How to Find an Ethical Alternative on ethical.net

Open ethical.net and start from the thing you already use, not from a product name. The site is organized as a directory of alternatives sorted by the service you want to replace, so the fastest route is to pick your current app from that list and read the matching guide. Each entry has been through the same checklist, and each guide states when it was last checked and what changed.

Start with the directory, not the search box

The homepage asks "What do you want to replace?" and lists categories by the type of service. Examples from the site:

The full directory covers 454 alternatives in 43 categories, and the site says 97% were re-checked in the last 90 days. If your service isn't in the short list above, use "All 43 categories" to find the matching group.

Use the popular guides if you're replacing a major platform

Most readers start with Gmail, Google or Facebook, and the site publishes dedicated guides for those. Each guide is written around ownership and money: who owns each alternative, how it makes money, which options have free plans, and what the trade-offs are. The Facebook guide, for example, is organized by what you actually use it for — friends, groups, events, Marketplace and messaging — so you can replace only the part you need rather than the whole platform.

The same pattern applies to the Microsoft guide, which covers Windows, Office, OneDrive, Teams and GitHub separately. Guides carry a "last checked" date, so you can judge how current the ownership and pricing details are.

Read each entry against the same checklist

Every entry in the directory has been through one shared checklist, which is what makes the listings comparable. The site also states its own definition: "ethical" is not objective, and for ethical.net it means moving toward less harm to other people, animals and the planet, shaped by six principles from its manifesto. Read that page before you compare options, because it tells you what the checklist is weighing — ownership, business model and trade-offs — and what it is not.

A practical sequence

1. Identify the specific job you want to replace (email, search, messaging, file sharing, office tools).
2. Find that category in the directory and note the alternatives listed.
3. Open the guide for your current service if one exists (Gmail, Google, Facebook, Microsoft) to see ownership, funding model and trade-offs side by side.
4. Check the "last checked" date on the guide before relying on details like free plans.
5. If a category you need is missing, the site invites readers to suggest an alternative they've missed.

One caveat: the site describes itself as small and independent, and the directory counts and re-check percentage are its own figures. Treat them as a starting point for your own comparison rather than a ranking.