.4.1, July 2026).
Desktop app bundling the Logos stack (wallet, node, storage, chat), running entirely on your own machine, no hosted backend.
Switzerland-registered IFT, global team · MIT/Apache-2.0 · self-hostable
v0.2.1 with Linux and macOS installers; open source. The app runs entirely on your device; the bundled modules currently participate in the Logos testnet (mainnet targeted 2027).
Local-first note-taking and to-do app with end-to-end encrypted sync you can point at your own storage.
UK; Laurent Cozic, London · AGPL-3.0 · self-hostable
Sync conflicts on large notebooks occasionally need manual care; very active project, v3.6.15 released June 2026.
End-to-end encrypted notes app with audited cryptography, a self-hostable server and clients for every major platform.
Switzerland; Proton AG (acquired 2024) · AGPL-3.0 · self-hostable
Owned by Proton since 2024 and the founder left in 2025, so direction is Proton's; commits continue through July 2026 and the free tier is spartan.
Full-disk and encrypted-container tool for laptops and drives, the audited successor to TrueCrypt.
France (IDRIX, led by Mounir Idrassi) · Apache-2.0 AND TrueCrypt-3.0
Development still hinges on one lead maintainer, though v1.26.29 (9 Jun 2026) shows an active release cadence with prompt security fixes.
Documents, code, publishing and decision-making a small team can self-host.
Encrypted collaborative docs, sheets, kanban and diagrams that even the server cannot read. Runs happily on a small VPS.
France · AGPL-3.0 · self-hostable
Built by XWiki SAS, partly EU-grant funded; ships in Germany's openDesk public-sector suite. End-to-end encryption means no server-side search or content recovery. Active: 2026.5.1 released May 2026.
LibreOffice in the browser: shared editing of documents and spreadsheets on your own server. Built in Cambridge.
UK · MPL-2.0 · self-hostable
Fully MPL-2.0: free CODE builds for self-hosters; the company sells support, not features. One of the few genuinely UK-stewarded options in this category. Powers Nextcloud Office.
Web office suite with the best Microsoft-format fidelity going; plugs into Nextcloud and self-hosts cleanly.
Latvia · AGPL-3.0 · self-hostable
Development reportedly Russia-based; a European consortium (Nextcloud, IONOS, Proton, XWiki) forked it as Euro-Office in 2026 after a licence dispute. Mature code, very young fork.
Code hosting without GitHub: repos, issues, pull requests and CI on a server you control. Powers Codeberg.
Germany · GPL-3.0-or-later · self-hostable
Copyleft since v9 so it cannot go proprietary; v15.0.3 shipped June 2026. Nonprofit Codeberg e.V. offers hosted repos free if you would rather not run your own.
Design and prototyping tool teams actually switch to from Figma, self-hosted with one Docker Compose file.
Spain · MPL-2.0 · self-hostable
Built by Kaleidos (Madrid); 2.16.2 released July 2026. New WebGL renderer is still beta for very large files, but the switch from Figma is realistic today.
The default choice for community forums: runs your discussion space on your own box with mature moderation tools.
US · GPL-2.0-or-later · self-hostable
US-company steward, but the GPL code is fully self-hostable and the firm publicly recommitted to open source in April 2026. Official plugins are also open.
Run your own social network that talks to millions across the Fediverse: your instance, your rules, your data.
Germany · AGPL-3.0 · self-hostable
Steward restructuring under a Belgian nonprofit parent in 2026. UK instances exist and EU managed hosts (e.g. masto.host, Portugal) will run one for a small community cheaply.
Participatory democracy platform for consultations, budgets and assemblies: built by cities, proven at city scale.
Spain · AGPL-3.0 · self-hostable
Runs Barcelona's and EU institutions' participation; steward is the Barcelona-based Decidim Free Software Association. A heavyweight Rails app: budget real sysadmin time or hire a Decidim provider.
Discussion and decision-making for groups: proposals, votes and a clear record of what was agreed, without meetings.
New Zealand · AGPL-3.0 · self-hostable
Fourteen years old, run by a small worker co-op. Official Docker setup makes self-hosting practical, but expect to be your own support; hosted service exists.
Transparent money management for communities: raise funds and pay expenses in the open under a fiscal host.
US / global community · MIT
The hosted platform is the product: the code is MIT but not practically self-hostable. Community-governed (OFiCo) since its exit-to-community; Brussels-based Open Collective Europe hosts EU groups.
Your own video platform, federated so viewers find you across instances: no YouTube dependence required.
