Who writes this, and how every claim is checked

How a page gets written

We start from what people actually search, and read what already ranks. Many results for these searches are lists published by a company selling one of the products on the list. Every page here starts by reading those results, so it can answer the question they avoid.

Every version number, licence and price is checked at the source. Versions and licences come from each project's own repository or download server; prices come from the vendor's own pricing page, never from another blog. Setup steps are checked against the project's documentation — not written from memory.

Every page names where the paid tool is better. Each one carries a section on when not to switch. A site paid by vendors can't write that section; we can, and it's the reason to trust the rest.

How pages are kept accurate

Open-source projects ship new versions, change licences and occasionally go quiet. Every two weeks an automated check compares what our pages say against 21 upstream projects — current version, licence, whether the repository is archived, and how recently it was worked on. Anything that has drifted becomes a page edit. Claims no machine can verify, like a vendor's price or a free tier's limits, are re-read by hand on the same schedule.

Each page shows the date it was last updated. When a fact changes, the page changes and the date moves; we don't bump dates to look fresh.

What we will and won't recommend

• Software that runs on your own computer. No account, no upload, works offline. Server software is mentioned where it is the better answer, but it is not what we recommend for a laptop.
• Genuinely free. Open source where possible. When something is free with strings — free for personal use only, public-by-default files, a trial dressed as a free tier — the page says so.
• Official downloads only. Our download buttons go to each project's own site. Third-party download portals are where free software picks up bundled adware.
• Fair to paid software. We are against unnecessary spending, not against paying. Several pages say plainly that the paid option is worth it for some people.

What's here so far

3 replacement guides, 9 head-to-head comparisons and 7 category guides — all listed on the homepage. Representative ones: the free Lightroom alternative (what to install and how to set it up), GIMP vs Photoshop (where the free tool genuinely stops), and free backup software (where the advice everywhere else is years out of date).