Use great apps.
Skip the subscriptions.
Open Source Garden is a home for free, open software that needs the cloud to work. One account runs every app here. You pay only for what you actually use — usually cents a month — and your data is always yours to take with you.
New accounts start with a free $5 credit while we're in preview. No card needed.
Fair by design.
Most cloud software charges rent and keeps your data. This garden grows by different rules.
Pennies, not plans
A subscription bills you whether you use it or not. Here you pay for exactly the storage, syncing, and computing your own activity creates — a quiet month costs almost nothing.
Your data stays yours
Your account, files, and history live with the platform — not inside any one app. Export everything, or erase it, from one place, whenever you like.
Nothing hidden
Every app here publishes its full code for anyone in the world to inspect. What an app does with your data is public knowledge, not a company secret.
One account. A whole garden of apps.
No per-app sign-ups, no payment forms, no surprise invoices.
Create your account
Sign up once, free. Your account comes with a small credit, so you can start using apps right away.
Open any app
Every app in the garden works with your one account. No new passwords, no new billing details, ever.
See exactly what you spend
Every cent is itemized as it happens. Set a monthly limit for any app — or set it to zero to switch that app off.
The careful parts are handled in one place.
Apps here can't lose your password, leak your card, or run off with your files — because they never touch them. The platform does the dangerous work once, properly, for every app.
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Apps never see your password or card
Signing in and paying happen with the platform. An app only ever sees what you choose to do inside it.
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Limits apps can't break
Spending caps are enforced by the platform, not promised by the app. The limit you set is a hard wall.
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Backups and security, done once
Encryption, backups, and safety updates are the platform's job — so every app gets the same strong protection.
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Honesty you can check
Because every app's code is public, privacy claims aren't marketing — anyone can verify them.
Keeps your password, payments, backups, and security
Just software — public code, no servers of its own, no secrets
Your data, your balance, your limits — yours to keep or erase
Publish an app, not a company.
You built something useful — you shouldn't need a hosting bill, a billing system, and a security team to share it. Your users fund their own usage, so serving a million people costs you nothing.
No hosting bill
Ship a static bundle and serverless functions. The platform serves them; usage settles to each user.
No secrets to guard
Auth, payments, email, and AI are platform pass-throughs. Your public repo never holds a key.
Batteries included
Database, files, realtime, jobs, and AI share one identity and one spend model.
Stays truly open
No paywall needed to keep the lights on — the software can just be free.
import { createClient } from '@tallpond/sdk'
const tallpond = createClient({
gatewayUrl: 'https://api.tallpond.com',
clientId: APP_CLIENT_ID,
})
// Sign in once - your user is now the payer.
await tallpond.auth.signIn()
// Familiar APIs: access-checked, metered, theirs.
await tallpond.table('notes').insert({ title: 'Hi' })
await tallpond.resource(roomId).table('messages')
.select('id, body').orderBy('createdAt', 'asc')
// AI with no key to hold - the caller pays tokens.
await tallpond.ai.chat({
model: 'openai/gpt-4o',
messages: [{ role: 'user', content: 'Hello' }],
})
Software is becoming abundant.
Let's keep it open.
As software gets cheaper to create, it needs a fair place to live — cheap to use, safe to trust, and owned by no one but you. That's what we're growing here.