France · AGPL-3.0 · self-hostable
Stewarded by nonprofit Framasoft; v8.2.2 shipped July 2026. Peer-to-peer streaming keeps bandwidth bills sane for small hosts; video transcoding still wants a beefy server.
Federated Reddit-style link aggregator and discussion forum you can run on your own server.
Independent devs, EU NLnet-funded; no US corporate steward · AGPL-3.0 · self-hostable
Small core team funded by NLnet grants; steady releases, with v0.19.19 shipped June 2026 and active work towards 1.0.
Federated photo-sharing platform, an Instagram alternative that speaks ActivityPub and keeps images on your own instance.
Canada; Daniel Supernault · AGPL-3.0 · self-hostable
Development depends heavily on one maintainer and QA has slipped before; v0.12.7 shipped February 2026 with commits through June 2026.
Long-running federated social network that bridges ActivityPub, diaspora and ATproto, suited to community-run social spaces.
Germany-centred volunteer community · AGPL-3.0 · self-hostable
Interface feels dated next to newer fediverse apps; twice-yearly releases continue, with 2026.05 shipped May 2026.
Minimalist federated blogging platform behind write.as, good for simple self-hosted publishing into the fediverse.
USA; Musing Studio (Matt Baer), runs write.as · AGPL-3.0 · self-hostable
Small team and a slow release cadence, and it is US-stewarded; v0.16.0 shipped August 2025 with security fixes merged July 2026.
Self-hosted web analytics that keeps visitor data on your own servers instead of sending it to Google.
New Zealand (Matomo / InnoCraft) · GPL-3.0-or-later · self-hostable
The PHP and MySQL stack needs real care at high traffic volumes; v5.11.2 (5 Jul 2026) continues a reliable monthly cadence.
Self-hosted survey platform giving a data-sovereign alternative to SurveyMonkey, Qualtrics and Google Forms.
Germany (LimeSurvey GmbH, Hamburg) · GPL-2.0-or-later · self-hostable
Open core with a dated interface and cloud features landing first; the community edition still saw 6.16.x releases through spring 2026.
Hosting and machine intelligence without renting it all from US hyperscalers.
German dedicated servers and cloud VMs at famously low prices; the default budget choice for EU-hosted startups.
Germany · n/a (commercial service)
Not FOSS: a provider. GPU range is single-card boxes (up to RTX Pro 6000, 96GB): fine for inference, not cluster training.
France's biggest cloud: bare metal, managed Kubernetes and H100/H200 GPU instances, all under EU jurisdiction.
France · n/a (commercial service)
Not FOSS. Widest EU GPU catalogue and outside CLOUD Act reach, but a fraction of AWS/Azure scale; frontier-scale training still means US clouds.
Developer-friendly French cloud with H100 GPU instances and EU data residency; the closest European feel to a US hyperscaler.
France · n/a (commercial service)
Not FOSS. H100s rentable today, typically 5-6x cheaper than hyperscaler EU regions, but capacity and product breadth remain far smaller.
Small Cambridge ISP loved by UK developers: VPS, dedicated servers and a Raspberry Pi cloud, run by engineers who answer email.
UK · n/a (commercial service)
Not FOSS. No GPUs: this is where you host your app in the UK, not where you train models.
Sheffield hosting co-operative: managed Nextcloud, WordPress, email and VPS on green power, and you can join as a member-owner.
UK · n/a (co-operative service)
A service, not software, but everything they run is open source. Small by design: suits communities and NGOs more than high-growth startups.
Recipe-based deployment for community software (Nextcloud, Outline, Matrix) on any cheap VPS, built and used by tech co-ops.
UK / EU co-op network · GPL-3.0-or-later · self-hostable
Still self-describes as beta (abra 0.13.0-beta, Feb 2026) but actively maintained and used by co-ops hosting paying clients.
French lab whose Mistral 3 family (3B up to a 675B mixture-of-experts) ships under Apache 2.0 and runs on your own hardware.
France · Apache-2.0 · self-hostable
Current generation genuinely Apache 2.0; some earlier releases used a restrictive research licence, so check per model. Company monetises via hosted API.
Alibaba's open-weight family, 0.6B to 235B+; arguably the strongest Apache 2.0 models you can download and run offline today.
China (Alibaba) · Apache-2.0 · self-hostable
Chinese steward, so not European in origin; but the weights are Apache 2.0 and run entirely on your own hardware, no phone-home.
EU-funded multilingual models (9B and 22B, Apache 2.0) trained in Europe to cover every official EU language.
