Internal Tools

Refine34.7k★

Refine gives you a React framework that handles the CRUD, data tables, forms, and auth plumbing so you can focus on business logic for admin panels and internal tools. It's not a UI library. It's the layer between your UI components and your backend. MIT license. Works with any UI framework (Ant Design, Material UI, Chakra, or headless), any backend (REST, GraphQL, Supabase, Strapi, Appwrite, custom). The data provider abstraction means switching backends doesn't require rewriting your components. The open source version is fully featured: routing, auth, access control, real-time updates, audit logging, i18n. Refine's paid tier (Enterprise) adds a visual app builder, dedicated support, and SSO. Pricing isn't public, contact sales. Solo developers: free, and it'll save you days on every internal tool project. Small teams: free tier covers everything including RBAC. Growing teams: evaluate Enterprise if you want non-developers building internal tools with the visual builder. Large orgs: Enterprise for SSO and support. The catch: Refine is React-only. If your team uses Vue or Svelte, this isn't for you. The abstraction layer is powerful but adds complexity; debugging issues means understanding both your UI framework AND Refine's data provider layer. And the 'works with any backend' promise means initial setup requires choosing and configuring a data provider, which can be confusing for newcomers.

Budibase27.9k★

Budibase builds internal tools through a visual builder: connect your database, drag in components, set up automations, deploy. It's similar to Appsmith and ToolJet but with one key difference: it includes a built-in database, so you can start building without connecting external data sources. The free self-hosted version gives you unlimited apps, the visual builder, the internal BudibaseDB, external data connectors (Postgres, MySQL, REST APIs, etc.), automations, and role-based access. Generous for a free tier. Budibase Premium ($60/creator/mo, $5/user/mo) adds SSO/SAML, custom branding, audit logs, and environment variables. The Business tier adds air-gapped deployments, enforceable SSO, and account-level analytics. Solo: self-host the free tier, great for quick internal tools. Small teams: free tier handles it. Growing teams needing SSO: Premium at $60/creator/mo. Large orgs: compare with Appsmith and Retool before committing at scale. The catch: Budibase's automation builder is basic compared to dedicated workflow tools like n8n or Windmill. If your internal tool needs complex multi-step automation logic, you'll hit limits fast. Also, the built-in database is convenient for prototyping but you'll want a real database for anything production-critical.

vue-pure-admin20.2k★

Vue Pure Admin is a production-ready admin dashboard template built on Vue 3, Vite, Element Plus, and TypeScript. If you need a back-office interface for managing users, data, or settings, this gives you the shell: layouts, routing, permissions, theming, i18n. The template approach means you own the code and can rip out anything you do not need. It ships with mobile responsiveness baked in. Everything runs on ESM. Compared to Ant Design Pro or React Admin, this is squarely in the Vue ecosystem. If your team writes Vue, this saves weeks. If your team writes React, look elsewhere. The catch: documentation and community discussion are primarily in Chinese. If you do not read Mandarin, you will be leaning on machine translation for the docs and issue threads.

Mautic9.7k★

Mautic is the open source answer to HubSpot Marketing Hub and Mailchimp. Email campaigns, drip sequences, lead scoring, customer segmentation, and full marketing automation, all without the per-contact pricing that makes the commercial stack expensive at scale. The codebase is PHP, the data layer is MySQL, and the project has been around long enough to be one of the most-used open source marketing platforms. Self-hosting is real work. PHP environment, MySQL, Composer, cron jobs for the email queue, and an outbound SMTP relay you control. Plan for several hours of setup and ongoing patching. The community is active with 188+ releases and structured governance; this isn't an abandoned project. Solo marketers and small teams who care about owning the data: self-host. The cost difference versus HubSpot at any meaningful list size is significant. Large teams with compliance and deliverability concerns: Mautic Cloud (the team's hosted offering) is a reasonable middle path. Enterprise teams already on HubSpot: this is a multi-quarter migration, not a weekend. The catch: marketing automation needs deliverability work that the software doesn't do for you. SPF, DKIM, DMARC, warm-up periods, list hygiene, and reputation management are still your job. Self-hosting Mautic doesn't replace the deliverability ops team that HubSpot or Mailchimp does in the background.

traccar7.3k★

Traccar is a self-hosted GPS tracking server. If you run a fleet of vehicles, manage delivery drivers, or track assets in the field, this is the open source platform that handles the device side. It speaks over 200 GPS protocols and supports more than 2000 device models, which means almost any tracker you buy will just work once you point it at your Traccar server. Self-hosting is a Java backend plus any major SQL database. It's not heavy, but it's not zero-effort. You need a server with a public address, a domain, an SSL cert, and a database. The web client and mobile apps are separate open source projects, all maintained by the same team. Geofencing, alarms, reports, and email and SMS notifications are all in the core product. Solo and small operators: self-host. The hardware costs are negligible and you own the data, which matters in fleet management where customer location data is sensitive. Large fleets with compliance requirements should look at Traccar Cloud, the same project's hosted offering. The pricing per device is reasonable and it removes the operational burden. The catch: Traccar's UI looks like it was designed by engineers for engineers. It's functional, not polished, and managers used to commercial fleet products like Samsara or Verizon Connect will notice the gap. The data is all there, just not packaged as prettily.