Best Self Hosted Alternatives to Cycle

Fider is an open-source feedback portal that helps teams collect feature requests and suggestions in one place. Users can submit ideas, vote, and discuss, while admins track statuses and prioritize what to build next.

Key Features

• Public idea board with feature voting and threaded discussions
• Admin workflow to review, start, complete, or decline suggestions with status updates
• Email notifications for subscribers when a suggestion changes status
• OAuth2 sign-in support and optional private sites for access control
• Tagging to organize ideas (including private tags)
• Markdown formatting for suggestion content
• Custom branding with logo and custom CSS
• Public API and webhook-based integrations (for example chat and incident tools)
• Multi-language user interface

Use Cases

• Centralize customer feedback and reduce scattered requests across email and chat
• Prioritize a product roadmap using voting signals and discussion context
• Run a public or private feature-request portal for internal teams or customers

Fider is a solid choice when you want a lightweight, focused feature-voting and feedback system that you can run in your own infrastructure while keeping stakeholders informed through a clear feedback loop.

Feedbase is an open-source product management tool for collecting user feedback and communicating product updates in a centralized public hub. It helps teams capture requests, engage with users, and share what changed via a simple changelog experience.

Key Features

• Public feedback hub for collecting user feedback and discussions
• Central dashboard to manage feedback and respond to user input
• Changelog publishing to share product updates and keep users informed
• Prioritization-oriented workflow (early-stage product direction)
• Built-in auth and database integration via Supabase

Use Cases

• Collect and triage feature requests from a product community
• Publish release notes and updates in a lightweight changelog
• Create a single place for customers to discuss and track product improvements

Limitations and Considerations

• Project is in early development; some planned features (roadmaps, deeper analytics, more integrations) may be incomplete or evolving

Feedbase fits teams that want an open-source alternative to hosted feedback boards and changelog tools. It is especially suitable when you want a customizable public hub paired with an internal dashboard for managing updates and user input.

ClearFlask is an open-source feedback management and product roadmap platform for collecting, analyzing, and acting on customer feedback. It is designed to run self-hosted and as a managed cloud offering and is positioned as an alternative to hosted feedback tools.

Key Features

• Feedback boards with voting, subscriptions and comment threads to capture customer ideas
• Public roadmaps and announcements to share progress with users and track status
• AI-assisted feedback analysis and search to surface insights across customer input
• Multiple selectable backends: MySQL/MariaDB (search/filtering), Elasticsearch/OpenSearch (advanced search), S3/MinIO for object storage, and optional DynamoDB-compatible stores
• Two-component architecture: a Java/Tomcat API server and a Node.js/TypeScript frontend/SSR layer
• Deployment options for development and production: Docker Compose, Kubernetes Helm charts, and AWS-friendly configuration
• Built-in features for certificate management, SSO/connect tokens, and integration points for SMTP/SES for outgoing email
• Helm charts and Kubernetes-ready configuration with autoscaling, health checks, and persistent volumes

Use Cases

• Centralize customer feedback, enable voting, and identify the most requested features
• Publish a public roadmap and announcements to keep customers informed and reduce inbound status requests
• Convert high-value feedback into actionable tasks in product planning and prioritization workflows

Limitations and Considerations

• Production deployments require multiple infrastructure components (databases, object store, optional search service) and nontrivial configuration
• Using Elasticsearch/OpenSearch adds operational and resource overhead compared with a MySQL-only setup
• The server component is Java/Tomcat-based and requires JVM management; the frontend requires Node/TypeScript tooling for custom builds

ClearFlask is a full-featured option for teams that need control over feedback data and public roadmaps. It is suited for organizations prepared to manage backend services and deployment orchestration for production use.

ShipShipShip is a lightweight, self-hostable changelog and roadmap web application for sharing product updates and collecting community feedback. It combines a public-facing changelog with an admin dashboard to manage events, statuses, and communications.

Key Features

• Rich event management with a WYSIWYG editor (TipTap) supporting markdown-style content, tags, and media uploads
• Emoji reactions (multiple reaction types) and a voting system for community feedback on proposed features
• Kanban-style roadmap / board with drag-and-drop statuses for planning and tracking work
• Theme system to install and customize public changelog appearance via theme manifests
• Automated newsletter/email system with configurable SMTP and status-based triggers
• Full-featured SvelteKit admin UI and a RESTful API for integrations and automation
• Docker-ready deployment and single-file SQLite data storage for simple self-hosting

Use Cases

• Publish release notes and maintain a public changelog to keep users informed
• Run a community-driven roadmap where users vote and react to proposed features
• Automate announcement emails when items change status (e.g., when features are released)

Limitations and Considerations

• Default storage is SQLite (single-file); this is convenient for small deployments but may not scale for very high-traffic or multi-tenant installations
• Email delivery requires proper SMTP configuration; deliverability depends on the chosen SMTP provider
• Advanced enterprise features such as built-in SSO/LDAP or clustering are not provided out of the box

ShipShipShip is suitable for teams that want a focused, themeable changelog and roadmap tool with community voting and integrated newsletter automation. It emphasizes simplicity and developer-friendly deployment with Docker and a REST API.