EU (Lisbon-led consortium, incl. Edinburgh) · Apache-2.0 · self-hostable
Downloadable today but well behind Mistral and Qwen on capability; sibling project OpenEuroLLM expects first models summer 2026. Watch, don't depend.
The C++ engine that runs open-weight models on laptops, Macs and Raspberry Pis; most local AI tools are built on top of it.
Bulgaria / global community · MIT · self-hostable
Extremely active, near-daily releases. Also runs Meta's Llama weights, though Meta's own model licence is not OSI-approved.
One-command local model runner: type 'ollama run mistral' and you are chatting offline on your own machine.
US · MIT (core) · self-hostable
Open-core drift: CLI and server are MIT, but the 2025 desktop app is closed-source and a cloud upsell has appeared. Fine locally; watch the trajectory.
The standard open server for GPU inference at scale: OpenAI-compatible API and high throughput on hardware you control.
US (UC Berkeley) / PyTorch Foundation · Apache-2.0 · self-hostable
US-origin but vendor-neutral under the PyTorch Foundation; what you run on rented EU GPUs when you outgrow a laptop.
The rails for proving, paying and organising without a central gatekeeper.
Desktop Bitcoin wallet for holding your own keys: multisig, hardware-wallet support, and it connects to your own node.
South Africa (solo developer) · Apache-2.0 · self-hostable
Self-custody itself isn't an FCA-regulated activity; promoting or dealing cryptoassets to UK customers is. Solo-maintained but six years of steady releases (v2.5, May 2026).
Multisig accounts on Ethereum: a shared team treasury where moving funds needs several signatures, not one person's laptop.
Germany · LGPL-3.0 (contracts), GPL-3.0 (wallet app) · self-hostable
Heavily audited contracts securing tens of billions on-chain. Most teams use the hosted interface; self-hosting the full open-source stack is real work.
The original settlement layer: slow and costly per transaction, but extraordinarily hard to censor, seize or quietly change.
global community · MIT · self-hostable
Best treated as an anchoring and final-settlement layer; ten-minute blocks and price volatility make it a poor everyday retail rail.
Digital cash with payer privacy: customers spend anonymously, merchants stay visible and taxable. Ordinary servers, no blockchain.
Switzerland · AGPL-3.0/GPL-3.0/LGPL (by component) · self-hostable
v1.0 shipped May 2025; Swiss-franc operator live but merchant acceptance still tiny. No UK operator; realistic today for self-run closed systems (vouchers, local schemes).
Wallet and marketplace software for mutual-credit community currencies (LETS, time banks), including trade between communities.
Spain · AGPL-3.0 · self-hostable
Successor to IntegralCES, used daily by Spanish exchange networks; tiny team but active (commits July 2026). Cyclos, the household name here, went proprietary in 2012.
Toolkit for issuing and verifying digital credentials to eIDAS 2.0/EUDI wallet standards: identity rails without a US vendor.
Austria · Apache-2.0 · self-hostable
Open-core: the Apache-2.0 community stack works but is still 0.x (v0.22, July 2026); persistence, multi-tenancy and support sit in the paid enterprise tier.
Prove you are over 18, a given nationality or a real human from your passport's chip, without showing the passport itself.
UK · Apache-2.0
London-built, now stewarded by Aztec Labs with code kept open. Real deployments (17,000+ verifications) but young; proof generation runs through their mobile app.
Privacy-preserving proof-of-stake blockchain, intended as the settlement layer for self-governing communities.
global community (IFT, Switzerland) · MIT/Apache-2.0 · self-hostable
Formerly Nomos. Public testnet (v0.2, June 2026, ~350 nodes), mainnet targeted 2027. Run a node if curious.
Self-custody wallet for Bitcoin, Monero and more: keys on your device, and you can connect your own node.
US · MIT · self-hostable
Open source since 2018 with active releases; Monero heritage, now multi-currency across Android, iOS, macOS and Linux.
Digital cash that is private by default: payments untraceable on-chain, run your own node, no company behind it.
global community · BSD-3-Clause · self-hostable
Community-run since 2014, releasing steadily (v0.18.5.1, July 2026). UK reality check: FCA-supervised exchanges have largely delisted privacy coins, so acquiring it here means peer-to-peer or decentralised routes.
Lightweight open-source Monero desktop wallet with built-in Tor, giving privacy-focused users a faster alternative to the official GUI.
