A. Core languages & runtimes / Package managers
Node.js — https://nodejs.org
Technology: JavaScript runtime (server).
Backed / sponsored by: OpenJS Foundation, community.
How to generate revenue: Build and sell SaaS, paid support, enterprise modules, training, consulting.
Description / details: Asynchronous JS runtime powering backend & tooling; ecosystem leader for JS servers, build tools and CLI apps.Deno — https://deno.land
Technology: JavaScript/TypeScript runtime.
Backed / sponsored by: Deno Company + open source community.
How to generate revenue: Paid hosting, enterprise support, managed Deno services, training.
Description / details: Secure by default runtime by Node’s original author; integrates TypeScript natively.npm — https://www.npmjs.com
Technology: JavaScript package manager & registry.
Backed / sponsored by: npm, Inc. / GitHub (registry).
How to generate revenue: Publish libraries, offer paid private packages, build paid dev tools around packages.
Description / details: Central registry for JavaScript packages; essential for distribution & dependency management.pnpm — https://pnpm.io
Technology: Fast JS package manager.
Backed / sponsored by: Open-source contributors; sponsors via donations.
How to generate revenue: Consulting, enterprise support, paid plugins or hosted CI integrations.
Description / details: Disk-efficient, fast alternative to npm/yarn with strict node_modules layout.Yarn — https://yarnpkg.com
Technology: JS package manager.
Backed / sponsored by: Community / contributors.
How to generate revenue: Managed CI integration, enterprise features, tooling.
B. Frontend frameworks & UI (JS/HTML/CSS)
React — https://react.dev
Technology: Frontend UI library (JS/TS).
Backed / sponsored by: Meta (Facebook) + community.
How to generate revenue: Build paid apps/SaaS, components (paid themes/plugins), consulting, training.
Description / details: Declarative UI library with huge ecosystem—used for web, mobile (React Native) and more.Vue — https://vuejs.org
Technology: Frontend framework (JS/TS).
Backed / sponsored by: Evan You + community/sponsors.
How to generate revenue: Paid components/themes, training, freelance/enterprise support.Angular — https://angular.io
Technology: Frontend framework (TypeScript).
Backed / sponsored by: Google.
How to generate revenue: Enterprise apps, consulting, training, premium libraries.Svelte — https://svelte.dev
Technology: Compiler-based frontend framework.
Backed / sponsored by: Community + Svelte Society sponsors.
How to generate revenue: Commercial components, SaaS, consulting.Next.js — https://nextjs.org
Technology: React framework (SSR/SSG).
Backed / sponsored by: Vercel.
How to generate revenue: Deploy on Vercel (paid hosting), build premium templates, enterprise services.
Description: Hybrid static & server-side rendering framework powering many production sites.Nuxt — https://nuxt.com
Technology: Vue framework (SSR).
Backed / sponsored by: Nuxt Labs / community.
How to generate revenue: Hosting, consulting, premium modules.Astro — https://astro.build
Technology: Modern static site framework.
Backed / sponsored by: Astro team + community.
How to generate revenue: Themes, hosting, consultancy, plugin marketplace.Gatsby — https://www.gatsbyjs.com
Technology: React-based static-site generator.
Backed / sponsored by: Gatsby, Inc.
How to generate revenue: Cloud hosting, premium plugins, themes.Preact — https://preact.dev
Technology: Lightweight React alternative.
Backed / sponsored by: Community.
How to generate revenue: Embedded projects, consulting, performance optimization services.Tailwind CSS — https://tailwindcss.com
Technology: Utility-first CSS framework.
Backed / sponsored by: Tailwind Labs.
How to generate revenue: Paid UI kits, Tailwind UI (commercial components), training, design systems.Bootstrap — https://getbootstrap.com
Technology: CSS framework.
Backed / sponsored by: Open source community.
How to generate revenue: Themes/templates, paid extensions, consulting.Material UI (MUI) — https://mui.com
Technology: React UI component library.
Backed / sponsored by: MUI team (commercial offerings).
