s
Login Join Starter Story
Source
OpenAlternative
SEO

A collection of the best open source alternatives.

openalternative.co · Founded 2024 · 55 public sources · Updated 28 days ago

Researched profile. Starter Story's AI research system compiled this page from 55 public sources — the founder didn't write it. Automated research can misread or misattribute a source, so treat figures as best-effort. How this works →

How OpenAlternative Grew

Community-driven list of open-source software alternatives.

How did OpenAlternative grow?

Summary of the sourced claims below

OpenAlternative grew primarily through organic social media by building internet projects in public and engaging with developer communities on platforms like Reddit and Twitter. SEO has been a significant growth channel, with efforts in content marketing, keyword research, and programmatic SEO leading to high Google impressions and rankings for competitive keywords. Affiliate marketing also contributed notably to growth by building a partner network of affiliates who promote the product in exchange for commissions.

Channels

10 channels · grouped by how OpenAlternative grows

  • SEO

    · 9 mentions · 9 sources
    “I then put this data into Airtable and used it to generate lots of pages for Programmatic SEO. It’s too early to tell if this will have a big impact on SEO, but I think it’s a good idea to have a lot of pages for Google to index. It’s already ranking for some very competitive keywords like “open ...”
    high
    Show 8 more quotes
    “Most of OpenAlternative's traffic comes from search engines, and the strategy behind it is almost entirely programmatic. ... Every project in the directory gets its own page. Every category gets a page. Every programming language gets a page. This creates hundreds of indexed pages, each targeting...”
    high
    “I was also interested in learning more about SEO and growth, so I considered this a good project to experiment with... I then put this data into Airtable and used it to generate lots of pages for programmatic SEO... I recently started putting more effort into SEO, which is my current focus.”
    high
    “I was also interested in learning more about SEO and growth, so I considered this a good project to experiment with... I then put this data into Airtable and used it to generate lots of pages for programmatic SEO... I recently started putting more effort into SEO, which is my current focus.”
    high
    “Growing OpenAlternative to 100k unique visitors in one week”
    medium
    “4. SEO (slowly) I've been investing in content lately. It's starting to work, but it's a long game. Most traffic still comes from affiliates and OpenAlternative.”
    high
    “SEO is starting to work, I've been investing in content lately and it's slowly picking up.”
    high
    “Crunchbase company profiles are free and rank everywhere in Google... The free profile pages do the SEO work, and the paywall only appears when someone tries to slice the data in bulk. That's a model any structured directory can miniaturize.”
    medium
    “My directory website just crossed 350K impressions on Google in its first 3 months! 😍 From not knowing how to do keyword research to ranking top-3 on multiple high volume keywords.”
    high

  • Organic social media

    · 7 mentions · 7 sources
    “Like always, I posted about it on Twitter. ... the tweet got some attention. Nothing crazy, but it was a good start. ... I was engaging with people on Twitter to get some feedback. One of such conversations was with Steven Tey who seemed to like the idea and decided to share it with his audience....”
    high
    Show 6 more quotes
    “I posted OpenAlternative to Twitter/X. At the time, I had roughly 700 followers. Not exactly an audience. But something about the project resonated. Developer communities picked it up fast. It spread across Reddit and Hacker News. Within the first week, over 100,000 people visited the site.”
    high
    “Given that it's a tech-related project, what has worked best for me is posting consistently on developer-related websites like Reddit or Hacker News. You have to be very careful not to get banned quickly there, so always try to provide value to readers and avoid being too spammy.”
    high
    “Given that it's a tech-related project, what has worked best for me is posting consistently on developer-related websites like Reddit or Hacker News. You have to be very careful not to get banned quickly there, so always try to provide value to readers and avoid being too spammy.”
    high
    “Building in public on Twitter/X has been valuable for credibility”
    high
    “the directory sits on top of an audience Francesco spent a decade building, including a YouTube channel with hundreds of thousands of subscribers reviewing productivity software. The lesson: audience-first beats SEO-first when you have one.”
    medium
    “Building internet projects in public.”
    medium

  • Building in public

    · 3 mentions · 3 sources
    “3. Building in Public Sharing the journey on Twitter/X has been valuable for credibility. People can watch me ship features, see the revenue grow, and trust that the product is actively maintained.”
    high
    Show 2 more quotes
    “I build in public, and most of what I learn ends up here.”
    high
    “Building in public on Twitter/X has been valuable for credibility”
    high

  • Content marketing

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “I also hired a freelance writer to produce SEO-focused blog content. This drives additional long-tail traffic and builds topical authority around open source software.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “Sixteen years of user submissions and votes built a moat no editorial team could replicate, and every 'alternatives to X' page is an evergreen asset that updates itself as users vote. If you can design even a lightweight contribution loop (suggest a listing, upvote, review), your content costs dr...”
    medium

  • Affiliate program

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “The best channel by far has been affiliate marketing. I give affiliates 30% commission on every sale they refer. Yes, that's a significant chunk of revenue to give up, but it's absolutely worth it. I invested time building out a partner network—reaching out to newsletter writers, YouTubers, and i...”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “1. Affiliate Marketing (30% commission) This is my best channel by far. Yes, giving up 30% hurts. But affiliates who are well-compensated actually promote your product. I spent time building a partner network—reaching out to newsletter writers, YouTubers, and indie hackers with relevant audiences...”
    high

  • Reddit

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “I was also posting about it on Reddit. I’ve posted it on a few subreddits, but the most successful one was on r/SelfHosted. It quicky got over 250 upvotes and a lot of comments.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “It spread across Reddit and Hacker News. Within the first week, over 100,000 people visited the site.”
    high

  • Product Hunt

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “I knew I had to keep the momentum going, so I decided to post it on Product Hunt the next day. ... With the help of the community, we were able to get 3rd place on the day of the launch with over 500 upvotes. This was one of the most successful PH launches I’ve ever had.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “Super stoked to launch @ossalternative on @ProductHunt today 🚀 I've put a lot of thought and effort into delivering a world-class collection of open-source alternatives to proprietary software!”
    high

  • Hacker News

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “Knowing that the site was getting some attention, I decided to post it on Hacker News as well. ... The post immediately got featured on to the front page and quickly climbed to claim the #1 spot on the site. ... The traffic was insane. I was getting thousands of visitors every hour.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “It spread across Reddit and Hacker News. Within the first week, over 100,000 people visited the site.”
    high

  • Leveraging existing platforms

    · 1 mention
    “A lot of my traffic also comes indirectly through OpenAlternative, which acts as a living demo of what Dirstarter can do. ... OpenAlternative and my other directories (still the biggest source)”
    high

  • Side project marketing

    · 1 mention
    “All I did was add a small "Built with Dirstarter" link to OpenAlternative. Sales started flowing immediately. ... Your existing projects can become new products. I didn't set out to build a boilerplate business. It emerged naturally from something I was already running.”
    high

How 3,327 businesses grow

Of businesses with mapped growth channels, the share using each — OpenAlternative’s highlighted.
  • Social media
    64% ◀
  • Referral/Word-of-mouth
    63%
  • Search/SEO
    58% ◀
  • Email
    47%
  • Community
    37% ◀
  • Content/Inbound
    35% ◀
  • Partnerships
    32% ◀
  • Events
    24%
  • Paid ads
    23%
  • Outbound/Sales
    19%
  • Press/PR
    17%
  • Marketplaces/App stores
    12% ◀
  • Podcasting
    4%
  • Influencer partnerships
    3%
S
Starter Story
Support Privacy Terms