{"id":658430,"date":"2025-03-23T04:00:31","date_gmt":"2025-03-23T01:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/the-20-hottest-open-source-startups-of-2024\/"},"modified":"2025-03-23T04:00:31","modified_gmt":"2025-03-23T01:00:31","slug":"the-20-hottest-open-source-startups-of-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-20-hottest-open-source-startups-of-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"#The 20 hottest open source startups of 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a283ef4d1506\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a283ef4d1506\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-20-hottest-open-source-startups-of-2024\/#Stargazing\" >Stargazing<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-20-hottest-open-source-startups-of-2024\/#Methodology\" >Methodology<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<div>\n<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A new report showcases the 20 top-trending open source startups around the world, more than half of which are closely aligned with AI.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The report is the handiwork of European venture capital firm <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/runacap.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Runa Capital<\/a>, which has operated the Runa Open Source Startup (<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/runacap.com\/ross-index\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">ROSS<\/a>) Index since 2020. The Index serves quarterly updates on the fastest-growing projects in terms of GitHub \u201cstars\u201d \u2014 a metric that\u2019s something akin to a \u201clike\u201d on <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social media<\/a>. Beginning in 2023, Runa started producing annual reports, highlighting the most popular commercial open source startups in a given year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last year\u2019s report demonstrated that AI and data infrastructure were driving demand for open source tooling, with\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.langchain.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">LangChain<\/a> hitting pole position in the ROSS Index for its open source framework for building LLM-centric <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>s. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This year it\u2019s a similar story, with AI central to 11 of the top 20 companies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s worth noting that the ROSS Index is heavily curated and doesn\u2019t include any old open source project. Qualifying projects must be closely linked to a commercial company (i.e., a vendor-led project), meaning no side projects. Additionally, these companies must be younger than 10 years old; raised less than $100 million in funding; and be entirely independent \u2014 so not a subsidiary or publicly listed.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-stargazing\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Stargazing\"><\/span>Stargazing<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In top spot on the 2024 ROSS Index is <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/ollama.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Ollama<\/a>, a Y Combinator <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ycombinator.com\/companies\/ollama\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">alum<\/a> that\u2019s built an open source tool for running LLMs such as Meta\u2019s Llama and DeepSeek locally (i.e., desktop). Ollama\u2019s <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/ollama\/ollama\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">GitHub star count<\/a> increased by some 76,000 through 2024, growing 261% to more than 105,000 (it has since risen to more than 135,000 stars over the past few months).<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Next on the list is <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/zed.dev\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Zed Industries<\/a>, a cross-platform collaborative code editor \u201cdesigned for high-performance collaboration with humans and AI.\u201d The Zed project has been around for a while, but it <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/zed.dev\/blog\/zed-is-now-open-source\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">only went open source<\/a> in January 2024, and through the rest of the year it gained more than <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/zed-industries\/zed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">52,000 GitHub stars<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In third place is <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/langgenius\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">LangGenius<\/a>, the company behind an open source LLM app development platform called <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/dify.ai\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Dify<\/a>. The project attained more than 43,000 new <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/langgenius\/dify\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">GitHub stars<\/a> last year, growing 326% from around 13,000 to nearly 57,000 \u2014 a figure that has since surged to more than 84,000 stars.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And then there is <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.comfy.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">ComfyUI<\/a>, an open source node-based program for generating images, videos, and audio using generative AI models. The project\u2019s <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/comfyanonymous\/ComfyUI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">GitHub star count<\/a> grew 195% to 61,900 stars last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rounding out the top five is <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.all-hands.dev\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">All Hands<\/a>, the company behind an open source platform called <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/all-hands-ai\/openhands\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">OpenHands<\/a> for building software development agents. OpenHands garnered 39,600 GitHub stars from its launch last March through the end of 2024 and has since added another 12,000 stars to the mix.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the ROSS Index for last year illustrates the explosive growth in AI and LLMs, it also shows how developer tooling is still hot in the world of open source, with the likes of Zed and <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/astral-sh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Astral\u2019s UV<\/a> (No. 9) both featuring in the top 10. Elsewhere, the presence of PDF manipulation tool <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/Stirling-Tools\/Stirling-PDF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Stirling PDF<\/a> (No. 7), finance management software <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/maybe-finance\/maybe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Maybe Finance<\/a> (No. 8), and remote desktop software <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/rustdesk\/rustdesk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">RustDesk<\/a> (No. 17) suggests privacy-focused self-hostable tooling is still in high demand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And Ethereum blockchain-focused <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/FuelLabs\/fuel-core\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Fuel<\/a> (No. 12) shows that crypto\/web3 is alive and kicking.