About
An archive of small software, kept since 2011.
AppRater is a public index of independent products: mobile and desktop apps, web tools, browser extensions, plugins, APIs, and developer tools. Makers submit their own work, submissions are screened before they appear, and approved listings get a permanent address on the web.
It is not a store, and not a launch feed. Nothing here is ranked by how hard it was marketed and nothing is rotated out to make room for the next announcement, because the point is that a small product can still be found years after the day it launched.
The archive in numbers
- Listings published
- 11,173
- Added in the last 30 days
- 948
- Continuously online since
- 2011
- Cost to browse or submit
- $0
Counts are read live from the archive. Reading it needs no account, and there is no account to create — visitors have never had one.
Mobile is not the point.
The most common thing people get wrong about AppRater is assuming it is a mobile app store. It never was. The archive lists independent software of every shape, on every platform its submitter can name:
And underneath the platform, software of every kind. A browser extension is as much a product as a phone app; so is a plugin for someone else’s editor, an API nobody sees, or a script that runs on a home server. Pick the closest platform when you submit, even if it is only roughly right.
Belongs in the archive
- Mobile appsiPhone, iPad, and Android, from broad ideas to single-purpose utilities.
- Desktop appsmacOS and Windows, including anything someone installs from a .dmg or an .exe.
- Web appsBrowser-based tools and services, with or without a sign-up.
- Extensions and pluginsBrowser extensions, add-ons, and integrations for software people already use.
- APIs and developer toolsProducts made for other people who are building things.
- Command-line and self-hosted softwareTerminal tools, scripts, and software you run on your own machine or server.
- The awkward shapesGenerators, converters, calculators, experiments. If it is software and it runs, the form does not matter.
Products from one person or a small team are the archive’s whole reason to exist. That is a description of who tends to submit here, not a rule about who may.
Stays out of the archive
- Adult and sexual contentPornography, NSFW image or video generators, explicit dating or hookup products, escort services — however they are worded or labelled. Software that blocks, filters, detects, or moderates that material is a safety tool and belongs here.
- Shops and storesE-commerce, marketplaces, and physical goods. The archive is for software, not for what it sells.
- Sites rather than softwareBrand and agency pages, content farms, blogs, newsletters, and email courses.
- Fan wikis and file repositoriesCollections of other people's work, including download mirrors, font dumps, and wallpaper galleries.
- Crypto, NFT, and blockchain productsThe archive does not list this category at all.
- Gambling, betting, and casinosAlso excluded outright, in every form.
- Hacking, piracy, and anything illegalTools whose purpose is breaking into, stealing, or bypassing someone else's system or licence.
- Scams and clonesInvented capabilities, get-rich schemes, and products posing as a better-known one.
- MalwareAnything built to damage, spy on, or coerce the person running it.
- People instead of productsSome submissions are a person's own name with nothing built behind it. The archive is for what someone made.
- Landing pages and parked domainsThere has to be something to open at the other end of the URL.
These are the rules the review actually applies, not a summary of them. Borderline cases are held for a person rather than decided by the letter of the list.
How something gets in here.
Every submission passes the same path. Nothing is published by paying, and nothing is turned away by a machine.
- 01You submit
The form on the homepage asks for the product's name, platform, URL, and a description of what makes it useful — plus your own name and email, and optional tags, image, and X handle. There is no account to create, before or after.
- 02It is screened
A first read checks the plain things: is this software, does the URL look like the product's own, is the description real, does the platform make sense, is it in English. A submission that clearly fits can be published at this stage. Nothing is ever declined by a machine.
- 03A person decides the rest
Anything flagged or borderline — a thin description, an unusual category, an ambiguous URL — goes to a queue that a person works through by hand. This is the slow part, and the queue is long: expect a wait, not minutes.
- 04You hear either way
Approval sends an email to the address you submitted with. A decline does not, so if weeks pass with nothing published, write to the address below and ask — it costs nothing and nothing has been thrown away.
- 05It goes live and gets announced
Published listings get a permanent URL, are posted to X and Threads, and join the tag, platform, trending, and search pages, plus the weekly email that goes to subscribers.
- 06It stays
Listings are archived, not rotated out. A product that stops working has its link removed and the listing marked disabled rather than quietly deleted, so the record keeps what was there.
If you made something
A listing is a page that keeps working for you. It is free, it is written by a person, and it does not disappear when the launch week ends.
- A permanent URLEvery published product lives at its own address that does not expire, and an earlier address keeps resolving if the slug ever changes.
- Several ways to be foundTag pages, platform pages, search, the monthly trending list, related listings on similar products, and the weekly email of newly published apps.
- A counted way outEvery click through to your product is counted before the reader is sent on, so you can see whether the listing brings anybody.
- Room to answerReaders can recommend a product without an account, and you can post a product-team update — both moderated before they appear.
- A badge, if you want oneA single SVG that links back to your listing and shows its recommendation count. A few lines of HTML in a footer, nothing to install or run.
- Boards around the listingJobs, deals, and for-hire listings take the same submit, review, publish path — and each one expires on its own so nothing stale sits there.
