Free alternatives to expensive research software

Open-source and free tools that replace SPSS, Stata, MATLAB, NVivo, EndNote and more. Picked for students, PhD researchers and academics working on a budget.

MATLAB alternatives SAS alternatives SPSS alternatives Stata alternatives E-Prime alternatives Mathematica alternatives MAXQDA alternatives NVivo alternatives

Numerical computing View all 8 →

Julia

Numerical computing

Fast, high-level language for technical computing

Stars: 49k
Licence: MIT
Status: Open source

Alternative to MATLAB

NumPy

Numerical computing

The fundamental package for array computing in Python

Stars: 33k
Licence: BSD-3-Clause
Status: Open source

Alternative to MATLAB

SciPy

Numerical computing

Algorithms for scientific computing in Python

Stars: 15k
Licence: BSD-3-Clause
Status: Open source

Alternative to MATLAB

Spyder

Numerical computing

Scientific Python IDE with a MATLAB-like layout

Stars: 9.4k
Licence: MIT
Status: Open source

Alternative to MATLAB

SageMath

Numerical computing

Open-source mathematics system built on Python

Stars: 2.6k
Licence: GPL-3.0
Status: Open source

Alternative to Mathematica, Maple

GNU Octave

Numerical computing

Scientific programming language largely compatible with MATLAB

Stars: 666
Licence: GPL-3.0
Status: Open source

Alternative to MATLAB

Statistics View all 7 →

statsmodels

Statistics

Statistical models and tests for Python

Stars: 12k
Licence: BSD-3-Clause
Status: Open source

Alternative to Stata, SAS

RStudio Desktop

Statistics

Popular open-source IDE for R and Quarto

Stars: 5.1k
Licence: AGPL-3.0
Status: Open source

Alternative to SPSS, Stata

JASP

Statistics

Point-and-click statistics with classical and Bayesian tests

Stars: 1k
Licence: AGPL-3.0
Status: Open source

Alternative to SPSS, GraphPad Prism

jamovi

Statistics

Spreadsheet-style statistics app built on R

Stars: 790
Licence: AGPL-3.0
Status: Open source

Alternative to SPSS, Stata

GNU PSPP

Statistics

Free program for statistical analysis of sampled data, modelled on SPSS

Licence: GPL-3.0
Status: Open source

Alternative to SPSS

gretl

Statistics

Econometrics package with a menu interface and scripting

Licence: GPL-3.0
Status: Open source

Alternative to Stata

Writing & typesetting View all 5 →

Typst

Writing & typesetting

Modern markup-based typesetting system

Stars: 57k
Licence: Apache-2.0
Status: Open source

Alternative to Overleaf Premium

Overleaf Community Edition

Writing & typesetting

Self-hostable collaborative LaTeX editor

Stars: 18k
Licence: AGPL-3.0
Status: Open source

Alternative to Overleaf Premium

LanguageTool

Writing & typesetting

Open-source grammar, style and spell checker

Stars: 15k
Licence: LGPL-2.1
Status: Open source

Alternative to Grammarly

LibreOffice

Writing & typesetting

Free office suite from The Document Foundation

Stars: 4.5k
Licence: MPL-2.0
Status: Open source

Alternative to Microsoft Office

TeXstudio

Writing & typesetting

Feature-rich desktop editor for LaTeX documents

Stars: 3.7k
Licence: GPL-3.0
Status: Open source

Alternative to Overleaf Premium

Surveys & experiments View all 5 →

LimeSurvey

Surveys & experiments

Open-source online survey platform

Stars: 3.8k
Licence: GPL-2.0
Status: Open source

Alternative to Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey

PsychoPy

Surveys & experiments

Build behavioural experiments with a GUI or Python

Stars: 2.1k
Licence: GPL-3.0
Status: Open source

Alternative to E-Prime

jsPsych

Surveys & experiments

JavaScript library for running experiments in the browser

Stars: 1.2k
Licence: MIT
Status: Open source

Alternative to E-Prime

OpenSesame

Surveys & experiments

Graphical experiment builder for the social sciences

Stars: 281
Licence: GPL-3.0
Status: Open source

