Getting Listed on AlternativeTo: A Practical Checklist

AlternativeTo is the largest alternatives site: crowd-sourced, deeply categorised, and heavily visited by people choosing software. Being listed well there is worth real effort.

The short answer

Treat AlternativeTo as one row in a list, not a strategy. It costs ten minutes, produces a listing that persists, and may or may not leave a followed link behind — which is why the check afterwards matters more than the submission.

What AlternativeTo is

AlternativeTo is a crowd-sourced alternatives directory where users add and vote on software, organised by category and by the product being replaced.

Before you touch the form

Decide which two or three incumbents you want to be listed against, and check each rival's alternatives page first. The relationship is set at submission time, and adding it afterwards means asking a moderator.

Submitting, in order

Create the product profile with all fields
Add each incumbent you replace
Upload screenshots and a logo
Invite three users to upvote
Check the outbound link attribute

What it is good for

Buyers arrive pre-qualified by the incumbent they typed in. That is the closest a directory gets to a sales conversation, and it is why the associations you build outweigh anything you write in the description.

One thing that catches people out

Two details surprise first-time submitters. The community can edit your listing after it goes live, and the incumbent field is as visible as the description: leave it empty and the page never appears in the comparison a buyer is actually reading.

Checking what you actually got

Check the listing appears under every incumbent you linked, not only the primary one
Ask whether the community has already edited your description
Verify the platform and licence fields, since those drive the filter pages
Inspect the anchor; alternatives pages link by their own rules
Re-read the listing in three months, because crowd-sourced facts drift

Where it fits in a launch plan

Place it after the three directories that matter most in your category and before the long tail. The first three teach you what forms check; the long tail is the same form twenty more times.

How the listing actually gets found

AlternativeTo ranks for comparison queries, and those queries name a specific incumbent. Your listing is discovered when someone searches for an alternative to a tool you replace — which means the associations you create at submission time decide your traffic far more than the description does. Link yourself to the two or three products buyers actually compare you against, not to the category leader you aspire to replace.

What to complete before submitting

Categories, platforms, licence, pricing model and at least two screenshots. Community members can edit listings afterwards, and an incomplete profile attracts corrections that are usually accurate but rarely flattering. Complete profiles also survive moderation better, because there is less to argue with.

How to write the comparison entry

Lead with the audience and the swap: who this is for, and which tool it replaces for them. Then the specifics a comparison shopper needs — pricing model, platforms, one honest limitation — because visitors at this stage are eliminating options rather than browsing. A limitation that disqualifies the wrong buyer saves both sides time.

Why listings decay without maintenance

Community-edited catalogues drift. Categories get merged, competitors get added, screenshots age, and a listing that was accurate at submission becomes subtly wrong a year later. Fifteen minutes once a quarter — correcting the description and confirming the link still resolves — keeps the page useful, which is what keeps it ranking.

Where SaasHunt fits

If the comparison page is where buyers decide, the launch page is where they first hear about you. SaasHunt is SaaS-only, publishes at 08:00 UTC, ranks daily and weekly with the top five going into the newsletter, and gives approved listings a dofollow link. Free sits in a queue of up to 270 days; $9.9 buys a date instead.

Submit your product

What a good entry gains over time

Votes, ratings and mentions accumulate on a popular entry, which is why the incumbent choices matter so much: an entry on a busy comparison page keeps receiving attention long after submission.

FAQ

Do I need an account to submit to AlternativeTo?

Yes. Listings are tied to a user account and the community can edit afterwards, so accuracy at submission saves corrections later.

How long does a listing take to appear?

Public pages usually appear within days rather than weeks, and the community can edit them from the moment they are live. Check the listing a week after submission and correct anything that was auto-filled.