Apache HTTP ServerThe Apache HTTP Server, the web server that carried the early web and has served a huge share of all websites continuously since 1995. Its permissive licence and module architecture set the template for collaborative open source infrastructure, and gave the Apache Software Foundation its name.CaddyModern web server that made HTTPS the default: automatic certificate provisioning and renewal via Let's Encrypt, HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 out of the box, all configured in a few readable lines.CertbotThe EFF's client for Let's Encrypt that automated free TLS certificates and, together with that CA, encrypted most of the web within a few years — one of the clearest security victories free software has ever delivered.HugoStatic site generator written in Go and famous for its build speed — thousands of pages rendered in seconds from Markdown. Sites built with it are plain files, trivially mirrored and effectively immortal.IPFS KuboThe reference implementation of IPFS, the content-addressed peer-to-peer file system where data is found by what it is, not where it sits. Content addressing is a foundational technique for censorship-resistant preservation.JekyllThe static site generator that started the modern static web movement: plain text and templates become a complete site with no database or server-side code to break or be breached. It has powered GitHub Pages since 2008.MinifluxMinimalist self-hosted feed reader written in Go — a single binary that keeps RSS, the open protocol of the independent web, practical and alive after the death of centralised readers.Nextcloud ServerSelf-hosted file synchronisation and collaboration platform — files, calendars, contacts, talk and office editing under your own roof instead of someone else's cloud. Forked from ownCloud in 2016, it is the most widely used free alternative to proprietary cloud suites.NGINXHigh-performance web server, reverse proxy and load balancer engineered by Igor Sysoev around an event-driven architecture that solved the C10K problem. It serves a large share of the busiest sites on the internet.qBittorrentFree BitTorrent client built on libtorrent with an integrated search engine, RSS downloader and web interface — the community's answer to adware-laden proprietary clients. BitTorrent itself remains one of the great tools of digital preservation and distribution.SearXNGSelf-hostable metasearch engine that queries dozens of search services and returns combined results without profiling, tracking or ads. Hundreds of public instances give users a search box that answers to no advertiser.SyncthingContinuous peer-to-peer file synchronisation that keeps folders identical across devices without any central server — encrypted, open protocol, no account required. A working demonstration that "cloud convenience" does not require surrendering your data.TransmissionLightweight BitTorrent client known for its minimal resource use and clean native interfaces on every platform, plus a headless daemon widely run on servers and NAS boxes. A quiet workhorse of file distribution since 2005.WordPressThe publishing system behind roughly four in ten websites — a 2003 fork of b2/cafelog that grew into the world's most widespread CMS. Its GPL licence and open plugin ecosystem have kept an enormous share of the web on free software foundations.
