List of free and open source software for all the segments of the business including CMS, communication, customer support, marketing & financial operations.

Automate Business Operations With Free Open Source Software

Setting up a remote business has become essential with the advent of new web technologies and frameworks. No customer-oriented business can now remain relevant without a web presence. Moreover, the recent Coronavirus Pandemic forced everyone to think about it. Therefore, it is essential than ever to set up remote or paperless business processes. There are many realistic strategies. However, using free and open source software to uplift your business processes online is the most effective strategy. The right set of competent open source software can exponentially grow business.

Therefore, to provide robust, less-stressed, complete, and critical business solutions. We have started listing the most popular and successful enterprise level open source software at products.containerize.com. Furthermore, We categorized the listing according to the nature of business functions or operations. Necessary information about each open source software is provided. For instance, brief overview, relevant GitHub Public Repository link. Moreover, we also document the system requirements, features, installation instructions, and any additional relevant details. 

This introductory blog post is to provide an overview of open source software products listed at current categories of containerize.com. Subsequently, The listing will be under continuous changes and additions. So, you can expect to find some new popular open source software in a category on each new visit. You may find a new category covering another important business function.

Generate and Organize Contents for Business Website

Website Home, Products Home, and Products Landing Pages are the main marketing place for products or services business will offer. So, you can consider it as an outlet of a factory from where customers can view, try and shop. Therefore, You required a proper Content Management Platform aka CMS Software. Moreover, These software helps to control the structure, layout, and flow of contents. In the CMS Software category, there are many popular open source software options in different languages and platforms. At this point, containerize.com covers the following popular CMS Platforms:

  • Joomla – A leading CMS Software with thousands of extensions.
  • Drupal – An easy to use flexible PHP CMS Software with vibrant community
  • Pyro – Laravel PHP based Powerful Content Management System
  • Django CMS – Python Django based Enterprise Level CMS
  • Umbraco – Flexible and Friendly .NET based Content Management System

We will craft Information about more CMS options soon along with useful resources. Therefore, Please keep an eye on the Content Management section for further updates.

Choose a Good Blogging Platform

Blogging is an essential part of any business. Companies use Blogs to publish updates and announcements. Support teams can also use blogs to publish useful tutorials about your services and products. Moreover, the comments feature is a great way to interact with your audience. In short, blog is the medium to keep your audience informed and engaged.

For now, the following best blogging platforms are enlisted:

  • WordPress – Best blogging platform with rich plugins and self hosting capabilities  
  • Ghost          – Fast, secure and professional publishing platform written in Javascript 
  • Jekyll          –  Simple blog site based on Ruby language
  • Serendipity – Simple and Powerful PHP based Blogging Platform
  • Silverstripe – Highly Customizable PHP Based CMS and Blogging Platform 

More open source blogging software will be added to the list. So, please stay in touch with Blogging Software  section for updates.

Discussion Forum for Community Building

Discussion Forum is used to conduct public discussions around your products, offerings, or services. Such public discussions encourage the audience to join discussions. Therefore, you can develop insight into your business with an added advantage of community building. Above all, most of the sales revolve around the word of mouth. So in case, you can build a good community, sales growth is also obtained. Moreover, From a search engine point of view, community discussions keep on generating fresh content. Hence, it adds organic traffic value as well. At the moment, containerize.com maintains a stack of below** discussion forums:**

  • Discourse – Best discussion platform with built-in moderation features 
  • Flarum     – Lightweight community discussion platform with rich user experience 
  • Vanilla      – Cost effective and cloud based software and knowledge base in forum’s category
  • NodeBB – Node.js based Discussion Forum Software with Modern Social Features
  • phpBB – PHP based Flat-style Powerful Discussion Forum Software 

These open source software provide complete business support for an active discussion platform. Moreover, useful and popular open source discussion forum software will be added at Discussion Forums section with necessary and useful information.

Helpdesk Ticketing System for Customer Support

Customer Support Service is the most important part for customer satisfaction. Without customer satisfaction, your survival is at risk especially when there are several alternatives available. A ticketing based helpdesk system allows customers to create private tickets for the issues they are facing, while helps business owners to keep a systematic track of customer issues so the ball is never dropped. 

