Cookie Policy

Last updated: 6 August 2026

This policy explains the cookies and similar technologies we use on alternativeto.net, what each one is for, and how you can control them. It is a companion to our Privacy Policy, which covers personal data more broadly.

Where this policy says "trackers", it means cookies and any comparable technology — unique identifiers, web beacons, embedded scripts, e-tags and fingerprinting — that stores information on your device or reads information from it.

How to change your choices

You can change or withdraw your consent at any time using the consent tool on the site. Opening it again lets you review each purpose and turn advertising and analytics trackers on or off.

You can also delete or block trackers in your browser. Note that blocking strictly necessary cookies will stop you from signing in.

Deleting your browsing history also clears the tracker that remembers your consent choices, so you will be asked again on your next visit.

Consent, and what happens by default

AlternativeTo participates in the IAB Europe Transparency & Consent Framework and complies with its specifications and policies. Consent is collected through Google's Funding Choices consent tool and passed to our advertising partners using Google Consent Mode.

In the EEA and the UK, advertising storage, ad personalisation and ad user data are denied by default. Nothing beyond strictly necessary and basic functional trackers is set until you consent.

Elsewhere, advertising and analytics trackers are enabled by default and you can opt out at any time through the consent tool.

Strictly necessary trackers

These are required for the site to work. They do not need your consent, and cannot be turned off through the consent tool.

Sign-in and session (first-party). We set cookies to keep you signed in, to protect against cross-site request forgery, and to remember that you are in the middle of a sign-in flow. These are set directly by alternativeto.net and are not shared with anyone.

Preferences (first-party). Small pieces of data remembering your choices, such as light or dark theme, and your consent decisions.

Cloudflare (Cloudflare, Inc.) — traffic optimisation, content delivery and security. Cloudflare filters all traffic between your browser and AlternativeTo, and sets trackers used to identify trusted traffic and mitigate attacks. Because the network is globally distributed, the exact location of processing can vary. United States. Privacy Policy

hCaptcha (Intuition Machines, Inc.) — spam and bot protection on sign-up and submission forms. hCaptcha analyses information such as your IP address, how long you have been on the page, and your mouse movements, to decide whether you are a human, and forwards that data to Intuition Machines. In "invisible mode" the analysis runs in the background without showing you a challenge. This is based on our legitimate interest in protecting the site from abusive automated crawling and spam (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Intuition Machines acts as a processor under the GDPR, and as a service provider under the CCPA. United States. Privacy Policy — Terms

Registration and authentication

Signing in identifies you and gives you access to account features.

AlternativeTo accounts (first-party). Sessions are managed by us, on our own infrastructure, using first-party cookies. Passwords are stored hashed.

Google, Microsoft, GitHub and Apple — optional social sign-in. If you choose one of these, that provider may set its own trackers during the sign-in flow, and will learn that you signed in to AlternativeTo. Each is governed by its own privacy policy.

Auth0 (Okta, Inc.) — used only to verify passwords for older accounts that have not yet been migrated to our current login system. It is not involved once an account has been migrated. United States. Privacy Policy

Payments

Stripe (Stripe Payments Europe, Ltd.) — if you pay for a priority app review, Stripe sets trackers on its own hosted checkout pages, and may set fraud-prevention trackers on our site. These are necessary to take payment securely and to detect fraudulent transactions. Card details never reach AlternativeTo's servers. Ireland and United States. Privacy Policy

Analytics

Used to understand how the site is used, so we can improve it. Requires consent where the law demands it.

Google Analytics with anonymised IP (Google Ireland Limited) — measures traffic and produces reports on site activity. Your IP address is shortened within the EEA before being processed; only in exceptional cases is the full address sent to a Google server and shortened in the US. Google may use the data to contextualise and personalise ads on its own network. Personal data processed: cookies and usage data. Ireland. Privacy Policy — Opt out

Google Tag Manager (Google Ireland Limited) — manages the tags and scripts used on the site in one place, which means your data passes through it. Personal data processed: usage data. Ireland. Privacy Policy

Error monitoring

TrackJS (TrackJS LLC) — records JavaScript errors that happen in your browser so we can fix them. Error reports may include your IP address and details of the page and action that failed. United States. Privacy Policy

Advertising

AlternativeTo is free to use and funded by advertising. These trackers deliver ads and, where you have consented, personalise them based on your interests and behaviour — including behaviour observed on other sites. This does not mean all of your personal data is used for advertising.

Google AdSense (Google Ireland Limited) — serves ads, using the "DoubleClick" cookie to track use of AlternativeTo and your behaviour with respect to ads, products and services. Personal data processed: cookies and usage data. Ireland. Privacy Policy — Opt out

Google Ad Manager (Google Ireland Limited) — runs advertising campaigns together with external advertising networks that we generally have no direct relationship with. Also uses the "DoubleClick" cookie. To understand how Google uses this data, see Google's partner policy. Personal data processed: cookies and usage data. Ireland. Privacy Policy

Google Funding Choices (Google Ireland Limited) — presents the consent notice and stores your choices so we do not have to ask on every page. Ireland. Privacy Policy

You can disable DoubleClick cookies through Google Ad Settings.

Industry opt-outs

Beyond the controls above, these industry programmes let you set tracking preferences across many advertising tools at once:

On mobile devices you can also opt out through your device's advertising or tracking settings. The Digital Advertising Alliance offers an app called AppChoices for controlling interest-based advertising in mobile apps.

How long trackers last

Lifetimes vary. Some expire when you close your browser; others last from a few days to a couple of years. Because third-party providers set their own lifetimes and may change them, the most accurate and current information is in each provider's privacy policy, linked above. You can ask us for more detail at any time.

Owner and data controller

27 Kilobyte AB, Box 45142, 104 30 Stockholm, Sweden. Contact: hello@alternativeto.net

Because third-party trackers are not fully under our control, the references above are indicative. For complete information, consult the privacy policies of the third-party services listed here.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the services we use change. The "Last updated" date at the top always reflects the current version.