Directories of Alternative Software

[thebiballerina]

Another resource post! These are some lists/directories I use to find alternatives to various software programs and applications. Most of the focus here is specifically on privacy-conscious software, but these databases are useful for a variety of motivations to seek out alternatives to software you already use or were planning to use.

Directories of Free, Open-Source, Privacy-conscious, and/or Other Alternative Software and Applications

• Switching.Software: "Ethical, easy-to-use and privacy-conscious alternatives to well-known software"
• Wikipedia list of FOSS: Free and open source software list.
• Free Software Directory: "Free software is a matter of liberty, not price. Think of 'free' as in 'free speech', not as in 'free beer'. Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software."
• Alternative To: Comprehensive crowd-sourced listings alternatives to an application/service, whether open source, free, or otherwise. You can filter by a variety of aspects, such as your desired OS, whether the software is open source, free/paid/freemium pricing, etc.
• OpenSource Builders: Open source alternatives to various popular apps. It is currently rather bare-bones, but it has an option for you to request an application be added to the list.
• Sunbeam.city wiki technology page: This solarpunk wiki has a technology page which links various software and how-to articles relevant to solarpunk values, such as decentralization.

Comments

[vriddy]

What an incredibly handy list! Alternativeto already suggested a bunch of suggestions I'm eager to check out when I have a moment. Really appreciate user comments explaining how true or not the "alternative" really is!!

[thebiballerina]

Thank you; I am glad you find it handy! Alternative To is one of my favorites, especially due to the breadth and wide applicability of the database. I agree the user comments are a very nice feature. The more popular services tend to have comments elaborating on which alternatives work for various purposes, and I find that enormously helpful to point me in the right direction.