In business, we can’t predict what kind of Open source software an IT manager needs. It all depends upon the business requirements and the size. It can be a startup, small medium business (SMB), enterprise os a simple shopkeeper. That’s why we have taken certain categories and mentioned two or three best open source software for business under that particular software category such as CRM, Accounting, POS, Kiosk, Office suite, small business server OS, Firewall, CMS, E-commerce CMS, and much more… So without wasting time lets see the list of best open source software for business in different software categories.
Small business server OS for business
NethServer: NethServer is an open source and free to download CentOS-based Linux distribution for servers. It has a modular design like ClearOS and can use as a web server, firewall, mail server, and filter, web filter, IPS/IDS or VPN server or more…
Zentyal: Zentyal Server (download) is another great all-in-one Linux server available in two versions– developer edition which free to download and use and another is commercial version. You can use the developer or community edition for small and medium businesses.
ClearOS: ClearOS is a CentOS-based Linux operating system and a browser-based platform. It comes with an integrated network, gateway and server function with minimal deploying complexities. It has an inbuilt firewall, Bandwidth management, content filter, file servers, VPN server, intrusion detection, domain controller, mail server and much more…
See a complete list of top 9 small business servers
Open Source Office Suite Software
LibreOffice
Libra office suite is the most popular open source office suite in the market. The interface of this office suite is clean and features rich tool to enhance productivity and show the creativity to a world without spending money.
Apache OpenOffice
Apache OpenOffice is another leading open-source office software suite. This productivity supports many languages and offers same features and applications like LibreOffice.
You can see a complete list of free and open source Wordprocessing or Office suite.
CMS- Content Mangement system for business
There are lots of Content management system software available but we would like to recommend three best:
WordPress: The reason why the WordPress is because of frequent updates and a vast range of tutorials, themes, and plugins availability. I am damn sure you already know about it. The installation and management of the WordPress are also very easy but because popularity is very much in the eyes of hackers but don’t worry about it. There are some third-party solutions like Sucuri and Malcare those can provide the best possible security to your WordPress based website.
Drupal
Drupal is another content management software known for its security. It works with HTML, CSS, and PHP languages that means if you have a knowledge of these programming languages you can easily customize the Drupal according to your requirements. If you want to create a data-driven website then Drupal is the best option. Drupal is developers friendly and much better in terms of customization as compared to the WordPress.
Joomla: Joomla is another popular open source business software for content management. There are lots of website in different verticals those are running on the Joomla. The best thing about Joomla over the WordPress is it provides a balanced environment with ease of use and control. An admin can control the RSS layouts, user permission and other important elements of the website without the installation of special plugins or themes.
E-commerce CMS
Magento Community Edition
The Magento providing both free and paid versions. the Community edition free and open source while the Enterprise one is paid. Build your website on community edition and hire a developer to customize it according to your business requirement and expansion. Though the community is being used by the more than 200,000 users, we will recommend to Magento enterprise edition because that is much robust.
PrestaShop
PrestaShop claimed that more than 250,000 online eCommerce stores build upon Prestashop and also one of the popular open source e-commerce platforms. It supports 65 languages and available as both self-hosted and Prestashop servers hosted
OpenCart
The OpenCart is an open source e-commerce platform that use by around 576,862 stores. It is multicurrency supported and offers integration of 20 payment gateways. More than 2700 themes offered by the Opecart. The best part is the OpenCart is the turnkey base open source e-commerce platform which can be implemented by its own servers without any hassle of high-end codings. Available as self-hosted and cloud.
