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Free resolutions via Gröbner bases

For associative algebras in many different categories, it is possible to develop the machinery of Gröbner bases. A Gröbner basis of defining relations for an algebra of such a category provides a "monomial replacement" of this algebra. The main goal of this article is to demonstrate how this machinery can be used for the purposes of homological algebra. More precisely, our approach goes in three steps. First, we define a combinatorial resolution for the monomial replacement of an object. Second, we extract from those resolutions explicit representatives for homological classes. Finally, we explain how to "deform" the differential to handle the general case. For associative algebras, we recover a well known construction due to Anick. The other case we discuss in detail is that of operads, where we discover resolutions that haven't been known previously. We present various applications, including a proofs of Hoffbeck's PBW criterion, a proof of Koszulness for a class of operads coming from commutative algebras, and a homology computation for the operads of Batalin--Vilkovisky algebras and of Rota--Baxter algebras.