How to generate revenue: Paid themes, premium components, enterprise support, commercial licensing.Chakra UI — https://chakra-ui.com
Technology: Accessible React UI library.
Backed / sponsored by: Community + sponsors.
How to generate revenue: Themes, consulting, commercial addons.Ant Design — https://ant.design
Technology: React UI system.
Backed / sponsored by: Ant Financial / Alibaba (initially).
How to generate revenue: Enterprise components, themes, consulting.Bulma — https://bulma.io
Technology: CSS framework.
Backed / sponsored by: Community.
How to generate revenue: Themes, templates, training.
C. Build tools, bundlers, compilers & transpilers
Vite — https://vitejs.dev
Technology: Dev server & build tool (ESM).
Backed / sponsored by: Evan You + community; ecosystem sponsors.
How to generate revenue: Paid plugins, optimization services, training.Webpack — https://webpack.js.org
Technology: Module bundler.
Backed / sponsored by: Open-source community + corporate sponsors.
How to generate revenue: Consulting, optimization, training.Rollup — https://rollupjs.org
Technology: JavaScript bundler (library-focused).
Backed / sponsored by: Community.
How to generate revenue: Paid plugins, consultancy.Babel — https://babeljs.io
Technology: JavaScript compiler / transpiler.
Backed / sponsored by: Community.
How to generate revenue: Tooling integrations, consulting.esbuild — https://esbuild.github.io
Technology: Fast JS bundler (Go)
Backed / sponsored by: Community / contributors.
How to generate revenue: Performance consulting, hosting.Turborepo — https://turborepo.org
Technology: Monorepo build system.
Backed / sponsored by: Vercel.
How to generate revenue: Enterprise features, managed services.Nx — https://nx.dev
Technology: Monorepo tooling.
Backed / sponsored by: Nx team (Nrwl) — commercial offerings.
How to generate revenue: Paid enterprise plugins, support, training.eslintrc / ESLint — https://eslint.org
Technology: JS linter.
Backed / sponsored by: Open-source community.
How to generate revenue: Rulesets, audits, training, integrations.Prettier — https://prettier.io
Technology: Code formatter.
Backed / sponsored by: Community & corporate sponsors.
How to generate revenue: Paid integrations, enterprise features.TypeScript — https://www.typescriptlang.org
Technology: Typed superset of JS.
Backed / sponsored by: Microsoft.
How to generate revenue: Enterprise adoption, training, migrations, libraries.
D. State management, utilities & common libs
Redux — https://redux.js.org
Technology: State management.
Backed / sponsored by: Community.
How to generate revenue: Training, middleware, enterprise support.MobX — https://mobx.js.org
Technology: State management (reactive).
Backed / sponsored by: Community.
How to generate revenue: Consulting, enterprise guides.Zustand — https://github.com/pmndrs/zustand
Technology: Minimal state library (React).
Backed / sponsored by: pmndrs org.
How to generate revenue: Consulting, integration services.Lodash — https://lodash.com
Technology: Utility library.
Backed / sponsored by: Community.
How to generate revenue: Paid builds, enterprise utilities.RxJS — https://rxjs.dev
Technology: Reactive programming library.
Backed / sponsored by: Open source community.
How to generate revenue: Training, consulting for reactive systems.date-fns — https://date-fns.org
Technology: Date utilities.
Backed / sponsored by: Community.
How to generate revenue: Pro features, plugins, consulting.
E. Visualization & graphics
D3.js — https://d3js.org
Technology: Data visualization.
Backed / sponsored by: Community.
How to generate revenue: Dashboards, commercial visualizations, consulting.Three.js — https://threejs.org
Technology: 3D graphics in browser (WebGL).
Backed / sponsored by: Community.
How to generate revenue: Games, interactive product demos, paid components.Chart.js — https://www.chartjs.org
Technology: Simple charts for web.
Backed / sponsored by: Community.
How to generate revenue: Premium chart types/themes, support.ECharts — https://echarts.apache.org
Technology: Enterprise charts (Apache).
Backed / sponsored by: Apache Foundation.
How to generate revenue: Custom charts, enterprise integrations.
