🔍 5 free tools on getting started in contributing to open source 🚀

Hey friends 👋

I’ve scouted the web and want to present my 5 favourite options for finding the best projects to contribute to in open source! 👩‍💻

Since Hacktoberfest is running in the background, these options can also find projects accepted for the event.

Let's get into it! 👇

The list is not ordered by importance. With this in mind, do each platform and see what you prefer! 🙏

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1. GitHub

• First place everyone thinks about when looking to contribute and you are right to!

• Find the top repositories participating in hacktoberfest and filter down by the type of programming language used.

• Get a view of each repo, the number of stars and the last updated time. Click on issues to get redirected to the issue page and look for your next contribution! ⭐️

👉 link

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2. Up for Grabs

• Find the right project and filter by last updated, name, label and tags (popular tags is also available for you to find common programming languages).

• The website runs really well, it is kept up to date, and the interface is user-friendly (there is a dark mode as well which is quite cool!). 🌙

• Find your next contribution by reading the short description
  of each project, find the tag with the highest number of issues and click on it to get redirected to the repo!

👉 link

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3. First Issue

• It curates accessible issues from popular open-source projects + the design is very cool as well!

• Browse by tag and language to focus on first issues (and you can pick Hacktoberfest to find ones participating in the event!)

• You can find the main language, the number of stars, and the last activity on each project displayed. Click on the desired project to find the various unresolved issues for you to start contributing to. 🚀

👉 link

Created by @lucavallin

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4. Quira

• Find repos based on your language and topic of preferences (read about the ML behind classifying topics).

• Filters for projects by good-starter-issues, recently updated and most stars (+ find hacktoberfest repos).

• Access all the issues from inside the platform and get stats about the repo to pick a suitable project (e.g response time and reply rate from maintainers etc).

Note: I'm the lead devrel at Quira and it is (extremely) likely for me to be biased here. Let me know your thoughts on Quira and if you think it deserves its place in the top 5 🤗

👉 link

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5. Finder Eddie Hub

• After signing up, you can select "GitHub" and find the list of the many repos you can contribute to (including Hacktoberfest). 🎃

• The filtering options are done differently and provide Eddie specific tagging options like "Eddiehub:good-first-issue".

• The design is really slick and has a minimalistic vibe, providing a very smooth experience as a user.

👉 link

Created by @eddiejaoude

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Overall, all options are really interesting and will help you find the right project for you to contribute to!

Whether this is your first time or you are a seasoned expert, try out the various options and let me know what you prefer.

Let me know in the comments below, I am really keen to hear from you!

Your Dev.to buddy,

Bap

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If you haven't yet, you should join our discord server if you want to join the self-proclaimed "coolest" server in open source (😝). We are also here to help you in your journey with open source. 🫶