Is Framer Open Source?

No. Framer is proprietary, closed-source software — no public repository, no self-hosting, and no code export. Here are the genuinely open-source alternatives, and the difference between open-source software and owning your site's code.

The short answer

No — Framer is not open source. It is proprietary, closed-source commercial software. There is no public source repository for the Framer product, no license that lets you modify or redistribute it, and no way to self-host either the editor or the sites it publishes. Framer's own help documentation confirms that published sites cannot be exported, because they depend on Framer's React runtime and backend services.

Two open-source projects carry the Framer name and cause most of the confusion: Framer Library, an older prototyping framework still on GitHub, and Motion (formerly Framer Motion), the MIT-licensed React animation library. Neither is the website builder people mean when they ask this question.

Open-source Framer alternatives

If open-source software is a hard requirement — because of an internal policy, a compliance rule, or simply a preference for tools nobody can take away from you — these are the real options.

1. Webstudio — AGPL-3.0

The closest open-source equivalent to Framer's visual canvas. You can self-host the builder itself, and the editing model maps onto real CSS rather than a proprietary layout abstraction. This is the first tool to look at if your objection to Framer is that you cannot run it yourself. Younger ecosystem than Webflow or WordPress, so fewer templates and integrations.

2. Plasmic — MIT (core)

A visual builder designed to sit on top of a codebase you already own, generating real React components your developers keep working on. The core is open source and self-hostable. Best when you have engineers and the actual problem is that marketing cannot ship a page without a sprint ticket — not when you are starting from nothing.

3. WordPress — GPLv2

The largest open-source web platform in existence, and the safest choice if longevity matters more than design fidelity. Paired with a modern block editor it covers most of what Framer does visually. You inherit the maintenance burden — updates, security, plugin sprawl — in exchange for software nobody can take away from you.

4. Ycode — Open-source self-hosted edition

A visual builder with a real CMS that offers a self-hosted edition you can run on your own infrastructure. Positioned directly at this query. Worth a shortlist slot if you want Framer-style visual editing but need the data and deployment under your control.

Licenses change; verify the current license on each project's repository before committing to it.

Open-source software vs owning your code

These get conflated constantly, and the difference decides which tool you actually need.

Open-source software

· The builder itself is publicly licensed
· You can read, modify, and fork it
· You can run your own copy of the tool
· Webstudio, WordPress, Plasmic qualify

Owning your code

· The output belongs to you
· It runs without the vendor's servers
· No proprietary runtime in the result
· The tool that made it may still be closed

Framer gives you neither. Webstudio and WordPress give you both. A converter gives you the second one only — and in practice, the second one is what most people searching for an open-source Framer alternative are actually after. They do not want to read a builder's source code. They want to stop renting their own website.

Where this tool fits — honestly

This converter is not open source. It is a closed-source hosted service, and saying otherwise on a page about open source would be worth exactly nothing to you.

What it does give you is open output. Paste a published Framer URL and you get back a standard Next.js App Router project — ordinary React components in ordinary files — or a plain static HTML bundle. There is no proprietary runtime in the result, no license restriction on what you do with it, and no dependency on this service once you have downloaded it. Delete the account and the site keeps running.

That is the honest pitch: if you need open-source software, use Webstudio or WordPress. If you need to stop renting a site you already built in Framer, convert it and host it yourself.

FAQ

Is Framer open source?

No. Framer is proprietary, closed-source commercial software. There is no public source repository for the Framer product, no license permitting you to modify or redistribute it, and no way to self-host the editor or the published site. The confusion usually comes from Framer Library — an older open-source JavaScript prototyping framework on GitHub — and from Motion (formerly Framer Motion), the open-source React animation library. Neither is the Framer website builder people mean today.

What is the best open-source Framer alternative?

Webstudio is the closest match to Framer's visual canvas and is fully open source under AGPL-3.0, with self-hosting supported. Plasmic is the better fit if you already have a codebase and want visual editing on top of it. WordPress is the strongest choice for content-heavy sites. Ycode offers an open-source self-hosted edition with a built-in CMS.

Can I see or download Framer's source code?

No. The Framer editor and its publishing infrastructure are closed source. You also cannot export a published Framer site to standalone code — Framer's own help documentation states that published sites depend on their React runtime and backend services and cannot be exported as HTML. What you can do is convert the rendered public site into code with a third-party converter.

Is Framer Motion open source?

Yes, but it is a separate thing from the website builder. Framer Motion — now called Motion — is an open-source animation library for React, published under the MIT license and usable in any React project without touching Framer. Its being open source says nothing about the Framer website builder, which remains proprietary.

Is this tool open source?

No — and it matters to say so plainly on a page about open source. This converter is a closed-source hosted service. What it gives you is open output: a standard Next.js App Router project or a plain static HTML bundle, with no proprietary runtime, no license restrictions on the result, and no dependency on us after you download it. That is code ownership, which is a different thing from open-source software. If open-source software is your hard requirement, use Webstudio or WordPress instead.

What is the difference between open-source software and owning your code?

Open-source software means the tool itself is publicly licensed — you can read it, modify it, and run your own copy. Owning your code means the output belongs to you and runs without the vendor, even if the tool that produced it is proprietary. Framer gives you neither. Webstudio and WordPress give you both. A converter gives you the second one only. Most people searching for an open-source Framer alternative actually want the second — they want to leave without losing the site.

Can I self-host a site built in Framer?

Not directly, and not with any official Framer feature. Framer sites are served from Framer's own infrastructure. You can self-host the site's content by converting the published pages into a Next.js project or a static bundle and deploying that to your own host — Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, or your own server. The design and URL structure carry over; the Framer runtime does not.

Is there a free open-source alternative to Framer?

Yes. Webstudio, Plasmic's core, and WordPress are all free and open source. Ycode's self-hosted edition is free as well. In each case the software costs nothing and hosting is whatever you choose to pay for it.

Own the code behind your Framer site

Paste your published Framer URL and get a real Next.js project or a clean static bundle — yours to host anywhere, with no runtime tying it back to us. First conversion free.

Example: https://your-site.framer.website