A curated, self-refreshing directory of real open-source application codebases - built for developers who want to learn from production apps and find projects worth contributing to.
Open Apps
Open Apps is a directory of open-source apps with real codebases.
It is built for developers who want to find apps they can read, run, use, compare, and learn from — not just repositories with many stars.
Website: https://open-apps.dev.mn
Why this exists
Finding open-source apps is harder than it should be.
GitHub is great when you already know what to search for.
Awesome lists are useful, but most of them are just long link collections.
Open Apps tries to answer a different question:
“Which open-source apps are actually useful to study?”
That means the project focuses on apps with real structure, real product scope, readable code, clear metadata, and enough context to understand why the repo is useful.
This is not a complete index of open source.
It is a curated directory.
What is included
Open Apps focuses on real applications.
Examples:
- mobile apps
- web apps
- desktop apps
- developer tools with app-like structure
- full-stack products
- apps useful for studying architecture, UI, data flow, auth, state management, testing, deployment, or product structure
Not included:
- simple demos
- tutorials
- boilerplates
- starter templates
- package-only libraries
- abandoned repos with no learning value
- repos with unclear license or purpose
What you can do with it
Use Open Apps to:
- find real apps to study
- compare how different projects are structured
- discover apps worth contributing to
- look for implementation examples from working products
- find open-source alternatives by category
- explore projects beyond GitHub stars and trending pages
How apps are reviewed
Each app is reviewed with a few practical questions:
- Is this a real app?
- Can a developer understand what it does?
- Is the codebase useful to study?
- Is the license clear?
- Is the project active, mature, or historically useful?
- Does it have enough documentation or structure?
- Would this help someone build or improve a real product?
Stars are useful signal, but they are not the main filter.
A small clean app can be more useful than a large popular repo if it is easier to understand and learn from.
App data
Each listed app can include:
- name
- description
- category
- platform
- tech stack
- license
- GitHub stars
- forks
- contributors
- last commit date
- activity score
- maturity score
- learning score
- contribution score
- documentation score
- review notes
The goal is to make each app easier to evaluate before opening the repository.
Current status
Open Apps currently contains 79 curated apps.
The directory is still early.
The focus right now is quality over volume.
More apps, categories, review notes, and metadata will be added over time.
Submit an app
If you know a real open-source app that should be listed, submit it here:
https://open-apps.dev.mn/submit
Good submissions are apps that are useful to read, run, learn from, or contribute to.
Please avoid submitting simple demos, starter templates, or libraries without a real app around them.
For AI tools
The site provides AI-readable files:
These files help AI assistants understand the directory and reference the listed apps more accurately.
Background
This project started from the open-source-flutter-apps list.
That list became useful, but README-only lists have limits.
Open Apps is the next version: a structured, searchable, reviewable directory of real open-source apps.
The old list is kept in README-LEGACY.md.
License
MIT