Alternatives and competitors
Sites like Debian
The 20 closest Linux distribution alternatives to Debian, ranked by what they actually offer, and the 2 technologies behind it.
Looking for an alternative to Debian? The closest matches are Ubuntu, Linux kernel and Fedora Project. We match sites by what they actually offer, from their homepages, Wikidata and a summary by Claude, in any language. Vote on each alternative and leave a short note to help the next person choose.
- Neighbours
- k = 20
- Sites searched
- 4,032
- Vector
- 384-d
- Query
- 14 ms
01 · Entity
About Debian
Debian debian.org
Debian -- The Universal Operating System
Debian is an operating system and a distribution of Free Software. It is maintained and updated through the work of many users who volunteer their time and effort.
Wikidata: free operating system
Summary by Claude
Debian is a free, volunteer-developed Linux distribution; the site provides downloads, documentation, security advisories, release news and information on contributing to the project.
- Who it’s for
- Linux users, system administrators, developers
- Business model
- Donations, nonprofit volunteer project
02 · Embedding space
Competitor map
Each alternative by how close its vector is to Debian’s (x) and how much traffic it gets, how much of the stack it shares, or where it sits in the embedding space itself (y). Lines split each axis at the median. Hover for the numbers, click to jump to it in the list.
similarity × popularity
03 · Nearest neighbours
Alternatives to Debian
Thumbs up if it’s a real alternative to Debian, thumbs down if it isn’t.
- 01
The enterprise Linux for open source innovation | Ubuntu
Ubuntu is the modern, enterprise Linux operating system for servers, desktop, cloud, and IoT. Supported for up to 15 years
Very close cos 0.924 - 02
The Linux Kernel Archives
Unix-like operating system kernel, basis for all Linux operating systems
Very close cos 0.909 - 03
Arch Linux
Linux distribution
Very close cos 0.907 - 04
The GNU Operating System and the Free Software Movement
Since 1983, developing the free Unix style operating system GNU, so that computer users can have the freedom to share and improve the software they use.
Very close cos 0.900 - 05
Welcome – Gentoo Linux
The website of Gentoo, a flexible Linux distribution.
Very close cos 0.896 - 06
The FreeBSD Project
free Unix-like operating system
Close cos 0.888 - 07
openSUSE - Free Linux operating systems for desktops, servers and containers
openSUSE makes open source Linux operating systems, available for free in several flavors.
Close cos 0.886 - 08
The CentOS Project
Linux distribution
Close cos 0.883 - 09
Client Challenge
free and open-source web content management system
Close cos 0.883 - 10
LVFS: Home
firmware update management software for Linux
Close cos 0.876 - 11
Git
distributed version control system
Close cos 0.878 - 12
Checking you are not a bot
open-source desktop environment software project
Close cos 0.877 - 13
Syncthing
open source continuous file synchronization software
Close cos 0.875 - 14
The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network - www.cpan.org
Perl package repository
Close cos 0.875 - 15
Blog Tool, Publishing Platform, and CMS | WordPress.org
Open source software which you can use to easily create a beautiful website, blog, or app.
Close cos 0.875 - 16
Home - KDE Community
KDE is an open community of friendly people who want to create a world in which everyone has control over their digital life and enjoys freedom and privacy.
Close cos 0.872 - 17
OVHcloud
OVHcloud is a global, cloud provider delivering hosted private cloud, public cloud, and dedicated server solutions trusted by over 1.5 million developers.
Close cos 0.873 - 18
RustDesk: Open-Source Remote Desktop with Self-Hosted Server Solutions
RustDesk is open-source remote desktop software for your own self-hosted server, a TeamViewer and AnyDesk alternative for Windows, macOS, Linux and Android.
Close cos 0.871 - 19
MediaWiki
free and open-source wiki software, developed by the Wikimedia Foundation
Close cos 0.871 - 20
Doxygen homepage
Source code documentation and analysis tool
Close cos 0.869
Ranked by score: the cosine similarity of each site’s vector to debian.org’s, less a small penalty for generic sites that are close to everything. Highlighted technologies are ones Debian uses too. Votes and comments come from visitors and don’t change the ranking.
04 · Fingerprints
Technology
What Debian is built with, and what its closest competitors use, from its homepage’s code and its DNS records.
Built with
- Web servers
- Apache HTTP Server header server: Apache
- SaaS tools (verified in DNS)
- Google Search Console TXT google-site-verification=3u3n3jrPTlPrumIxQAl4r0utY6hrkj1_DSvdxjiTSP8
Stack changes
No changes yet. Each new crawl is compared with the last one, and what Debian adds or drops shows up here.
What competitors use
Across the 20 closest sites.
- Google Search Console 13/20
- Apache HTTP Server 7/20
- nginx · not on debian.org 5/20
- Fastly · not on debian.org 5/20
- Microsoft 365 · not on debian.org 4/20
- Bootstrap · not on debian.org 4/20
- jQuery · not on debian.org 3/20
- Font Awesome · not on debian.org 3/20
- GlobalSign · not on debian.org 3/20
- Cloudflare · not on debian.org 3/20
- Cloudflare DNS · not on debian.org 3/20
- Hetzner DNS · not on debian.org 2/20
- cdnjs · not on debian.org 2/20
- Amazon SES · not on debian.org 2/20