In this category, containerize.com provides details for the following open source ticketing systems:

  • osTicket  – Widely-used multi user web based ticketing system
  • UVdesk   – Highly customizable Helpdesk solution linked with Ecommerce 
  • Zammad – Popular ticketing systems with multi language support linked with Twitter and Facebook  
  • FreeScout – Open source ticketing system to provide customer support and shared inbox
  • helpy – Multichannel helpdesk software integrated with Mailgun

These are popular open source support ticket systems that enable customers to report issues. Moreover, these systems allow your support teams to resolve their reported issues. So, customers and support teams can keep track of the reported issues. Please stay informed about Helpdesk Software section for further updates.

Digital Content Marketing Automation

Marketing and sales departments use **marketing automation tools **for marketing campaigns and sales activities in order to generate leads, engage customers and maximize efficiency. For now, containerize.com provides information about following open source marketing automation platforms:

  • Mautic    – Marketing automation platform to deliver high performing campaigns
  • CiviCRM –  Versatile CRM to automate marketing campaigns with many extensions
  • SuiteCRM – PHP based Enterprise Level Marketing Automation Software
  • Odoo – A Bundle of Web-Based Open Source Business Applications including CRM
  • EspoCRM – Open Source Marketing Technology Integrated with MailChimp

Above mentioned open source CRM software help you identify your audience. Moreover, these help to design the right content and automatically trigger actions based on schedules and customer behavior. More open source marketing automation platforms will be added to the list, please keep an eye on Marketing Automation section for the updates.

Live Chat Software for Instant Support

Live chat support is unavoidable part of an online business to provide real time instant answers to the customers’ queries. In this category, details about following popular open source live chat software can be found at containerize.com:

  • Rocket.Chat – Team chat software solution with multiple communication features
  • Zulip            –  Real-time collaborations software for remote teams
  • Lets-Chat     –  Secure instant messaging software
  • Mattermost – An easy to use messaging system to centralizing communications into one place
  • Botpress – A Conversational AI Platform for Enterprise Automation
  • Botkit – A Bot Builder for Facebook, Slack and WebChat

All of the above are free and open source live chat software. These are certainly the best live chat software and support multiple chats along with other modern features. We’ll add more open source chat platform to the list. So, keep an eye on the Live Chat Software section for the latest updates.

Build Business Forms using Form Builder

Companies use forms to collect data related to customer feedback. Additionally, you can use forms for marketing segmentation, surveys, and any research analysis. Since these forms are HTML based so are device-independent and can be accessed and filled from the desktop as well as smart devices. In this category, containerize.com provides information about the following open source form builders:

  • Form.IO    – Best Web based form builder with REST API platform for serverless software
  • Orbeon    –  A Web Form Builder for easy accessibility and supports pdf generation out of box
  • OhMyForm – A Free Alternative to TypeForm to build embeddable web forms and online surveys
  • Webiny – A Open Source Serverless Form Generator to Build Responsive Forms
  • FormBuilder – A Free Form Designer to Design Template Based Froms
  • FormTools – An Incredible Forms And Data Management Solution With Builtin Support For Recaptcha and Data Visualization

These open source software provide unique capabilities and features. For instance drag & drop interface, roles/user management, data management, and embeddable forms. More open source HTML form generator platforms will be added to the list. So for future updates, please visit Form Software section.

Transactional OR Bulk Emails Delivery Platforms

Certain events and campaigns from web applications trigger transactional emails. Following transactional email services help to setup business workflows for these events. You can find more information about these at products.containerize.com. Transactional Email Software:

  • Postal    – On Premise Alternative to Sendgrid and Mailgun to send emails from your web and mobile applications.
  • Cuttlefish – Open Source Self Hosted Mail Delivery software with email tracking features.
  • Mail-in-a-box – A Postfix based mail server to setup your own Gmail with no technical expertise.
  • Postfix – A Powerful Mail Server For Email Routing And Delivery.
  • Exim – A Popular Email Routing Software, Which Focuses On Customization And Security.
  • iRedMail – A Full Featured Mail Server Solution Based On Postfix.

