AlternativeTo review65 of 100, fair
A free listing with no badge, in a queue the site itself says most apps will not reach for a very long time; $5 once moves an app to the front. The website link is nofollow.
Reviewed 2026-10-10 by Phillip Paul Inker. Facts re-read 2026-10-10. 5 sources. alternativeto.net. Brand searches: 74,000 a month worldwide (Google, read 2026-10-10).
A large audience that searches by the app it wants to replace, and the most candid rules in this database: the free queue has no date, and $5 buys a review in one or two business days, not an approval. The link to the product is nofollow.
Best for: Software with a clear rival to be listed against, whose makers can wait or spend $5, and who want visitors more than a followed link.
Listing is free, with no badge or link back, but the FAQ warns that most apps in the normal queue "will not be looked at for a very long time" and gives no date.
An app page links to the official website with rel="nofollow noopener"; launchdirectories.com and TinyLaunch's catalog also record AlternativeTo as nofollow.
74,000 Google searches a month worldwide for "alternativeto" (Keyword Planner, read 2026-10-10).
No date for the free queue. A one-time $5 priority review is "usually reviewed within 1-2 business days", up to a week over holidays or busy periods.
The public FAQ states the queue, the $5 fee, what the fee does not buy, its refund rule and the reasons apps are declined.
An account and a form with seven required fields: name, website, pricing, tags, platforms, company and icon. English is required.
Every submission site in the database on one axis, rank 3 of 6. The zones are the grades.
Google Ads Keyword Planner, worldwide searches for “alternativeto”, read 2026-10-10. Demand, not quality: the rubric ignores it.
- A free listing with no badge or link back
- Public, specific rules on the queue, the fee and refusals
- $5 priority review, refundable until it is done
- A large audience: the second most searched name here
- No date for the free queue
- The website link is nofollow
- Approval is at the admins' discretion, and more apps are declined since the rules changed
- Free listing
- Yes, in the normal queue, with no date [1]
- Priority review
- $5 once; usually 1-2 business days, up to a week in busy periods [2]
- What $5 does not buy
- Approval, rank, likes or a place in alternative lists [1]
- Refund
- Until the review is done; not after [1]
- Free promotion
- Power users and long-time contributors can be moved up for free [1]
- Language
- English only, for now [1]
- Website link
- rel="nofollow noopener" on an app page [3]
- In a public catalog
- Free, nofollow, DR 80 (launchdirectories.com) [4]
The free queue
Anyone with an account can suggest an app, and listing costs nothing. The catch is written in the FAQ itself: "The normal queue holds several thousand apps and is growing faster than we can review it, so most apps in it will not be looked at for a very long time, and we can't promise yours will be. We can't give you a date, and we can't tell you where in the queue your app is." Some submissions are moved up for free, for example those from power users and long-time contributors.
The $5 priority review
After filling in the form, a maker can pay a one-time $5 fee to move the app to the front of the queue. Priority submissions are "usually reviewed within 1-2 business days", up to a week over holidays or busy periods, and the crew says what would make the listing stronger. The FAQ is careful about what the fee does not buy: not approval, which follows the same criteria for every app, and not rank, likes or placement in alternative lists. It can be cancelled for a full refund until the review is done.
The link
On an app page read on 2026-10-10, the link to the official website carried rel="nofollow noopener". launchdirectories.com and TinyLaunch's directory catalog both record AlternativeTo as nofollow. Its value is the visitors: people who arrive looking for an alternative to an app they already know.
What gets declined
Approval is at the admins' discretion. The FAQ names apps indistinguishable from what is already widely available, low-quality or low-effort software, and submissions in over-saturated categories, and says recently updated rules mean more apps are declined than before. Only English is used on the site for now.
Questions people ask
How long does a free AlternativeTo submission take?
AlternativeTo gives no date: its FAQ says most apps in the normal queue will not be looked at for a very long time.
What does the $5 priority review buy?
A place at the front of the review queue, usually reviewed within 1-2 business days. It does not buy approval, rank or likes.
Is the AlternativeTo link followed?
No. On an app page read on 2026-10-10, the official website link carried rel="nofollow noopener".
- We did not submit a new app for this review, so no queue time was measured.
- The submission form was read while signed in; the same rules are in the public FAQ.
- The link's rel attribute was read on one app page.
- [1]AlternativeTo FAQ, submitting applications AlternativeTo, read 2026-10-10.
“The normal queue holds several thousand apps and is growing faster than we can review it, so most apps in it will not be looked at for a very long time, and we can't promise yours will be. We can't give you a date ... you can choose to pay a one-time $5 fee to move your app to the front of the queue.”
- [2]Suggest a new application AlternativeTo, read 2026-10-10.
“Priority submissions are usually reviewed within 1-2 business days, and we tell you what would make the listing stronger. Over holidays or busy periods it can take up to a week.”
- [3]An AlternativeTo app page (Notion), its official website link AlternativeTo, read 2026-10-10.
“rel="nofollow noopener"”
- [4]AlternativeTo in launchdirectories.com's catalog launchdirectories.com, read 2026-10-07.
- [5]AlternativeTo in TinyLaunch's public directory catalog TinyLaunch, read 2026-10-07.
“Alternativeto, alternativeto.net, DR 79, Software Directory, nofollow”
Badge for AlternativeTo’s own site
Certificate SU-390FCF, valid until 2027-10-10. Every badge links to it, so a reader can check the score is genuine. Eight looks on the badges page.
Shows AlternativeTo’s current score, 65 of 100, fair. Dark card, for most pages. It links to certificate SU-390FCF, valid until 2027-10-10, and changes by itself when the review does.
<a href="https://submission-reviews.com/certificate/SU-390FCF"
title="AlternativeTo certificate SU-390FCF on Submission Reviews">
<img src="https://submission-reviews.com/badge/submissions/alternativeto.png"
width="320" height="84"
alt="AlternativeTo: 65 of 100 on Submission Reviews"
loading="lazy">
</a>Other submission sites
The most searched name in this database, and free: no badge, no link back, no fee, a launch day of the maker's choosing. What it gives is attention on one day, not a followed link: the website button is marked ugc.
A simple trade, stated plainly: a free do-follow listing for its badge on your homepage, or a monthly plan that skips the badge and goes live in seconds. The link lasts while the listing does, and few people search for the name.
A free launch that asks for nothing but patience: no badge to be listed and a review within a day, then the queue. The backlink is the catch: free launches get it only in the top 3, Premium at $39 guarantees it.
Run a submission site?Get it on the record.
Send us the pages that state your plans, your review times and your link rules. We read them, score them on the public rubric, and publish the review with the date.