Tired of monthly software subscriptions eating into your budget? Wondering if free alternatives can really match paid tools? Here are three underrated open source apps that helped me cancel my subscriptions to TickTick, Trello, Google Drive, and Mailchimp.
Super Productivity: From To-Do Lists to Kanban Boards in One Free App
Super Productivity is one of the most feature-rich free open source (FOSS) productivity tools I’ve ever used, and it kills me that more people don’t know about it. In fact, it has effectively replaced paid tools like TickTick, Trello, and Clockify.
In essence, it offers a task management system based on to-do lists. You can quickly capture tasks using global shortcuts, create subtasks, attach reference files, and even track how much time you spend working on each task. You can also set an estimated time to finish a task and compare it to the time it actually took, helping you better gauge your overall productivity.
The app also includes several useful features designed to keep you productive. My favorite is Master mode, which uses text-to-speech to offer words of encouragement at set intervals. There are also tools to help prevent burnout, including break reminders to make sure you don’t overwork yourself and habit trackers that help you track things like how often you get up or drink coffee. You are free to add additional counters as needed.
However, what really sets Super Productivity apart is its multiple display modes. If you add due dates to your tasks, you can view them in a calendar layout and drag and drop tasks to rearrange due dates. There’s also a Kanban board to visualize task progress, along with an Eisenhower Matrix to help you prioritize what matters most.
you can download Super Productivity from its official website.
Why I ditched paid productivity apps for this free, open source alternative
An app that allows you to get more work done without costing you a dime.
Mailspring – Professional Email Tracking Without the Enterprise Price
Mailspring is one of the cleanest and most feature-rich email clients I’ve come across in a long time. Like any good email client, it supports all major email service providers (Gmail, Outlook, and others) and also allows you to set up custom domains using IMAP or POP3. I have used both methods and they work perfectly. It also supports a unified inbox, saving you from having to juggle multiple accounts, something you still have to do with Microsoft’s new Outlook client.
That being said, what makes Mailspring truly unique is its marketing-oriented features. You can embed pixel trackers directly into your emails, meaning you’ll receive notifications when someone opens an email or clicks on a link. I only found similar features in professional email marketing tools like Mailchimp. That said, it can be useful for regular users, especially freelancers who send invoices to their clients or clients who send support requests to companies.
To complement these tracking features, Mailspring also provides detailed analytics showing how many sent emails were opened, the total emails sent and received during a specific time period, the times of day you receive the most emails, and even which email templates or subject lines perform best. Speaking of which, yes, you can create custom email templates with Mailspring.
Now, Mailspring follows a freemium model, because some advanced features, such as read receipts and link tracking, require their own servers. The free plan offers limited access to these features, but I found it sufficient for personal use. To get unlimited access to all Mailspring features, you will need pay $8 per month.
Can Download Mailspring from its official website.
I left Outlook for this open source email client (and it’s not Thunderbird)
My prospects for the future of Outlook were so bad that I switched applications.
Syncthing: the cloud storage replacement that works over Wi-Fi and data
Syncthing is a peer-to-peer file syncing app that has completely replaced cloud storage providers for me. It’s a fast and efficient way to sync files and folders across multiple devices. The app is officially available on Windows, Linux, macOS, and even FreeBSD and OpenBSD. On Android, there is a popular third-party wrapper called timing forkwhile iOS and iPadOS users can use Möbius Sync Pro (which is a one-time purchase of $4.99).
All you need to do is install Syncthing (or its third-party implementations) on your devices, create one or more folders to sync, and pair a folder on one device with a folder on another. Once set up, every time you add, edit, or delete a file or folder on one device, the changes automatically sync across all other devices. Best of all, it works over Wi-Fi and mobile data.
Of course, you can use Syncthing to share images or videos wirelessly between devices. However, I find it most useful for syncing data between local applications. Since many of the apps I rely on, like Obsidian and Super Productivity, don’t send data to the cloud and store everything locally, Syncthing allows me to keep that data in sync across all my devices. As a result, my notes and tasks stay in sync without depending on any cloud provider.
you can download Syncthing from its official website.
The open source ecosystem has matured dramatically and offers professional-grade tools without subscription fees. Tools like Super Productivity, Mailspring, and Syncthing prove that something free can be better than something with a price.
#Underrated #Open #Source #Apps #Replaced #Paid #Tools
