A recent analysis highlights the top 20 trending open source startups globally, with over half of these companies significantly linked to artificial intelligence (AI).
Overview of the ROSS Index
The report, compiled by the European venture capital firm Runa Capital, reflects the Runa Open Source Startup (ROSS) Index, which has tracked high-growth projects since 2020 based on their GitHub “star” counts—a metric indicating user approval similar to a “like” on social media. Starting in 2023, Runa began issuing annual reports that identify the most popular commercial open source startups.
Last year, AI and data infrastructure emerged as key drivers for open source tools, with LangChain leading the index for its framework tailored for large language model (LLM) applications. This trend has continued, with AI being central to 11 out of the top 20 companies this year.
Projects included in the ROSS Index must be linked to a commercial entity, must be relatively new (less than 10 years old), have raised under $100 million in funding, and must remain independent, excluding subsidiaries or publicly traded organizations.
Top Performers of the 2024 ROSS Index
The leading position in the 2024 ROSS Index is held by Ollama, a startup from Y Combinator, offering an open source tool for running LLMs like Meta’s Llama locally. Ollama saw its GitHub star count rise by approximately 261% in 2024, reaching over 105,000 stars.
Second is Zed Industries, known for its collaborative code editor designed for enhancing productivity in human and AI collaboration. Following its transition to open source in January 2024, it accumulated over 52,000 GitHub stars throughout the year.
The third spot goes to LangGenius, which produces Dify, an open source platform for LLM app development. Dify’s GitHub stars increased by 326%, achieving nearly 57,000 this past year and currently surpassing 84,000 stars.
Next, ComfyUI ranks fourth with its node-based software for generating multimedia using generative AI models, accumulating 61,900 stars—a growth of 195% over the last year.
Completing the top five is All Hands, which developed OpenHands, a platform for building software development agents. OpenHands generated 39,600 stars upon launch last March, with an additional 12,000 stars since then.
The growth of AI and LLMs remains evident in the index while developer tools like Zed and Astral’s UV (ranked ninth) continue to attract attention. Tools focused on privacy and self-hosting, like Stirling PDF (seventh) and Maybe Finance (eighth), also indicate substantial market demand. The index showcases a presence of blockchain technology with Fuel (twelfth), underscoring the ongoing relevance of the crypto and web3 sectors.
Insights into Trends and Geographical Distribution
The report illustrates how open source software fosters a global reach, with community contributions stemming from various regions. It notes that six of the top 20 startups are located in San Francisco, with three from Canada, while Europe, Singapore, and China make up the rest.
Methodology of the ROSS Index
There are alternative means to gauge trending open source projects, such as the Open Source Index by Two Sigma Ventures, which encompasses the top 100 projects without a focus on commercial startups. GitHub itself offers a trending project list without this commercial lens.
The methodology underpinning the ROSS Index emphasizes the relative growth of repositories over 90-day periods for quarterly reports and total star gains for annual assessments. This approach provides a more nuanced view of project popularity beyond static star counts, as older projects tend to have higher star totals.
It’s important to note that the definition of “open source” can vary. While many projects adhere to recognized licenses, the ROSS Index operates under a commercial understanding of open source, which may include projects licensed under terms not recognized by the Open Source Initiative.
Overall, the ROSS Index serves as a valuable resource not only for tracking emerging technologies in open source but also for identifying companies that aim to capitalize on these developments.