F. Frontend testing & quality
Jest — https://jestjs.io
Technology: JavaScript testing framework.
Backed / sponsored by: Meta + community.
How to generate revenue: Test consulting, training, enterprise integrations.Cypress — https://www.cypress.io (core is open source)
Technology: End-to-end testing.
Backed / sponsored by: Cypress.io (commercial entity).
How to generate revenue: Cypress Dashboard (paid), enterprise features, support.Playwright — https://playwright.dev
Technology: Cross-browser automation & E2E.
Backed / sponsored by: Microsoft.
How to generate revenue: Test infra hosting, paid reporting tools.Vitest — https://vitest.dev
Technology: Vite-native test runner.
Backed / sponsored by: Community.
How to generate revenue: Test infra, integrations.ESLint (already listed above) — quality and linting; revenue: rulesets & corporate integrations.
G. Backend frameworks & APIs
Express — https://expressjs.com
Technology: Minimal Node.js server framework.
Backed / sponsored by: Open source community.
How to generate revenue: Build APIs, SaaS, consulting, paid middlewares.Koa — https://koajs.com
Technology: Node web framework (by Express team).
Backed / sponsored by: Community.
How to generate revenue: Consulting, specialized servers.Fastify — https://www.fastify.io
Technology: Fast Node.js web framework.
Backed / sponsored by: Community + sponsors.
How to generate revenue: Enterprise support, plugins.NestJS — https://nestjs.com
Technology: Node.js framework (TypeScript).
Backed / sponsored by: NestJS team (commercial services available).
How to generate revenue: Enterprise modules, paid support, training.Hapi — https://hapi.dev
Technology: Node framework.
Backed / sponsored by: Community.
How to generate revenue: Consulting, plugin marketplaces.Kubernetes (k8s) — https://kubernetes.io
Technology: Container orchestration.
Backed / sponsored by: CNCF, Google, community.
How to generate revenue: Managed clusters, consulting, SaaS, training.
Description: The de facto container orchestration platform for production.Docker — https://www.docker.com (Docker Engine OSS components)
Technology: Container runtime & tooling.
Backed / sponsored by: Docker, Inc.
How to generate revenue: Docker Hub, enterprise editions, managed services.Helm — https://helm.sh
Technology: Kubernetes package manager.
Backed / sponsored by: CNCF/community.
How to generate revenue: Chart repositories, enterprise management.Envoy — https://www.envoyproxy.io
Technology: Cloud-native edge & service proxy.
Backed / sponsored by: CNCF/community.
How to generate revenue: Managed service mesh, consulting.Traefik — https://traefik.io
Technology: Modern reverse proxy & load balancer.
Backed / sponsored by: Traefik Labs.
How to generate revenue: Enterprise features, cloud offerings.Nginx — https://nginx.org (open source core)
Technology: Web server / reverse proxy.
Backed / sponsored by: F5 / NGINX.
How to generate revenue: NGINX Plus (commercial), consulting, modules.
H. Databases & query engines
PostgreSQL — https://www.postgresql.org
Technology: Relational DB (SQL).
Backed / sponsored by: PostgreSQL Global Development Group.
How to generate revenue: Managed hosting (Supabase, AWS RDS), consultancy, support.MySQL — https://www.mysql.com
Technology: Relational DB.
Backed / sponsored by: Oracle (open source core).
How to generate revenue: Enterprise editions, managed services.MariaDB — https://mariadb.org
Technology: Relational DB (MySQL fork).
Backed / sponsored by: MariaDB Foundation / MariaDB Corporation.
How to generate revenue: Managed services, enterprise features.SQLite — https://sqlite.org
Technology: Embedded SQL DB.
Backed / sponsored by: SQLite Consortium.
How to generate revenue: Licensing for commercial extensions, consulting.MongoDB (Community edition) — https://www.mongodb.com
Technology: Document NoSQL DB.
Backed / sponsored by: MongoDB, Inc.
How to generate revenue: Atlas (managed DB), enterprise features.Redis — https://redis.io
Technology: In-memory key-value store.
Backed / sponsored by: Redis Ltd. / community.