Open source Mail servers
Kolab Groupware
Kolab is a free and open source groupware suite. Kolab is one of the best free and opensource mail server that provides enterprises class functionalities. It supports varieties of clients, ActiveSync and CalDAV, CardDAV and WebDAV support, features Email, Calendar, Address Books, Tasks and File-Cloud, Microsoft Outlook support using their own proprietary Kolab connector PlugIns, web administration interface and more…
Zimbra – Email and Collaboration Suite
Zimbra is the most popular opensource mail server suitable for an enterprise as an email server and client solution. It is cloud ready for both public and private. It supports IMAP/POP, CalDAV, and CarDAV protocols, features Mobile Web Client, Web Administration Console, Command Line Interface (CLI), Integrated Anti-Spam and Anti-Virus, Real-time Backup and Restore and more…
iRedMail
It is also free and Open Source Mail Server Solution which can convert your Linux based server into a completely open source mail server. It is one of the best and well-known mail solutions for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, Debian, Ubuntu, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD running servers. iRedMail Mail Server features multiple database support such as OpenLDAP, MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL; calendars (CalDAV), address books (CardDAV)
Unlimited Accounts, SpamAssassin, ClamAV, SPF, DKIM, greylisting, whitelisting, blacklisting. Quarantining detected spam into SQL, Webmail and more…
Besides these three there are also some other well known open source mail servers available have a look to our article: 12 best open source mail servers…
Open Source NAS Solutions
FreeNAS
FreeNAS is a most popular free and open source NAS operating system and enterprise-ready NAS operating system that can turn your old machine into full-fledged NAS. It supports ZFS open source file system has a wide range of plugins to extend its capabilities.
NAS4Free
NAS4Free is an Open Source Storage NAS (Network-Attached Storage) distribution based on FreeBSD. NAS4Free supports sharing across Windows, Apple, and UNIX-like systems. It includes ZFS v5000 , Software RAID (0,1,5), disk encryption, S.M.A.R.T / email reports etc.
Rockstor
Rocktsor is based on Centos Linux and BTRFS to provide NAS and cloud storage. It built on CentOs and supports BTRFS which is a filesystem like ZFS to provide high data integrity and security. It can use as a personal cloud server and SMB Cloud Server with clean and simple web GUI.
OpenMediaVault (OMV)
OpenMediaVault is a based on Debian Linux and can be your NAS server if you are not required the ZFS file system. It supports SSH, (S)FTP, SMB/CIFS, Rsync, BitTorrent client, DAAP media server, and much more.
Open Source CRM Software
XRMS
XRMS also doesn’t offer you everything just like a piece of the pie. Though working with XRMS at the beginning might not be as easy as pushing a switch, but with time, you can easily handle the software at ease. If you’re not having a lot of development knowledge, you might need to hire a developer, who can help you integrate XRMS with your business, and enjoy the full potential of the CRM suite.
SugarCRM (Open Source)
It is one of the best CRM suites, as it keeps updating itself with time, and offer almost all the features, which you want from a CRM suite. From handling customer queries to HR management, you can do almost everything under the hood, with the help of this mighty SugarCRM.
Xtuple
Xtuple is a LINUX based free CRM software suite, which also comes with an enterprise edition, for that you will have to pay some extra fees. The CRM suite is free for as a small business CRM, but you can also use it for your enterprise, provided you are happy with the limited set of features, which the free version come with.
CiviCRM
CiviCRM is the best CRM software suite, you should go for. For ease of usage, the CRM suite is integrated with Joomla and Drupal, so that the users can use the CRM suite with ease, with the web-based platform.
Link To know more about free and open source CRM solutions…
Open source Project Management Software
OrangeScrum is an enterprise open source PM tool suitable for small to medium businesses. The interface of Orangescrum is based on the Google Material Design and the software developed on the CakePHP framework. Orangescrum features Task List, Email Notification, Google & Dropbox Integration, Analytics, Calendar View, Weekly Usage Report, Task Template, Task Group/Milestone, Kanban View, Resource Utilization and more…
Tuleap
It is an enterprise-class agile project management platform which is free to download and use. This project management software is written in PHP and meant especially to full the requirements of the developers.
