Top 5 Open Source MDM Solutions

When organizations start looking for the best open source MDM solutions, they often run into outdated recommendations. Imagine a regional retail chain with 1,000 Android price checkers and handheld scanners. Compliance requires all device data to remain on company-owned servers. Procurement finds commercial MDM subscriptions too expensive. The IT manager searches for “open source MDM” – only to discover roundups featuring products that were discontinued years ago.

This is not an exaggeration. Many popular lists of open source MDM tools still recommend projects that are no longer maintained or whose vendors have shut down. Others label free plans as “open source” simply because they cost nothing, even though they lack the functionality required to manage devices at scale.

This guide takes a different approach. Every project was evaluated based on its actual repository, including its license, recent releases, and development activity. We identify the solutions that are actively maintained and highlight those that have effectively reached the end of their lifecycle.

What Qualifies as an Open Source MDM?

Three key criteria separate true open source software from marketing claims.

• An open source license such as Apache 2.0, MIT, GPL, or another OSI-approved license.
• Anyone can review, audit, modify, or compile the source code. For example, the Headwind MDM source code is publicly available on GitHub.
• Self-hosting capability: the software can run entirely on your own infrastructure without depending on a vendor’s licensing server.

A free pricing tier does not meet any of these criteria. For example, Miradore’s free plan and the free edition of ManageEngine are proprietary products offered at no cost. They may be useful in certain scenarios, but you cannot audit the source code, fork the project, or continue using it on your own terms if the vendor changes its licensing model.

How We Selected These Tools

Each project had to meet six criteria, verified through the project’s repository rather than its marketing website:

• An open source license and publicly available source code in a public repository.
• A fully functional free edition that can be self-hosted, allowing organizations to install the platform, enroll devices, and manage them without purchasing a license.
• Evidence of active development, including releases or meaningful commits within the last 6–12 months.
• Documentation comprehensive enough for a system administrator to install, configure, and evaluate the product without vendor assistance.
• Community engagement indicators such as GitHub stars, forks, and issue activity, demonstrating that users can access support, guidance, and ongoing project maintenance.
• Availability of commercial support and enterprise services for organizations that require professional assistance, consulting, or managed deployment options.

Headwind MDM

Headwind MDM is an open source Android device management platform. The server is a Java application running on Tomcat, while the device agent is an Android launcher operating in Device Owner mode.

The web console, Android agent, and supporting plugins are published on GitHub under the Apache 2.0 license, with more than 800 GitHub stars in total.

The Community Edition is a fully functional product that includes:

• Silent app installation
• Group-based policies
• Remote device configuration

Strengths

• Runs Entirely on Your Infrastructure – Headwind MDM supports deployments in environments without internet access. Running the platform over a local network or VPN is a documented and supported deployment scenario.
• Independent of Google Services – The platform uses its own MQTT-based communication channel for delivering commands, allowing organizations to manage devices that do not include Google Mobile Services (GMS).
• AOSP and Custom ROM Support – The Android agent can be signed with platform keys and embedded directly into a device firmware image. This approach is commonly used by hardware manufacturers and vendors of rugged Android devices.
• Active Development – The Headwind MDM team continues to actively develop, improve, and maintain the platform with regular updates and ongoing support.

Limitations

• Support of Android devices only.
• The web console is functional rather than pretty. Teams coming from polished commercial dashboards will notice.
• No Android Enterprise and Zero Touch Enrollment.
• Managed Play Store is not supported.

Best Fit and Pricing

Headwind MDM is well suited for:

• Retail environments
• Logistics and warehousing
• Digital signage deployments
• Private and isolated networks
• Tech startups
• OEM solutions

The Community Edition is free and does not impose device limits.

Entgra MDM

Strengths

• Built on WSO2’s Enterprise Mobility Foundation. The platform benefits from more than a decade of engineering and development experience inherited from the WSO2 ecosystem.

