Some remarkable examples of alternative cosmological theories are reviewed here, ranging from a compilation of variations on the Standard Model through the more distant quasi-steady-state cosmology, plasma cosmology, or universe models as a hypersphere, to the most exotic cases including static models.

The present-day Standard Model of cosmology, ΛCDM, gives us a representation of a cosmos whose dynamics is dominated by gravity (Friedmann equations derived from general relativity) with a finite lifetime, large scale homogeneity, expansion and a hot initial state, together with other elements necessary to avoid certain inconsistencies with observations (inflation, nonbaryonic dark matter, dark energy, etc.). There are however some models with characteristics that are close to those of the Standard Model but differing in some minor aspects; we call these “variations on the Standard Model”. Many of these models are indeed investigated by some mainstream cosmologists: different considerations on CP violation, inflation, number of neutrino species, quark-hadron phase transition, baryonic or nonbaryonic dark-matter, dark energy, nucleosynthesis scenarios, large-scale structure formation scenarios; or major variations like a inhomogeneous universe, Cold Big Bang, varying physical constants or gravity law, zero-active mass (also called “Rh = ct”), Milne, and cyclical models.

At the most extreme distance from the Standard Model, the static models, a noncosmological redshift includes “tired-light” hypotheses, which assume that the photon loses energy owing to an intrinsic property or an interaction with matter or light as it travels some distance, or other nonstandard ideas. Our impression is that none of the alternative models has acquired the same level of development as ΛCDM in offering explanations of available cosmological observations. One should not, however, judge any theory in terms of the number of observations that it can successfully explain (ad hoc in many cases) given the much lower level of development of the alternative ones, but by the plausibility of its principles and its potential to fit data with future improvements of the theories. A pluralist approach to cosmology is a reasonable option when the preferred theory is still under discussion.