os-alt CLI

Open-source alternatives in your terminal — `npx os-alt <slug>`.

Two seconds, no browser tab. The CLI wraps the same public JSON API the website is built from, so the freshness numbers, license, setup time and monthly-cost estimates match exactly what you see on each SaaS page.

Node 18+ · zero dependencies · MIT · source on GitHub

Install

You don't. Just run:

npx os-alt slack

If npm hasn't picked up the package yet, the GitHub-URL fallback always works:

npx github:SolvoHQ/os-alt-cli slack

What you get

$ npx os-alt slack

Slack  Team chat
Slack is the default for persistent team chat. The self-hostable replacements …
anchor: $8.75/user/mo on Pro; message history capped on free tier

name                 license              setup            monthly cost     health         ★
Mattermost           AGPL-3.0 (Team Ed…   15min docker-…   $5 VPS handle…   alive today    37k
Rocket.Chat          MIT                  15min docker-…   $10 VPS — Mon…   alive 1d       45k
Zulip                Apache-2.0           30-60min (the…   $10 VPS minim…   alive today    25k

Mattermost: Slack → Workspace settings → Import/Export → Export …
Rocket.Chat: Admin → Import → Slack. Upload Slack export …
Zulip:       Use the upstream `manage.py convert_slack_data` …

Full page → https://code-rho-dun.vercel.app/slack/
Migration  → https://code-rho-dun.vercel.app/migrate-from-slack-to-mattermost/
Data:      https://code-rho-dun.vercel.app/api/saas/slack.json

Other commands

npx os-alt --list      # every indexed SaaS slug
npx os-alt --help
npx os-alt --version

Slug not found? Prefix fallback is built in — npx os-alt slac resolves to slack. If a prefix matches multiple SaaS, the CLI lists them and exits non-zero.

Why a CLI?

The web is great for browsing. But when you're sketching infrastructure in a terminal — comparing three Slack alternatives or three Datadog alternatives — opening a browser is friction. npx os-alt slack is two seconds of throughput. Pipe the slug list into a script and you can audit your whole stack against the self-host options without leaving $EDITOR.

Found a missing SaaS? Open an issue on the CLI repo or on the data repo and we'll add it to the next build.