Community project funded via Monero CCS; lead developer tobtoht · BSD-3-Clause · self-hostable
Tagged releases are slow (v2.8.1, April 2025) though commits continued through June 2026; desktop only, complementing mobile-first Cake Wallet.
Veteran Bitcoin desktop and Android wallet with Lightning support, hardware wallet integration and the option of running your own server.
Germany (Electrum Technologies GmbH, Berlin; founder Thomas Voegtlin) · MIT · self-hostable
Overlaps Sparrow for on-chain desktop use but adds Lightning, Android and a self-hostable server ecosystem; v4.8.0 shipped 8 July 2026.
Monero-only Android wallet that connects to your own node and routes over Tor, distributed via F-Droid and direct APK.
Independent developer m2049r; longstanding Monero community project · Apache-2.0 · self-hostable
Android only with a modest one-developer-led pace, distinct from US-based Cake Wallet; v4.1.7 released 17 June 2026.
Self-custodial Lightning wallet for Android and iOS that makes instant, low-fee Bitcoin payments practical for everyday use.
France (ACINQ, Paris) · Apache-2.0
Channel management depends on ACINQ's liquidity service, a real trust trade-off; new Taproot multi-wallet release shipped early 2026 with updates through February 2026.
Non-custodial multi-chain mobile wallet covering Bitcoin, Monero, Zcash and EVM networks, with watch-only mode, Tor support and duress protection.
Horizontal Systems, distributed self-funded team since 2017 · MIT
Market data and some defaults rely on Horizontal Systems services, and coverage overlaps Cake Wallet on some coins; v0.49.0 released 19 June 2026.
The end-user layer: phones, browsers, search, passwords and files that answer to you, not to an ad platform.
Hardened Firefox that routes traffic over the Tor network, giving strong anonymity for browsing under surveillance or censorship.
Tor Project, US nonprofit with a global contributor community · MPL-2.0 AND BSD-3-Clause
Slower than clearnet browsing and some sites block Tor exits; stable 15.0.x and 16.0a8 alpha releases shipped in July 2026.
Amnesic live operating system that routes all traffic through Tor and forgets everything on shutdown; standard kit for journalists and sources.
Tor Project (US non-profit) since 2024; international dev team · GPL-3.0-or-later
Not suited to daily computing and Tor exit blocking is common; version 7.9.1 released 1 July 2026 under the Tor Project.
Security-through-compartmentalisation desktop OS that isolates work in Xen virtual machines; trusted by high-risk users worldwide.
Invisible Things Lab, founded in Poland; international team · GPL-2.0
Steep hardware requirements and a real learning curve; 4.3.1 released 11 June 2026 with an actively managed release lifecycle.
Hardened, deGoogled Android for Pixel phones with verified boot and sandboxed Play services; the strongest mainstream mobile privacy option.
GrapheneOS Foundation, non-profit, Canada · MIT (core; AOSP Apache-2.0)
Pixel-only hardware requirement and a Google-dependent supply chain; Android 17 build shipped 17 June 2026, a day after AOSP.
DeGoogled Android fork of LineageOS with a built-in cloud suite, sold preinstalled on Murena phones for non-technical users.
e Foundation / Murena, France · GPL-2.0 / Apache-2.0 (AOSP and LineageOS fork)
Security patches have historically lagged upstream Android; v4.0 shipped June 2026 with patches current to 1 June 2026.
Community Android distribution that keeps over 100 abandoned handsets updated, and serves as the base for many privacy ROMs.
Volunteer community, international · Apache-2.0
Most devices need a permanently unlocked bootloader, which weakens physical security; LineageOS 23 released 24 January 2026 with weekly builds since.
Community app store serving only free and open-source Android apps, with reproducible builds, no accounts and no tracking.
F-Droid Limited, UK, plus volunteer community · GPL-3.0-or-later (client); AGPL-3.0 (server) · self-hostable
Central repository builds can trail upstream releases by days or weeks; 2.0 alphas and weekly project updates ran through June and July 2026.
Open-source Google Play client that fetches Play apps anonymously on deGoogled phones, with no Google account required.
Aurora OSS, independent developers (India-led) · GPL-3.0
Depends on Google's endpoints, so breakage, rate limits and account risks are real; v4.8.3 released 13 May 2026.
Alpine-based Linux for phones running mainline kernels instead of Android, aiming at ten-year device lifespans.
Community project, Europe-centred; NLnet (NL) funded · GPL-3.0-or-later (pmaports); MIT tooling
Daily-drivable only on a shortlist of community devices, with camera and call gaps elsewhere; v26.06 released 21 June 2026.
