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Top 10 Best Open Source Projects of 2025
From the kernel running 96% of the world's web servers to the model powering your favorite AI chatbot, open source is the invisible backbone of 2025. We ranked the year's ten most impactful projects using three measurable signals: GitHub star growth, package-manager download velocity (npm, PyPI, Maven Central), and active contributor count. Whether you're a backend engineer, an ML practitioner, or a front-end developer, these are the projects worth watching — and voting on — this year. **VOTE: Which project do you think deserves the #1 spot? Use the vote button at the top of the page. SUBSCRIBE to our weekly newsletter below for next month's rankings.**
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Open Source Projects 2025 — Frequently Asked Questions
## What counts as an "open source project" on this list?
All ten projects are released under an OSI-approved license (or a permissive source-available license, in the case of Meta's Llama) and accept public contributions through GitHub or equivalent platforms.
## How were the 10 projects ranked?
Rankings are based on 2025 GitHub star growth, package-manager download velocity (npm, PyPI, Maven Central), and observable community adoption signals such as issue activity and contributor count.
## Why is Linux Kernel ranked #1 in 2025?
The Linux kernel underpins an estimated 96.4% of the top one million web servers and every one of the Fortune 500 supercomputers, making it the single most deployed open source artifact on the planet.
## Are these the same as the GitHub Octoverse top 10?
Not necessarily. This list blends infrastructure projects (Linux, Kubernetes), AI/ML projects (PyTorch, Hugging Face, Llama, Ollama, Stable Diffusion), and front-end frameworks (React, Next.js, shadcn/ui) that had measurable impact on how software was built in 2025.
## Where can I learn more about a specific project?
Each item on the list links to the project's official site or repository. Use the vote button at the top of the page to tell us which project you think deserves the top spot.
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