Open-Source Tools
Software for surveys, statistics, writing, and reproducible research, selected for practical academic and teaching workflows. All are free and open-source.
Start here
If you are choosing quickly, start with JASP or jamovi for point-and-click statistics teaching, move to R + RStudio when you need programmable analysis and full reproducibility, use Quarto for reports and teaching materials, choose surveyframe when you need a full survey research pipeline from instrument design to analysis report inside R, and choose LimeSurvey or KoboToolbox when your data collection requires structured logic or offline fieldwork.
Statistics and analysis
R is the statistical language behind the teaching suite, and RStudio Desktop is the open-source development environment used for most of that work. Supports descriptive statistics, modelling, visualisation, and reproducible reporting.
Who should use it
Researchers and postgraduate students who want full analytical control, reproducible outputs, and a toolchain that scales from coursework to publishable analysis.
A point-and-click statistics application developed by the University of Amsterdam. Covers standard frequentist tests and adds Bayesian counterparts alongside them. Output is formatted in APA style and exported directly to Word or PDF.
Who should use it
Undergraduate and postgraduate students, faculty who want a clean teaching tool, and practitioners who need statistical results without writing code.
Like JASP, jamovi provides a free, open-source interface for common statistical tests, with a spreadsheet-like data view. Supports mediation, moderation, and factor analysis via the jmv and medmod modules, and runs R beneath the surface.
Who should use it
Students transitioning from Excel to proper statistical software, or anyone who needs a familiar spreadsheet layout alongside inferential statistics.
A free drop-in replacement for SPSS, maintained by the GNU project. Reads and writes .sav files, supports the most common SPSS syntax, and covers regression, ANOVA, factor analysis, and non-parametric tests.
Who should use it
Students and instructors who still work in SPSS-oriented environments but need a fully open-source option for teaching, practice, or light applied analysis.
Survey and data collection
An R package for end-to-end survey research workflows built around a typed instrument object. Visual instrument design, static HTML export, an embeddable Shiny module, response quality checking, psychometric diagnostics, and reproducible HTML reporting. Live on CRAN.
Who should use it
Researchers and postgraduate students who design, deploy, and analyse questionnaire-based studies in R and want a reproducible, self-contained pipeline from instrument design to analysis report.
A full-featured open-source survey platform that supports complex branching logic, quota management, multiple languages, and direct SPSS/R export. Can be self-hosted for data sovereignty or deployed through institutional hosting.
Who should use it
Researchers designing structured questionnaires with complex logic, multi-language instruments, or any study requiring formal sampling controls.
Designed for data collection in low-connectivity environments. Supports offline collection on Android, GPS stamping, image capture, and direct export to SPSS, Stata, or Excel. Hosted free for academic researchers.
Who should use it
Researchers collecting field data in locations with unstable internet, distributed teams, or device-based data capture requirements.
Writing and publishing
The publishing system behind the statistics teaching suite. Produces the book, companion site, lecture decks, worked examples, and related materials from a single source project, keeping content and output format separate.
Who should use it
Anyone producing textbooks, course materials, technical reports, or academic papers who wants reproducible, version-controlled outputs.
Reference management software that captures references directly from browser pages, PDFs, and DOI lookups. Generates citations and bibliographies in APA, MLA, Chicago, and hundreds of journal-specific formats.
Who should use it
Students, researchers, and faculty who manage literature reviews, academic writing, or citation-heavy teaching materials.
A complete Microsoft Office alternative: Writer for documents, Calc for spreadsheets, and Impress for presentations. Reads and writes .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx formats without conversion loss in most cases.
Who should use it
Students and instructors who want a fully open-source office suite for everyday writing, spreadsheets, and slide preparation.
Reproducible research and teaching
The version-control system behind reproducible teaching and research workflows. Keeps manuscripts, slides, datasets, and code in a traceable history and allows teaching materials to be rebuilt from known states.
Who should use it
Anyone maintaining textbooks, lecture materials, code, or analysis scripts who wants version history, safer collaboration, and repeatable release workflows.
WebR compiles R to WebAssembly, allowing R code to run directly in a web browser with no server, no installation, and no account. Particularly effective for interactive statistical examples with live parameter changes.
Who should use it
Instructors and authors who want interactive browser-based statistical examples without requiring students to install software first.
My own workshop tool
The one item on this page that is not a third-party download. Built in-house rather than curated.
A six-part browser tool covering positioning, CV building, LinkedIn profile, professional network map, digital footprint audit, and a portfolio export. Built for the Personal Branding workshop in the Villa College Master's Programme. Work is saved automatically in the browser, with export to a file to continue on another device.
Who should use it
Master's Programme students working through the Personal Branding workshop, or anyone wanting a structured pass at CV, LinkedIn, and network before a job search.