What we use to build AlternativeTo

Visual Studio is the main IDE we use for coding, debugging and everything else that you do in a large app like this.

Like most other software developers nowdays we use GIT as our source control system and we host our code on GitHub. We also use their issue system to associate bugs with commits and so on.

AlternativeTo is a distributed team and since not two single people are based in the same city, this is our digital office.

We have a lot of plans for the site and this is currently where we keep them organized, or at least keep them.

A lot of the design elements on the site was done in Photoshop over the years, but lately we're leaning towards Sketch.

A modern way to create user interfaces and more. Most of the current design on the site was made with Sketch, the rest with Photoshop.

As the main web framework and scaffolding

To manage our font icons

Used for most of our Javascript on the site. Greatly simplifies interaction with the DOM and is an awesome open source project.

Used to "compile" Javascript and CSS and other continuous integration tasks.

To make our select boxes a bit smarter

To test APIs, status codes, redirects and stuff like that.

For tests of our UI, mostly use it to keep track of noindex / canonicals and other boring stuff that need to be correct.

To keep track of errors.

To speed up your requests, detect spam and some great HTTPS support.

To communicate between Slack, Trello and other services.

We spend a lot of time trying to understand how the site works and how our users engage with the site, and we do most of that digging in Google Analytics.

To host most of our servers, databases and so on.

As a cache for data that is accessed often.

As the primary database for the site

As the server side package manager in Visual Studio

As a database for some new stuff like our content system

As our web server locally

To handle everything we do with JSON.

To send emails when you register and so on.

To provide you with an incredible fast and accurate search

A collaborative inbox and support chat.

A lot of blog posts, plans and other long.form texts have been typed up in this application, either on Mac OS X or on iOS.

The team often checks on apps using VirusTotal, to ensure they're safe for users.

Our primary source of income.

To work with our Redis cache locally