---
title: "Software alternatives without doorway pages"
description: "Why \"[product] alternatives\" and \"A vs B\" still rank, why scaled doorway pages get dropped, and how a catalog can grow compare URLs without cloning the same paragraph 5,000 times."
---

# Software alternatives without doorway pages

2026-10-05 - 5 min read - 1159 words

"[Name] alternatives" is one of the few software queries that still converts. The searcher already pays for a tool, or already hates a tool, and wants a list. "A vs B" is the next click. Directories that own those URLs get the visit. Directories that print a thousand near-duplicate doorways get the spam classification.

Both facts can be true at once. AlternativeTo did not invent a loophole. It built pages people open. The copies that came after treated the URL pattern as the product.

MakeItLast grows alternatives hubs and compare pairs when a listing goes live. The constraint is the same as Search Console's: each URL needs a job that the listing page did not already do.

## What the query is actually asking

**"{Product} alternatives"** means: I know this product. Show me nearby products, and tell me why they are nearby. A page that only restates the original tagline has not answered.

**"{A} vs {B}"** means: put two live products next to each other. Shared category, overlapping tags, two descriptions. Do not pick a winner if you have not used them. Do not invent G2 scores.

**"{Product} review"** means: help me decide. If you have no users and no score, say so. A listing-as-review that names the tags and the nearby tools is honest. A five-star schema with no reviews is a rich-result trap.

**"{Product} pricing"** means: what does it cost. If you only have tags (free, freemium, subscription), say the tags are claims, not a crawled rate card.

Doorway pages ignore the question and copy the template. Google's doorway guidance is old and still in force: pages built to funnel people to a destination, with no unique value, are fair game to drop.

## Why scaled "vs" farms die

The failure mode is mechanical.

1. Generate every pair in the catalog, including a notes app vs an invoicing API.
2. Title them "{A} vs {B}".
3. Paste both marketing blurbs.
4. Add a generic FAQ ("which is better? it depends").
5. Sitemap all of them.
6. Wonder why Coverage fills with crawled-not-indexed.

The pair had no reason to exist. Shared "web app" is not a reason. Shared "cloud" is not a reason. Searchers do not type those compares. Crawlers learn the host publishes noise.

MakeItLast's pair test:

- Same category, or same category group, or a shared **signal** tag (not web-app, not cloud, not pwa).
- Similarity score at least 2.
- At most 32 partners per listing, so a popular lane cannot explode into a complete graph.
- Canonical slug in lexicographic order. `b-vs-a` 308s to `a-vs-b`.
- Reverse and missing pairs stay out of the sitemap.

The first product in an empty catalog cannot invent 25 compares. That is correct. A live catalog with hundreds of tools can, because neighbors exist.

## What belongs on the page

A compare URL should let someone decide without opening ten tabs.

- Two names in the H1, in canonical order.
- One sentence each, then why the pair qualified (lane, tags).
- A glance table: lane, tags, follow state, listed date. Not a fake feature matrix you did not research.
- Each description, once, under that product's heading, with a link to the listing.
- Related compares that share a product, not a random rotation of the whole graph.
- FAQ that answers difference, "who wins," and "same lane?" without a sales pitch.

An alternatives hub should list nearby listings with a one-line reason each, then the cards. It should not be a second homepage.

A review URL should not paste the listing markdown again. Tags as claims, a short excerpt, a pointer back to the card. Otherwise Google will canonical the review to the listing and you will have built nothing.

## Internal links are the graph

Crawlers discover compares from listings, not only from sitemaps. If the only path is `/sitemap/compare.xml`, you are asking Googlebot to trust a file. If each listing links "All compares," "All alternatives," and a handful of `{name} vs {other}` anchors, the graph is visible to people too.

MakeItLast puts those links on the listing, the review, the pricing page, the footer, and the homepage. Reverse links from the pair back to both listings. That is boring on purpose. Boring graphs get crawled.

Do not hide compares behind a JavaScript widget that never renders in the HTML. If the pair exists, it is a real `<a href>`.

## How a maker should use these URLs

You do not need to "optimize" them. You need the listing to be true.

1. Pick a category a stranger would type, not "Other."
2. Pick five tags that include an audience or a pricing posture when they apply. Those tags unlock `/for/{audience}` and facet URLs, and they feed compare scoring.
3. Write a description that is still accurate if someone pastes it into ChatGPT. Compare pages will quote it.
4. After the listing is live, open `/tools/{your-slug}/alternatives` and the vs hub. If they 404, you do not have neighbors yet. That is a catalog fact, not a bug.
5. Cite a compare URL from your own docs only if you are willing to keep both products listed. When a neighbor unlists, the pair should vanish.

Do not build 50 landing pages on your own domain that mirror the directory's vs URLs with thinner copy. You will compete with yourself, and the directory page will usually win because it already has two entities.

## What we refuse to generate

- Best-of lists with no listings in them.
- "{Product} for {generic tag}" when the tag is web-app.
- Review stars, G2 scores, or "we tried it for a week."
- Price amounts scraped from a JS checkout.
- Compare pairs across unrelated lanes because the names share a letter.
- Indexing an empty alternatives index. Zero hubs means `noindex` on that URL until a neighbor exists.

The empty compare index stays public with an explanation, because "how does a compare page get created" is a real question. The pair URLs do not.

## Short answers

**Will "{my product} alternatives" rank from a directory?** Sometimes, if the product name is already searched and the hub has real neighbors. Your own alternatives page can rank too if it is better. Duplicate the directory paragraph and neither helps.

**Is programmatic SEO dead?** Scaled junk is. Unique URLs with unique jobs are how catalogs have always worked. Categories, tags, product pages, then compares that two products earned.

**Why 25+ pages per submit?** Listing, review, pricing, audience, facets, vs hub, alternatives hub, and compare pairs against nearby tools. The number is a side effect of neighbors and tags, not a target. If your product is the only one in a lane with empty tags, you get the card plus review and pricing. That is still a public record.

**Can I request indexing on every compare?** No. Sitemap them. Request the listing. Let Google take pairs that earn impressions.

Alternatives and vs queries are buying queries. Treat the pages like answers. If you cannot say why two products share a URL, do not mint the URL. That is the whole difference between a catalog and a doorway farm.

HTML: https://www.makeitla.st/blog/software-alternatives-without-doorway-pages