ToolJet
93 · HealthyLow-code platform for internal tools and workflows with many data-source connectors.
Directory / Internal tools & automation
Open source Internal tools & automation
Appsmith
93 · HealthyLow-code builder for admin panels, dashboards and internal CRUD apps.
Activepieces
93 · HealthyWorkflow automation with a visual builder and TypeScript-based integration pieces.
Budibase
88 · HealthyLow-code platform for forms, portals and approval apps on top of your databases.
Windmill
83 · HealthyDeveloper platform that turns scripts into workflows, internal UIs and scheduled jobs.
Baserow
83 · HealthyNo-code database and app builder with a spreadsheet interface.
Source-available and unverified licenses
The code for these is public, but the license is not an OSI open source license, or we have not verified it yet. Check the license notes on each project before relying on it.
n8n
100 · HealthyNode-based workflow automation with hundreds of integrations and code steps.
Directus
97 · HealthyData platform that puts an admin app and REST/GraphQL APIs on top of any SQL database.
NocoDB
95 · HealthySpreadsheet-style interface over SQL databases, positioned as an Airtable replacement.
Directory / Internal tools & automation / Directus
Directus
Data platform that puts an admin app and REST/GraphQL APIs on top of any SQL database.
Will it still be around?
Health 97/100 · Healthy
Activity, bus factor and issue responsiveness. Breakdown
Can a business use it freely?
Source-available, not open source
Monospace Sustainable Core License 1.0 (MSCL-1.0-GPL) · relicensed to something stricter in 2026. Details
Alternative to
Savings proposal
A 25-seat team on Airtable Team pays about $500 a month. Self-hosting Directus costs about $264 a month to run plus $1,200 to set up, so it pays for itself in month 6 and saves about $7,296 over three years.
List price: Airtable Team, billed annually. Business is $45 per seat. Source, checked 2026-10-07.
Saved over 3 years
$7,296
Pays for itself
Month 6
Saved in year one
$1,632
Each month
$500 → $264
Show as a table
| Month | Airtable | Self-hosted | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Today | $0 | $1,200 | −$1,200 |
| Month 3 | $1,500 | $1,992 | −$492 |
| Month 6 | $3,000 | $2,784 | $216 |
| Month 9 | $4,500 | $3,576 | $924 |
| Month 12 | $6,000 | $4,368 | $1,632 |
| Month 18 | $9,000 | $5,952 | $3,048 |
| Month 24 | $12,000 | $7,536 | $4,464 |
| Month 30 | $15,000 | $9,120 | $5,880 |
| Month 36 | $18,000 | $10,704 | $7,296 |
Assumptions you can change
Self-hosting Directus usually means an app server, a database and a cache or worker. Hours are for one engineer; the server cost is a typical cloud VPS with backups and grows with the number of people using it.
Not included: paid editions or features of Directus (see What's free?), large data migrations, and compliance work. All amounts in US dollars at list price; your negotiated price may differ.
Health score: 97/100
Activity45% weight
100/100
- Last commit today (100/100).
- 792 commits in the past 12 months (100/100).
- 32 releases in the past 12 months (100/100).
Bus factor30% weight
100/100
- Top contributor wrote 20% of the last 100 commits (past 12 months).
- 27 people authored those commits.
Responsiveness25% weight
88/100
- 97% of all issues are closed (340 open, 9700 closed) (100/100).
- 24 of 30 recent issues got a reply or were closed (80/100).
Score v2. How the health score works.
License
Monospace Sustainable Core License 1.0 (MSCL-1.0-GPL) · Source-available, not open source
Any use except a Competing Use: offering it to others in competition with Directus's paid offerings. Each version becomes GPL-3.0 four years after release.
The code is public, but the license restricts how you can use it, usually by banning competing hosted services or capping production use. Not open source.
License text checked 2026-10-07: read it.
License history
What's free?
Enterprise features many open-core projects keep for paid plans.
| Feature | Self-hosted, free? |
|---|---|
| SSO (SAML) | Unknown |
| SSO (OIDC) | Unknown |
| SCIM provisioning | Unknown |
| Audit logs | Unknown |
| Role-based access control | Unknown |
| Multi-tenancy | Unknown |
We haven't verified which of these features are free for this project yet.
GitHub metrics
| Stars | 38k | Forks | 5.0k |
|---|---|---|---|
| Last commit | today | Commits, 12 months | 792 |
| Releases, 12 months | 32 | Last release | today |
| Contributors | 443 | Active authors | 27 in last 100 commits |
| Open issues | 340 | Closed issues | 9.7k |
Funding: github
Snapshot from 2026-10-08.