From mainstream to underdog: These are the apps I recommend

I’ve always loved a good underdog story. When it comes to tech, I generally find myself gravitating toward the companies that aren’t constantly in the spotlight. There’s a simple reason for that: when you aren’t the default choice, you have to try harder. These companies take more risks to stand out, their products are often more wallet-friendly, and their customer support actually feels human.

There is also something deeply satisfying about going against the grain. Using a tool that most people haven’t heard of yet makes me feel like I’m forging my own path, guided by utility rather than just following the crowd.

While I’ll be the first to admit my home screen still has its fair share of mainstream giants, I generally enjoy giving underdogs a shot. With that in mind, I want to walk you through a few hidden gems that serve as great alternatives to the household names we all know.

We all use a browser, and for most people, Chrome is the default choice. While it’s certainly stable, there are significant drawbacks to staying within Google’s garden. Privacy is a major one, but for me, it’s also about the features. Chrome is notoriously late to the party, often adding highly requested tools months or years after the competition already launched them.

For those looking for an alternative that isn’t Firefox, Edge, or the increasingly popular Brave, Vivaldi is the browser to beat. It’s very privacy-focused, letting you fine-tune your tracking and ad-blocking settings the moment you install it.

But where Vivaldi really shines is personalization. You get a customizable Speed Dial for your favorite sites and the ability to add a range of shortcuts to the toolbar — a feature I use daily. I personally keep a Translation shortcut right on the bar to translate entire pages with a single click. Best of all, because it’s based on Chromium, you don’t have to leave your ecosystem behind; all your favorite Chrome extensions and bookmarks move over seamlessly.

Notion has received a ton of attention over the last few years, and for good reason. I’ve used it myself for a long time and there’s plenty to like, but there are several alternatives available that are just as good — and even better in some specific areas. Anytype is the one that really stands out to me.

What makes it different from Notion is its focus on privacy and security. It is an offline-first app, meaning all of your data stays on your device by default. This also means it doesn’t require an internet connection; it works just about anywhere, whether you’re in a subway tunnel or 30,000 feet in the air. While Notion technically has an offline mode for its pages, it’s not the default experience and can be a bit finicky.

My colleague Dhruv wrote about this a while back, noting that Anytype essentially takes the best parts of Notion and Obsidian and gives them a unique flavor. If you’re already familiar with those two apps, you’ll find your way around Anytype quickly. If not, be prepared for a bit of a learning curve — these apps are powerful, but they aren’t quite as plug-and-play as something like Google Keep.

Everyone I know uses Spotify, yet most are barely familiar with Deezer. I’ve spent a lot of time with both over the years, and I’ve reached a bold conclusion: Deezer is actually better than the Swedish giant.

Deezer gets the basics perfectly right. In terms of library depth, every artist and song I look for is there. But what makes it superior for me is the interface — it’s not as cluttered, making it much easier to navigate.

The Flow feature is the standout. It’s an infinite, intelligent mix of your favorites and new discoveries that can be filtered by mood or genre. While every service has a discovery algorithm, nothing quite beats the accuracy of Flow in my experience. I also love the attention to detail: the loading circle in the lyrics feature lets me know exactly when the vocals will start, so I can sing along. Plus, with built-in music quizzes and an events tab that tracks local shows based on your taste, it feels like a platform built for people who actually love music.

ChatGPT is the undisputed heavyweight of the AI world in terms of market share, closely followed by Google’s Gemini. But if you want a tool that’s less of a chatbot and more of a precision research instrument, Perplexity is the answer.

It is arguably the best AI tool for deep research because it provides a verified source for nearly every claim it makes. This approach means you can worry significantly less about the hallucinations that plague other models. I also love the UI — when you get an answer, a quick tap on the sources bar displays every reference on a single page for easy fact-checking. You can even see relevant images and videos directly in the thread to get a visual handle on your topic.

What’s truly game-changing, though, is the flexibility. Perplexity Pro acts as a universal interface for the world’s best AI. In a single $20/month subscription, you can toggle between GPT-5.2, Gemini 3.0 Pro, Grok 4.1, and the brand-new Claude 4.6 Opus. It’s the ultimate underdog move: instead of forcing you into one ecosystem, it gives you the keys to all of them. And yes, there’s a capable free tier if you just want to test the waters.

If you want to switch from a mainstream to-do list app like Todoist to something with a bit more soul, Superlist is well worth checking out. It was built by the same team behind Wunderlist — the legendary app that was eventually bought by Microsoft and folded into their To Do app.

Superlist has all the staples you’d expect: natural language input, the ability to attach images or files, and seamless syncing. However, in 2026, it has really pulled ahead with its AI integration. You can simply voice out your tasks via the Talk feature, and the AI handles the organization for you. It can even act as an AI meeting note-taker, listening to your conversations and instantly generating a structured outline with a list of assignable tasks — meaning you spend less time managing your work and more time actually doing it.

There is a generous free version available, though it has specific limits, such as a cap of five lists. For power users who need unlimited lists and the full suite of AI meeting features, the Pro subscription starts at $5 per month.

If you’re looking to ditch the mainstream giants and give the underdogs a chance, this is where to start. This list could have been a lot longer, so I’m curious to hear your suggestions — what did I miss? Let me know in the comments.