THE BOARD

An AlternativeTo alternative where the position is bought, not liked

AlternativeTo is the biggest software directory a brand can list itself on and one of the few with figures behind it: two outside counters put its traffic in the millions a month, the listing is free and permanent, and the terms were updated on 6 August 2026 with a refund rule written into them. If you sell software and can wait a few months for the review, or would rather pay the $5 priority fee its FAQ offers, list there.

If you want a position you can price today rather than a rank an algorithm works out from likes, The Board puts a brand on a public leaderboard for a dollar, sorts it by what it paid, and counts the traffic with Fathom in the open.

AlternativeTo compared with The Board: to be listed, Free against $1
AlternativeToThe Board
To be listed
Freeor $5 to skip a months-long review backlog
$1once, on the board today
Rank decided by
Likesand an algorithm the site does not publish
Moneythe amount is the rank
Wait to be listed
Monthson the free queue; one to two business days for $5
Nonepay and you are on
Reach
2.2Mvisits, Similarweb, July 2026; Semrush says 2.91M
Fathompage views and clicks, in public

The Board is ours, so read this with that in mind. Every listing on it is a paid placement, its position is decided by money and by nothing else, and nothing on it is editorial. The figures for AlternativeTo were read from its own pages on 6 September 2026 and are linked at the foot.

What AlternativeTo is, and what it costs

AlternativeTo is a crowdsourced directory of software and the alternatives to it, running since September 2009 from Stockholm. Its home page counted 152,598 apps and 2,033,717 user opinions on 6 September 2026. Anyone with a verified email address can suggest an app; the suggestion goes into a review backlog, and the FAQ says a new app usually sits there for at least a few months before anyone looks at it. Once it is up, its rank among the alternatives is the site's own algorithm, with the number of likes the most important input and the organic ones weighted highest.

Listing is free. The one thing you can pay for is a faster review: a one-time $5 fee, per the FAQ on 6 September 2026, moves the app to the front of the queue, where priority submissions are usually reviewed within one to two business days and up to a week over holidays. The fee buys the review and not the approval; the criteria are the same for every app and a paid submission can still be declined. The only other paid thing on the site is the Official Partner programme, announced in April 2026 with Proton VPN, which buys labelled placements at a price the site does not publish and, in the site's own words, does not change how rankings, alternatives or search results work. No featured, sponsored or plan price exists anywhere on it.

The site publishes no visitor figure of its own. Similarweb, labelled July 2026, puts total visits at 2.2 million and the global rank at 25,638; Semrush shows 2.91 million visits in June 2026 and 3.03 million in May. The two disagree by a wide margin and neither is AlternativeTo's own count, but both are in the millions.

The price of a place, and the price of the top

Two prices matter: what it costs to be on the page at all, and what it costs to be the one everybody sees first. Drawn to scale, with The Board’s top spot read live from the board.

A log scale: every gridline is ten times the last, which is the only way a dollar and a five-figure sum fit on one line. Prices on the left are AlternativeTo’s as read on 6 September 2026; the top spot on The Board is $101 as this page was built and changes as the board does.

AlternativeTo and The Board, side by side

QuestionAlternativeToThe Board
To be listedFree, after a backlog of at least a few months; $5 for a review within one to two business days$1, once, for a listing: a logo, a line and a link
What decides your rankAlternativeTo's own algorithm; likes are the biggest input, and partners do not move itWhat the listing has paid. Nothing else, and nobody decides
A guaranteed top positionNot sold. Official Partner buys labelled placements at an unpublished price, never rank$1 more than whoever holds rank 01 has paid
How long it lastsThe listing is permanent once approvedUntil somebody pays more. Hold rank 01 for 30 days and the season is yours: the standings freeze on a permanent page and every amount resets
Reach you can verifyNone published by the site. Similarweb 2.2 million visits (July 2026); Semrush 2.91 million (June 2026)Page views and outbound clicks counted by Fathom on a public dashboard; every listing shows its own impressions and clicks
RefundsThe $5 comes back if the app was never reviewed or you were charged twice, not if it is declined; terms dated 6 August 2026None. Every payment is final and the terms (dated 25 August 2026) say so
Who you are dealing with27 Kilobyte AB, Stockholm, under Swedish law, running since 2009Dustin W. Stout, Bakersfield, California. Stripe, with a public Stripe profile
Best forSoftware with users who will like it, and a team that can wait for the reviewA brand that wants a position it can price and hold, on the page today

Eight things to know before you pay either

QuestionAlternativeToThe Board
Terms with a date on them✓ Last updated 6 August 2026✓ Dated 25 August 2026
A named operator✓ 27 Kilobyte AB, Stockholm✓ Dustin W. Stout, with a city and a Stripe profile
The price of the top spot published✕ Rank is not sold; the Partner price is not published✓ On the board, live, to the dollar
Reach counted by a third party✓ Similarweb 2.2M and Semrush 2.91M; the site says nothing✓ Fathom, on a public dashboard
Position lasts past a day✓ The listing is permanent once approved✓ Until somebody pays more; seasons end it
A refund path✓ The $5 back if never reviewed; not if declined✕ None. Every payment is final
No curator between you and the page✕ Every app is reviewed against the same criteria✓ None. Money decides, nobody else
On the page for a dollar✓ Free✓ $1, once

How The Board works, for somebody leaving AlternativeTo

On AlternativeTo you suggest an app, wait for the review, and then wait again while likes accrue and the algorithm decides where you sit among the alternatives. On The Board there is no review and no algorithm. A listing is a logo, a line and a link; it costs a dollar; and it lands on the page at whatever rank a dollar buys, on a board sorted by what each brand has paid, top to bottom, the moment it is paid for.

