Save money with open-source software: Stop Paying for Subscriptions
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We are often paying for multiple software subscriptions. Open-source software is an alternative to many paid applications, but often people do not know about these.
In this article, I want to go over a few open-source software that would help us save money by replacing paid software. Open-source software is not nearly as difficult to use as people think.
Open-source software
Open-source software is software for which the source code is available. It means you can read the source code and potentially make contributions.
In most cases, open-source software is also free. It means you can install it on your computer without paying anything. However, not all open-source software is free. And not all free software is open-source.
However, in this article, we will focus on free open-source software to save money.
There are a few myths running around with open source, so we can start by debunking them.
- First, open-source software is not necessarily more complicated than paid software. You can have very complicated paid software and very open-source free software. Both closed-source and open-source software are software and are only as good as their engineers made them.
- Then, some people think that open-source software is less safe because code is online. It is often the contrary. Since the code is online, many people are looking and can spot issues. That does not mean it is 100% safe (nothing is). Again, software can be made as safe (or unsafe) as its coders make it.
So, overall, open-source software is not necessarily better, nor necessarily worse, than closed-source software. But it has the advantage of generally being free.
Sometimes, there are also free open-source alternatives to free closed-source alternatives. But in this article, I will focus on open-source software that can help us save money.
These days, most software is using a subscription instead of a one-time price. Recurring costs are important to optimize in your budget. Focusing on recurring subscriptions is a great way to save money each month.
LibreOffice instead of Office 365
Many people rely on Office 365 (previously called Microsoft Office) to create documents and do some spreadsheets. Office 365 is a huge suite of software, but most people only use a small portion of its capabilities. In most cases, people rely on Word and Excel. Some people rely on PowerPoint, but it is mostly for work.
LibreOffice is a free and open-source software suite that provides the same features as Office 365. Its three major components are
- Writer: A word-processing software
- Calc: A software for spreadsheet
- Impress: A software to prepare presentations
It supports the same document formats as Office 365, along with some more open formats. It is not a small software; it is estimated that it has more than 100 million users. All its features are free, and it makes a great replacement for Office 365. If you are an advanced user of Office 365 and use things like scripting, LibreOffice may be too limited. But for the vast majority of users, LibreOffice could replace Office 365.
Office 365 comes as a subscription of about 100 CHF per year. So, by using LibreOffice instead, you can save 100 CHF per year (for life)!
GIMP instead of Photoshop
Many people rely on Photoshop to edit pictures. This could range from basic editing to make them look slightly better to advanced editing to totally transform pictures.
Photoshop is a great tool that gets the job done. But there are some open-source alternatives as well. GIMP is a free and open-source software that provides more or less the same features as Photoshop. The most advanced features from Photoshop are not all available, but this is likely enough for 90% of usages.
Now, there is a catch. GIMP can do almost everything that Photoshop does, but it is not very similar in how to do it. This means there will be some learning curve to relearning how to edit pictures with GIMP. If you want to avoid this learning, you can take a look at Photopea; it is not open-source, but it is free.
Photoshop costs about 10 CHF per month, so you can save 120 CHF per year by using GIMP.
Shotcut instead of Adobe Premiere
After talking about photos, we can talk about videos. The most used tool in this category is probably Adobe Premiere.
Adobe Premiere is a good tool with advanced features. But it is also expensive. That is where some open-source alternatives exist. Shotcut is a great tool if you need simple features and is easy to learn. Kdenlive will give you more advanced features but will be harder to learn.
Adobe Premiere costs about 220 CHF per year in Switzerland. By switching from Adobe Premiere to a free and open-source software for your video editing tasks, you can save about 220 CHF per year.
KeePassXC instead of paid password managers
Using a password manager is a great way to increase your online security. If you are using one already, congratulations!
Many people use 1Password or LastPass, and both of these are paid. But most people do not know there are some open-source alternatives as well.
I personally use KeePassXC and am happy about it. It is free and open-source and has great security features.
The only drawback is that your password database is not shared everywhere (which is also a security advantage). But if you have a strong master password and a second factor of authentication, you can save your database on a service like Google Drive, and nobody would be able to read it.
If you prefer something in the cloud, you can use Bitwarden, which is free for personal use and can be used in the cloud.
LastPass costs about 36 CHF per year, and 1Password costs about 60 CHF per year. By using a free and open-source password manager like KeePassXC, you can save between 30 CHF and 60 CHF per year.
AFFiNE instead of Evernote for note-taking
Many people take notes and need a good note-taking application to do so. Evernote is one of the most used paid note-taking applications. In the past, it had a generous free plan, but it is now limited to only 50 notes, which is too little for many people.
AFFiNE is an open-source alternative that you can use directly from your computer. Since it runs on your computer, it has unlimited usage, and it is free to use. Its featured set is comparable to that of Evernote. To be fully precise, only the code running on your computer is open-source; they are not disclosing the source code of their server backend (which is not mandatory to use).
