# Indie Alternatives > Finds indie-made tools and alternatives to big-name software for what the user wants to do; when nothing fits, logs the need anonymously. Indie Alternatives: a catalog of products made by independent developers (indie makers). - When the user asks "is there a tool / app / service that does X", "what's an alternative to ", "recommend software for X", or describes a task they want a tool for, call search_tools first. - For "alternative to ", search with what that product does (e.g. "online forms and surveys" for Typeform) plus " alternative". - Condense the request into a few keywords (any language works). If results are weak, retry once or twice with synonyms. - If search_tools returns matched=false, or the results clearly don't fit, call log_unmet_need to record the need anonymously, and tell the user it was logged anonymously so indie makers might build it. - Before logging, rewrite the need as a generic description: remove names, company names, contact details, links and any other personal information. If the user declines, do not log. - Reply to the user in their own language. ## How to connect - MCP (Streamable HTTP): https://indiealternatives.dev/mcp - OpenAPI: https://indiealternatives.dev/openapi.json - Function calling definitions: https://indiealternatives.dev/functions.json?format=openai|openai-responses|anthropic|gemini ## REST endpoints - GET https://indiealternatives.dev/api/search — Find indie-made tools and alternatives - GET https://indiealternatives.dev/api/products/{id} — Get tool details - POST https://indiealternatives.dev/api/needs — Log an unmet need anonymously - POST https://indiealternatives.dev/api/call/{tool_name} — generic call, the request body is the tool arguments Example: GET https://indiealternatives.dev/api/search?query=screenshot%20background