How tools are chosen

What gets in

A tool is listed when it does a real job well enough that people rely on it, it is available to use today, and it is clear about what it costs. Thin wrappers, abandoned projects and clones of a better tool stay out. Each tool sits in exactly one of 12 categories, the one that fits its main job.

How listings are written

Every listing says what the tool is, who it suits and the main limit worth knowing, in plain words. The facts come from the maker’s own site and pricing page, and each listing shows the day they were last checked. When a listing says a tool was tested, it was; otherwise it makes no such claim.

How guides are made

Guides answer the questions people ask when choosing a tool: which one to pick for a job, how two compare, and what they really cost. Each one opens with the short answer, checks every price and plan against the maker’s own pages on the date it shows, and ends by saying how it was made, including whether the tools were tested for it or researched from their documentation. Research and writing are AI-assisted and checked by a person before anything is published. When a fact goes out of date, the guide is corrected and its date says so.

What the pricing labels mean

Free: Everything is free to use, as with most open-source tools.
Free plan: A free plan you can keep using, with paid plans for more.
Free trial: Paid, with a free trial or some free credits that run out.
Paid: You have to pay to use it at all.

No paid placement

No tool pays to be listed, to rank higher in search or to appear as an alternative. Links to tools are plain links; they carry a ref=magpieindex tag so makers can see where visitors came from, and nothing more.

Suggest a tool or a fix

If a tool belongs here, or a listing is out of date, send it in. Every submission is read by a person. You can also search the index first to check it is not already here.