Alternatives
Products that do what File-over-App Directory does
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!
- 1BA
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
- 2UM
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
- 3FS
It's ugly, but hey! It serves its purpose, and you can't get stuck in the polishing nest after all! New design/features will come as they are requested by the community. Keep em' coming!
2012 · file.st
- 4FF
After years of lurking on Hacker News, I figured it was time to finally contribute back. Fileloupe for Mac is a new Mac application that I've been working on for the last year. Version 1.0 was just released in the Mac App Store but Hacker News readers are welcome to download a beta version of 1.1 here: https://kennyc.s3.amazonaws.com/Fileloupe1.1-72-Beta.zip Fileloupe is a high-performance, incredibly fast file viewer that, I think, makes looking at photos, videos, PDFs and documents a lot better than the existing solutions. It doesn't replace Finder (or iPhoto /…
2015
- 5MM
Inspired by the following post by photon_off... http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1683309 I made karmurl last night. It's a simple app where you submit a URL for feedback, then for every piece of feedback you give to someone else's, you get to read one piece of feedback for yours. http://karmurl.com
2011
- 6UL
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
- 7AL
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
- 8IM
It's dead simple. There's no fancy interface. Basic features are gone. That's all on purpose. If you're like me, you're always writing down ideas on pieces of paper. My webapp is like that, but for the internet. Let me know if you find it useful.
2012 · ideab.in
- 9OE
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
- 10DD
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
- 11AD
Hi, I'm software dev with 2x exit. I collected some affordable alternatives to expensive and well-known tools for a while. Mostly for personal use. Now I built the platform and added them here. Also, community help to grow with their tools and suggestions. Enjoy and if you have any alternative for popular softwares or have a suggestions please submit here to make it the internet's biggest alternative software platform.
Nov 2025 · alterbase.co
- 12PE
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
- 13E
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
- 14WT
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
- 15FF
2021 · github.com
- 16IM
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
- 17IB
I built a minimal opensource CMS, I use it myself for my blog and for other SaaS. l love blogging, and sometimes I post random thoughts on my blog. The only thing is, I always did it with .md files, which is fine too However, I was excited about the idea of using a CMS that was very minimal and avoiding the option of connecting something like WordPress or other big platforms. Open source (if you want to fork it or contribute) and free to use (unless I see you have a million views haha). Star the repo if you like it!
Jan 2026 · github.com
- 18DC
I built this tool a couple days ago to temporarily hide your prints & comments. I wanted to focus on the core logic without having to constantly delete/add prints and comments. Lmk if you like it ;)
2024 · marketplace.visualstudio.com
- 19IB
Hi everyone, I built this project to solve a problem I personally struggled with — using too many tools and losing focus. The idea is simple: Instead of adding more tools, reduce them and focus on what actually matters. This is still early, and I’d love your feedback. https://toolrelief.com/
Apr 2026
- 20PM
Hello, HN. Over the past three decades, my camera photo collection has grown to almost a terabyte, all on OneDrive. I've been wanting a way to view it all on a map, to filter by date/keyword, and to do so on my desktop. So I wrote "Geopic for Onedrive" to show all my photos on a map. It's a small hobby project, all open source. I'd love for people to try it out! or fork it to self-host, or make it run off your own collections other than OneDrive. (If you're someone who pays to keep your photos on Apple iCloud then you can use map view on their app; if you pay for Google Photos then…
2025 · github.com
- 21WH
We have been working on tools for safe debloating of software for a few years now at the university. BLAFS is one of our first tools to release for file debloating, a bloat-aware filesystem for container debloating. It detects the files used by the container, and the debloats the container removing the unused files. The debloated containers are fully functional and can run the same workload as the original containers, but with a much smaller size and faster deployment. Check the paper for more details: https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04641
2025 · github.com
- 22OT
I started this as a weekend project and posted it on HN 5 years ago. 300,000 users later, I just released v4 today. Octotree [1] gives GitHub a sidebar that improves file navigation and code/pull request review. Works on Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Safari. Any comment or feedback is appreciated. [1]: https://www.octotree.io/
2019
- 23CP
Hi hackers, long time reader, first time "real" submitter. This is by no means a revolutionary idea, or even execution, but rather something I've always wanted to do, just to see if I could write a good implementation of it. So without further adieu: http://ca.pitali.st/ Yes, it's just an URL shortener. Please check out the API and if there anything you like about it, please share, so I can take this feedback with me to my future projects. If there's something you REALLY hate, that's feedback too. Don't be afraid to hurt my feelings; this was put together in less than 4 hours to see if I…
2011
- 24AB
hey there hn! thought you would appreciate my brand new file format - i've spent over 40 minutes creating this standard. it's really hard trying to get your ideas shown to standards boards etc but i think with the great community here we can help get bioif support into all major browsers :) the spec is available over at the website, as is a reference implementation. it already has higher usage than jpeg-xl. - best
2025 · image.bsb.dev
Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Refine with a description →