Rules
- 1
Rank is the bid
Positions on a board are ordered by what each tool paid, highest first. Ties break by who paid first. There is no algorithm, no editorial pass and no way to move up without paying.
- 2
One dollar more takes the spot
Whoever holds the top of a board is replaced by anyone paying a dollar more than they did. An empty board opens at $1. There is no other price and no other way up.
- 3
An empty board is filled with our own picks
Until tools pay for them, a board carries up to ten alternatives we chose ourselves. They are drawn dashed, carry no bid and no offer, and are not in the auction: the first dollar spent on the board lands above all of them and pushes one off the bottom. Correcting one costs the same as taking #1 — a dollar the first time, two the second, and a dollar more every time after that. Nobody paid for those positions, we say so on every one, and any tool that would rather not be listed for free is taken off on request.
- 4
Getting on later costs more, by construction
Nobody sets an entry fee. Every tool already on a board is still standing on it, so the price of leading is whatever the last one paid plus one — waiting is what makes it expensive.
- 5
Anyone can open a board
Naming a product as the thing people switch away from costs $10. The board is public the moment the payment clears, and every alternative can then pay to appear on it.
- 6
A board's own position is for sale too
Boards are ordered by one number, and there are two ways to raise it: buy #1 on the board, or pay to push the board itself. So a competitor taking your top spot drags your board up the homepage — and you can answer by paying past them.
- 7
The offer is the listing
Every placement carries what a switcher gets and what it is worth. That text is shown to everyone reading the board, and the count of people who took it is shown next to it.
- 8
Offers are honoured by the tool, not by us
xAlternative sells the position and publishes the promise. Delivering it is between the tool and the person who switched.
- 9
A tool cannot fund switching away from itself
A product may not list itself as an alternative to itself.
- 10
Coming down is free, and always will be
Any tool listed without paying can be removed, from every board at once, at /remove — free, immediately, no account, nothing to discuss. There is no price for a takedown and there will never be one: a directory that bills you to leave a page you did not ask to be on is a different kind of business, and not this one. The product a board is named after is likewise never charged for anything, and cannot buy its way onto, off, or around its own board.
- 11
We can hide a listing, not un-sell it
A listing that has to come down keeps its position and its money — the payment was real — but stops rendering.
- 12
Payments are final
A position is bought outright. Being outbid is the mechanism, not a fault, and is not refundable.