Further mail platforms will be added to the list mentioned above. Please keep an eye at Transactional Email Software section. 

Newsletter aka Email Marketing Software

A well-designed newsletter is key for expanding exposure. It also helps to stay connected with customers. Therefore, newsletter software becomes essential to design elegant newsletters. Furthermore, containerize.com provides information about an open source newsletter design software:

  • phpList – Email marketing software for sending newsletters to a large audience.  
  • Mailtrain – Self hosted newsletter application built to manage huge mailing list.
  • listmonk – A Reliable, Secure and Feature-packed Newsletter and Mailing List Software.
  • MoonMail – An Open Source Newsletter and Mailing List System That Supports Integration With Amazon SES.
  • Mailman – Free On-Premise Software For Managing Mailing Lists And Sending Newsletters.

Above mentioned email marketing software come with a rich stack of features. Such as, composing campaigns and newsletters which are otherwise hard to design and maintain due to unpredictable rendering of mail clients. In near future, more free and open source Email Marketing Software will be added to Newsletter Software  section.

Server Status Monitor aka StatusPage Software

Monitoring tools are used to check the status and performance of critical software components. In this category, details about following server status monitoring products are available at containerize.com:

  • Cachet    – Best affordable downtime monitoring with the Cachet status page system
  • Statping – Self-hosted status page to monitor websites and services
  • Monitoror – An Open Source Lightweight And Reliable Monitoring Wallboard For All Your Tools In One Place. 

Above mentioned products are open source and offer rich features which include integration with other help desk services. These products also provide affordable downtime monitoring and reliability. Please stay informed about the addition of further products at Status Page Software section.

Accounting Software aka Invoicing Software

If you are selling products or services then you will be really interested in having an invoicing software in the business. Therefore, containerize.com provides details about an open source invoicing software:

  • InvoiceNinja –  Invoice manager for invoice, billing and payment management.
  • Akaunting –  An online accounting solution to manage and track money.
  • InvoicePlan – A Feature-Rich, Self-Hosted Book Keeping Software For All Accounting Operations.
  • Kill Bill – A Powerful Free And Open Source Invoicing And Payment Software.
  • Carter – A Self-Hosted Invoicing System That Allows Small Businesses To Generate Invoices.

These financial solutions give time-saving auto invoicing, comprehensive reporting of the payments, and many more. The coolest part is the option of self-hosting which allows you to set up the entire system within your business. More open source invoicing software will be added. Please visit Invoicing Software section for regular updates.

Centralized Authentication OR Single Sign On

Single Sign-On solution allows a user to access different systems within an organization using the same set of credentials. Enterprise businesses always tend to improve security capabilities to cope with the potential threats and risks. Meanwhile, maintain a single user management point for all web apps. containerize.com sheds light on the following open source SSO solutions:

  • IdentityServer – Gives you provision to setup your own identity provider solution using OpenID connect protocol.
  • KeyCloak – Allows you to develop identity provider and access management system using OAUTH2.0, OpenID connect protocols and works well with LDAP and Active Directory.
  • CAS – Multilingual Single Sign On With Delegated Authentication.
  • Authelia – Highly Scalable Rich Featured SSO And Resource Management.
  • WSO2 – Free Open Source Wso2 Supports All Identity Standards To Provide Authentication.
  • OpenIdentityPlatform – Open Source Platform for Single Sign On, SAML 2.0 OAuth 2.0, and OpenID Connect Protocols.

Likewise, other categories, containerize.com is consistently working on this category to push further SSO products in the stack. So, Please stay updated about Single Sign-On section for latest updates.

Final thoughts

In conclusion, choosing appropriate business process automation tools are mandatory for running a successful paperless remote business or even a physical business. Tools mentioned in this blog post are time-cost savers and sustainable when it comes to working from anywhere and they are all open source software, easy to set up and extendable in each section of business.

Therefore, containerize.com is on the way to enhance the stack of open source products in multiple languages and frameworks. For regular updates, please stay tuned at containerize.com. For any suggestions, feedback or inquiries, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us by initiating a topic on support forum.