Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has revolutionized ophthalmology over the past two decades. Comparable success in other medical and non-medical fields is still prevented by the high cost of OCT. Despite the benefit of OCT for other applications like dermatology, dentistry, and many industrial applications has been demonstrated, a poor cost/performance ratio compared to existing technologies is hindering its commercial success in these areas. The main cost driver of swept source OCT (SS-OCT) devices is the laser. We have identified a light source commonly used in telecom and consumer applications, which costs several magnitudes less than conventional swept sources and thereby enables low cost SS-OCT devices. We have developed a prototype of a SS-OCT system using this low cost source and MEMS scanners.