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Best Open Source MATLAB Libraries in 2025
Overview:
Open-source MATLAB libraries help you extend MATLAB’s core functionality with advanced tools for optimization, control, and data analysis without paying for commercial toolboxes.
These libraries cover a wide range of domains, from robotics and control to neuroscience and signal processing, making MATLAB more accessible for research and education.
Many of these tools are maintained on GitHub or similar platforms, ensuring community contributions, transparency, and regular updates.
MATLAB is widely used in engineering, research, and academia, especially through Open Source MATLAB Libraries. However, the prices of commercial toolboxes can sometimes be a barrier for many users.
Luckily, the open-source ecosystem has grown significantly and now offers a robust set of Free MATLAB Toolboxes 2025 that can compete with, or even exceed, commercial toolboxes in certain tasks.
Optimization of nonlinear systems, EEG/MEG analysis, and robotics control are among the main areas where strong communities support robust MATLAB libraries.
What are the Best Open Source MATLAB Libraries in 2025?
Chebfun
A great option is Chebfun, which is a MATLAB library for numerical calculations. This library treats functions like vectors, so one can perform integrals, solve differential equations, and overload operators with the same convenience aswith arrays. Chebfun is based on Chebyshev polynomials and piecewise polynomial interpolants, which allows it to achieve high precision in approximating smooth functions, making it ideal for both mathematical computing and research.
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Fieldtrip
FieldTrip is a remarkable open-source toolbox that highly emphasizes the analysis of neuroimaging data. The library provides MEG (magnetoencephalography) and EEG (electroencephalography) functionality, including time-frequency analysis, source reconstruction, and statistical testing. FieldTrip is undoubtedly one of the MATLAB libraries that every neuroscientific researcher and practitioner who needs to perform brain data analysis with advanced signal-processing workflows should have.
DPLib
This is one of the recent developments made available to the open MATLAB community. This library is a benchmark for distributed power system optimization. DPLib offers NE, no, and AVA realistic multi-region power system test cases, partitioning tools, and distributed optimal power flow solvers. DPLib is now even more important for researchers working on scalable, privacy-preserving power system methods in MATLAB.
CaΣoS
CaΣoS (pronounced ‘Casos’) is a library with non-linear optimization capacities in MATLAB that is available for free as open-source. This library helps describe and resolve complex polynomial optimization problems through symbolic representations. The library has interfaces to solvers like SCS and Mosek, which will facilitate access to advanced control-theoretic and verification workflows without requiring proprietary tools.
GHToolbox
Here is one of the most useful tools for installing and maintaining other MATLAB community toolboxes. No more fussing with downloading and adding toolboxes manually; GHToolbox now offers a quick and easy way to get MATLAB toolboxes from GitHub, manage their versions, and update them, a feature that is particularly valuable when working on several open-source MATLAB projects at once.
Conclusion
The open-source MATLAB ecosystem is now at its peak. The use of tools such as Chebfun and FieldTrip allows for the former to be used for high-level mathematical modeling and the latter for neuroscience analysis, while DPLib and CaΣoS are only a few examples of libraries that support optimization of power systems and control, among others. GHToolbox is the master of open-toolbox management. Using these libraries, one can gain powerful capabilities in MATLAB without needing the paid toolboxes.
FAQs
1. Is using open-source MATLAB libraries legal with a commercial MATLAB license?
Indeed, the majority of open-source MATLAB libraries on platforms such as GitHub have permissive or GPL-like licenses, and thus can be used with MATLAB free of charge, provided they are used in accordance with the library's license conditions.
2. Do these libraries work with Octave?
Some do, but the level of compatibility varies. Many open-source MATLAB toolboxes are custom-made for MATLAB.
3. How do I install these libraries?
A few of these libraries can be directly cloned from GitHub, and with GHToolbox, the download and installation process is automated, making it easier.
4. Are these libraries actively maintained in 2025?
Without a doubt, repositories such as the MathWorks GitHub organization and curated lists clearly demonstrate regular use, and some libraries are even under active development or have been updated recently.
5. Can I contribute to these toolboxes?
Since it's open source, one can fork the repos, develop on them, and send pull requests. It is a really nice way to contribute and influence the tools one uses.
