Submit to OpenAlternative
A curated catalogue of open source projects organised as replacements for well-known proprietary apps. Developers and technical buyers browse it by alternative, category and tech stack, and each listing gets a profile page ranked partly by repository health signals.
openalternative.co · Checked
OpenAlternative at a glance
- Pricing
- Paid
- Submission packages seen on a /submit/<tool> page: Standard $97 (48h, no do-follow), Premium $137 (24h, do-follow backlink), Ultimate $197/month (featured). Ads from $147/month.
- Link type
- Mixed
- Listing https://openalternative.co/alphai-tui website link has rel="noopener" (followed) while its GitHub link has rel="noopener nofollow"; package page says only Premium and above include a do-follow backlink (checked 2026-09-23)
- Review
- Manual review
- Link back required
- No
- Account required
- Yes
- Domain Rating
- DR60
- Domain Rating by Ahrefs, checked Sep 24, 2026. A score of the whole site’s backlinks, not a Google metric.
- Tranco rank
- #388,407
- Research top-sites ranking. Lower is more popular.
- Who browses it
- Developers, CTOs and founders looking for self-hostable or open source replacements for SaaS tools
- Last checked
How to submit to OpenAlternative
Open the OpenAlternative submission page
This is the page makers use to add a product.
Create an account
OpenAlternative asks you to sign up before you can submit.
Have your assets ready
Name, tagline, description, logo and screenshots. The checklist below covers what to prepare so you can fill the form in one go.
Fill in the form carefully
Pick the most specific category the form offers and write the description for the people who browse OpenAlternative (Developers, CTOs and founders looking for self-hostable or open source replacements for SaaS tools), not for search engines.
Wait for review
A person reviews submissions, so it can take a while. Once it’s live, check the link on your listing points to the right page.
Tips for OpenAlternative
- Your project needs a public repo (GitHub, GitLab, Codeberg, Bitbucket or Gitee) because ranking uses stars, forks and commit recency
- Verify the listing as a maintainer: verified listings get a small ranking bonus
- Name the proprietary product you replace so you show up on its 'alternatives' page
- Only the Premium tier and above include a do-follow link, so pick the package accordingly
From OpenAlternative’s own guidelines and pages, in our words.
What to prepare
The basics every directory asks for, plus what matters most for open-source directories.
- Product name and a one-line tagline (about 60 characters)
- A short description (1–2 sentences) and a longer one (a short paragraph)
- Square logo, at least 256×256 px, PNG or SVG
- 2–3 screenshots at a consistent size
- The exact page you want the link to point to
- Pricing model (free, freemium or paid) and a contact email
- Repo URL and the exact license name (e.g. MIT, AGPL-3.0)
- A README with install steps and a screenshot or example
- A one-line description in the list’s own format
- Whether there is a hosted or paid version alongside the open-source one
Is OpenAlternative worth it?
Depends on the listing
OpenAlternative uses followed links on some listings and not others. Read the evidence above and check which kind your listing gets before you pay for anything.
- Domain Rating by Ahrefs: 60 (strong). That's the strength of links to the whole site, not a promise about what your listing passes on.
- Tranco rank #388,407: a mid-sized site, inside the top 500,000.
- A person reviews submissions, so expect a wait and a real quality bar.
- Listing costs money. Pay for the audience, not the link: Google’s spam policies treat buying links that pass ranking value as a link scheme.
This verdict is worked out from the facts above with fixed rules (link type, review, price, Domain Rating by Ahrefs, Tranco rank), not paid for. The directory has no say in it.
Questions about OpenAlternative
Is OpenAlternative free?
No. OpenAlternative charges for listings. Pricing details: Submission packages seen on a /submit/<tool> page: Standard $97 (48h, no do-follow), Premium $137 (24h, do-follow backlink), Ultimate $197/month (featured). Ads from $147/month. We checked on Sep 23, 2026.
Does OpenAlternative give a dofollow link?
It depends. Some listing links on OpenAlternative are followed and some are not. Evidence: Listing https://openalternative.co/alphai-tui website link has rel="noopener" (followed) while its GitHub link has rel="noopener nofollow"; package page says only Premium and above include a do-follow backlink (checked 2026-09-23).
How do I submit to OpenAlternative?
Submit at https://openalternative.co/submit. You need an account first. A person reviews each submission before it goes live. Tip: Your project needs a public repo (GitHub, GitLab, Codeberg, Bitbucket or Gitee) because ranking uses stars, forks and commit recency.
Alternatives to OpenAlternative
All open-source directoriesFree · Tranco #250
Free · DR 74 · Tranco #47,917
Free · DR 62 · Tranco #130,384
Free · DR 63 · Tranco #153,928
Free · DR 53 · Tranco #569,531
Free + paid options · DR 50 · Tranco #1,065,053
Also in these lists
OpenAlternative appears on these niche lists, next to other places to submit the same kind of product.
Sources
The pages we opened on Sep 23, 2026 to write this page.