How to generate revenue: Redis Enterprise, managed hosting.ClickHouse — https://clickhouse.com
Technology: Columnar OLAP DB.
Backed / sponsored by: ClickHouse community / ClickHouse, Inc.
How to generate revenue: Managed hosting, enterprise features.DuckDB — https://duckdb.org
Technology: Analytical embeddable DB (OLAP).
Backed / sponsored by: DuckDB Labs / community.
How to generate revenue: Embedding/analytics solutions, managed offerings.InfluxDB — https://www.influxdata.com (open core)
Technology: Time-series DB.
Backed / sponsored by: InfluxData.
How to generate revenue: Enterprise features, hosted services.
I. Observability / logging / tracing / metrics
Prometheus — https://prometheus.io
Technology: Monitoring & metrics.
Backed / sponsored by: CNCF.
How to generate revenue: Managed monitoring, consulting, alerting integrations.Grafana — https://grafana.com (open source core)
Technology: Observability dashboarding.
Backed / sponsored by: Grafana Labs.
How to generate revenue: Grafana Cloud (SaaS), enterprise plugins.OpenTelemetry — https://opentelemetry.io
Technology: Tracing/metrics/logs instrumentation.
Backed / sponsored by: CNCF / community.
How to generate revenue: Integrations, managed telemetry services.Loki — https://grafana.com/oss/loki
Technology: Log aggregation (Grafana Labs).
Backed / sponsored by: Grafana Labs.
How to generate revenue: Hosted Loki, enterprise features.Jaeger — https://www.jaegertracing.io
Technology: Distributed tracing.
Backed / sponsored by: CNCF.
How to generate revenue: Tracing services, consulting.Fluentd — https://www.fluentd.org
Technology: Data collector (logs).
Backed / sponsored by: CNCF / Treasure Data.
How to generate revenue: Enterprise services, hosted data ingestion.
J. DevOps / infra as code / automation
Terraform — https://www.terraform.io (open core)
Technology: Infrastructure as Code (IaC).
Backed / sponsored by: HashiCorp.
How to generate revenue: Enterprise features, Terraform Cloud (SaaS), training.Ansible — https://www.ansible.com
Technology: Configuration management & automation.
Backed / sponsored by: Red Hat.
How to generate revenue: Ansible Tower, support, automation consulting.Packer — https://www.packer.io
Technology: Machine image builder.
Backed / sponsored by: HashiCorp.
How to generate revenue: Automation tools, integrations.Vagrant — https://www.vagrantup.com
Technology: Dev environment automation.
Backed / sponsored by: HashiCorp.
How to generate revenue: Consulting, enterprise uses.Argo CD — https://argo-cd.readthedocs.io
Technology: GitOps continuous delivery for Kubernetes.
Backed / sponsored by: Argo community (CNCF).
How to generate revenue: Managed GitOps, enterprise features.Flux — https://fluxcd.io
Technology: GitOps toolchain for Kubernetes.
Backed / sponsored by: CNCF/community.
How to generate revenue: Managed solutions, consulting.Jenkins — https://www.jenkins.io
Technology: Automation / CI server.
Backed / sponsored by: Jenkins community.
How to generate revenue: Hosted Jenkins, enterprise plugins, managed CI services.GitLab (CE) — https://gitlab.com
Technology: Git-based CI/CD platform (community edition open source).
Backed / sponsored by: GitLab Inc.
How to generate revenue: GitLab Enterprise Edition, cloud hosting, support.Gitea — https://gitea.io
Technology: Lightweight self-hosted Git service.
Backed / sponsored by: Community.
How to generate revenue: Hosting services, customization, maintenance.
K. Authentication / Identity / Security
Keycloak — https://www.keycloak.org
Technology: Identity & access management (IAM).
Backed / sponsored by: Red Hat (formerly). Community.
How to generate revenue: Managed Keycloak hosting, enterprise support.OAuth2 / OpenID Connect implementations (e.g., Ory) — https://www.ory.sh (Ory open source)
Technology: Auth & identity.
Backed / sponsored by: Ory (company).
