Best new self-hosted, research and design resources: 19 October

The directory additions from 19 October were thirty free tools and websites and ten open-source projects from GitHub. This roundup groups them into open-source work tools, focus and calm, planning and private email, research and learning, launch platforms and maker communities, design, and utilities and developer references. Features and pricing change, so check each tool's own page before you commit to one.

Open-source work tools

Docmost is a free, open-source, self-hosted wiki for teams, with real-time editing, spaces with groups and permissions, built-in diagrams from Draw.io, Excalidraw or Mermaid, and full page history. It needs Docker or a server, and SSO, AI and Confluence import sit in the paid Business edition. Alexandrie is a free, open-source, self-hosted knowledge base built around an extended Markdown editor with LaTeX, diagrams, snippets and Kanban boards, and it can be installed as an offline-first app that syncs when you reconnect.

Leantime is a free, open-source project management system made for people who are not project managers, with ADHD, dyslexia and autism in mind. It offers Kanban, Gantt, list and calendar views, goals, timesheets, docs and retrospectives. Linkwarden is a free, open-source, self-hosted bookmark manager that saves each link as a screenshot, PDF and HTML copy so pages survive link rot, and FreshRSS is a free, open-source, self-hosted reader that gathers your RSS and Atom feeds into one list and works with popular mobile RSS apps through its API. Self-hosted tools need a server you look after yourself.

For the desktop, Files is a free, open-source file manager for Windows 10 and 11 with tabs, dual panes, tags and a command palette, and AeroSpace is a free, open-source tiling window manager for macOS that arranges windows so nothing overlaps, configured in one plain-text file. Handy is a free, open-source dictation app that transcribes your speech on your own computer with local Whisper or Parakeet models, so no audio goes to the cloud. Rnote is a free, open-source app for handwritten notes and sketches on pens and drawing tablets, with PDF annotation and an infinite canvas, and Stretchly is a free, open-source break reminder for Windows, macOS and Linux that prompts micro breaks, stretches and eye exercises.

Focus and calm

Noisli mixes background sounds such as rain, wind, a coffee shop and white noise into your own blend. The free plan gives you 16 sounds and 1.5 hours of streaming a day, and Pro removes the limits. lofi.cafe is a free website that plays continuous lofi music streams in a browser tab with no account needed. Medito is a free, open-source meditation app from a registered non-profit in the Netherlands, with guided meditations, courses, sleep stories and breathing exercises, and no premium tier or ads.

Planning and private email

Whimsical puts boards and docs in one workspace for flowcharts, wireframes, mind maps and written plans, with real-time collaboration on every plan; the free plan has a monthly limit on board objects and doc blocks. Tuta, formerly Tutanota, is an encrypted email and calendar service based in Germany with open-source apps. Its free plan includes one address and 1 GB of storage, and custom domains need a paid plan.

Research and learning

Elicit is an AI research assistant that searches academic papers and summarises the findings, with a free Basic plan for search, summaries and chat with papers. Consensus is an AI-powered academic search engine that links each answer to the peer-reviewed studies behind it, with a free plan for everyday searches. ResearchRabbit starts from a few seed papers and maps their citations, references and co-authors on interactive graphs, and its Free Forever plan allows up to 50 seed articles. As with any AI summary, read the papers themselves before you rely on a finding.

Unpaywall is a free browser extension from the non-profit OurResearch that shows a green tab when a legal, free version of the article you are viewing exists online. Open Culture gathers free cultural and educational media, including more than 1,700 free online courses, audiobooks, ebooks, films and language lessons.

Launch platforms and maker communities

Indie Hackers is a free community where founders share progress updates, revenue milestones and questions, and post their products for feedback. Peerlist is a free professional network for people in tech, and its Launchpad opens a new launch round every Monday for upvotes, feedback and first users. Launching Next publishes new startups and side projects every day; submitting is free with a review wait, and a paid upgrade speeds up consideration. SideProjectors is a community marketplace for showcasing side projects, selling them or finding a co-founder, with free basic listings and reviewed submissions.

Design

For inspiration, One Page Love showcases single-page websites with free browsing and a mix of free and paid templates, and The Component Gallery is a free reference of interface components with examples from many public design systems. Checklist Design offers free best-practice checklists for pages, elements and flows such as sign-up, buttons and onboarding, so you can spot missing details before a design ships.

For building, the WebAIM Contrast Checker tests whether a colour pair passes WCAG 2 contrast requirements, and RealFaviconGenerator turns one image into a full favicon set with the HTML to add to your site. Get Waves and Blobmaker are free tools for SVG waves and organic blob shapes, and Gradient Hunt is a free, daily-updated collection of colour gradients with codes and CSS to copy. daisyUI is a free, open-source Tailwind CSS plugin with ready-made component classes and dozens of themes, and Flowbite is an open-source Tailwind CSS component library with React, Vue and other versions, while Flowbite Pro adds extra blocks and a Figma design system.

Utilities and developer references

DevDocs, maintained by freeCodeCamp, brings documentation for hundreds of languages and libraries into one searchable interface that can work offline, and Can I Use shows which browsers support a given HTML, CSS or JavaScript feature. Bulk Resize Photos resizes one image or a batch on your own device with no sign-up. PeaZip is a free, open-source archive manager for Windows, macOS and Linux that opens more than 200 formats, creates encrypted archives and can securely delete files, so double-check before you delete anything with it. AudioMass is a free, open-source audio editor that runs in the browser, with effects such as fades, normalisation and reverb. TinEye is a reverse image search engine that finds where a picture, including edited or cropped copies, appears online; searches are free for non-commercial use only, and commercial use needs a paid plan.

These forty additions sit alongside everything else in the directory. Browse the full Best Productivity Resources directory to compare them with other tools in each category.