Optional
Promotion
Promotion is the only thing on this site that costs money, it can only be bought for a listing that is already published, and it changes placement rather than the decision. It puts a product back into the social rotation, into the homepage rotation in a labelled slot, and into one spot per issue of the weekly email.
$14 USD per monthor$35 USD every 3 months
Cancel any time with the processor you paid with, or by asking. A promoted listing always carries a label saying so.
If your product is not listed yet, submit it first — review comes before any of this. There is a paid leaderboard too, which works differently: approved listings compete for position, one $5 bid at a time.
A rejection is not a verdict on the product. Most declines are a description too thin to publish, a URL that never reaches the product, or a category the archive simply does not cover.
If you are just looking
Reading the archive costs nothing, needs no account, and never will. There is no login on this site for visitors, no paywall, and no feed engineered to keep you scrolling. It is a shelf: you take what is useful and leave.
By tag, by platform, by what readers opened this month, or by typing what you need.
One press per browser, no sign-up. It adds a count to the product and nothing else.
Comments and product-team updates are welcome and are read by a person before they appear.
A dead link, a listing that no longer matches its product, or something that should not be here. Every report gets read.
Two honest notes about the numbers. Click counts include repeat clicks and bots, so read them as interest rather than unique people. And the archive shows no ratings, scores, or written reviews — only recommendation counts and clicks. If you want to help it keep going: recommend the products you actually use, report the broken ones, and tell a maker the archive exists.
Questions people actually ask
The things that decide whether a submission is worth someone’s afternoon — including the one about mobile apps.
Do I need an app in the App Store or Google Play to be listed?
No. That is the most common misunderstanding about this site. iOS and Android apps are the largest part of the archive because that is mostly what people built, not because other software is turned away. Web apps, desktop apps, browser extensions, plugins, APIs, and command-line tools are all listed.
Are desktop apps, web apps, extensions, or APIs really allowed?
Yes — see the list above. A browser extension, a plugin for an editor or a design tool, a macOS or Windows app, a REST API, a command-line tool, or something self-hosted all belong here. The archive is for independent software of any shape, not for one store's catalogue.
Which platform do I pick for a desktop, command-line, or self-hosted product?
The closest one. Desktop apps belong on macOS or Windows; a command-line or self-hosted tool can go under Web or Other. A platform that reads imperfectly is a labelling detail, not a contradiction, and it is not a reason for a submission to be declined.
Does it cost anything to be listed?
No. Submitting is free, being published is free, and staying in the archive is free. Promotion is optional, sold separately, and never a condition of being listed.
Can I pay to be listed, or to be reviewed sooner?
No. Promotion can only be bought for a listing that has already been approved, and it buys placement — homepage rotation, social posts, a spot in the weekly email — not approval. Whether something is published, and when, does not depend on money.
Are free, paid, or invite-only products all eligible?
Yes. Price and business model are not criteria. Free, paid, freemium, open source, and invite-only products sit in the same archive.
How long does review take?
It depends entirely on the queue, which one person works through, so expect a wait rather than minutes. Clear submissions can go live as soon as they are screened. Anything unclear waits for a human, and nothing is rejected automatically.
Can I submit a product I did not build?
Only if you are authorised to represent it. Submitting a product is a claim to speak for it, and a listing that turns out to be misrepresented is removed.
My product or description is not in English.
The archive is English-only. A product can be built anywhere, but its title and description need to be in English for the archive to be usable and searchable. Quoting a product's native name inside English text is fine.
What happens if my submission is declined?
It is not published, and no rejection email is sent, so silence usually means it is still in the queue rather than refused. If it does turn out to be refused, fixing what was wrong — a thin description, a URL that does not reach the product, a category the archive does not list — is usually enough for the next attempt.
Can I update or remove my listing later?
Yes, by asking. Corrections, new URLs, renamed products, and removals all go through the same address below. If a product shuts down, its listing stops sending traffic and is marked disabled instead of vanishing.
Where are the ratings? Is AppRater a review site?
Despite the name, there are no stars, scores, or written reviews here. What a listing carries is a recommendation count — people pressing “I use this”, one press per browser, no account — and the number of readers who clicked through to the product. Older listings still show counts they collected years ago, now labelled as recommendations. A score from a stranger was never the useful part.
Do you publish the email address I submit with?
No. Submitter, commenter, reporter, and freelancer emails are moderation data: never published, never linked, and never made scrapable. Only the product's own details appear on a listing.
Who runs AppRater?
One person. Andrei reads the queue, answers the mail, and keeps the archive online; the site does not pretend to be a company. Questions, corrections, and partnership notes go to the address at the bottom of this page.
One person, keeping a record.
AppRater has been online since 2011 and is run by one person: Andrei reads the queue, answers the mail, and keeps the archive up. Corrections, reports, removals, and questions all go to [email protected], and the archive is on X at @apprater.
The Terms and the Privacy Policy explain the formal side: what may be submitted, how promotions and payments work, and what happens to the data you send.