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AlternativeTo: requirements, how to submit, and what you actually get
150,000 apps and two million user opinions on a DR 79 domain, behind a free queue their own form measures in months.
alternativeto.net
Eligibility
Who AlternativeTo accepts
You need
An account with a verified email address
A product that works in English
A square icon, 128x128 or larger
At least one existing app to name as an alternative, or the listing is close to invisible
Something a reviewer would call distinguishable from what is already listed
You'll be rejected if
Directories, collections of online tools and AI tool listings, named in their decline list
Review and comparison websites, also named
Guides and tutorials
Wrappers around an LLM, and single-purpose converters, generators and calculators
Personal websites, blogs and custom-made services
Anything not in English
Web appsMobile appsDeveloper toolsOpen source projectsSaaS products
What you actually get
An app page carrying your description, tags, platforms and licence, listed as an alternative to whatever you were filed against, in front of people already searching for a replacement for a competitor. The outbound link on that page is rel="nofollow noopener", so what you are buying is the search traffic of a very large comparison site, not link equity.
How to submit to AlternativeTo
1
Read the decline list first
The form links it under "What we don't accept". It names about sixty product categories, and it is the longest such list in this directory.
2
Make an account and verify the email
Voting, commenting and editing work straight away; submitting a new app does not until the address is confirmed. Google signup is currently disabled, so it has to be GitHub, Apple, or email and password.
3
Open Suggest new application
It is in the menu behind the icon at the top right, and it goes to /manage-item/. Signed out the item is greyed and does nothing.
4
Fill one long form
Name, short and full descriptions, languages, pricing with optional purchase and subscription prices, tags, platforms, the author record, an icon and screenshots.
5
Name your alternatives, which is the step that matters
Immediately after submitting they warn that an app with no alternatives is almost invisible in search. Search one real competitor, then Select All over its own alternatives.
6
Decide about the $5
My submissions shows the app with "In the normal queue, expect a few months" and a Get reviewed sooner button beside it.
AlternativeTo requirements
A verified email address on the account
Product name and official URL
A short description, one sentence
A full description
Pricing: free, freemium, free for personal use or commercial
Tags, from their own closed vocabulary
Platforms, where a web app is "Online"
A company or author record, which you can create inline
A square icon, 128x128 or larger
Screenshots with captionsoptional
Purchase and subscription prices, which they say make the app easier to findoptional
$5 for priority reviewoptional
Gotchas
Their decline list explicitly names directories, collections of online tools, review and comparison websites and guides and tutorials. If your product is one of those, months of queue end in a decline nobody explains.
The free queue is not slow, it is unbounded: their own form says a new app usually sits for at least a few months, and My submissions repeats it as "expect a few months".
Google signup is turned off at the moment. Existing Google logins still work, but a new account has to come from GitHub, Apple, or an email and password.
Alternatives are the whole game. Their own warning is that an app without them is almost invisible in search, and the prompt only appears after you have submitted.
The outbound link on an app page is rel="nofollow noopener", so the case for the wait is their search traffic and nothing else.
A declined app just vanishes from My submissions. There is no rejection state to read, so an empty list means either approved or refused.
Let your agent submit to AlternativeTo
Connect SubmitMap to your AI over MCP and this page stops being something you read and copy. Your agent asks for the AlternativeTo playbook and gets the brief for this exact form, with the values already taken from your submission pack instead of placeholders you fill in by hand.
What it does for this platform
Checks your product against the 11 AlternativeTo rules above, so you find out you would be rejected before you open a tab.
Hands your agent all 12 fields this form asks for, 3 of them optional, already filled from your pack.
Tells you what paying buys here, so you pick it on purpose: $5 one-time priority review, offered at the end of the form and again from My submissions, gets a human within one to two business days.
Types it into AlternativeTo in your own browser, and stops for you when the form wants a sign-in.
Records what it sent, so the dashboard can answer "did I ever submit to AlternativeTo?".
Connect your agentTools and endpointsWorks with Claude Code, Claude, Codex, Cursor, VS Code and Hermes.
AlternativeTo FAQ
How long does AlternativeTo approval take?
AlternativeTo's typical time from submission to going live is months, free queue.
How much does it cost to submit to AlternativeTo?
AlternativeTo has a free submission option plus paid placement ($5 one-time priority review, offered at the end of the form and again from My submissions, gets a human within one to two business days).
Does AlternativeTo give a dofollow backlink?
No, links from AlternativeTo are nofollow. The site has a domain rating of 79.
Does AlternativeTo require a backlink to your site?
No, AlternativeTo does not require a link back from your site.
What gets you rejected from AlternativeTo?
Directories, collections of online tools and AI tool listings, named in their decline list; Review and comparison websites, also named; Guides and tutorials; Wrappers around an LLM, and single-purpose converters, generators and calculators; Personal websites, blogs and custom-made services; Anything not in English.