How to Submit Your App to AlternativeTo, Step by Step

To submit your app to AlternativeTo, create an account and verify your email, then use "Suggest new application" from your user menu and fill in the form: name, website, platforms, license, descriptions and tags. Submitting is free and goes into a review queue with no promised timeframe, or you can pay a one-time $5 for priority review, which AlternativeTo says typically takes one to two business days and does not change the standard for approval. The form is the easy part. The part that decides whether anyone ever finds you is the list of apps you get attached to as an alternative, because that is how visitors arrive. Pick three to five apps you genuinely replace for a specific kind of person, describe the difference honestly, and let the people who are already unhappy with those apps find you.

Most launch sites work like a billboard: you appear on a list for a day and the audience scrolls past. AlternativeTo works like a comparison shelf. Nobody browses it to discover your category. They type the name of an app they already use, usually because something about it annoys them, and read the page of apps that could replace it. Your listing is only seen when you sit on the right shelf. This guide walks the submission from account to approval and spends most of its words on that choice.

How does AlternativeTo send people to your app?

Every app on AlternativeTo has its own page, and every page carries a ranked list of alternatives that members have suggested and voted on. When someone searches for a way to replace an app and lands on that page, they scan the list, open a couple of candidates and click through to the website.

That changes what a good listing looks like:

• Your visitor already has a baseline. They are comparing you to a specific app, so "what is different, and for whom" matters more than "what is this".
• Traffic is spread across many small pages. Being on the page for a niche app that fits your audience can beat being a distant name on the page for a giant.
• The relationship is public and voted. An alternative that nobody agrees is an alternative will not hold its place, so a forced match is wasted effort.

So think of the submission as two separate jobs. First you create your app's own page. Then you get that page linked from the pages of the apps you replace. They use different parts of the site and are worth separate attention.

What do you need before you start?

Have these ready before you open the form, so you are not writing your description at midnight inside a text box:

1. A working, public product. AlternativeTo's FAQ says it does not take apps that are unreleased, in closed beta or invite-only. If a stranger cannot try yours today, wait.
2. A real app, not a piece of content. The FAQ says listings need to be an actual product rather than content or a service, and the interface needs to support English.
3. A verified email address. The FAQ requires it before you can submit, to discourage spammers and bots.
4. One name, officially spelled. Use the name as it appears on your own site. Check the search box first so you do not create a duplicate of an app that already has a page. The FAQ tells you not to submit different versions of the same app as separate entries.
5. A short description and a longer one. The form asks for descriptions, so write both ahead of time. If you want a method for this, our guide to writing an app description for directory listings covers it.
6. Tags and platforms. Decide which platforms the app really runs on, and which tags a person would use to describe what it does. The FAQ names platforms, license, descriptions and tags among the fields you fill in.
7. A logo and a couple of screenshots. Prepare them at a clean size so you do not discover a blurry icon after you hit submit.

If you are submitting to several sites in the same week, run through our app directory submission checklist once and reuse the same assets everywhere.

How do you add a new app step by step?

AlternativeTo's own FAQ is the source for the flow below. The site changes its interface from time to time, so treat the button names as a guide and check them against the FAQ on the day you submit.

1. Create an account and verify your email. You cannot submit until the address is confirmed.
2. Search for your app. If it already exists, do not add it again. Open its page and suggest edits there instead.
3. Open "Suggest new application" from your user icon menu.
4. Fill in the form. Platforms, license, descriptions, tags and the rest. Take your time on the description and tags, since those decide where the app shows up.
5. Submit the application. It goes into the review queue.
6. Decide on priority review. For a one-time $5 fee, AlternativeTo reviews faster, typically within one to two business days. Payment does not buy approval, and the criteria are identical either way. The advantage is practical: priority submissions get feedback telling you what to add, instead of a plain decline.
7. Track it from your profile. Your "My submissions" section lists each app still waiting, when you sent it and which queue it sits in.

On the $5 question: if your app is ready and you want to know quickly whether it meets the bar, the fee buys speed and specific feedback, which is a fair trade for a launch with a date on it. If you have no deadline, the free queue costs nothing but time. Either way, spend the effort on a clean form rather than on rushing it.

Which apps should you list yourself as an alternative to?

This is the step the form does not walk you through, and it is where most listings go wrong. Once your page is approved, you attach it to other apps' pages. Per the FAQ, you do that from the page of the app you replace, using the "Contribute to this page" button and the option to suggest an alternative.

Here is a worksheet to pick targets. Write down candidate apps, then run each one through the four questions.

