Datasets:

Macrostack
/

macrostack-open-alternatives

license: cc-by-4.0
language:
  - en
pretty_name: Macrostack Open Alternatives
size_categories:
  - n<1K
task_categories:
  - tabular-classification
tags:
  - open-source
  - self-hosting
  - software-alternatives
  - cloud
  - licensing
  - vendor-lock-in
configs:
  - config_name: default
    data_files:
      - split: train
        path: data/alternatives.csv

Macrostack Open Alternatives

387 verified open-source and self-hostable alternatives to 85 proprietary products, across 78 categories and the five layers of the AI and cloud stack.

Maintained at macrostack.net. Data version 2026-09-05.

What makes this different from a listicle

Every licence is read from the project's own LICENSE file rather than from a marketing page. That sounds like a small distinction and it is not: vendors routinely describe source-available and business-source licences as "open source", and a dataset that repeats the marketing is worse than no dataset.

Each row also carries what a person actually needs in order to decide:

self_hostable — can you run it yourself at all
local_first — does it work with no network
pricing — the shape of the cost, not a number that rots
sovereignty_score — a transparent 0–100 score for how much control you keep
stack_layer — where it sits, L1 chips through L5 applications

Of 387 entries, 295 are open source and 311 are self-hostable.

Columns

Column	Meaning
`alternative`	The open or self-hostable option
`replaces`	The proprietary product it is an alternative to
`vendor_replaced`	Who sells that product
`category`, `category_slug`	The decision category
`stack_layer`, `stack_layer_name`	L1 chips → L5 applications
`license`	SPDX identifier, read from the project's own LICENSE
`open_source`	True only for an OSI-approved licence
`self_hostable`	Can be run on your own infrastructure
`local_first`	Works without a network connection
`sovereignty_score`	0–100, how much control you retain
`recommended`	Our pick in that category
`pricing`	free · freemium · paid · usage
`kind`	software · service · hardware
`website`, `repo`, `docs`	Canonical links
`last_verified`	When a human last checked the row
`source_page`	The page on macrostack.net this row is rendered on

Use it

from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("Macrostack/macrostack-open-alternatives", split="train")

# Self-hostable options that are genuinely open source
open_selfhost = ds.filter(lambda r: r["open_source"] and r["self_hostable"])
print(len(open_selfhost))

Straight from the source, always current:

curl -sL https://www.macrostack.net/data/macrostack-alternatives.csv

Licence and attribution

CC-BY-4.0. You may use this commercially. Attribution is a condition of the licence, and it must include a link:

Data from Macrostack — CC-BY-4.0

Method and limits

The full method is at https://www.macrostack.net/methodology.

Worth stating plainly:

sovereignty_score is our judgement, not a measurement. The inputs are documented; the weighting is a considered opinion and you may disagree with it.
recommended is a single pick per category and never reflects a commercial relationship. Several top-ranked entries here have no affiliate programme at all, which is the point.
pricing is a shape, not a price. Real prices change faster than any dataset can track, so we record the model instead.
Coverage is deliberately narrow. Infrastructure, developer tooling, AI and business software. Not consumer apps, not games.

Corrections are welcome — every row links to the page it came from.