Code it

All the tools, services and so on that we use when we develop AlternativeTo. AlternativeTo is built in ASP.NET using C# and is hosted on Azure.

 

We do use a lot of other services as well and you can read all about them below.

Let's start with the apps were we spend most of our time.

 

Microsoft Visual Studio
Visual Studio is the main IDE we use for coding, debugging and everything else that you do in a large app like this.

 

GitHub
Like most other software developers nowdays we use GIT as our source control system and we host our code on GitHub. We also use their issue system to associate bugs with commits and so on.

 

Slack
AlternativeTo is a distributed team and since not two single people are based in the same city, this is our digital office.

 

Trello
We have a lot of plans for the site and this is currently where we keep them organized, or at least keep them.

 

Design & Frontend

 

Adobe Photoshop
A lot of the design elements on the site was done in Photoshop over the years, but lately we're leaning towards Sketch.

 

Sketch
A modern way to create user interfaces and more. Most of the current design on the site was made with Sketch, the rest with Photoshop.

 

Bootstrap
As the main web framework and scaffolding

 

Fontello
To manage our font icons

 

jQuery
Used for most of our Javascript on the site. Greatly simplifies interaction with the DOM and is an awesome open source project.

 

Gulp.js
Used to "compile" Javascript and CSS and other continuous integration tasks.

 

Selectize.js
To make our select boxes a bit smarter

 

DevOps, Reports and Stats

 

Runscope
To test APIs, status codes, redirects and stuff like that.

 

Ghost Inspector
For tests of our UI, mostly use it to keep track of noindex / canonicals and other boring stuff that need to be correct.

 

Rollbar
To keep track of errors.

 

Cloudflare
To speed up your requests, detect spam and some great HTTPS support.

 

Zapier
To communicate between Slack, Trello and other services.

 

Google Analytics

We spend a lot of time trying to understand how the site works and how our users engage with the site, and we do most of that digging in Google Analytics.

 

Hosting & Libraries

 

Microsoft Azure
To host most of our servers, databases and so on.

 

Redis
As a cache for data that is accessed often.

 

Microsoft SQL Server
As the primary database for the site

 

NuGet
As the server side package manager in Visual Studio

 

Cosmos DB
As a database for some new stuff like our content system

 

Microsoft IIS
As our web server locally

 

Json.NET
To handle everything we do with JSON.

 

Sendgrid
To send emails when you register and so on.

 

Algolia
To provide you with an incredible fast and accurate search

Admin & Other

 

Front
A collaborative inbox and support chat.

 

iA Writer
A lot of blog posts, plans and other long.form texts have been typed up in this application, either on Mac OS X or on iOS.

 

VirusTotal
The team often checks on apps using VirusTotal, to ensure they're safe for users.

 

Google AdSense
Our primary source of income.

 

Redis Desktop Manager
To work with our Redis cache locally

 

the original post at the alternative.to blog: https://alternativeto.net/list/1/what-we-use-to-build-alternativeto