Alt Cloud Checker

About

Know instantly whether any cloud service you're visiting meets the Alt Cloud transparency standard — and suggest new listings with one click.

WHAT IS ALT CLOUD?

Alt Cloud (alt-cloud.org) is an open directory of cloud services that are genuinely transparent: public pricing, self-service signup, and a visible status page. No "contact sales", no surprise pricing, no black-box uptime. The directory covers 400+ services across infrastructure, databases, AI, developer tooling, and more — maintained by the community on GitHub.

WHAT THIS EXTENSION DOES

Every time you visit a website, the extension checks the domain against the Alt Cloud directory and shows one of five states directly in your toolbar:

🟢 Listed — Full transparency (3/3) The service meets all three criteria: public pricing, self-service signup, and a production status page. The popup shows a per-criterion breakdown so you know exactly what was verified.

🟡 Listed — Partial transparency (2/3) The service is listed but meets only two of the three criteria. The popup shows which criterion is missing so you can make an informed decision.

🔵 Future Cloud The service is on the Alt Cloud watch list — promising, but not yet meeting the full transparency bar. Could be worth keeping an eye on.

➕ Not listed The service isn't in the directory yet. One click opens a pre-filled GitHub submission form so you can suggest it. The existing Alt Cloud evaluation pipeline reviews submissions automatically using AI.

⬜ Unchecked Internal browser pages and well-known non-cloud platforms (GitHub, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, YouTube, and others) are intentionally skipped — the extension won't badge every page you visit.

POPUP DETAILS

When a site is listed, the popup shows:
• Service name and description
• Category chip — click to jump straight to that category on alt-cloud.org
• Per-criterion transparency breakdown (pricing / self-service / status page)
• "View entry" button — opens alt-cloud.org filtered to that service
• "Report a correction" — opens a pre-filled GitHub issue if something has changed (e.g. they removed public pricing)
When a site is on the Future Cloud watch list, the popup shows the service details and a "Suggest they graduate" button to prompt a re-evaluation.

When a site isn't listed, the popup shows the domain and page title and lets you submit it via the standard Alt Cloud submission flow — no category guessing required, the GitHub Action assigns it automatically.

THE 3 CRITERIA

Alt Cloud lists services that meet at least 2 of 3 public criteria:

1. Transparent public pricing — Prices are visible on the website without signing up or contacting sales.
2. Usage-based self-service — You can sign up and start using the service without a sales call.
3. Production indicators — There is a public SLA, status page, or uptime tracker.

These criteria reflect a simple thesis: cloud services that are transparent about pricing and reliability are better for builders. The extension surfaces this signal as you browse.

PRIVACY

This extension collects nothing and sends nothing.

• The only outbound network request is a once-daily fetch of the Alt Cloud directory (clouds.json) from alt-cloud.org. This is cached locally for 24 hours.
• When you open the popup on an unlisted site, the extension reads document.title, Open Graph meta tags, and location.hostname from the current tab — solely to pre-fill the suggestion form. Nothing is transmitted.
• The suggestion flow opens a pre-filled GitHub issue URL in a new tab. You review it and submit manually. Nothing is posted automatically.
• No analytics. No telemetry. No remote configuration. No usage tracking of any kind.

This privacy posture is deliberate. Alt Cloud is built on a transparency thesis — the extension should be congruent with that.

PERMISSIONS EXPLAINED

• Active tab — Read the current tab's URL to check it against the directory.
• Scripting — Extract page title and meta tags to pre-fill the suggestion form (only when you open the popup on an unlisted site).
• Storage — Cache the directory data locally (24-hour TTL) so the extension works without a network request on every page load.
• Tabs — Open alt-cloud.org or GitHub in a new tab when you click an action button.
• Host permission (alt-cloud.org) — Fetch the directory JSON from alt-cloud.org.

No other hosts. No broad <all_urls> permission.

OPEN SOURCE

The extension is fully open source at github.com/datum-cloud/awesome-alt-clouds-browser-extension. The directory data it reads is maintained at github.com/datum-cloud/awesome-alt-clouds. Issues, corrections, and PRs are welcome in both repositories.