Tuleap PM software Key features Scrum, Kanban, Dashboards, Issue Tracking, Workflow, Eclipse, Real-Time Traceability, Document Management, Wiki and more…
Odoo is a complete package of premium business application including the project management tools. Oddo Project management is a cross-platform solution that supports is Windows, Ubuntu, RPM (Fedora 26+) and other OS as well. It features Inventory Management, Gantt charts, Kanban, Purchase Management, Tasks and Issues
Graphs and more…
Open source Forum Software
phpBB
phpBB is the most popular best forum software that comes with an extensive database of user-created plugins and styles or theme. It is a free flat-forum bulletin board software that can customize easily according to user choice. Its key features are an Extensive database of plugins, Can easily optimize for SEO, anti-spam functionality, Theme and support social login including Google and Facebook using an extension.
MyBB Forum
MyBB is the free and open source forum software or platform that comes with extensive themes and plugins database. The default theme of MyBB is also like phpBB not much intuitive but you can use third party themes to give it a more sleek and modern look. Its key features are a plugin system, Template, Theme and easy CSS editor for style customization, Private Messaging for registered users, Threads, Posts, and Polls, Calendars and Events, Mass Mail and Newsletters to registered users, MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQLite database support.
Discourse Forum Platform
Discourse is an open source cross-platform forum software platform. This forum platform helps to set up an online community in a very interactive way. The interface of this platform is one of the best available at free of cost. Key features are a Responsive and clean interface for touch devices and desktop; Dynamic notifications, Community moderation, Reply via email, Emoji, Social login using Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Yahoo accounts, Like function for posts and Support plugin system.
Link To know more about the free and opensource forum platform.
Open source Personal Cloud Software for SMB
Own Cloud -personal cloud server
Own Cloud is the best open source software to create a personal cloud server for home and office use. It can convert any machine into a Linux based cloud server. After setting up the ownCloud server you can access your data from anywhere remotely via the internet or on your local network at any time. It features automatically upload pictures after taking them, Sync files at home or work with the desktop client, End-to-end Encryption and lot more…
Nextcloud
The Nextcloud Server cloud Software for enterprises is paid while the community edition for home or small business users is completely free and open source, and can prove an idle choice to run their own cloud network. It features password protected files, file sharing by link, ability to generate upload links, Two-factor authentication, Auditing tools, SSL/TLS data transfers, AES 256-bit encryption, and more…
The Seafile is another enterprise-class DIY cloud storage tools for creating your self-hosted open source cloud storage solution. It is a file sync and share platform which is basically a community and free edition aside from their enterprise file synchronization and sharing (EFSS) software services. Its key features Multi-platform File Sync, Version Control, Public Link, Selective Sync sub-folder, Mobile Clients, Virtual Drive Clients, Share libraries with Groups/Users, Authenticate against LDAP/AD, Single Sign-On with Shibboleth, Two-factor authentication and
WebDAV/FUSE.
Know more about free personal cloud tools…
Open source Search Engine Software
Apache Lucene Core
The Apache Lucene Core is the most reliable cross-platform open source search engine project that distributed under the Apache License and completely based on Java. However, despite purely written in the Java, it also ported and available in other programming languages such as Delphi, Perl, C#, C++, Python, Ruby, and PHP.
Elasticsearch
Elasticsearch is an open source search engine software which is a distributed, RESTful search and analytics engine that based on Apache Lucene. It is a highly scalable open source search engine which means can support the small-medium business to large enterprises.
Apache Solr
After the ElasticSearch, the Apache Solr is another popular open source search engine software and also according to the DB Ranking. It is also developed in Java and support full-text search and real-time indexing.
See a complete list of 6 desktop enterprise
Open source Firewall
pfSense
pfSesne is FreeBSD based open source software distribution that customized especially to use as a firewall and router.
ClearOS Firewall
ClearOS is a Centos based firewall that transforms your standard PC into a dedicated firewall and internet server/gateway. The ClearOS has three editions: ClearOS Business. ClearOS Home and ClearOS Community.
