What this is
Five subscriptions you are probably paying for right now have full open source replacements. Not free tiers with the good parts removed. The whole application, on your machine, with the source in the open.
Between them the five projects below have 176,656 stars on GitHub.
The five, ranked by stars
- AppFlowy, 74,690 stars, replaces Notion
- OpenMontage, 44,388 stars, replaces HiggsField
- Jan, 43,792 stars, replaces ChatGPT Plus
- Presenton, 9,268 stars, replaces Canva
- OpenPencil, 4,518 stars, replaces Figma
1. AppFlowy, instead of Notion
github.com/AppFlowy-IO/AppFlowy
Docs, wikis, databases and boards, with the data in a local database instead of someone else's account. There is a desktop build for macOS, Windows and Linux, so this is the easiest of the five to move to.
- Download the desktop app from github.com/AppFlowy-IO/AppFlowy/releases
- Or install from a store channel: FlatHub, Snapcraft or Sourceforge all carry it.
- If you want it on your own server rather than your laptop, the self hosting guide is at appflowy.com/docs, under Step by step Self Hosting Guide.
The migration nobody mentions: export your Notion workspace as Markdown and CSV first, while you still have a paid account. Notion export is a paid feature on some plans, so do it before you cancel, not after.
2. OpenMontage, instead of HiggsField
github.com/calesthio/OpenMontage
An agentic video production system. You describe the video you want and it plans, generates and assembles the whole thing. It is a Python project, so it wants a little more setup than a desktop app.
- Install Python and ffmpeg first. Both are prerequisites the README names explicitly.
- cd OpenMontage
- python -m backlot open
That last command opens the library view, which is every project on disk. To watch one run without setting up a production first, the repo ships a simulation: python scripts/backlot_simulate_run.py
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Unlocks: 3. Jan, instead of ChatGPT Plus · 4. Presenton, instead of Canva · 5. OpenPencil, instead of Figma · The thing the video did not have time for · Before you switch anything
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