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1486\" height=\"1340\" src=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/ROSS-2024-An-List.png?w=680\" alt=\"ROSS Index: Top 20\" class=\"wp-image-2984101\" srcset=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/ROSS-2024-An-List.png 1486w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/ROSS-2024-An-List.png?resize=150,135 150w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/ROSS-2024-An-List.png?resize=300,271 300w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/ROSS-2024-An-List.png?resize=768,693 768w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/ROSS-2024-An-List.png?resize=680,613 680w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/ROSS-2024-An-List.png?resize=1200,1082 1200w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/ROSS-2024-An-List.png?resize=1280,1154 1280w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/ROSS-2024-An-List.png?resize=430,388 430w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/ROSS-2024-An-List.png?resize=720,649 720w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/ROSS-2024-An-List.png?resize=900,812 900w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/ROSS-2024-An-List.png?resize=800,721 800w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/ROSS-2024-An-List.png?resize=668,602 668w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/ROSS-2024-An-List.png?resize=416,375 416w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/ROSS-2024-An-List.png?resize=684,617 684w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/ROSS-2024-An-List.png?resize=589,531 589w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1486px) 100vw, 1486px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><span class=\"wp-element-caption__text\">ROSS Index: Top 20<\/span><span class=\"wp-block-image__credits\"><strong>Image Credits:<\/strong>ROSS Index: Runa Capital<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Open source software by its very nature has always been distributed, given that contributors from all corners of the globe can get involved. This is often the case for vendor-led projects, too; however, commercial entities usually have some center of gravity \u2014 even if it just means where it has been formally incorporated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ROSS Index for last year shows that San Francisco is home to six of the top 20 ROSS startups, while Canada has three, and Europe (U.K., Switzerland, Hungary, and Czech Republic), Singapore, and China constituting the rest.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-methodology\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Methodology\"><\/span>Methodology<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are other ways of tracking \u201chot\u201d open source projects. Two Sigma Ventures operates <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twosigmaventures.com\/open-source-index\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">the Open Source Index<\/a>, which is similar in concept to the ROSS Index except it showcases the top 100 projects without a specific focus on commercial startups (it also offers different ways of filtering the data).<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And GitHub itself offers a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/trending\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">top-trending project list<\/a>, again without the specific focus on commercial businesses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s also worth looking at the\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/runacap.com\/ross-index\/methodology\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">methodology<\/a>\u00a0behind the ROSS Index. GitHub \u201cstars\u201d can be an imperfect metric, as it merely shows that someone has \u201cliked\u201d the project, as opposed to actively using or monitoring it. Older projects will naturally have procured more \u201cstars,\u201d too, which is why Runa focuses on the relative growth of repositories over a 90-day period for its quarterly reports, and on the absolute number of new stars gained during the year for its annual report.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This also means that the annual report can look quite different to the quarterly reports, given that absolute star counts won\u2019t always align with rapid relative-growth patterns. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There may also be some issues around what is classed as \u201copen source.\u201d While many of the projects on the list have indeed been released under a recognized copyleft or permissive open source license, this isn\u2019t a strict stipulation of the ROSS Index. Runa says it adheres to the \u201ccommercial perception\u201d of open source, rather than the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/opensource.org\/osd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">official open source definition<\/a>. As such, a company that has released its software under the Server Side Public License (<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mongodb.com\/legal\/licensing\/server-side-public-license\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">SSPL<\/a>), for instance, would still qualify as open source, even though the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/opensource.org\/blog\/the-sspl-is-not-an-open-source-license\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Open Source Initiative has not rubberstamped<\/a> the SSPL as \u201copen source.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Still, the Index is a useful indicator not only of what kinds of open source <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"Technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">technology<\/a> is trending, but also what companies are trying to build businesses atop them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMN63nwsw68G3Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/category\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" >Technology<\/a><\/span> category.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/03\/22\/the-20-hottest-open-source-startups-of-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" >Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new report showcases the 20 top-trending open source startups around the world, more than half of which are closely aligned with AI. The report is the handiwork of European venture capital firm Runa Capital, which has operated the Runa Open Source Startup (ROSS) Index since 2020. The Index serves quarterly updates on the fastest-growing&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":658431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/GettyImages-1309243828-e1742560843952.jpg?resize=1200,800","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[83071,155053,155054,70917,151454],"class_list":["post-658430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-open-source","tag-ross-index","tag-runa-capital","tag-startups","tag-tc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}