Limitations

• Requires significantly more infrastructure resources than many lightweight MDM platforms.
• Documentation is spread across multiple generations of WSO2 and Entgra products, which can complicate evaluation, deployment, and implementation.
• The open source community is considerably smaller and less active than the commercial ecosystem surrounding the product. We could not find documentation on how to build and operate the open source Entgra Community Edition.

Best Fit

Entgra is a strong option for organizations looking for an open source platform capable of managing Android, iOS, and Windows devices from a single solution. The Community Edition is available free of charge, while commercial support and enterprise services are offered separately.

Fleet

Fleet is the largest project on this list, with approximately 6,400 GitHub stars. Originally built for monitoring servers and laptops through osquery, an open-source agent that exposes OS data as SQL-queryable tables, Fleet has since evolved into a full-fledged MDM platform. Its licensing model is similar to GitLab’s:

• Core platform: MIT license
• Enterprise features: Commercial license

Strengths

• GitOps-Based Management. Fleet follows a GitOps approach, enabling teams to manage device configurations through code, version control, and automated workflows.
• Robust API and Automation Capabilities. Fleet provides a comprehensive REST API and command-line interface (CLI), making it a strong choice for DevOps and IT teams that prefer automation and infrastructure-as-code approaches over manual administration.

Limitations

• Android management depends on Android Enterprise and Managed Google Play.
• No support for AOSP devices or custom Android ROMs.
• Not suitable for isolated or air-gapped environments.
• Corporate-owned Android device management capabilities remain limited compared to specialized Android-focused MDM platforms.
• Fleet is not designed primarily for retail, kiosk, digital signage, or dedicated-device deployments.

Best Fit

Fleet is a strong choice for organizations managing large fleets of laptops, servers, and mobile devices, particularly those already invested in Google Workspace and DevOps workflows.

MicroMDM and NanoMDM

MicroMDM and NanoMDM are two open source projects focused on Apple device management.

• MicroMDM – MIT License / Approximately 2,600 GitHub stars
• NanoMDM – MIT License / Approximately 590 GitHub stars

Strengths

• Strong Community Support. Both projects are actively supported by the MacAdmins community, one of the most experienced Apple device management communities in the industry.
• Designed for Scalability. NanoMDM in particular is built with horizontal scalability in mind, making it suitable for large Apple deployments.

Limitations

• Support Apple devices only.
• These are infrastructure components rather than turnkey MDM products.
• No full-featured graphical management interface.
• No commercial support options available from a vendor.

Best Fit

MicroMDM and NanoMDM are best suited for engineering-focused organizations that want direct control over the Apple MDM protocol or need to integrate MDM functionality into a larger platform or custom solution.

Free Does Not Mean Open Source

Several products frequently appear in search results for “open source MDM” simply because they offer a free tier:

• Miradore
• ManageEngine Mobile Device Manager Plus
• Scalefusion
• Hexnode

However, none of these platforms publish their source code.

That does not make them bad products – it simply means they belong to a different category. These solutions prioritize convenience and vendor-managed services over transparency and control.

When choosing a proprietary MDM platform, organizations trade the ability to audit the code, modify the software, and remain independent of the vendor in exchange for easier deployment and ongoing maintenance.

Conclusion

No single product is the best choice for every organization.

• Headwind MDM provides the deepest level of Android management without relying on cloud services and can scale from small device deployments to large enterprise environments.
• Fleet has the largest GitHub community among the projects on this list, which may be an important factor for organizations that value community engagement and ecosystem maturity.
• Entgra offers the broadest platform support, covering Android, iOS, and Windows from a single solution.
• MicroMDM is the older project – a single all-in-one binary with built-in SCEP, TLS, blueprints, and a JSON command API. Fit for smaller Apple fleets where deployment simplicity matters more than scale.
• NanoMDM is the actively developed successor – a minimalist MDM protocol server that leaves SCEP, TLS, and enrollment profiles to external components, in exchange for a stateless architecture, pluggable storage, and multi-APNs-topic support.

Its unlimited Community Edition, AOSP compatibility, and fully self-hosted architecture make it particularly attractive for organizations that require complete control over their device management environment.