Community continuation of Ubuntu Touch, a GNU/Linux phone OS with desktop convergence on supported devices.
UBports Foundation, Germany · GPL-3.0
Small app ecosystem and a dated Chromium 87 browser until the 2.0 update lands; 24.04-1.3 shipped May 2026, 2.0 due 20 July 2026.
FSF-endorsed Debian derivative from Purism, running Librem laptops and the Librem 5 phone without proprietary blobs.
Purism SPC, US · Various FSF-approved (GPL core)
US company with a small team and a roughly four-year wait before Crimson landed in April 2026; monthly dev reports have continued since.
Self-hostable metasearch engine that aggregates results from many sources without profiling, tracking or storing your queries.
Community project, European-led contributors, no controlling company · AGPL-3.0-or-later · self-hostable
Result quality depends on upstream engines and per-instance configuration; commits land almost daily, most recently 14 July 2026.
Chromium-based browser with built-in ad and tracker blocking that works for non-technical people straight out of the box.
Brave Software, US company · MPL-2.0
US company funded by advertising, with crypto and AI features you must switch off; release v1.92.139 shipped 9 July 2026.
Android app that routes other apps' traffic through Tor, either per app or as a device-wide VPN.
Guardian Project, US nonprofit · BSD-3-Clause
Tor over VPN drains battery and some apps detect or block it; 17.9.5 release candidates shipped through 7 July 2026 with commits on 14 July 2026.
Lightweight Android app for YouTube without Google services, adverts or tracking, with background play and downloads.
Team NewPipe, Germany-rooted volunteer community · GPL-3.0-or-later
Breaks whenever YouTube changes its internals and needs prompt updates; v0.28.8 (9 June 2026) patched SABR playback breakage.
Open-source desktop YouTube client for Windows, macOS and Linux with local subscriptions and no Google tracking.
International volunteer community · AGPL-3.0-or-later
Perpetually beta and breaks when YouTube changes its APIs; v0.24.1-beta hotfix shipped 8 June 2026 to restore channel and subscription feeds.
Self-hostable web front end for watching YouTube without Google accounts, adverts or tracking.
Community project (iv-org), international maintainers · AGPL-3.0 · self-hostable
YouTube blocks most public and datacentre instances, so expect breakage unless self-hosted on a residential IP; commits through 14 July 2026.
Offline password manager that keeps credentials in an encrypted local file fully under your control.
Community project, international team, no corporate owner · GPL-2.0-only OR GPL-3.0-only
No built-in sync, you move the database file yourself; v2.7.12 shipped 10 Mar 2026 with steady commit activity.
Cross-platform password manager; the Vaultwarden server lets you self-host the whole vault on minimal hardware.
US company (Bitwarden Inc); Vaultwarden is a Spanish-led community server · AGPL-3.0-only / GPL-3.0-only (open core) · self-hostable
Open core with a US corporate steward, so pair it with Vaultwarden (v1.36.0, May 2026) for fully open non-US self-hosting.
Browser extension that learns to block hidden trackers automatically rather than relying on manual filter lists.
US non-profit (Electronic Frontier Foundation) · GPL-3.0-or-later
A tracker blocker, not a full ad blocker, so pair with uBlock Origin; release 2026.6.16 confirms active EFF maintenance.
Client-side encryption for cloud storage folders, so Dropbox or Drive never see your plaintext files.
Germany; Skymatic GmbH · GPL-3.0 · self-hostable
Desktop app is free but the mobile apps need a paid unlock; Skymatic shipped v1.19.3 in June 2026.
Command-line tool that reads and strips hidden metadata from photos and documents before you share them.
Canada (Phil Harvey, independent developer) · GPL-1.0-or-later OR Artistic-1.0-Perl
Effectively a single-author project with real bus-factor risk, yet v13.59 (27 May 2026) extends twenty years of near-monthly releases.
Offline maps and navigation built on OpenStreetMap, so your location never feeds Big Tech servers.
Netherlands (OsmAnd BV) · GPL-3.0-only
The Play Store build is freemium and the interface is dense, but the full F-Droid build is open and v5.3.x shipped June 2026.
production: widely deployed; you can rely on it today. usable: it works, with rough edges or a smaller track record; fine for the adventurous. early: testnet, pre-production or research-grade; watch it, contribute to it, don’t build your community’s lifeline on it yet. Nothing here is a recommendation to ignore your own threat model, and every entry still involves trusting someone: maintainers, hosts, or yourself.