Open Source Software Market Report 2025

This Open Source Software market report provides a comprehensive analysis of the market’s characteristics, size, and growth, including segmentation, regional and country-level breakdowns, competitive landscape, market shares, trends, and strategies. It also tracks historical and forecasted market growth across various geographies.

The open source software market size has grown rapidly in recent years. It will grow from $41.83 billion in 2024 to $48.92 billion in 2025 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.9%. The growth in the historic period can be attributed to increased access to open-source platforms, increased emphasis on technology education, growth in government initiatives, rise in the cost pressures, increased demand for collaborative, and flexible software solutions.

The open source software market size is expected to see rapid growth in the next few years. It will grow to $90.66 billion in 2029 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.7%. The growth in the forecast period can be attributed to increasing numbers of organizations, rising availability of open APIs, rising use of open-source software by businesses, increasing shift towards cloud-based infrastructure, increasing awareness of security benefits. Major trends in the forecast period include technological advancements, ethical licensing models, cloud-based open-source software, quantum computing frameworks, low-code and no-code development.

The growing number of small businesses is expected to drive the growth of the open-source software market moving forward. Small businesses are typically privately owned, operated by a limited number of employees, and generate relatively low revenue and profits compared to larger corporations. These businesses are fueled by technological innovations, globalization, evolving workforce trends, government support, market opportunities, cost efficiency, and an entrepreneurial mindset. Open-source software benefits small businesses by offering affordable solutions to meet their needs, allowing them to access high-quality software without the high costs of proprietary alternatives. For example, in October 2023, the Department for Business and Trade, a UK-based government agency, reported that the number of small businesses grew from 217 in 2022 to 223 in 2023. The number of medium-sized businesses remained steady at 36 in 2021 and 2022, increasing to 37 in 2023. As such, the rising number of small businesses is driving the growth of the open-source software market.

Prominent players in the open-source software sector are concentrating on crafting edge-optimized operating systems, such as Red Hat Device Edge, to bolster open-source communities. Red Hat Device Edge, an edge-optimized operating system, facilitates computing by providing the essential infrastructure and capabilities for efficient data processing at the network's edge. For instance, in October 2022, Red Hat Inc., a U.S.-based provider of open-source software products, unveiled Red Hat Device Edge, an edge-optimized operating system. This product empowers enterprises to deploy only the essential software components, thereby reducing the attack surface and resource utilization. It simplifies the management of edge devices and their associated workloads, allowing enterprises to deploy workloads on resource-limited devices at the furthest edge. Additionally, it offers security features such as intelligent device upgrades, zero-touch provisioning, and rapid security patches.

In April 2024, Cisco Systems Inc., a U.S.-based digital communications technology corporation, acquired Isovalent for an undisclosed sum. This acquisition is aimed at enhancing Cisco's capabilities in cloud-native networking and security while also expanding its dedication to the open-source ecosystem, particularly in the eBPF technology domain. Isovalent is a U.S.-based company that provides open-source software for cloud-native service connectivity, security, and observability.

Major companies operating in the open source software market are Intel Corporation, International Business Machines Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Transcend Information Inc., F5 Inc., Red Hat Inc., Mozilla Corporation, SUSE S.A., Progress Software Corporation, HashiCorp, Acquia Inc., Canonical Ltd., Aptean, Puppet Inc., TYPO3, MariaDB Corporation, The Linux Foundation, Redpill Linpro., ClearCenter, KDE, Eclipse Foundation AISBL, The Apache Software Foundation, Python Software Foundation, FossID, RethinkDB.

North America was the largest region in the open source software market in 2024. The regions covered in the open source software market report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East, Africa. The countries covered in the open source software market report are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK, USA, Canada, Italy, Spain.

Open source software encompasses programs that come with their source code available, enabling users to examine, alter, and distribute them freely. This stands in contrast to proprietary software, where the source code is typically concealed and managed by the developer or vendor. The open-source approach fosters collaboration and community-led development, resulting in software that is more transparent, adaptable, and economical compared to its proprietary counterparts.

The primary categories of open-source software include shareware, bundled software, and Berkeley source distribution (BSD). Shareware is a software distribution method that permits users to test it before purchasing. It finds applications in various sectors such as professional services, managed services, small and medium enterprises, large enterprises including banking, financial services, insurance (BFSI), education, manufacturing, healthcare, life sciences, retail, distribution, and other end-users.

The open-source software market research report is one of a series of new reports that provides open-source software market statistics, including open-source software industry global market size, regional shares, competitors with an open-source software market share, detailed open-source software market segments, market trends and opportunities, and any further data you may need to thrive in the open-source software industry. This open-source software market research report delivers a complete perspective of everything you need, with an in-depth analysis of the current and future scenario of the industry.

The open source software market includes revenues earned by entities by providing services such as community support, security, and educational opportunities. The market value includes the value of related goods sold by the service provider or included within the service offering. Only goods and services traded between entities or sold to end consumers are included.

The market value is defined as the revenues that enterprises gain from the sale of goods and/or services within the specified market and geography through sales, grants, or donations in terms of the currency (in USD, unless otherwise specified).

The revenues for a specified geography are consumption values that are revenues generated by organizations in the specified geography within the market, irrespective of where they are produced. It does not include revenues from resales along the supply chain, either further along the supply chain or as part of other products.

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