About OpenAppBox
Great software should be affordable, open and respectful.
OpenAppBox is an independent studio building useful apps for everyone. We’re starting with the Mac and growing to more platforms, mobile included. Every app is open source, free of ads and tracking, and priced so that paying for good software is an easy decision.
What’s in a name- Open
- Every line of code is public. Read it, audit it, hold us to it.
- App
- Focused, useful tools for the things you do every day.
- Box
- One home for all of them, each at a small yearly price.
Why we started
Software took a wrong turn.
Software has drifted in two unhelpful directions. Some apps became expensive, with licenses and subscriptions priced for companies rather than people. Others became “free” in exchange for your attention and data, with ads, tracking and accounts that serve the business more than you.
We think there’s a better deal. Focused apps, built carefully, can be sold for very little when they don’t carry the weight of advertising, data infrastructure or sprawling feature lists. And when the code is public, you never have to take our word for what an app is doing.
That’s what OpenAppBox is: a growing collection of polished, practical tools, each with its own small yearly price, each with its source code open to everyone.
Too expensive
- Licenses priced for companies
- Paid upgrades, again and again
- Monthly fees that keep adding up
OpenAppBox- A small yearly price
- Open source, always
- No ads, no tracking
Too “free”
- Ads in your way
- Tracking and telemetry
- Your data as the price
What changed
Building software got cheaper. Prices should too.
AI has changed what a small team can build. We use modern AI tools throughout our process, from prototyping and writing code to testing, documentation and translation, so each app takes a fraction of the time and cost it once would have.
We think those savings belong to the people using the software. That’s why our apps come with a small yearly price instead of the large licenses and monthly fees common elsewhere.
AI speeds us up; it doesn’t replace judgment. People decide what to build, review and test every release, and stand behind the result. And because everything is open source, the quality is there for anyone to inspect.
Before AI
With AI
Illustrative, not to scale. The savings go to you, not into margins.
We believe the era of selling expensive apps at exorbitant prices should come to an end.
What we stand for
Four commitments, in writing.
Open source
Public code anyone can read and audit. Whatever we claim, you can check.
No ads
Paid for by the people who use the apps, and nobody else. Not now, not later.
No tracking
We don’t measure you. We’d rather ask, and listen.
Fair pricing
A small yearly price, per app, with no tiers, tricks or paid upgrades.
Follow the money
One customer: you.
Simply: people subscribe to the apps they find useful. Each app has its own small annual subscription, sold through official app stores. The store handles payment and renewals; we receive our share and use it to keep building.
That’s the whole business model. There is no second customer, such as an advertiser or a data broker, whose interests compete with yours. Read more on our open-source approach.
OpenAppBoxreceives its shareYour subscription funds
- Development
- Updates and fixes
- Support
- Open code
Nobody else pays us
- Advertisers
- Data brokers
- Sponsors
Things we won’t do
- Show ads, or sell placement inside our apps
- Add analytics, telemetry or tracking SDKs
- Sell, rent or share personal data
- Require an account when one isn’t needed
- Use fake countdowns, pre-checked boxes or other dark patterns
- Hide features behind confusing tiers
Where we’re headed
Small and independent, on purpose.
OpenAppBox is self-funded and independent. That keeps decisions simple: we build what makes the apps better for the people using them.
We’re starting with the Mac because that’s where we can do our best work today. Apps for Windows, Linux and mobile devices are in our plans, and we’ll announce each platform when an app is actually headed there.
Platforms
- macOSFirst apps
- WindowsPlanned
- LinuxPlanned
- iOSPlanned
- AndroidPlanned
Help shape what comes next.
Useful software shouldn’t cost a fortune.
Explore what we’re building, read the code, and follow along as each app moves toward release.