01 · Where
Location guides
Every county in all 50 states, scored for off-grid and simple living, with the actual rules read and linked. Canada and Australia are live too, and the UK is next.
Find your state →
Alt Ordo
About Alt Ordo
Alt Ordo · alternative order
Systems for living freely.
We're Joe and Kemble, two brothers in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We want a solarpunk future for our kids, and we think it starts with ordinary people knowing two things: where they can live on their own terms, and how to build the systems that make it work.
So that's what Alt Ordo makes. Plain-spoken guides that read the local rules on tiny homes, caravans, composting toilets and building permits for every county we cover. Field guides to the systems on the lot: solar, rainwater, compost, biogas, water pumps. And a desktop app that lets you plan the whole homestead before you buy the land.
02 · How
Systems guides
Illustrated PDF field guides to the systems that keep a homestead running: water, food, energy, shelter and sanitation. We build and test them on our own land lab first.
Browse systems guides →
03 · Plan
The Alt Ordo app
Pick a county, drop in a cabin, a yurt or a tiny house, add solar and water, and see what it costs and how it performs in that climate. State scores and one county are free.
See the app on altordo.com →How we score a place
The Freedom Score
Each county gets a score out of 10 for how free you are to live simply there. It weighs the rules that matter most (whether you can live in a tiny home or caravan, use a composting toilet, catch rainwater or build without a permit) with land prices, climate, sun, water, hazards and cost of living.
Where we couldn't confirm a rule, it scores a neutral 5 and is shown striped in the guide, so you always know what's checked and what's a fill-in. A state's score is the median of its counties.
- A6.5 and up
- B5.5 to 6.4
- C4.5 to 5.4
- D3.5 to 4.4
- Fbelow 3.5
3,235US county guides
50states, every county rated
3countries live
542KYouTube subscribers
133%Kickstarter, 209 backers
Where we're going
Same guides, more of the world.
The US guides came first. Canada and Australia followed with the same engine, the same format and the same care, priced in local currency. The UK is next, then New Zealand and Ireland, and later the places people most often move to for a simpler life.
Meanwhile the systems guide series keeps growing, and the app opens its beta at the end of November 2026.
International guidesBuilt in Tennessee, shared with everyone.
Alt Ordo started as a land lab and a YouTube channel about solar power, growing food, composting, methane digesters and better ways to build communities. We're learning as we go and sharing what we find, because a better future is possible and more people should get to live it.