Question	A good answer	A bad answer
Would a user of this app switch to yours today?	Yes, and I can name the task they would do in yours	Only if they were starting from scratch
Do we solve the same main job?	The core job is the same, with a different approach	We share one minor feature
Do I know the complaint people have with it?	Yes, from reviews, forums or my own experience	No, I am guessing
Can I say the difference in one honest sentence?	"Works offline and costs nothing per seat"	"Better, faster, more modern"

Score each candidate by counting good answers. Four is a strong match. Three is worth listing. Two or fewer, drop it.

Then sort what is left into three groups:

• The one or two obvious replacements. The apps your best users came from. These are the pages where your listing carries the most weight.
• The niche match. A smaller app in your exact category whose audience is the one you want. These pages get fewer visitors, but the people on them are close to a decision.
• The big name, if it genuinely fits. Being suggested next to a household-name product is allowed in principle, but members vote on whether the pairing makes sense. Only attach yourself if a real user could do what they do there in your app.

Keep the whole list to three to five. A listing attached to twenty unrelated apps looks like spam to the members who vote, and it dilutes the places where you genuinely belong. Beyond that, a tight list is easier to defend if someone questions a match.

How do you describe the difference without trashing the competitor?

Visitors on those pages are comparing you to something they have used. They respond to specifics, and they distrust attacks. Three habits keep your description credible.

Say what you do, then who it is for. "A habit tracker that works without an account, for people who want to log a habit in two taps" gives a reader a reason to click. "A better habit tracker" gives them nothing.

Name the trade-off. If your app is simpler because it skips team features, say so. Readers who want team features will move on, and readers who wanted simple will notice. Honest trade-offs are the most believable thing on a comparison page.

Never write the other app's name into your description as a target. Let the page structure do the comparing. If your sentence has to belittle another product to land, it is not saying anything about yours. Google's own guidance on creating helpful, reliable, people-first content makes a similar point for search generally: content written to help the reader holds up better than content written to manipulate where it appears. The same instinct applies to a listing description.

A quick test before you paste: remove every adjective that could describe any app. What is left should still tell a stranger what the app does and why they might switch. If nothing is left, rewrite it.

What happens after you submit?

Three things happen, in order, and they take different amounts of time.

Your app page gets reviewed. AlternativeTo says its standard queue holds a lot of apps and does not guarantee a timeframe. Do not plan a launch around the free queue. If a date matters, use priority review or accept that the listing will arrive when it arrives.

You may be asked to fix something. Declines and change requests usually come down to the rules above: a product that is not publicly usable, a duplicate, missing platform details, or a description that reads like an advert. Fix what the reviewer names and resubmit. Our post on why app submissions get rejected covers the pattern across directories.

Then the alternatives step begins. Once the page is live you can suggest it on the pages of the apps you chose, and the community votes. This is a slower, more social process. Check back, keep your descriptions accurate, and do not suggest yourself onto pages again and again after members decline a match.

One practical habit: when you get your first visits from AlternativeTo, look at which app's page sent them. That tells you which of your three to five choices is working, and which one to double down on. If you want the wider picture of where else to list while you wait, see where to submit your app for free. Each listing reaches a different kind of reader, so they complement each other.

If you are building up a stack of listings, a good order is: one comparison-shelf site like AlternativeTo, one launch-day site, and one showcase where people try apps directly. They answer different questions, and you only need to write the description once.

FAQ

Is AlternativeTo free to submit to?

Yes. Submitting a new application costs nothing, and anyone with a verified account can do it. There is an optional one-time $5 priority review, which speeds up the review and gives more detailed feedback. AlternativeTo states that payment does not buy approval, and the same acceptance criteria apply either way.

How long does AlternativeTo approval take?

For the free queue, there is no guaranteed timeframe, since AlternativeTo says it holds a large number of apps waiting for review. With the $5 priority review, AlternativeTo says processing typically takes one to two business days. You can see where your app sits from the "My submissions" section of your profile, which shows when you submitted it and which queue it is in.

Can I list my app as an alternative to a big-name product?

You can suggest it, but the community decides whether it stays. Do it when a real user of that product could do their main task in yours, and when you can state the difference in one honest sentence. A pairing that stretches the truth tends to lose votes, and it sends visitors who bounce, which does your app no good either.

Why hasn't my AlternativeTo listing appeared?

The most common reason is simply the queue: free submissions wait with no promised date. Check "My submissions" in your profile to see whether the app is still pending. If it was declined, the reasons are usually that the app is not publicly released, it duplicates an existing entry, it is not an actual product, or it does not support English. Fix what the reviewer points out and resubmit, or use priority review if you want specific feedback on what is missing.

Your description is written, so put it to work

Once you have a clean description and screenshots, you can reuse them everywhere. Submit your app to TryMy for free: paste your URL, a person reviews it, and it goes live in a showcase built for apps people can try today. It needs to be free, free-trial or freemium with a working link. You can also browse the apps already listed to see how others describe theirs.