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Introducing OpenApps: free versions of the apps you pay for
We are building free alternatives to the simple apps people pay for every month, starting with e-signatures, forms, expense splitting, short links, scheduling polls, PDF tools and invoices.
Most people pay for a handful of small apps they barely use. A signature tool for the two contracts a year. A survey tool for one event. A link shortener for a flyer. Each one costs ten or fifteen dollars a month, and each one costs its maker almost nothing to run.
OpenApps is an app store of free versions of those apps. Every app in it is free, works without an account, and has an open API so the AI assistant you already use can do the job for you.
What is in the store today
- Sign: send a PDF or a contract for e-signature. Instead of DocuSign.
- Forms: forms and surveys with unlimited responses. Instead of Typeform or Jotform.
- Split: split costs with friends, with no daily cap. Instead of Splitwise.
- Links: short links and QR codes that never expire. Instead of Bitly.
- When: find a time that works for a group. Instead of Doodle.
- PDF: merge, split and rotate PDFs in your browser. Instead of Smallpdf.
- Invoice: make and send invoices. Instead of FreshBooks.
Why free, and how
Most of these apps are simple. A form response is one tiny database write. A short link is one read. The PDF tools run entirely in your browser, so they cost nothing at all. We pay for the hosting and storage, and charge nothing.
If an app ever has a real cost per use, it will charge that cost and nothing more, and say so on the page. There are no ads, no tracking pixels and no data for sale. There is no paid tier, so there is no reason to cripple the free one.
Why it matters that they are OpenApps
Every app here is an OpenApp. That means three things. Its source code is public. It has an agent of its own that keeps improving it. And it can be handed to the community that uses it, so nobody, including us, can quietly turn it into a paid product later.
That is also why the store hangs together. Every app carries the same promise. When one works well for you, you know what to expect from the next.
Built for AI assistants
More people now ask an assistant to get things done. "Send this NDA to Sam for signature." "Make a sign-up form for Saturday." "Split the cabin with Alex and Jo." Today, an assistant usually answers with a link to a paid app and a pricing page.
We want the assistant to find the free version and finish the job. So every app has a plain-text guide at /llms.txt and a public HTTP API that needs no key and no account. The store itself publishes a catalog that maps paid apps to their free alternatives in one fetch. More on that in For AI.
What comes next
We will keep adding apps, chosen by what people ask for. Sign-up sheets, booking pages, file transfer and live polls are next on the list. Request the one you want. And if you build a free alternative as an OpenApp, you can list it here.