SourceForge

SourceForge is the legend in the business of open source technology at a time when open source looks potentially like the face of the future. Open source projects have become a beloved darling in the development community for a number of reasons. It creates a level of transparency between developer and customer, and this level of transparency has a tendency to foster passionate, clever, and well-educated communities who can then help improve the technology and support it with a variety of extensions, mods, and plug-ins. But developing a software project isn't easy, and it's doubly so when all the decisions you make are under the open scrutiny of the public. That's where SourceForge comes in. They offer a platform that their users can use to handle every aspect of the open source development process and even monetize additional parts of their platform to support their development. Over the years, they've developed into the leading directory for open source projects, and this extra degree of profile would make them one of the top choices around for hosting open source projects, even if they didn't offer their clients a wide range of important tools and features. SourceForge was the first company to offer these sort of open source hosting services for free, and it's a model that's served them well. Today, SourceForge is home to over 300,000 projects, and it serves over three million registered users. Everything developers need to map the progress and success of their project are nicely integrated into the SourceForge dashboard. The download and statistics panels allow you to track the downloads for your project including information on the platforms used, and it gives you a wide range of data points to choose from, including geographical location and time of download. All of these statistical overlays are absolutely free to any developer, and there are no limits to how many downloads SourceForge allows. But you won't get much in the way of downloads if customers don't know how to discover you. Fortunately, SourceForge got smart with their open source directory. You get to choose the category for your project in a wide number of different fields, meaning users can narrow down their results to hone in on precisely what your platform offers or simply stumble upon you when browsing in more broad categories. Open source typically works best when there are open conversations, and SourceForge puts all the tools you need for open and pleasant interaction front and center. Discussion forums can be set up for your specific project, and mailing lists and blogs are also supported. SourceForge even provides you with the tools you need to oversee the technical aspects of the development process through a slick issue tracking system, a powerful and color-coded code repository system, and multiple formats for your documentation.