Our open source approach
Ikacode is a web design and development agency based on free and opensource solutions. Find out on this page what this means and what solutions we implement in all our projects.
Why choose opensource?
Opensource software is a computer program whose code is open, i.e. it can be consulted by anyone. It differs from proprietary software in that its code is not disclosed. To take a very simple example, Microsoft Office is proprietary software, while Libre Office is opensource (as well as free).
Why is this important?
When you use a proprietary solution, you can’t be 100% sure of what’s happening to your data. What’s more, despite our initial intuition, revealing a software’s entire ode, rather than making it more prone to attack and piracy, is the best way to quickly detect and correct any bugs or weaknesses, thanks to the support of a dynamic community.
What about free software?
Free and Open-source softwares (FOSS) go further than just opening up their code, and rely on the philosophical belief that the end user should keep a total freedom. Richard Stallman, who founded free “Free Software Foundation”, explains that “Free software is a political movement; open source is a development model.” (read more). FOSS allow the end user to:
- use the software without restriction
- study the software
- modify the software freely
- redistribute the software
WordPress is an example of free software, which is also a great success in the sense that a large proportion of websites in existence today are powered by it.
Open source software is a powerful lever for resilience
Building a project based on free software frees you from many of the risks inherent in using proprietary solutions, such as price fluctuations, changes in conditions of use, or simply the closure of the company developing the code.
Open-source software also allows you to retain control over your data, as it can be installed on the server of your choice, enabling you to store your data in Europe, for example, or even directly on your company’s premises. The security benefits are also clear.
Free and open source solutions used at Ikacode
Without going into an exhaustive list, here are some of the free and open source software we use for our web projects.
We can help deploying opensource solutions for your project based on your needs.
- Official website
Bitwarden
Password manager ideal for securely managing and sharing data within a company. Also supports 2FA and Passkey. Ikacode provides a free Premium account for life to all its customers via its instance hosted on our European servers.
- Official website
Gimp
Image-editing software similar to Photoshop.
- Official website
Inkscape
Vector drawing software similar to Adobe Illustrator, generating files in open .svg format.
- Official website
Linux Fedora
Linux distribution installed for our work, with root disk encryption for optimum security.
- Official website
Listmonk
Self-hosting newsletter management software, for real control over your marketing communications.
- Official website
Matomo Analytics
Highly advanced audience analysis solution recommended by the CNIL. Ikacode allows its customers to benefit from its European hosted instance for optimal RGPD compliance.
- Official website
Nextcloud
A rich collaborative work suite for document sharing, videoconferencing and project management. All our projects are backed up and synchronised via our own Nextcloud instance hosted in Europe.
- Official website
Peertube
PeerTube is an online video-sharing tool designed by Framasoft, a French not-for-profit association. It lets you broadcast videos in the same way as on Youtube, on a self-hosted instance. Ikacode has its own instance for distributing educational content on WordPress and the web in general.
- Official website
Penpot
A solid alternative to Figma, Penpot's design software gives you control over your project data and is built on open standards.
- Official website
Perfex CRM
Software for project management, invoicing and much more. This is the client portal used at Ikacode to keep control of all our sensitive data, hosted on our server in Europe.
- Official website
Uptime Kuma
Self-hosted continuous website monitoring solution.
- Official website
WordPress
This is the content management system (CMS) that enables all the data on a website to be managed via a graphical interface, and has been around for over 20 years. Around 30% of all websites use it. It's the tool at the heart of all our projects.
