AlternativeTo

Conditional free route directory

Researched from public pages — no submission was run · sources read 2026-09-25. Rules change — recheck the platform's own pages before submitting.

What the free route requires

Free submission requires an account with a verified email — 'You need to verify your email address before you can submit a new app' (their FAQ, via third-party guide).
The free review queue is reported as 'at least a few months'; a ~$5 paid option gets review in 'usually 1-2 business days' (per third-party guides).

Crowd-sourced software directory — any app/software product; the form links a 'What we don't accept' decline list naming ~60 prohibited categories.
Account required (Google/GitHub/Apple or email+password); email must be verified before submitting.
Strict naming: 'Name only, no tagline or domain. Use the official name with correct spelling and letter case.'
Closed tag vocabulary; platform field uses 'Online' for web apps.

Account with verified email (note: Google signup was reported disabled at one point — GitHub, Apple, or email).
Check the catalog first — your app may already be listed; if so, edit/claim rather than re-submit.
Official product name (exact spelling/case, no tagline), official URL.
One-sentence short description + full description.
Pricing model (free/freemium/free-for-personal/commercial) and optional purchase/subscription prices.
Tags from their closed vocabulary; platforms list.
Company/author record (can be created in the form).
Square icon 128x128 or larger, plus screenshots (captions optional).
A list of real competitor apps to name as 'alternatives' — submissions with no alternatives are nearly invisible.

Create an account and verify the email address.
Search the catalog for your app first; if it exists, edit that entry instead.
Open user menu → 'Suggest new application' (route: /manage-item/).
Fill the multi-section form: name, short + full descriptions, languages, pricing, tags, platforms, author record, icon, screenshots.
Suggest alternatives: search one real competitor, then select across its alternatives — this determines internal discoverability.
Submit; the page is visible only to you while queued (free queue reportedly months; paid review ~1-2 business days).

Name field rejects taglines/domains — the single most common rejection cause per third-party guides.
Skipping the alternatives step makes the listing effectively invisible in search.
Anyone can edit any listing once live — monitor it afterward.
Free queue can run to months; the ~$5 expedite exists but is easy to miss.
Site is behind Cloudflare bot checks — /manage-item/ returned 403 to non-browser fetches; use a real browser session.
Most outbound links are nofollow per third-party crawl analysis — value is the listing, not the link.

A public app page at alternativeto.net/software/<slug>/ visible while logged out, with alternative relationships attached.

Exact current price of the expedited review (reported as $5 by a third party; not confirmed on-site due to bot check).
Current state of Google OAuth signup.
The full 60-category decline list contents.