Endian Firewall Community
Endian Firewall Community (EFW) covers all basic security features including a stateful packet firewall, basic web and email security, open-source antivirus and powerful VPN (IPsec and SSL).
See other available open source firewall solutions…
Open source VPN Server
OpenVPN Server
OpenVPN software is available for Windows, Linux, Solaris, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and Mac. It offers a central management interface that can use to control OpenVPN daemon remotely. This open source VPN server provides easy to use OpenVPN connect UI, server and enterprise capabilities.
PriTunl
It is also a free open source enterprise distributed VPN server. Pritunl can virtualize your private networks across data centres and provide simple remote access.
VyOS
VyOS is not a dedicated VPN solution but instead of that, it is completely an open source network operating system. VyOS is Linux based and can be installed on physical hardware or a virtual machine on your own server, or a cloud platform.
Other available open source VPN Server software…
Open source Backup Software
Bacula
Bacula open source backup software gives a complete backup solution in two versions one is enterprise and another one is community edition. It allows managing backup, recovery, and verification of computer data across a network of computers of different kinds.
Amanda
Amanda (Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver) is another enterprise grade open source backup and recovery software. Amanda supports up to 4096-bit keys with public-key cryptography as well as 256-bit AES encryption. Using Amanda the System Administrator can set up a single server to back up multiple networked clients to a tape- or disk-based storage system.
Bareos Open Source
This open source backup software runs on an entire single computer and can backup different type of media including tape and disk. The Bareos allows IT admins to manage backup, recovery, and verification of computer data across a network of computers of different kinds just like Bacula.
Open source Barcode generator
Zint Barcode Generator
Zint Barcode Generator is an open source project that can support more than 50 Barcode. it has support for Unicode(UTF8) for encoding in multiple languages and GS-1 data input mode. Save to PNG, BMP, TIF, GIF, PCX, SVG, WMF and EPS output file formats.
Barillo Barcode Software
It is a free UPC-A and EAN-13 Barcode Generator that can create UPC-A and EAN-13 barcode graphics. You can preview barcodes before exporting to a variety of formats such as bmp, png, gif, tga, tif, or pcx files. It also allows setting the height and width for barcode graphics.
Also, see the list of open source barcode generator
Open Source Invoice generation software
Open Source Billing
Free software for generating an invoice and emailing them to clients. It also provides reports on transactions, tracking payments and a structured payment gateway. Custom configuration also available but that is paid.
InvoicePlane
InvoicePlane is a free and open source invoicing application. InvoicePlane software is an application that you host on your own server and use it for basic invoicing and client management.
Simple Invoices
Simple Invoices is a free, open-source, web-based invoicing system that you can install on your server or PC
Siwapp
An open-source web application meant to help manage & create invoices in a simple, straightforward way.
Know more about free and open source Invoice and billing software…
Open source Document Management System Software
Openkm Enterprise
OpenKM is an electronic document management system and record management system EDRMS ( DMS, RMS, CMS ). The OpenKM is based on open technology like Java, Tomcat, GWT, Lucene, Hibernate, Spring and jBPM. The OpenKM works well with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and Safari as it based on Web 2.0. It supports all major DBMS databases such as Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and others.
LogicalDOC Open Source DMS
LogicalDOC is another Open source Document management system software available in both Community Edition and Professional editions. It features Multilingual and Desktop Web Interface, Multilingual Full-text Indexing, Tags, Metadata & Templates support, Version Control and Document Searching, Bookmarking, Import from ZIP archives, Check-in & Check-out, Send as E-mail or Download, Ticket, internal Messaging System, Integrated Contacts & address book, Rating, Users & Groups and more…
12 Free Open source Document Management list…
Opensource Human Resource Management Software (HRM)
OrangeHRM
It is a Human Resource Management System that covers Personnel Information Management, Employee Self Service, Leave, Time & Attendance, Benefits, and Recruitment.
SimpleHRM
It provides many features like Employee information management, Leaves, Travel, Benefits, Expense Management and more. The major design objective of SimpleHRM is to offer an intuitive, Easy-to-use HRM software for the business users.
