Dev tools · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to File-over-App Directory
Hi all! I’ve been into the “file-over-app” philosophy lately. The idea of using products through files you can control, in formats that are easy to read and retrieve. I built this directory (https://fileoverapp.latitude.so/) to organize tools following the same principles. The cool thing is most of them are open-source and you can even filter by that. Now I'm looking for more stuff. If you’re aware of similar software, you can contribute and submit a product. I’d love to hear your recommendations!
Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. File-over-App Directory launched in 2024; newer entries below may have overtaken it.
- 1
Hi, I'm a developer and first time i shipped the real product after observing the startups and indie hackers community for years. I had made so many useless apps [you should check my website https://ansh.life], but this time I built a very useful product that has a number of super easy-to-use tools in one app for video, music, and photo files. Users can compress, convert, resize, and do so much more with easy-to-use tools. Background: I developed a frame-by-frame video cropper to upload cropped landscape videos to Instagram Reels. However, it required FFmpeg, and as a noob video…
2025 · pimosa.app · its alternatives →
- 2
Hello folks, Generally, I never had problems locating, or quick accessing my files using "Everything". It’s fast and does the job well, no complains there. So… why build something else? Because I have some minor complains that have inspired me to work on my own custom replacement to it. And because I just want to make a great project to have on my resume . Here are some limitations I ran into: The app fails when I want to locate a file from another drive that I share between PCs and doesn't use the NTFS file format. Another thing it could do better is to feel a bit more system intergraded.…
2025 · drimiteros.github.io · its alternatives →
- 3
Tidey▲90Hey HN! I built Tidey because my Desktop was always a mess. The problem: Files pile up on Desktop and Downloads. Screenshots, PDFs, random downloads. You save them "temporarily" and forget about them for months. The solution: Tidey sits in your menubar and watches those folders. When you're ready to clean up, it shows you each file one by one. You preview it, then click Delete (goes to Trash) or Keep (moves to ~/Documents/Kept/, organized by year/month). That's it. No complex rules, no automation magic. Just a fast way to make decisions about files you've been ignoring.…
Jan 2026 · trytidey.com · its alternatives →
- 4BA
This is a previous project I decided to relaunch. There's tons of directories that accept all submissions, but I feel like that just waters down the platform. It also isn't fair for the amazingly built tools and services. I pivoted to a premium-only directory and feel like charging a small fee, while it might take longer to build the portfolio of listed tools, they'll be of much higher quality than other platforms.
2024 · findcool.tools · its alternatives →
- 5
I've been exploring uses of file metadata. Here's an interesting one with a legitimate (and potentially unreliable) use case. Focuses on ease of use. Would love to hear feedback.
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 6DB
My partner reviews a lot of P&IDs (piping and instrumentation diagrams) and the adjacent files involved (excel, docx, pdfs, acd/l5x, etc). In his company, these are usually done in Bluebeam. It's really hard to see the diff + keep track of all the revisions resulted by these iterations. They end up storing files like "rev3_final_redlined.pdf". We've been looking for something close to Github to do these reviews, but haven't found one easy enough for folks with no CLI experience to understand and use (happy to check out more tools if you know any). So I built withkord.com to help with…
Aug 2026 · withkord.com · its alternatives →
- 7
I work on R00M 101, a Reddit-based OSINT profiler. While building it, I realized most open-source intelligence (OSINT) tools are scattered across GitHub, outdated blog posts, or random Discords. So I put together a public-facing directory of 100+ OSINT tools used by analysts, journalists, and security folks, free, filterable, and categorized by risk, platform, and use case. The idea was to make something useful and no-friction. Built with static HTML + SQL backend + a lot of caffeine. Would love feedback on how to improve the UX or tool curation. If anyone wants to contribute tools or help…
2025 · r00m101.com · its alternatives →
- 8OS
I got tired of collecting open source projects in my chrome bookmarks so I decided to compile a curated list of: - Recently active projects on GitHub - Mostly dev tools (but also productivity, analytics) - Projects which are "Alternative to X software" My bookmarks are finally empty:D If you have a great open source tool you use, I'd be glad to hear your suggestions. Also, any feedback is greatly appreciated.
