5 Free Open Source Tools to Replace Grammarly, Loom and Typeform

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You're probably paying every month for apps that have a free, open source twin.

Grammarly checks your writing. Loom records your screen. ChatGPT Plus answers your questions. Otter and Descript transcribe your calls. Typeform builds your forms. Each one bills you for something you can run yourself.

These five free, open source tools do the same jobs. Three run on your own computer, so your data stays with you. The other two, Cap and OpnForm, are free when you self-host them. Below is what each tool replaces, what it does, and every link.

What does each free tool replace?

Harper: an offline Grammarly alternative

Harper is an offline grammar checker with over 15,000 stars on GitHub. It catches your mistakes like Grammarly does, but it runs locally, so what you write never leaves your computer.

Cap: a free Loom alternative for screen recording

Cap records your screen and gives you a shareable link in one click, just like Loom. Its hosted plan has a free tier with limits, so for fully free shareable links, self-host it on your own server, on AWS for example.

Jan: a ChatGPT-style assistant that runs offline

Jan runs AI models on your own computer, 100% offline. It has over 44,000 stars on GitHub, and it gives you a ChatGPT-style assistant with no subscription and no data leaving your machine.

WhisperX: transcripts with every word timestamped

Point WhisperX at a recording and you get a full transcript, with a timestamp on every word and labels for who said what. It replaces per-minute transcription services like Otter and Descript. It's a command-line tool, so you run it from your terminal.

OpnForm: an open source Typeform alternative

OpnForm is an open source form builder that works like Typeform. Build surveys, lead forms and quizzes without ever hitting a paywall.

Want to go further than swapping apps? Read our insights on AI implementation, or take the free AI bottleneck test to find where AI would save your team the most time.