shippin.io vs AlternativeTo
AlternativeTo is a crowd-voted catalogue with an open-ended review queue; shippin.io is built for launches, with verified revenue.
Where shippin.io stands out
| Feature | shippin.io | AlternativeTo |
|---|---|---|
| Paid listing price | Builder plan: $29/year ($2.42/month), unlimited active listings | Priority review: one-time fee shown at checkout, amount not published in the FAQ or terms |
| Revenue verified through a payment processor | YesRead-only Stripe or DodoPayments API key, synced daily | Not verified |
| Team openings board | YesUp to 5 openings per product (Builder plan) | Not verified |
| Products can be listed for acquisition | YesBuilder plan; buyers send interest by email, no on-platform sale | Not verified |
| Analytics for listing owners | YesBuilder plan: views, clicks, upvotes, click-through rate and rank | Not verified |
| Deal or discount codes on listings | YesSelf-reported discount on any listing, hidden after expiry | Not verified |
Full comparison
| Feature | shippin.io | AlternativeTo |
|---|---|---|
| Listing & launch | ||
| Listing model | Permanent: active listings never expire; rank fades without engagement but the listing stays | Crowdsourced catalogue entry, one per product, admin-reviewed; no launch day; discontinued apps usually stay |
| Free listing available | Yes1 active product on the free plan, no backlink badge required | YesSuggesting a new application is free; only a faster review is paid, "the one thing you can pay for" |
| Time to go live (free) | Next open UTC day (cap 32 a day), no approval queue; Builder picks the date | Free queue: "We can't give you a date"; paid priority usually 1-2 business days |
| Relaunch allowed | YesBuilder plan, every 60 days | Not verified |
| Pricing | ||
| Paid listing price | Builder plan: $29/year ($2.42/month), unlimited active listings | Priority review: one-time fee shown at checkout, amount not published in the FAQ or terms |
| Advertising and sponsorship (from) | Promoted slot from $2.99/week (Builder) or $4.99/week; Leading Bids from $1; Sponsored Run $3.00/km | Privacy policy lists "sponsor an app"; the About page says email for advertising; no price published |
| Ranking | ||
| How products are ranked | Clicks and upvotes with time decay (60-day half-life) plus a launch boost that fades | "Rank is our own algorithm"; likes are one important factor among several; method private |
| Ranking continues after the launch window | YesRankings never reset; rank only decays when engagement fades | YesNo launch window; apps are sorted by Rank, the site's own algorithm |
| Does paying change ranking? | Builder plan gives a 1.4x rank multiplier; promoted slots, Leading Bids and Sponsored Runs are separate paid placements | No for priority review: "paying only changes when a human looks at your submission"; sponsor effect not stated |
| Anti-gaming rules published | Per-user rate limits, log-scaled votes, auto-hide at 10 reports, fake engagement banned in the terms | Incentivized votes or fake accounts may lower rank or remove from the front page; comments need approval |
| Backlinks | ||
| Outbound link on free listings | Marked rel=ugc | nofollow "unless our editors decide otherwise"; links and UTM tags not allowed in descriptions |
| Outbound link on paid listings | Verified Builder listings link with rel=noopener (followed) | "You can't buy a followed link"; paid options are listed in the privacy policy |
| Revenue & metrics | ||
| Revenue verified through a payment processor | YesRead-only Stripe or DodoPayments API key, synced daily | Not verified |
| Self-reported revenue or MRR badge | YesBuilder plan; labelled self-reported | Not verified |
| Analytics for listing owners | YesBuilder plan: views, clicks, upvotes, click-through rate and rank | Not verified |
| Builder & community | ||
| Team openings board | YesUp to 5 openings per product (Builder plan) | Not verified |
| Products can be listed for acquisition | YesBuilder plan; buyers send interest by email, no on-platform sale | Not verified |
| Deal or discount codes on listings | YesSelf-reported discount on any listing, hidden after expiry | Not verified |
| Comments or reviews on listings | NoNo comments or reviews | YesComments and reviews need admin approval before they are visible |
| Public API or MCP server | NoNo public API or MCP server | Not verified |
| Embeddable badges | NoNo embeddable badges | YesApp pages offer an embeddable badge |
| Newsletter featuring listings | YesWeekly best and product-of-the-day topics | Not verified |
| Search & AI surface | ||
| AI / semantic search | YesAI search (sign-in required) | Not verified |
| llms.txt published | Yes/llms.txt and /llms-full.txt | Nollms.txt returned HTTP 404 |
| Markdown versions of pages | YesEvery public page has a .md version | Not verified |
List your product on shippin.io
Free to start, permanent, ranked on real engagement, and able to show revenue verified through a read-only key.
Last verified 2 November 2026Not affiliated with AlternativeTo
shippin.io is one of the two products compared here. Every claim about AlternativeTo is sourced and dated below; anything we could not verify says "Not verified".
How we verified this: sources
Facts about AlternativeTo come from its own public pages, all checked on 2 November 2026 by reading the page itself. Prices and rules change, so we re-check them regularly. Facts about shippin.io come from the product itself.
Spot something outdated or wrong? Email support@shippin.io and we will check it.