Since it runs on your computer, it means your notes are not shared. If you want to save them and back them up, you could put them on Dropbox or Google Drive (or Nextcloud for an open-source alternative).
An issue with note-taking software is that it is very personal. Many users like a platform and profoundly dislike another. There are many types of note-taking software, so AFFiNE may not work for you. I should also mention Obsidian, which is closed-source but has a good free plan; it may be a better alternative than AFFiNE for some users.
Evernote costs about 85 CHF per year in Switzerland. By using an open-source note-taking software like AFFiNE, you could save 85 CHF per year compared to Evernote.
Linux instead of Windows
Linux has existed for a long time, but most people are still on Windows. But Linux has some major advantages:
- It is free. There are some paid distributions, but most distributions are free. This can make you save money by not having to pay for Windows.
- It supports a wider range of hardware. Many people are forced to upgrade their computers because of Windows requirements. Linux is still capable of running on laptops and desktops that are more than 10 years old.
- Linux gets better over time. These last few years, Windows has just become worse (at least in my opinion) and slower. On the contrary, experience on Linux has never been smoother.
The main issue with Linux is there are many distributions. Some are easy to use, and some are not. If you are a first-time user, there are some simple distributions that would work well:
- Linux Mint
- Ubuntu Linux
A lot of software is available on Linux, but not all. So, before switching, I recommend you check the list of software that you use on your computer and make sure that you can use it (or an alternative) on Linux. These days, even Steam works well on Linux.
In Switzerland, Windows costs about 140 CHF. So, by using Linux, you can save 140 CHF! But if you have an old laptop that Microsoft does not want to support, you can also save a lot of money by not buying a new laptop and installing Linux on it instead.
Conclusion
Open-source software can be a great alternative to paid software. This could allow you to save money without loss of features. In most cases, the only “price” to pay is to learn to use a new app. Sometimes, we also lose the convenience of having something made entirely in the cloud. But this can also help us reclaim ownership of our data.
Overall, there is a lot of money to be saved by using open-source software. And what is more interesting is that you can save money every year since most software is now using a subscription model.
If you are into it, the next level is to go into self-hosting. This means having a server at home. In this case, you can replace even more services with your own service. This can help you save more money and reclaim ownership of your data. But this requires more expertise.
What about you? Do you have any other open-source recommendations?
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Hi Baptiste,
Thanks for sharing the good news of the FOSS :). My $0.03 on this: for note taking there’s also Standard Notes (https://standardnotes.com/) that Proton Mail acquired some time ago.
Take care!
Alojzy
PS: Since you mentioned Linux, I can’t help ending my post with “I use Arch btw!” :)
Hi Alojzy
I am glad I can share something about FOSS on this blog.
Thanks for sharing, I did not know about Standard Notes.
It is more than 10 years I have completely abandoned Windows. There are literally hundreds of Linux operating systems out there, and I have tried many of them. For newcomers switching away from Windows or Mac, I would suggest Zorin OS, Elementary OS or Linux Mint. More advanced user may have a look at Debian or Arch. One of the best Linux distributions I have ever come across is iDeal OS. It is simple and neat and is, by the way, developed in Switzerland.
Thanks for sharing, Eesa. Interesting, I need to read on Zorin and Elementary. I am a big fan of Gentoo myself, but it’s really time consuming. I still have it on my servers, but for my desktops, CachyOS feels much better.
Depends on what you mean by “hosting”. If you just want to sync files between laptop / computers / tablets / phones automatically, https://syncthing.net/ is a good solution.
Great info. Thank you Baptiste! I’d be interested in an article on simplified hosting. Mac OS simplifies this which had me trying it out once. With the rising costs of Dropbox and Apple’s solution, it would be great to see if this would be feasible for me.
Do you mean an introduction to hosting data on a NAS at home? It would be an interesting article, but that would maybe be too technical for this blog. I should try to see if I can find a simple solution.
My own solution is definitely not practical for non-tech users.
A large number of Mac users buy and use Microsoft apps. On alternative for Mac users is to use Apple apps. They come with the hardware and work fine.
Do the Apple apps work well with their office counterparts? Like sharing a document from Apple apps to Office apps?
at least with Apple Numbers -> Excel, yes it works very well.
Thanks for sharing, that’s great to know!
For what it’s worth you can opt to use 1Password in the Canada region which turns out to be a bit cheaper than the US region.
For the Family subscription:
Region | Yearly Price | Yearly Price (CHF)
USA | 71.88 USD | 56.10
CA | 83.88 CAD | 47.76
EU | 69 EUR | 63.28
Same applies to the individual subscription. It’s also possible to migrate from one region to another, although it requires a small manual effort.
