How Forkshelf works

Forkshelf is a directory for small teams that would rather run software on their own server than rent a seat. Each page is written for one search: a free or open source alternative to a paid tool.

The catalog names the paid product and the GitHub repositories to compare. It does not contain star counts, licences, descriptions, or commit dates. A refresh script reads those from the public GitHub API, and the site builds them into static HTML.

Only an OSI-approved SPDX licence counts as open source. Source-available licences stay on the page with that label. So do repositories with no commit in the last 12 months, and repositories GitHub marks archived. None of those count toward the minimum of 3. A page that drops below that minimum asks search engines not to index it. Archived repositories stay listed. Hiding them would hide a maintenance signal that self-hosters need.

Forkshelf does not rank by payment. Sponsor slots open soon. When a note is approved, it is labelled and sits apart from the list. Nothing on this site takes a card payment. A person reads each sponsor request and sends a payment link only after approving it.

There is no account, no newsletter, and no tracking pixel in this version. The pages compare software. They are not financial, legal, medical, or hiring advice.

Sponsor slot details and the full list of alternatives are linked from every page.