2025 · alternativeoss.com · its alternatives →
- 9
Hi everyone, Just wanted to share a use case where local LLMs are genuinely helpful for daily workflows: file organization. I've been working on a C++ desktop app called AI File Sorter – it uses local LLMs via `llama.cpp` to help organize messy folders like `Downloads` or `Desktop`. Not sort files into folders solely based on extension or filename patterns, but based on what each file actually is supposed to do or does. Basically: what would normally take me a great deal of time for dragging and sorting can now be done in a few. It's cross-platform (Windows/macOS/Linux), and fully…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 10
Hi HN, I spent 20 hours manually researching "best startup directories" for my last launch. Found outdated GitHub lists, dead links, and no data on which directories actually matter. So I built this instead. *Live*: https://awesome-directories.com *GitHub*: https://github.com/awesome-directories/awesome-directories *What It Is* An open-source aggregator of 300+ verified launch directories with: - Domain Rating scores (Ahrefs), dofollow/nofollow badges, pricing filters - Community voting, favorites, and submission tracking per project - CSV export and…
Nov 2025 · awesome-directories.com · its alternatives →
- 11
Would love any feedback, especially on the documentation. Is it clear what the purpose of "Higml" is? Is its advantage clear? Thanks!
2010 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 12MW
http://imagestash.org/ Kind of like Instapaper for images. While surfing at home one evening I found the perfect desktop background ... for my work machine. I got to pondering the quickest way to save a random image so I could get to it on all of my devices, got a wee bit carried away with the technical possibilities, and this was the result. Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!
2011 · imagestash.org · its alternatives →
- 13
- 14
Hey hey! This is a tool I've worked on for a while, and it's reached the point I'm quite happy with the results! Comments and suggestions are appreciated :) Enjoy your day!
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 15
https://freakynit.gumroad.com/l/downloads-director MacOS app that automatically moves downloaded files into folders based on their extensions. You can create custom rules (e.g., .jpg → Pictures) and apply them in real time or on-demand. It works in the background and supports both ARM and Intel Macs. Free to use. Feedback welcome! Thanks.. PS: No strings attached kind of free. No personally identifiable data is collected. Completely safe to use. Just something I built for myself, then polished it a bit for others to use.
2025 · freakynit.gumroad.com · its alternatives →
- 16
Now that I have your attention (“Don’t you dare version control environment files!!”, “This can’t be safe.”) and before you tear me and my project to shreds, please allow me to take a moment to celebrate something small but meaningful: I’ve finally released a thing. Thank you. Motivation tl;dr: The existing tools and libraries for versioning and syncing environment files / secrets across team members and CI machines just didn’t cut it for me. So, I set out to create my own solution — one finally checks all my boxes. So what is places-env? (I encourage you to check the readme…
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 17
Hi all, I've been working on tooling that can reverse the work of a linker. It allows one to take bits and pieces of an executable and delink them into working object files, which can then be reused as-is to make new programs or libraries, without having to decompile or disassemble them first. The readme has links to my blog demonstrating some of the use-cases. The most impressive one so far is making a port of a ~100 KiB Linux a.out i386 program to a native Windows PE i386 executable, despite not having access to its original source code or even decompiling it. Currently, 32-bit i386 and…
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 18E
Hello everyone, A couple of months ago I was introduced to Excalidraw and fell in love with it instantly. The only thing I didn't like was that I couldn't easily save my whiteboards and had to put everything in one whiteboard which started to lag my PC after a while. So I made ExcaliHub. It's exactly as it sounds: a hub for Excalidraw. It's free, open source, and I aim to keep it that way. Thanks in advance for any feedback!
2024 · excalihub.dev · its alternatives →
- 19WT
Backstory: Few years back, I used a shared spreadsheet (GSheets) to organize my property hunt, and found it quite frustrating to keep on top of things just on the productivity side alone. Felt that there should be a better way to do this, and that's when I started creating a webapp, with features that can make this journey feel less stressful. This is a solo dev project. Have a look at the demo, and let me know your thoughts! Cheers
2025 · dash.collabnest.app · its alternatives →
- 20
Meta▲6Google for your files - local or cloud, all in one place.
2016 · finance.yahoo.com · its alternatives →
- 21
PDFTry▲4Docs processed in the browser. Your docs are yours!
Jun 2026 · pdftry.com · its alternatives →
- 22
2021 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 23
Hi HN, I've written the developer tool I've wanted for some time: a process manager and log multiplexer in one. I think of it as a combination of overmind and lnav, both great tools in and of themselves, but focussed on my needs as a developer. I wrote more about it here: https://www.aha.io/engineering/articles/over-it-all Hope someone else finds it useful too.
Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 24IM
One week ago, I launched a new directory, which is a curated list of useful and cool Mac apps and tools that are not available on the app store. Initially, I wasn't sure if it was a good idea, but I managed to create it in just one day. I started promoting it on Twitter and some communities, and although I got some views, I didn't make any sales. Then the next day, I wrote a post on a subreddit related to Mac apps about the directory I launched. People loved it so much, and I got 39k views on that post, leading to around 2.5k visitors on my site. Thanks to this exposure, I made my first 4…
2024 · mactools.pro · its alternatives →
Also compare
Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →