6 ms·

I submitted my project EasyInvoicePDF (a free & open-source invoice generator) a couple of months ago to European Alternatives but never heard back unfortunatel

by vldszn 9mo ago

I submitted my project EasyInvoicePDF (a free & open-source invoice generator) a couple of months ago to European Alternatives but never heard back unfortunately. The project has no backend and is purely browser-based, but I’m based in Europe and developing the project here, so I consider it a European project =) App: https://easyinvoicepdf.com/?template=stripe https://easyinvoicepdf.com/?template=stripe GitHub: https://github.com/VladSez/easy-invoice-pdf https://github.com/VladSez/easy-invoice-pdf

s_dev 9mo ago
It's a cool project but it is 'niche'. I think the purpose of the site is more about the alternatives to 'large players', platforms and infrastructure companies. Still Constantin Graf should have clarified out of politeness but possibly he's busy or doesn't have time to respond to every email. However I'd point out there is a market for European 'Product Hunt' that would include more of these smaller projects.
- vldszn 9mo ago
  Thanks for the comment. I hadn’t thought about this before, but it makes sense - I agree. About European Product Hunt - very good idea. I was thinking recently that we need more European social networks, messengers, etc. It’s a very good time to build imo =)
  - embedding-shape 9mo ago
    > About European Product Hunt - very good idea. Older members of HN will remember that Product Hunt probably came to life a lot because of HN and the submissions/comments from rrhoover (founder of Product Hunt). He's still active here, but before/during Product Hunt launch he was very active if I remember correctly. Maybe a grander idea is a European Hacker News, that has the potential to spawn the European Product Hunts of tomorrow :)
    - tialaramex 9mo ago
      I don't know that an EU Hacker News makes sense, a core EU idea is Freedom of Movement. This started out as an ideal about Goods. You make a Doodad in Venice, clearly there should be as few obstacles as possible to prevent somebody in Dublin having that Doodad, so no export taxes between Venice and Dublin, shared regulatory framework so that your Venice "This Doodad won't choke a baby/ burn down a house/ spy on you/ etc." paperwork is valid in Dublin, and so on. But immediately people who make goods said well this rule needs to include Capital, it's great that I can sell Doodads from Venice in Dublin, but if I want to build a Doodad factory in Venice but my money is in Dublin that should be easy too. And Workers realised if it's just Capital and Goods then it's a race to the bottom for Labour, the Capital and Goods will go where it's cheapest but the workers can't move. So very soon Workers can move freely too, in order that Hans the Doodad Engineer can move to Venice and the courts ended up deciding that in practice everybody gets this freedom, a 5 year old can't have a job and a 105 year old probably doesn't want one, but maybe Hans needs to support his 5 year old grand-daughter and his 105 year old grandfather, so Freedom of Movement must apply to all EU citizens. So, with that idea in mind, I suspect the EU's perspective is that you should come to Europe and write software here, rather than that you should stay exactly where you are and if it's not an EU country then too bad, no EU Product Hunt for you.
      - embedding-shape 9mo ago
        I'm sorry, but what are you talking about? Yes, a core idea is freedom of movement, but you make no case for why that makes EU Hacker News infeasible? It has nothing to do with where people write software. I'm using US Hacker News, and I'm in Europe, is that wrong/bad, or what's your argument here?
        tialaramex 9mo ago
        EU Hacker News isn't infeasible my argument is rather that it's largely pointless. The EU should avoid key US dependencies, but that means things like we shouldn't design a system that needs Microsoft's stupid "Co-pilot 365" or whatever they are now calling Word and Excel, rather than it's important never to visit a web site hosted in the US. "The new government policy shouldn't require iPhones" is a long way from "Nobody can read The Onion", and even in its hardcore "Sign up for YCombinator" mode Hacker News really isn't anywhere close to the former. Although because idiots I am no longer in the EU I'm in Europe too.
- carlosjobim 9mo ago
  I don't think creating an invoice is "niche". It is such a common need for users that invoicing software should be included in the operating system application suite. (Which it is somewhat if you consider Pages invoice templates). Millions and millions of people need to make and send invoices. Many more than people who need domain name registrars, uptime monitoring services, content delivery networks, or microblogging services.
  - vldszn 9mo ago
    Hard agree
reconnecting 9mo ago
Same here. Open-source security framework (1). Applied 16 August 2025. Company registered in Switzerland (EFTA). No reply. However, European Alternatives is a personal (sole proprietorship) website and has nothing to do with Europe, despite the name and style, which are slightly misleading as they mimic official EU website aesthetics. 1. GitHub: https://github.com/tirrenotechnologies/tirreno https://github.com/tirrenotechnologies/tirreno
- vldszn 9mo ago
  Make sense. Btw tirreno looks very cool, just starred on GitHub :)
  - reconnecting 9mo ago
    Thanks so much!
quicksilver03 9mo ago
I've seen the same thing, the site accepts submissions but there's no one to either approve or reject them. Unfortunately they did really well at SEO at one time, and more active alternatives appear far below in the search results.
- vldszn 9mo ago
  Do you know any good alternatives?
  - quicksilver03 9mo ago
    I've been able to submit new entries to https://eucloud.tech/ https://eucloud.tech/ https://buy-european.net/ https://buy-european.net/ I've also found other problematic ones: https://euro-stack.com/ https://euro-stack.com/ (I couldn't understand how to submit a new entry) https://www.goeuropean.org/ https://www.goeuropean.org/ (all submissions fail with an AirTable error [sic] that the workspace is at the record limit)
    - vldszn 9mo ago
      Interesting. Thanks for the info
    - sam_lowry_ 9mo ago
      Euro-Stack.eu is a scam that promotes European software using: A wordpress.com based website hosted in California by the US company Auttomatic Fronted by Cloudflare, a US monopoly (this is probably part of wordpress.com paid subscription) Edits its letter to EU Commission asking to support European IT industry in Microsoft Word. Converts it to PDF with Adobe software
  - layer8 9mo ago
    Someone should make european-alternatives-alternatives.eu.
    - vldszn 9mo ago
schubidubiduba 9mo ago
> template=stripe Maybe this was enough to not include it?
- vldszn 9mo ago
  What is the problem with “/?template=stripe”…? =)
cocoto 9mo ago
I think the biggest issue is that your product is not from a company generating money (and taxes). IMO as an european, I think we should aim for open source, not corporate software, but free and open source software is generating way less jobs and taxes money.
- vldszn 9mo ago
  Yes, make sense. I plan to add a paid “pro” version with more features, but the current functionality will remain free.
- badsectoracula 9mo ago
  The site has a lot of open source projects though, in fact i found about copyparty[0] from it because it was listed as an alternative to file hosting services (though it was removed since then, probably because it isn't a service :-P but still there are various FLOSS projects). [0] https://github.com/9001/copyparty https://github.com/9001/copyparty
albertgoeswoof 9mo ago
Same, can’t get https://mailpace.com https://mailpace.com listed, no idea why
Notch123 9mo ago
I have been working on https://1launch.eu https://1launch.eu for the past two months. Very MVP stage. I don't plan to be in the same niche as european-alternatives, but it is very much inspired by this. It is largely meant to be a ProductHunt / AngelList for Europe with a couple of key features especially for the European market (like instant translation into all 24 languages of the EU to launch in the whole European market in one go). If you want to launch on the platform or want to be involved in a different way, send me an email on hackernews@1launch.eu
- vldszn 9mo ago
  Wow, 1launch looks great! Will definitely launch there very soon.
- DiggyJohnson 9mo ago
  Do you have a plan or idea of how to get the minimum critical mass of genuine users once the platform is built out?
  - Notch123 9mo ago
    Yes, do a lot of manual outreach :)
- vldszn 9mo ago
  Just submitted EasyInvoicePDF to launch on 1launch :)
- R_Spaghetti 9mo ago
  I checked the first 3 companies I saw with the label 'EU hosted'. bunq.com and lifebit.ai are hosted on AWS, and tomtom.com is hosted on Azure. https://info.addr.tools/bunq.com https://info.addr.tools/bunq.com https://info.addr.tools/lifebit.ai https://info.addr.tools/lifebit.ai https://info.addr.tools/tomtom.com https://info.addr.tools/tomtom.com
  - Notch123 9mo ago
    Good that you checked that. I focused on getting substance on the platform for indexing purposes first. I plan to do a quality check ASAP and expect a lot of these mismatches to resolve once the feature for companies to claim their pages goes live.
sam_lowry_ 9mo ago
Unless you do Peppol... it's not intresting at all.
- vldszn 9mo ago
  Stay tuned https://github.com/VladSez/easy-invoice-pdf/issues/121 https://github.com/VladSez/easy-invoice-pdf/issues/121
  - sam_lowry_ 9mo ago
    A hint: try cooperating with letspeppol, it is built by engineers for engineers.
    - vldszn 9mo ago
      Thanks for the suggestion. Will take a look
e38383 9mo ago
You probably need to include EN16931, XRechnung, Factur-X, ZUGFeRD, … and how they all called, the new standard for electronic invoices.
- vldszn 9mo ago
  This is planned =) Starting working asap on this because in Poland (where I live) it will be required from April 2026. Issue to follow: https://github.com/VladSez/easy-invoice-pdf/issues/121 https://github.com/VladSez/easy-invoice-pdf/issues/121
- mpaepper 9mo ago
  Free generator for e-invoices here: https://www.e-rechnung-online-erstellen.de/kostenlos/e-rechnung-generator-online https://www.e-rechnung-online-erstellen.de/kostenlos/e-rechn...
tsmr 9mo ago
Same here. I created and submitted a European open-source Snapchat alternative, but it's been in “Waiting for Review” status for quite some time now. Webpage: https://twonly.eu/en https://twonly.eu/en Github: https://github.com/twonlyapp/twonly-app https://github.com/twonlyapp/twonly-app
- vldszn 9mo ago
  twonly looks very cool, just starred the repo on github :)
  - tsmr 9mo ago
    Thank you, I appreciate every star :)

by vldszn 9mo ago

s_dev 9mo ago

It's a cool project but it is 'niche'. I think the purpose of the site is more about the alternatives to 'large players', platforms and infrastructure companies. Still Constantin Graf should have clarified out of politeness but possibly he's busy or doesn't have time to respond to every email. However I'd point out there is a market for European 'Product Hunt' that would include more of these smaller projects.

vldszn 9mo ago
Thanks for the comment. I hadn’t thought about this before, but it makes sense - I agree. About European Product Hunt - very good idea. I was thinking recently that we need more European social networks, messengers, etc. It’s a very good time to build imo =)
- embedding-shape 9mo ago
  > About European Product Hunt - very good idea. Older members of HN will remember that Product Hunt probably came to life a lot because of HN and the submissions/comments from rrhoover (founder of Product Hunt). He's still active here, but before/during Product Hunt launch he was very active if I remember correctly. Maybe a grander idea is a European Hacker News, that has the potential to spawn the European Product Hunts of tomorrow :)
  - tialaramex 9mo ago
    I don't know that an EU Hacker News makes sense, a core EU idea is Freedom of Movement. This started out as an ideal about Goods. You make a Doodad in Venice, clearly there should be as few obstacles as possible to prevent somebody in Dublin having that Doodad, so no export taxes between Venice and Dublin, shared regulatory framework so that your Venice "This Doodad won't choke a baby/ burn down a house/ spy on you/ etc." paperwork is valid in Dublin, and so on. But immediately people who make goods said well this rule needs to include Capital, it's great that I can sell Doodads from Venice in Dublin, but if I want to build a Doodad factory in Venice but my money is in Dublin that should be easy too. And Workers realised if it's just Capital and Goods then it's a race to the bottom for Labour, the Capital and Goods will go where it's cheapest but the workers can't move. So very soon Workers can move freely too, in order that Hans the Doodad Engineer can move to Venice and the courts ended up deciding that in practice everybody gets this freedom, a 5 year old can't have a job and a 105 year old probably doesn't want one, but maybe Hans needs to support his 5 year old grand-daughter and his 105 year old grandfather, so Freedom of Movement must apply to all EU citizens. So, with that idea in mind, I suspect the EU's perspective is that you should come to Europe and write software here, rather than that you should stay exactly where you are and if it's not an EU country then too bad, no EU Product Hunt for you.
    - embedding-shape 9mo ago
      I'm sorry, but what are you talking about? Yes, a core idea is freedom of movement, but you make no case for why that makes EU Hacker News infeasible? It has nothing to do with where people write software. I'm using US Hacker News, and I'm in Europe, is that wrong/bad, or what's your argument here?
      - tialaramex 9mo ago
        EU Hacker News isn't infeasible my argument is rather that it's largely pointless. The EU should avoid key US dependencies, but that means things like we shouldn't design a system that needs Microsoft's stupid "Co-pilot 365" or whatever they are now calling Word and Excel, rather than it's important never to visit a web site hosted in the US. "The new government policy shouldn't require iPhones" is a long way from "Nobody can read The Onion", and even in its hardcore "Sign up for YCombinator" mode Hacker News really isn't anywhere close to the former. Although because idiots I am no longer in the EU I'm in Europe too.
carlosjobim 9mo ago
I don't think creating an invoice is "niche". It is such a common need for users that invoicing software should be included in the operating system application suite. (Which it is somewhat if you consider Pages invoice templates). Millions and millions of people need to make and send invoices. Many more than people who need domain name registrars, uptime monitoring services, content delivery networks, or microblogging services.
- vldszn 9mo ago
  Hard agree

reconnecting 9mo ago

Same here. Open-source security framework (1). Applied 16 August 2025. Company registered in Switzerland (EFTA). No reply. However, European Alternatives is a personal (sole proprietorship) website and has nothing to do with Europe, despite the name and style, which are slightly misleading as they mimic official EU website aesthetics. 1. GitHub: https://github.com/tirrenotechnologies/tirreno https://github.com/tirrenotechnologies/tirreno

vldszn 9mo ago
Make sense. Btw tirreno looks very cool, just starred on GitHub :)
- reconnecting 9mo ago
  Thanks so much!

quicksilver03 9mo ago

I've seen the same thing, the site accepts submissions but there's no one to either approve or reject them. Unfortunately they did really well at SEO at one time, and more active alternatives appear far below in the search results.

vldszn 9mo ago
Do you know any good alternatives?
- quicksilver03 9mo ago
  I've been able to submit new entries to https://eucloud.tech/ https://eucloud.tech/ https://buy-european.net/ https://buy-european.net/ I've also found other problematic ones: https://euro-stack.com/ https://euro-stack.com/ (I couldn't understand how to submit a new entry) https://www.goeuropean.org/ https://www.goeuropean.org/ (all submissions fail with an AirTable error [sic] that the workspace is at the record limit)
  - vldszn 9mo ago
    Interesting. Thanks for the info
  - sam_lowry_ 9mo ago
    Euro-Stack.eu is a scam that promotes European software using: A wordpress.com based website hosted in California by the US company Auttomatic Fronted by Cloudflare, a US monopoly (this is probably part of wordpress.com paid subscription) Edits its letter to EU Commission asking to support European IT industry in Microsoft Word. Converts it to PDF with Adobe software
- layer8 9mo ago
  Someone should make european-alternatives-alternatives.eu.
  - vldszn 9mo ago

schubidubiduba 9mo ago

> template=stripe Maybe this was enough to not include it?

