How we rank.
And what we refuse to.
Every list on AltDora is built by hand, the same way, every time. This page is the whole process — what gets a tool on a list, what we check before it stays, and the firewall that keeps money away from the order.
What gets a tool on a list — and off it
Gets a tool listed
- It genuinely replaces the tool the page is about — same job, done at least as well for someone
- It's alive: maintained, purchasable and supported today
- We could verify the facts that decide a switch — pricing, platforms, licensing
- We'd recommend it to a reader with a straight face
Keeps a tool off
- It only exists to pad the list to a rounder number
- Abandoned, unmaintained or shutting down
- Claims we couldn't verify against the vendor
- Payment, or the offer of it — sponsorship buys a labeled slot, never a place on the list
What we check before a tool stays
Checked against the vendor's own documentation — not copied from their homepage.
Pricing & free tier
What it actually starts at, what the free plan really includes, and where the limits bite.
Platforms & availability
Where it runs — desktop, mobile, web, self-hosted — so you don't find out after signing up.
Licensing & lock-in
Open source or proprietary, and how hard it is to leave once your data lives there.
The features that matter
The capabilities that decide the switch — not the full marketing feature matrix.
The downsides
Every profile lists cons next to pros. If we can't find a real drawback, we look harder.
Who it's built for
A great tool for a freelancer can be a terrible one for a 200-seat team. We say which.
How lists stay current
A ranking from last year is a recommendation for tools as they used to be.
We watch for changes
Pricing changes, free tiers get cut, features ship and sunset. Community comments and votes flag what we miss.
We revise the list
When a tool changes materially, its entry — and its place in the order — gets re-examined, not grandfathered.
We correct mistakes
Spot something wrong and tell us — every report is investigated and corrections are made on the page, not buried.
Where sponsorship stops
AltDora sells labeled sponsored slots — that's how the site makes money, and these are the rules that keep it honest.
Labeled, above the list, outside it in the markup — and its link carries rel=“sponsored”.
The ranked list starts below it, and is unaffected:
Sponsorship has no effect on which tools are listed, how they're ordered, or what a write-up says — and a sponsored tool never holds a slot and a list position on the same page. Full detail in the advertising disclosure; packages on the sponsorship page.
Think a list is wrong?
That's not an annoyance, it's the job. Tell us what's off and we'll check it against the vendor within days.