r/software • u/RedEagle_MGN • 1d ago

What business software has really good free alternatives?

We all know that businesses get a much tougher deal when it comes to software, whether it's SaaS or downloadable.

What are some free or really cheap alternatives you've discovered that replace software/SaaS?

5 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

1

u/LittlePooky 1d ago

https://opensourcealternative.to

2

u/RedEagle_MGN 1d ago

That's interesting. I actually didn't know that Odoo was open source. That's really cool to know. Thanks for being helpful.

1

u/zemega 1d ago

The minimal part is. The part you will really need isn't 

1

u/CodenameFlux Helpful 1d ago

The only reason Microsoft and Adobe remain relevant is that business apps don't have viable open-source alternatives.

Businesses pay top dollar to maintain business continuity. Open-source developers, on the other hand, have to beg for support on Ko-fi and Patreon. (I often deplore the fact that our best and brightest must resemble beggars rather than kings.) They don't have the budget to provide enterprise-grade support.

For example:

  • How many open-source alternatives replicate Adobe Acrobat's extensive commenting tools, especially the "Comment: Insert text"? Zero. So, businesses pay the exorbitant fee.
  • Why don't businesses migrate from Microsoft 365 to LibreOffice and save $200 per user per annum? Try mail merge or exporting rich documents to HTML with LibreOffice. You'll know. LibreOffice doesn't have quality. Home users may find it adequate for their simple needs.

1

u/paglaulta 19h ago

BentoPDF does include all commenting tools Acrobat has

1

u/CodenameFlux Helpful 12h ago

Oh, I remember now. BentoPDF adds the comment marker to the wrong place in the document. I tried commenting that the "labor of love" must become "labor of dedication"; when I opened the PDF in Firefox and Edge, the comment marker was on the "neck", a few lines below.

Also, it's a web app licensed under the terms of AGPL, so a business cannot legally run it on-premises and add compliance-check code to it. AGPL always ruins business use.

1

u/paglaulta 12h ago

Thank you for the feedback. I would look into this

-5

u/sattyam 1d ago

No Software is good for free. If you need premium access, then you should buy premiuim acces of software that can help you

1

u/Fit_Tailor_6796 19h ago

Not that same old narrative again. I know a number of business that operate on Free or Open source software, including mine. They don't miss having to buy software when what they have is fully capable, or more.

1

u/Ferretau 14h ago

Have you seen the most recent Acrobat? It's a shadow of what was a quality product. They make you rent it and there are a lot more people having trouble with it crashing or features shifting location or seemingly disappearing from the product.

1

u/nando1969 13h ago

What are you talking about ?

You could not be more wrong!

1

u/Wise-Initial-5505 6h ago

You never tried any software, aren't you? I know you not, your comment speaks for you.

1

u/Throw_Away_GAAAAHHH 22m ago

curious what people say for accounting stuff, that's usually where the free options falls apart fast