This is the biggest list of alternatives for the most used programs, web services, games and operating systems ever, with a focus on free or open-source alternatives for proprietary/shareware/freeware programs and games.
(Most of the programs and games below can be found in most Linux distributions or in the Flathub and Snapcraft stores)
For more alternatives see the AlternativeTo website and the GNOME and KDE applications suite, or the Flathub and Snapcraft stores (or install a Linux distribution with GNOME or KDE Plasma included)
If you like this list consider to give a star on the repository, it will help more people to replace non-free programs or discover better programs
What is the difference between alternative and replacement? A replacement aims to implement all features of some program or operating system, it can be on the same way or a different way.
While an alternative is a program that can implement some features of some program, but in a different way and not all features.
Thus keep this in mind to avoid direct comparisons (1:1).
The program or game must be usable
The program must have a license, even if the source code is available
The program or game license must be approved by OSI
Why freeware programs and games aren't accepted? Freeware programs and games don't provide the source code and the rights of usage are determined by the author, the terms can change anytime.
While in free and open-source licenses the rights/terms of usage don't change.
This is the template used to add new items, you can easily copy and modify it.
| **Program** | **Alternative** | **Description** |
|-------------|-----------------|-----------------|
| | | |
- [Back to top](#index)
OS Alternative Description
Windows, MacOSX
Ubuntu , PopOS , Fedora , antiX Linux , Void Linux , GhostBSD , ReactOS , Haiku , Android-x86 The most used proprietary operating systems on desktops.
Android (AOSP, OEM versions and custom ROMs), iOS
postmarketOS , UBports The most used mobile operating systems.
Linux (also known as GNU/Linux)
GhostBSD , FreeBSD , NetBSD , OpenBSD , ReactOS , Haiku , Android-x86 The most used operating system of the world, except on desktops. Created by Linus Torvalds and developed by the Linux developers.
Task/Program Alternative Description
Suspension/Hibernation
Nyrna Most common methods to enable the idle/sleep state of the computer
Rufus
Ventoy The most used USB flasher program on Windows
Program Alternative Description
Google Play Services
microG The proprietary service that provides some system APIs to apps
Program Alternative Description
Google Chrome, Opera, Microsoft Edge, Safari
Chromium , ungoogled-chromium , Bromite , Firefox , Zen Browser The most used web browsers, some are proprietary and others are open-source with binary blobs
HTTP Browsers
Lagrange The most used text protocol on the Internet
App Store Alternative Description
Google Play Store
F-Droid The most used proprietary app store on Android
Service Alternative Description
YouTube, VK, Rumble, Bitchute
PeerTube The most used proprietary video platforms
Service Alternative Description
Twitch, YouTube
Owncast The most used proprietary livestream platforms
StreamYard
VDO.Ninja One of the most used YouTube streaming services
Service Alternative Description
Facebook, Twitter
Mastodon , Nostr The most used proprietary social networks
Program Alternative Description
Hamachi
ZeroTier A popular program to share your local network on the Internet
Encryption Alternative Description
BitLocker
VeraCrypt , LUKS (Linux encryption)The Microsoft Windows disk encryption technology
Program Alternative Description
Recuva
TestDisk A popular proprietary data recovery program
Service Alternative Description
Google, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Bing, Yandex
Mojeek The most used proprietary search engines
Service Alternative Description
Google Translate
Argos Translate The most used translation service
Program Alternative Description
Apache HTTP Server, nginx
Static Web Server The most used HTTP web servers
Program Alternative Description
Norton, McAfee, AVG, Avast, Windows Defender, Malwarebytes
ClamAV The most used proprietary anti-malware programs
Program Alternative Description
Microsoft Office
LibreOffice The most used office suite
Adobe Acrobat
Scribus , Evince , Okular The most used proprietary PDF document viewer and editor
Program Alternative Description
Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator
GIMP , Krita , Inkscape The most used proprietary image manipulation programs
Canvas
Sly A popular image editor for web browsers
GIMP, Inkscape
Graphite The most used image manipulation programs on Linux
Program Alternative Description
Adobe Animate
Pencil2D , OpenToonz The most used proprietary animation editor
Adobe Flash Player
Ruffle The most used proprietary animation player of 2000s
Program Alternative Description
Shazam
Mousai The most used program for music recognition
Program Alternative Description
FL Studio, Ableton Live, Reaper, Hammer
LMMS , Ardour The most used proprietary digital audio workstations
Service Alternative Description
Banking
Bitcoin , Monero The most used payment service
Program Alternative Description
VirtualDJ
Mixxx Popular proprietary DJ mixing program
Program Alternative Description
Microsoft Teams, Skype, Zoom, Google Hangouts
Jami , Jitsi Meet , VDO.Ninja The most used proprietary voice/video chat programs
Keyboard Alternative Description
GBoard
OpenBoard The proprietary Google keyboard
Game Alternative Description
Google Assistant, Google Now
Dicio The most used personal assistant on Android
API Alternative Description
Direct3D, Metal
Vulkan , OpenGL The most used graphics APIs
Program Alternative Description
Bandicamp, Fraps
OBS One of the most used proprietary screen recorders
NVIDIA Shadowplay
GPU Screen Recorder A popular screen recording program that uses GPU for encoding
Program Alternative Description
Team Viewer
Sanzu , Remmina The most popular proprietary screen sharing program
Program Alternative Description
OpenSSH
Mosh , sshx The most used SSH client
Program Alternative Description
Google Maps
OpenStreetMap The most used proprietary map navigation service
Google Earth
KDE Marble The most used proprietary 3D map navigation
Program Alternative Description
GNU Debugger, rr-debugger
pwatch The most used free and open-source debuggers
Program Alternative Description
Bottles, Lutris
brie The most used Wine launchers
Emulator Alternative Description
ePSXe, pSX
DuckStation , PCSX-ReARMed Popular freeware PS1 emulators
PCSX2
Play! The most popular and advanced PS2 emulator
Game Alternative Description
Ace Of Spades
OpenSpades , ZeroSpades A popular voxel combat game
Factorio
Mindustry A popular proprietary tower defense game
Half-Life
Xash3D FWGS The most popular proprietary FPS game
Counter Strike 1.6
FreeCS One of the most popular proprietary FPS games
VRChat
Overte The most popular proprietary virtual reality game
Guitar Hero
YARG , Performous The most popular proprietary guitar game
Just Dance
Performous , StepMania the most popular proprietary dance game
Minecraft
Minetest (Luanti now) , ClassiCube The most popular proprietary voxel sandbox game
Cube World
Veloren A popular abandoned proprietary voxel RPG game
STALKER (All games)
OpenXRay A popular proprietary science-fiction FPS game