Pink Cockatoo
Tech name: ThoseDaysApp
Live now
Menstrual-cycle tracker. Your most personal data, on your own server.
Open source · AGPL
Free
ofbirds.org
Software that's yours to run.
A small flock of self-hostable apps — built in the open, run on your own machine, yours to keep.
Most software today is something you rent. ofbirds is the other bet — every app here is one you can run yourself.
It runs on someone else's computer, your data sits in someone else's account, and the day the terms change you're left holding nothing. Here, your data lives in your own database, on hardware you control.
The birds aren't all alike. Some are gifts — free, open source, kept aloft by donations. One is a young business — free while it's small, honest about the day that changes. What they share is the promise underneath: you can always host it yourself.
That's the line that never moves. Money here is optional — it buys convenience, or says thanks — it never stands between you and the software.
Always self-hostable
Every bird runs on your own box. No gate.
Money is optional
Donate if it helped. Pay only for hosting.
Your data stays yours
Self-host means the database is on your server.
The flock
4 live · 1 nestingPersonal apps
Open source, free forever — kept aloft by donations alone.
Indigo Swallow
Tech name: Fuel
Live now
AI calorie tracker — log a meal by typing it, snapping a photo, or scanning a barcode.
Open source · AGPL
Free
Micro-business apps
Free to self-host forever. Closed source — a young business, honest about the day that changes.
Mulberry Heron
Tech name: MulberryHeron
Nesting — soon
Item catalog with auto-computed labels + classification numbers. For teams.
Coming soon
Will be free to self-host (closed source), with a free early-access hosted option.
Homelab tooling
Open source or open-core tools for the self-hosting crowd.
Greylag Goose
Tech name: RestoreGuard
Live now
Backup audit for homelabs — proves every backup actually exists, is fresh, and isn't silently broken.
Open source · AGPL
Free core
The core auditor is free and open source (AGPL) — yours to self-host, always. A paid Pro tier (daemon, orchestration, report history) is planned later.
Pied Kingfisher
Tech name: difflab
Live now
See uncommitted working-tree diffs across every machine you own — the changes forges can't show you — colorized, from any browser, phone included.
Open source · AGPL
Free
One email per bird, only at launch — choose which nesting birds you want to hear about.
How this is funded — plainly
The open apps live on donations (PayPal or Patreon). Mulberry Heron is free while it's small and may add paid hosting as it grows — but self-hosting it stays free, so there's always a way out. Nothing here locks you in.
FAQ
What does "self-hostable" actually mean?
Each app ships as a Docker image you run on your own machine — a home server, a NAS, a Raspberry Pi, or a cheap VPS. The app, its database, and your data all live on hardware you control. Nothing phones home.
What do I need to run one?
A machine that runs Docker and a few hundred megabytes of RAM per app. Each repo comes with a compose file and a README that gets you from clone to running in a few minutes. If you can run one container, you can run a bird.
Is it really free? What's the catch?
The open-source birds are free, full stop — donations keep them fed, but nothing is paywalled. Mulberry Heron is a young business: free while it's small, and it may add paid hosting later. The promise that never moves is that self-hosting stays free for every bird, so there's always a way out.
What happens with my email when I join a waitlist?
It goes into our own database, on our own server, and is used for exactly one thing: a single email when that app launches. No newsletter, no sharing, no tracking pixel. Details in the privacy note.
Why birds?
Because software you self-host is like a bird you keep, not a zoo you visit. Each app gets a bird and a color, the flock grows slowly, and the raven guards the door.