vldszn 9mo ago
What is the problem with “/?template=stripe”…? =)

cocoto 9mo ago

I think the biggest issue is that your product is not from a company generating money (and taxes). IMO as an european, I think we should aim for open source, not corporate software, but free and open source software is generating way less jobs and taxes money.

vldszn 9mo ago
Yes, make sense. I plan to add a paid “pro” version with more features, but the current functionality will remain free.
badsectoracula 9mo ago
The site has a lot of open source projects though, in fact i found about copyparty[0] from it because it was listed as an alternative to file hosting services (though it was removed since then, probably because it isn't a service :-P but still there are various FLOSS projects). [0] https://github.com/9001/copyparty https://github.com/9001/copyparty

albertgoeswoof 9mo ago

Same, can’t get https://mailpace.com https://mailpace.com listed, no idea why

Notch123 9mo ago

I have been working on https://1launch.eu https://1launch.eu for the past two months. Very MVP stage. I don't plan to be in the same niche as european-alternatives, but it is very much inspired by this. It is largely meant to be a ProductHunt / AngelList for Europe with a couple of key features especially for the European market (like instant translation into all 24 languages of the EU to launch in the whole European market in one go). If you want to launch on the platform or want to be involved in a different way, send me an email on hackernews@1launch.eu

vldszn 9mo ago
Wow, 1launch looks great! Will definitely launch there very soon.
DiggyJohnson 9mo ago
Do you have a plan or idea of how to get the minimum critical mass of genuine users once the platform is built out?
- Notch123 9mo ago
  Yes, do a lot of manual outreach :)
vldszn 9mo ago
Just submitted EasyInvoicePDF to launch on 1launch :)
R_Spaghetti 9mo ago
I checked the first 3 companies I saw with the label 'EU hosted'. bunq.com and lifebit.ai are hosted on AWS, and tomtom.com is hosted on Azure. https://info.addr.tools/bunq.com https://info.addr.tools/bunq.com https://info.addr.tools/lifebit.ai https://info.addr.tools/lifebit.ai https://info.addr.tools/tomtom.com https://info.addr.tools/tomtom.com
- Notch123 9mo ago
  Good that you checked that. I focused on getting substance on the platform for indexing purposes first. I plan to do a quality check ASAP and expect a lot of these mismatches to resolve once the feature for companies to claim their pages goes live.

sam_lowry_ 9mo ago

Unless you do Peppol... it's not intresting at all.

vldszn 9mo ago
Stay tuned https://github.com/VladSez/easy-invoice-pdf/issues/121 https://github.com/VladSez/easy-invoice-pdf/issues/121
- sam_lowry_ 9mo ago
  A hint: try cooperating with letspeppol, it is built by engineers for engineers.
  - vldszn 9mo ago
    Thanks for the suggestion. Will take a look

e38383 9mo ago

You probably need to include EN16931, XRechnung, Factur-X, ZUGFeRD, … and how they all called, the new standard for electronic invoices.

vldszn 9mo ago
This is planned =) Starting working asap on this because in Poland (where I live) it will be required from April 2026. Issue to follow: https://github.com/VladSez/easy-invoice-pdf/issues/121 https://github.com/VladSez/easy-invoice-pdf/issues/121
mpaepper 9mo ago
Free generator for e-invoices here: https://www.e-rechnung-online-erstellen.de/kostenlos/e-rechnung-generator-online https://www.e-rechnung-online-erstellen.de/kostenlos/e-rechn...

tsmr 9mo ago

Same here. I created and submitted a European open-source Snapchat alternative, but it's been in “Waiting for Review” status for quite some time now. Webpage: https://twonly.eu/en https://twonly.eu/en Github: https://github.com/twonlyapp/twonly-app https://github.com/twonlyapp/twonly-app

vldszn 9mo ago
twonly looks very cool, just starred the repo on github :)
- tsmr 9mo ago
  Thank you, I appreciate every star :)