Alternative to E-Prime

KoboToolbox

Surveys & experiments

Data collection for field research, online and offline

Stars: 186
Licence: AGPL-3.0
Status: Open source

Alternative to Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey

Qualitative analysis View all 3 →

QualCoder

Qualitative analysis

Qualitative data analysis for text, images, audio and video

Stars: 694
Licence: LGPL-3.0
Status: Open source

Alternative to NVivo, ATLAS.ti

CATMA

Qualitative analysis

Web-based text annotation and analysis for the humanities

Stars: 104
Licence: GPL-3.0
Status: Open source

Alternative to NVivo, MAXQDA

Taguette

Qualitative analysis

Free and open-source tool for qualitative research

Licence: BSD-3-Clause
Status: Open source

Alternative to NVivo, ATLAS.ti

Data science & workflows View all 3 →

JupyterLab

Data science & workflows

Web-based notebooks for code, data and narrative

Stars: 15k
Licence: BSD-3-Clause
Status: Open source

Alternative to MATLAB, Mathematica

Orange

Data science & workflows

Visual programming for data mining and machine learning

Stars: 5.7k
Licence: GPL-3.0
Status: Open source

Alternative to SPSS Modeler

KNIME Analytics Platform

Data science & workflows

Free, open-source platform for visual data workflows

Licence: GPL-3.0
Status: Open source

Alternative to SPSS Modeler, SAS

Reference management View all 2 →

Zotero

Reference management

Free tool to collect, organise, cite and share research

Stars: 16k
Licence: AGPL-3.0
Status: Open source

Alternative to EndNote, Mendeley

JabRef

Reference management

Open-source reference manager built around BibTeX

Stars: 4.8k
Licence: MIT
Status: Open source

Alternative to EndNote, Mendeley

Plotting & graphing View all 2 →

LabPlot

Plotting & graphing

Data visualisation and analysis from KDE

Stars: 487
Licence: GPL-2.0
Status: Open source

Alternative to Origin, GraphPad Prism

SciDAVis

Plotting & graphing

Scientific data analysis and visualisation

Stars: 145
Licence: GPL-2.0
Status: Open source

Alternative to Origin

Image analysis View all 2 →

QuPath

Image analysis

Open-source software for bioimage and digital pathology analysis

Stars: 1.5k
Licence: GPL-3.0
Status: Open source

Alternative to Imaris

Fiji (ImageJ)

Image analysis

ImageJ distribution with batteries included for scientific imaging

Stars: 1k
Licence: GPL-3.0
Status: Open source

Alternative to Imaris

Why free research software? More →

Licences for SPSS, Stata, MATLAB and NVivo can cost students and early-career researchers hundreds of pounds a year, and university site licences usually end the day you graduate or change institution.

Open-source tools keep working after you leave, run on your own laptop, and make your analysis easier for others to reproduce, because anyone can install the same software for free.

Every tool here is free to use. Most are fully open source; where a tool is free but not open source, or has paid tiers, the listing says so.

Free alternatives to expensive research software

Numerical computing View all 8 →

Julia

NumPy

SciPy

Spyder

SageMath

GNU Octave

Statistics View all 7 →

statsmodels

RStudio Desktop

JASP

jamovi

GNU PSPP

gretl

Writing & typesetting View all 5 →

Typst

Overleaf Community Edition

LanguageTool

LibreOffice

TeXstudio

Surveys & experiments View all 5 →

LimeSurvey

PsychoPy

jsPsych

OpenSesame

KoboToolbox

Qualitative analysis View all 3 →

QualCoder

CATMA

Taguette

Data science & workflows View all 3 →

JupyterLab

Orange

KNIME Analytics Platform

Reference management View all 2 →

Zotero

JabRef

Plotting & graphing View all 2 →

LabPlot

SciDAVis

Image analysis View all 2 →

QuPath

Fiji (ImageJ)

Why free research software? More →

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