5 Open Source Tools Every Startup Needs in 2026

Five open source tools, one connected stack, $70 a month for the whole company. Not per seat. Hire five people next month, the bill does not move. Matomo to see, Supabase to build, Metabase to decide, Chatwoot to serve, n8n to connect them all together. This is Elestio's channel and we sell managed hosting for these tools, so assume a bias and check every link below. All prices are public list prices, checked on 28 September 2026. DEPLOY THE STACK Matomo https://elest.io/open-source/matomo Supabase https://elest.io/open-source/supabase Metabase https://elest.io/open-source/metabase Chatwoot https://elest.io/open-source/chatwoot n8n https://elest.io/open-source/n8n All 400+ open source services https://elest.io CHAPTERS 00:00 Start here 00:16 Matomo, analytics you actually own 01:15 Supabase, the backend 02:31 Metabase, the numbers 03:32 Chatwoot, support 04:36 n8n, the glue 06:03 What we left out, and why 06:50 The money 07:13 Recap THE STACK, TOOL BY TOOL MATOMO, web analytics. Your data stays in your database, no sampling, and it can run without cookies. In France the CNIL lists specific Matomo configurations as exempt from consent. Imports your Google Analytics history. Tag manager built in. Heatmaps and session recordings are premium plugins, not part of the free core. Deploy it: https://elest.io/open-source/matomo Project: https://matomo.org SUPABASE, the backend. Real Postgres underneath, so you leave with a standard dump. Auth, auto-generated REST API, row level security, realtime, storage and pgvector included. Self hosted it is a small fleet of services, not one process. Deploy it: https://elest.io/open-source/supabase Project: https://supabase.com METABASE, business intelligence. Plugs straight into the Supabase Postgres, no export. Question builder without SQL, dashboard filters, email subscriptions and threshold alerts. SSO and per user data sandboxing are in the paid tiers. Deploy it: https://elest.io/open-source/metabase Project: https://www.metabase.com CHATWOOT, customer support. One inbox for website chat, email, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Telegram and SMS. Canned responses, private notes, help center, CSAT surveys. Heavier than the rest, give it real memory. Deploy it: https://elest.io/open-source/chatwoot Project: https://www.chatwoot.com N8N, automation. Visual workflows, 300+ integrations, plain HTTP and Postgres for everything else, code nodes in JavaScript or Python, native AI agent nodes and MCP support. Turn on error workflows from day one. Deploy it: https://elest.io/open-source/n8n Project: https://n8n.io FOLLOW ELESTIO Website https://elest.io X https://x.com/elest_io LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/elestio GitHub https://github.com/elestio YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@elestio Documentation https://docs.elest.io