Free Self-Hosted Debian Alternatives

There are many alternatives to Debian as a self-hosted solution if you are looking for a replacement. The best free Self-Hosted alternative is FreeBSD, which is also Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 100 alternatives to Debian and 15 are free and available as a self-hosted solution so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting free Self-Hosted alternatives to Debian are NixOS, Haiku, GNU Guix and Xinuos OpenServer™ 10.

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Debian alternatives page was last updated

Alternatives list

  1. FreeBSD icon
     269 likes

    FreeBSD is an operating system used to power modern servers, desktops, and embedded platforms. A large community has continually developed it for more than thirty years. Its advanced networking, security, and storage features have made FreeBSD the platform of choice for many of...

    199 FreeBSD alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • BSD
    • Self-Hosted
     
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    FreeBSD vs Debian Comments
    OAKSIF0
    Positive
    2

    Very stable and secure like Debian, but not Linux its BSD based. FreeBSD has been used as a base system for secure computing environments.

    • FreeBSD is Free and Open SourceDebian is also Free and Open Source
  2. NixOS icon
     70 likes

    NixOS is a GNU/Linux distribution that aims to improve the state of the art in system configuration management. In existing distributions, actions such as upgrades are dangerous: upgrading a package can cause other packages to break, upgrading an entire system is much less...

    194 NixOS alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
     
  3. Haiku icon
     102 likes

    Haiku is an open-source operating system that specifically targets personal computing. Inspired by the BeOS, Haiku is fast, simple to use, easy to learn and yet very powerful.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Haiku
    • Self-Hosted
     
  4. GNU Guix icon
     23 likes

    A purely functional package manager and an advanced distribution of the GNU operating system developed by the GNU Project—which respects the freedom of computer users.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Self-Hosted
    • GNU Hurd
     
  5. Xinuos OpenServer™ 10 is a 64-bit operating system based on the popular FreeBSD and designed to support business applications within an enterprise environment.

    158 Xinuos OpenServer™ 10 alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Self-Hosted
     
  6. OpenIndiana icon
     14 likes

    OpenIndiana is a robust enterprise operating system, based on the illumos kernel. It is open source, free to use, community developed, and suitable for servers and desktops.

    97 OpenIndiana alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
    • OpenSolaris
     
  7. Calculate Linux is based on Gentoo that is well known for its stability and great performance on a broad range of hardware: from Pentium Pro to modern CPUs.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Self-Hosted
     
  8. MINIX 3 icon
     10 likes

    MINIX is a POSIX-compliant Unix-like operating system based on a tiny microkernel running in kernel mode with the rest of the operating system running as a number of isolated, protected, processes in user mode.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Self-Hosted
     
  9. KolibriOS icon
     16 likes

    KolibriOS is a tiny yet incredibly powerful and fast operating system. This power requires only a few megabyte disk space and 8MB of RAM to run. Kolibri features a rich set of applications that include word processor, image viewer, graphical editor, web browser and well over 30...

    80 KolibriOS alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
     
  10. MidnightBSD icon
     6 likes

    BSD-derived desktop OS designed for usability, featuring graphical ports management, GNUstep system configuration, standard tools for daily tasks including email, web browsing, and word processing, supporting multiple licenses like BSD, X.org, and GNUstep.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Self-Hosted
     
  11. ArozOS icon
     2 likes

    General purposed Web Desktop Operating Platform / OS for Raspberry Pis, Now written in Go! - tobychui/arozos

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
     
  12. Minoca OS icon
     5 likes

    Minoca OS is a general purpose operating system designed specifically for feature-rich embedded devices. It's got all the high-level functionality that you've come to expect from an operating system, but offers it in a fraction of the memory footprint.

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
     
12 of 15 Debian alternatives