The only alternative to LR I have tried is Capture One Pro 10. I bought the Capture One Pro 10 for Sony license for $50. It has good editing tools, but I'm not impressed with its clunky UI. It is okay for $50, but if I had needed more than just Sony camera support then I would have had to pay $300, and that would have been several times what it is worth to me. It is barely worth the $50 to me. It does allow remote operation of some cameras, but not full control of any of mine. I prefer LR as they both have good editing tools but LR is easier to use and has a much better UI, IMO.

I guess we need to know what you would want in a LR alternative. LR is capable of managing large catalogs of photos, and it is also capable of editing photos and metadata, creating time lapse video, etc. If you are only intersted in the catalog feature then there are certainly some alternatives available, but the more features you add to the wish list the fewer options that will be available.

I know and understand that people like freeware, but I also know that freeware often becomes abandoned-ware. Freeware also tends to not get updated very often. In photo editing the apps need to have compatibility with camera models if you want to edit RAW images directly, and freeware might not be up to date with the newer cameras on the market. You can of course convert the RAW to DNG or TIFF or some other format before importing it, but that is another step requiring another app. Just some things to consider.