WaypointHR
An HR database for managing employee records and personal information. MySQL is used for the database and PHP is used for the web browser-based interface. Ease of use and effective management reports are key design goals.
ICE Hrm
ICE Hrm is a Human resource management system for small and medium-sized organizations. It has a rich UI built with PHP and JavaScript. The system is implemented with a modular architecture which makes it extendable and customizable easily.
Sentrifugo Open source HRMS
Sentrifugo free HR software comes with essential modules like Appraisal, Time Management, Leave Management, Employee Management, Analytics, Hiring/Recruitment, Background Check, Service Desk and much more…
Open source Project management
Orangescrum
OrangeScrum is an enterprise open source PM tool suitable for small to medium businesses. The interface of Orangescrum is based on the Google Material Design and the software developed on the CakePHP framework. The Ornagescrum mobile app is also available for both Android and iOS. SOme of its key features are Task List, Email Notification, Google & Dropbox Integration, Analytics, Calendar View, Weekly Usage Report, Task Template, Task Group/Milestone, Kanban View, Resource Utilization, DAP Integration and more…
Odoo
Oddo offers the community one which is the free and open source but with limited features. Oddo Project management is a cross-platform solution that supports is Windows, Ubuntu, RPM (Fedora 26+) and other OS as well. It requires Python and PostgreSQL and source is also available on GitHub. It features Inventory Management, Gantt charts, Kanban, Purchase Management, Tasks & Issues, and more…
Tuleap
It is an enterprise-class agile project management platform which is free to download and use. This project management software is written in PHP and meant especially to full the requirements of the developers.
Beside above top project management software, here is the complete list of 12 free & opensource PM tools.
Open Source Accounting Programs
ADempiere
ADempiere Business Suite is an open-source software solution that combines ERP, CRM and SCM support for the business process.
xTuple PostBooks
A full-featured, fully-integrated business management system, PostBook is the award-winning xTuple Accounting, CRM, and ERP. Built to run in the cloud or on a local server. It features Accounting (general ledger, accounts receivable and payable, bank reconciliation, financial reporting), Sales (quotes, order entry, sales reporting, shipping), CRM, Purchasing and more…
Apache OFBiz
Apache OFBiz is an open source accounting software that uses a Java-based web framework. Out of the box it includes modules for Accounting (GL, AR, AP, FA), CRM, Order Management & E-Commerce, Warehousing, and Inventory, Manufacturing & MRP. It features Product & Catalog Management, Promotion & Pricing Management, Supply Chain Fulfillment, Contracts, Payments & Billing.
FrontAccounting
Front Accounting software offers some basic ERP functions as well as fairly advanced accounting functions. It let you access your books from any browser.
Open source Linux kiosk Distros
Porteus Kiosk
The Porteus Kiosk is full-fledged dedicated Linux distro that is meant for Kiosk machines. It is a lightweight Linux Distro that allows using only the web browser and restricts the user to use any other features or application.
Linutop Kiosk software
The Linutop Kiosk software allows the user to use the PC as Internet kiosk or digital signage. The software is designed to start a particular homepage on the browser with the option to block certain websites too.
Opensource Point of Sale Software
Odoo
It is a web-based stand-alone solution runs on both Windows and Linux systems. Integrated directly with inventory and e-commerce tools.
Open Source Point of Sale
Open Source Point of Sale Software is a web-based point of sale system written in the PHP language and suitable for small and medium stores.
uniCenta
It is a multi-lingual POS (Point-Of-Sale) application designed for Touchscreens. It supports industry-standard hardware and is capable of running on display sizes from as little as 800×600 upwards.
We tried to cover major categories of software required in a business. If you want us to include some other software category in this related business. Please let us know…
Orangescrum is the best enterprise open source project management and collaboration tool, helps you to manage projects, team, tasks at one place including time tracking and more.