In 2024, the open source ecosystem experienced significant growth, particularly in AI and developer tooling. A new report by Runa Capital, based on the Runa Open Source Startup (ROSS) Index, highlights the top 20 commercial open source startups that dominated the year. These startups, all under 10 years old and with less than $100 million in funding, showcased incredible progress in terms of GitHub “stars”—a metric for popularity and developer engagement. Here’s a look back at the leading projects and trends that shaped the open source landscape in 2024.
1. Ollama
Ollama, a Y Combinator alum, took the top spot with its open-source tool for running LLMs like Meta’s Llama and DeepSeek locally on desktop systems. The project grew 261%, garnering over 105,000 GitHub stars by the end of 2024.
2. Zed Industries
Zed Industries made a big splash in early 2024 with its cross-platform collaborative code editor designed for both humans and AI. The project went open-source in January and quickly gained 52,000 stars by year-end.
3. LangGenius
LangGenius, behind the Dify LLM app development platform, showed tremendous growth, with GitHub stars surging 326%, reaching 57,000 stars by the end of 2024.
4. ComfyUI
ComfyUI, a node-based platform for generating AI-generated images, videos, and audio, saw a 195% growth, attaining nearly 62,000 stars.
5. All Hands
The OpenHands platform for building software development agents was another standout, securing 39,600 stars by the end of its first year and continuing to grow through 2024.
A Year of AI Dominance and Developer Tooling
While the ROSS Index confirms the dominance of AI-related projects, developer tools also remain a hot area for open source innovation. Zed Industries and Astral’s UV (No. 9) demonstrated the ongoing importance of collaborative platforms for developers, while projects like Stirling PDF and Maybe Finance highlighted the growing need for privacy-focused, self-hostable tools.
Even blockchain-focused startups like Fuel (No. 12) showed that Web3 is far from dead, with open source solutions continuing to thrive across different sectors.
A Global Movement
The ROSS Index paints a picture of a global open source movement, with six of the top 20 companies based in San Francisco, followed by three from Canada and others hailing from Europe, China, and Singapore. This diversity underscores the universal appeal and potential of open source technologies.
In conclusion, the open source startups of 2024 made substantial strides, particularly in the fields of AI, developer tools, and blockchain. These projects are not just influencing the tech industry but are also shaping the future of how software is developed and used around the world.