How to generate revenue: Cloud auth, enterprise services.Vault (HashiCorp) — https://www.vaultproject.io
Technology: Secrets management.
Backed / sponsored by: HashiCorp.
How to generate revenue: Vault Enterprise, managed secrets.Certbot (Let’s Encrypt client) — https://certbot.eff.org
Technology: TLS certificate automation.
Backed / sponsored by: EFF & Let's Encrypt.
How to generate revenue: Hosting secure domains, managed TLS services.OWASP ZAP — https://www.zaproxy.org
Technology: Security scanning / penetration testing.
Backed / sponsored by: OWASP community.
How to generate revenue: Security audits, consultancy.
L. CMS, backend-as-service & headless
Strapi — https://strapi.io
Technology: Headless CMS (Node.js).
Backed / sponsored by: Strapi Company.
How to generate revenue: Strapi Cloud, enterprise plugins, templates.Ghost — https://ghost.org
Technology: Publishing platform (Node.js).
Backed / sponsored by: Ghost Foundation & company.
How to generate revenue: Ghost(Pro) hosting, themes, integrations.WordPress — https://wordpress.org
Technology: PHP CMS.
Backed / sponsored by: WordPress Foundation / Automattic ecosystem.
How to generate revenue: Hosting, plugins, themes, VIP services.Strapi (already listed) — paid features & hosting.
Directus — https://directus.io
Technology: Headless CMS / data platform.
Backed / sponsored by: Directus team.
How to generate revenue: Directus Cloud, enterprise add-ons.Supabase — https://supabase.com
Technology: Open-source Firebase alternative (Postgres-based).
Backed / sponsored by: Supabase (company) + community.
How to generate revenue: Hosted DB & services, enterprise plans.Hasura — https://hasura.io
Technology: Instant GraphQL on Postgres.
Backed / sponsored by: Hasura.
How to generate revenue: Hasura Cloud, enterprise features.PostgREST — https://postgrest.org
Technology: REST API from Postgres.
Backed / sponsored by: Community.
How to generate revenue: Consulting, hosting for DB-driven APIs.
M. Analytics, privacy & self-hosting apps
Matomo — https://matomo.org
Technology: Web analytics (privacy-focused).
Backed / sponsored by: Matomo team.
How to generate revenue: Hosted Matomo, enterprise features, add-ons.PostHog — https://posthog.com (open core)
Technology: Product analytics & session recording.
Backed / sponsored by: PostHog.
How to generate revenue: PostHog Cloud, enterprise capabilities.OpenTelemetry (already listed) — observability standardization and integrations.
Home Assistant — https://www.home-assistant.io
Technology: Home automation hub (Python).
Backed / sponsored by: Home Assistant community.
How to generate revenue: Integrations, hosted cloud subscriptions, custom integrations.Arduino — https://www.arduino.cc
Technology: Open-source hardware & dev boards.
Backed / sponsored by: Arduino Foundation / company.
How to generate revenue: Hardware sales, shields, kits, education workshops.Raspberry Pi OS & Foundation projects — https://www.raspberrypi.org
Technology: Small-computer OS & ecosystem.
Backed / sponsored by: Raspberry Pi Foundation.
How to generate revenue: Hardware sales, education programs, community images.Hugo / Jekyll / Eleventy — static site generators (pick one)
Example: Hugo — https://gohugo.io
Technology: Static site generator (Go).
Backed / sponsored by: Community.
How to generate revenue: Themes, templates, content services, managed hosting.
Why these 100 projects?
Over the last decade, open source has moved from “nice to have” to “mission-critical.” Whether you’re building a SaaS, shipping a side-project, or running a global infra stack, these projects power real products used by millions. This list groups the big players (React, Kubernetes, PostgreSQL), high-velocity newcomers (Vite, DuckDB, Supabase), and evergreen tools (Git, Bash, GNU tools) — each item includes how you as a developer can transform knowledge into income (consulting, hosting, paid extensions, training, premium components, enterprise features), so you don’t just learn — you build real cashflow. Build carefully, credit open source, and give back: that’s how the ecosystem keeps thriving.
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