There are no likes to collect and nothing to be organic about. The number beside every listing is what it paid, every amount is public, and rank 01 costs a dollar over whoever holds it. Hold the top for thirty days and the season ends: the standings freeze on a permanent page and every amount resets. Fathom counts the page views and outbound clicks on a dashboard the site cannot edit, and every listing shows its own impressions and clicks, so the reach a directory leaves you to estimate is a number here.

Where AlternativeTo falls short, and where it wins

Falls short
  • The free queue is months long, and the site says so. A $5 review shortens the wait to days and still ends in a decision you do not make.
  • Rank is the site's algorithm working on likes you are not allowed to buy or ask for, so the position of your listing is not something you can move on purpose.
  • There is no visitor figure of the site's own and no price for the partner placements. What a listing sends is a number two outside estimators disagree about and the site does not state.
Wins
  • The traffic is real and large. Similarweb and Semrush disagree on the number and agree on the order of magnitude, which is millions a month.
  • The listing is free, permanent, and sits on pages people reach by searching for a competitor by name, which is the best intent a directory can offer.
  • The paperwork is in order: a named company in Stockholm, terms updated in August 2026, and a refund rule for the one thing it sells.

Which to pick

Pick AlternativeTo if
  • You sell software, and the people searching for your competitors by name are your customers.
  • You can wait a few months for the review, or five dollars is nothing to you.
  • You would rather be ranked by people who use the product than by what you paid.
Pick The Board if
  • You want to be on the page this afternoon, with no backlog and no review.
  • You want a position you can move yourself, at a price you can read.
  • You want the reach counted by somebody who is not also the seller.

Claim a spot from $1

A listing is a logo, a line and a link. Rank 01 costs $1 more than whoever holds it, every amount on the page is public, and the traffic is on a Fathom dashboard anyone can open.

Questions people ask about a AlternativeTo alternative

Is AlternativeTo free?
Yes. Suggesting an app costs nothing and the listing, once approved, has no fee and no expiry. The one paid option is a $5 priority review, per the FAQ on 6 September 2026, which moves the submission to the front of a queue that otherwise takes at least a few months. The fee buys the review, not the approval.
How long does AlternativeTo take to approve an app?
On the free queue, at least a few months: the FAQ says a new app usually sits in the backlog that long before anyone looks at it. With the $5 priority fee, usually one to two business days, and up to a week over holidays or busy periods. Some accounts get priority reviews without paying, and the button does not appear for them.
Is the $5 AlternativeTo priority fee refundable?
Until the review happens, yes: cancel and the fee comes back in full, and it is also refunded if the app was never reviewed within a reasonable time or you were charged twice. Once the review is done it is not refundable even if the app is declined, because the review is what was paid for. EU and EEA consumers have the usual fourteen days. All of this is in the terms dated 6 August 2026.
Can you pay AlternativeTo to rank higher?
No. Rank is the site's own algorithm with likes as the biggest input, and the FAQ says the more organic a like is the better it counts. The Official Partner programme, which started with Proton VPN in April 2026, buys labelled placements at an unpublished price; the announcement says the rankings, alternatives and search results are not changed by it.
Is The Board an AlternativeTo alternative?
For a different job. AlternativeTo is a directory where people look up what to use instead of a named product, and it is very good at that. The Board is a public leaderboard where every listing is a paid placement, the position is decided by what each brand paid and nothing else, and it is on the page the day it pays. A software product can sensibly be on both.
What does The Board cost compared to AlternativeTo?
AlternativeTo is free, with a $5 priority review. A listing on The Board is $1, paid once, and rank 01 costs $1 more than whoever holds it has paid. Every amount is public, nothing bills again, and no payment is refunded.
What happens when somebody outbids me?
Your listing moves down one place and stays on the board; the amount you paid never goes down. You are told once who passed you and what taking the position back would cost, and not again until you have paid to move, so ten arrivals above you is one mail. You can raise by any whole-dollar amount or leave it. Waiting costs nothing.
Can other brands damage my listing?
Yes, and it is part of the game. Anyone can buy one of four kinds of sabotage against a listing, which changes how it looks or whether its link works for a few hours, never what it paid or its real rank. It wears off on its own, you can clear it early or protect against it ahead of time, and nobody is told who attacked whom.
Do I get a backlink from The Board?
Not one to buy the listing for. Outbound links go through a counted redirect and the badge you can embed carries rel=sponsored, which is what an honest paid placement has to do. AlternativeTo does not say whether its outbound links pass anything either. Buy the position for the people who see it and click it, both of which are counted and shown.

Sources

Read on 6 September 2026. Prices on these sites move, and a figure here that no longer matches its source is a figure to tell us about: hello@toptheboard.com.

Also compared: SaaSHub, KillerStartups, Startup Stash, StartupBase, Launching Next. Every listing site worth submitting to is in the directory list.