Some apps deserve way more attention than they get, and the ones on this list are the perfect examples. They’re free, actively maintained, and genuinely better than many of the paid tools popular among the general populace. If you’ve got a couple of free hours this weekend and want to discover apps you’ll actually keep using, these three are worth your time.
Super Productivity
This FOSS app is better than its paid alternatives
The name Super Productivity might sound a little cringe, but the app absolutely lives up to its name. This is easily one of the most feature-packed productivity apps available right now—and that includes paid alternatives. In fact, I previously wrote about how Super Productivity replaced three paid apps for me: Toggl, Trello, and Todoist.
At its core, this is a task management app. You can quickly capture tasks with global keyboard shortcut support, assign them to projects for cleaner organization, add tags, set due dates, create subtasks, attach files, and estimate how long each task should take. That last feature matters because once you actually start working, you can track your time against those estimates. Over time, this helps you build an honest picture of how accurately you scope your own work.
Other than this, you get an impressive selection of organizational features, starting with a Kanban board for tracking progress, an Eisenhower matrix for task prioritization, as well as Calendar and Planner views that make it easier to visualize your workload across the week or month.
The app also focuses heavily on sustainability, not just productivity. It includes a full-screen break reminder that automatically appears at set intervals, helping prevent those marathon work sessions where you sit at your desk for three straight hours and then lose momentum because your back starts hurting.
And that’s just the core experience. Super Productivity also supports plugins that add even more functionality. One of my favorites is Voice Reminder, which uses text-to-speech to read out custom messages at predefined intervals. If you get distracted easily, this feature is surprisingly effective at pulling your attention back to what you were supposed to be doing.
Super Productivity is available on Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, and iOS.
This free open-source app breaks procrastination loops
Most apps help you plan work—this one helps you finally start it.
Portmaster
See what your apps are doing on the internet
If you’re someone who installs a lot of apps—which, if you’re reading this, you probably are—Portmaster is worth your time. It’s an application-level network monitor and firewall that gives you a real-time view of every incoming and outgoing connection, broken down by app.
That means you can see exactly which servers each app on your system is communicating with. This is genuinely useful for catching suspicious behavior. If an app is sending data somewhere unexpected or downloading something you didn’t ask for, Portmaster will show you and let you cut its internet access entirely.
I personally use it to block Obsidian from accessing the internet. I install a lot of third-party Obsidian plugins, and there’s always a lingering concern (or paranoia) that one of them could be downloading viruses or uploading my notes without me realizing it. So I just block Obsidian from the internet completely. Furthermore, since the app itself can work offline anyway, I’m not really losing functionality.
Claude + Obsidian: The cheat code for building a second brain that actually sticks
Building a second brain has never been easier.
When I need to update Obsidian or install a new plugin, I temporarily remove the plugins I don’t trust, re-enable internet access, do the update, and lock everything down again. That obviously isn’t a workflow for everyone, but it should give you an idea of how you can use Portmaster in your own life.
Portmaster is currently available on Windows and Linux.
- Supported standards
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802.11.be, 802.11ac, 802.11ax, 802.11g, 802.11n
- Speeds
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6500 Megabits Per Second
The TP-Link Archer GE400 is a Wi-Fi 7 gaming router with two 2.5GbE ports, strong wired and wireless performance, and gaming-focused features designed to reduce latency and keep busy home networks running smoothly.
Mailspring
A FOSS desktop email client with professional email marketing features
Mailspring is a free and open-source desktop email client similar to Thunderbird, but boasting a much more polished and modern interface. If you’ve tried Thunderbird before and bounced off because it felt dated or clunky, Mailspring is worth a look.
That said, the app isn’t just about aesthetics. It also includes several professional-grade features that are usually locked behind paid email marketing platforms.
For example, Mailspring supports built-in open tracking and link tracking. That means you’ll get email read receipts—a notification when someone opens your email or clicks a link inside it. It also includes an analytics dashboard that tracks metrics like open rates, reply rates, and which subject lines get the most engagement. Even if you’re not running marketing campaigns, that data can still be useful. For example, if you’re a freelancer or a jobseeker sending a lot of emails, getting an idea of which of your emails were (or weren’t) opened can help you improve your outreach strategy.
However, there is a catch. These advanced features use a freemium model—you get five free uses per week, after which you’ll need the $8-per-month Pro plan for unlimited access. The app itself remains open source, but the tracking features rely on server infrastructure that costs money to maintain, which is why they’re paywalled. If you ask me, that’s a fairly reasonable compromise, especially since the core email experience is excellent and remains completely free.
If your email recipient lives in the EU, GDPR rules may require you to obtain consent before using email open or link tracking features.
Mailspring is available for Linux, Windows, and macOS.
I ditched Outlook for this open source email client (and it’s not Thunderbird)
My outlook for the future of Outlook was so poor that I switched apps.
Free and open-source apps are no longer a joke
There was a time when FOSS apps genuinely lagged behind paid software in terms of features, polish, and usability—but that hasn’t been true for quite some time now. In many categories, open-source alternatives are now just as capable as their commercial counterparts, sometimes even better.
The real disadvantage today isn’t quality—it’s visibility. Most open-source projects simply don’t have the marketing budgets that commercial software companies do, which means genuinely excellent apps often go unnoticed.
Fortunately, that’s a problem we—the users—can help fix. Once we come across a great FOSS app, sharing it with other people is one of the easiest ways to help those projects grow.
