// the covenant
The sellout pledge
Every alternatives site eventually becomes an affiliate catalog. This page is our public promise not to — and your receipt for holding us to it.
we will never
- 💰 place affiliate links or earn commissions on any recommendation
- 🏷 sell paid placements — money can't buy a better rank here
- 📊 run third-party ad/tracking networks on this site
- 🤐 hide a product's trade-offs because a sponsor would dislike them
- 🔒 lock the dataset — it's MIT-licensed JSON, take it and build your own site
we will always
- 🥇 list free & open-source options before cheaper paid ones
- ⚖️ publish at least one honest limitation per alternative — trust needs trade-offs
- 📅 date-stamp every entry (verified_on) so staleness is visible
- 🧾 show the math: what you pay vs $0, per year
- 🔌 keep the JSON API free — no keys, no rate limits, no strings
how this is enforced
1 · it's all in git
The entire dataset lives in a public repository. If a link ever smells like an affiliate code or a ranking looks bought, the diff that broke the pledge is publicly blameable.
2 · you are the auditor
Every product page has one-click links to report stale pricing or suspicious entries. Reports become GitHub issues anyone can watch get fixed.
3 · the incentives are aligned
There is no revenue to protect. Hosting costs are pocket change; the moat is trust. The moment this site earns from recommendations, it becomes AlternativeTo. That's the whole business model section.
found a violation? open an issue →