Good idea to do geo-arbitrage to save some bucks!
This is a good first overview and I highly recommend most of the tools on the list.
As someone who is already using a lot of FOSS over paid alternatives, I would be especially interested in FOSS accounting / budgeting applications.
Two additions:
– Aside from LibreOffice, there’s also ONLYOFFICE which is open source and free for private use. Its UI is very, let’s say, inspired by Office365, so it should be really easy to switch over.
– For note-taking, I personally love Obsidian. It’s a note taking / knowledge management app built on top of raw markdown files, so you own all your data in a format that is usable, even if the product were to be discontinued. You can use Google Drive or similar if you don’t care about the notes being synced in plain text. Otherwise, you can pay $4/mon for their e2e encrypted sync offering or use any other sync option such as a personal NAS if available.
Congratulations for already being into FOSS. I am glad this article is resonating with many people.
For budget, I am using my own application (budgetwarrior), but I have never really had time to make it easy to install/use for other users.
Interesting, I will check out OnlyOffice.
I have switched my notes to Trilium myself to get something open-source first, but I have heard a lot of good about Obsidian.
Thanks a lot.
Do you know an opensource programm for PDF as well?
For to open PDF files, fill forms or make changes in saved PDF and sign…. at least.
I guess that’s what you can call a basic use.
Have a nice day!
Hi gold
Do you mean on Windows or on Linux? On windows, I was using Adobe Reader which is definitely not opensource, but at least is free.
On Linux, I am using Xournal++ and Okular.
Thanks , I use Windows.
Adobe Reader allows to sign a PDF document? I used to do it with LibreOffice but now it opens my PDF in a way all the writing is mixed….don’t know how to explain but it is not working anymore and my skills are too limited to know how to fix it. I found on Reddit that other users are experiencing the same. Beside that I have been using LibreOffice for years now and totally satisfied.
Yes, you can add a signature (handwritten with the mouse) on Adobe Reader and then create a signed version. That’s what I always did on Windows. The tool is called fill & sign.
Even Firefox can now edit and sign PDF, see https://www.firefox.com/en-US/features/pdf-editor/
Nice, that’s good to know!
Yes, you can use LibreOffice, but you will have issues when you need to collaborate with organizations which use 365 ecosystem, like Sharepoint and sharing documents. Then it is usually better to use online office tools for those shared documents.
Also you can think not only about open source, but close/open source, which is produced in Europe and by European countries (so that no US court/president can order US company to deny you access to your data or to spy on them).
Here is very good library of alternative software/services: https://www.goeuropean.org/
There is also https://europeantechmap.eu/map
Indeed, Libreoffice is great if you use it by yourself or convert to PDFs or only work with others with Libreoffice. But once you mix it up with other Microsoft Office users, it becomes quickly more complicated.
Excellent point, there are plenty of non-US companies if you care more about data location than open-source.
Very interesting article, thank you!
Does anybody have experience setting up Linux Ubuntu (or Mint) for a tech averse family member?
A relative keeps having trouble with Windows and i loathe supporting them on it.
Personally I used Ubuntu till a few years and I found it very user friendly for someone with a little bit of understanding of computers. But does it work for someone with almost zero knowledge?
FWIW, for many people computers equal “web” (or even more: YouTube / Google / Facebook). So, as long as it’s set up to auto login and auto-launch Firefox, I think most people won’t even notice the difference (also, preferably, set up to transparently auto-update in the background).
Totally agree! Most people are using a single application on their computer (often two when we add Office).
The problem with family members with zero knowledge of computers is not Linux – or any specific OS in general – but their attitude towards computers as a mystical object that is impossible to understand.
Switching a tech-illiterate person from Windows to Linux (assuming a beginner friendly and polished distro like Ubuntu or Mint) is no harder or worse than switching them from Windows to macOS, even though macOS looks a lot more polished.
A lot of things will be ever so slightly different and they will be irritated by that. However, this has also been the case with Windows updates for me, so at some point, I just took the plunge.
If they don’t use software that requires fiddling, it’s pretty simple. My mom only uses Firefox, Thunderbird (mail) and writes and prints the occasional .docx document, all of which Ubuntu with auto-updating handles really well and she is less confused without the constant Windows update/copilot/ai/whatever pop-ups.
I would say another problem is that once you start helping them, you cannot stop. It’s fine for close family members, but it can become difficult to manage if you start helping many people and then become a free computer tech guy.
I am glad you liked the article, Enrico.
I would say it highly depends on what they do with their computer. If they are basically browsing the web, they will not have any ideas.
Once you start adding some peripherals like printers, it may become complicated. And if they need some specific apps and you need to teach them to use an alternative, it’s usually a lost game if they are tech averse.
These days, Ubuntu or Mint or something of the sort is very accessible to non-tech users.