App Markets

Of course there's the Google Play Store. But there are also tons of helpers, supplements, complements, alternative front-ends – and even alternative sources; not everyone is willing to get spied upon by Google and tracker-ridden apps.

Hint: if you want to go „Google-free“ but are afraid your „must-have apps“ might refuse to work without Google Services, Plexus lets you check that.

Playstore Supplements

2023-05-31

As some feel the Google Play Store app insufficient ("nothing found but spam!") or troublesome ("my downloads do not start!"), here's a list of supplements and alternative front-ends.

XInstaller (4.7@12) 1 LastUpdate: 2015-12-30 Github; Help; tweak the package installer
Changelog Droid (4.4@3,703) Ǥ 12 LastUpdate: 2014-01-18 Intro 7/2014 | 8/2014
Hide Updates In Play Store (4.4@51; ~EUR 2.00) Ǥ 6 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2019-10-30
Aurora Store (4.4@24) 14 / Aurora Store (4.1@10) 9 LastUpdate: 2018-10-31 GitLab; Material fork of Yalp Store; Interview 10/2019 DE | EN; Video Vorstellung 2/2020
APKUpdater (4.4@19) 5 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2021-01-03 Github; XDA; XDA Spotlight; Intro 2/2017; Updates from APKMirror, APKPure and Google Play
App Watcher: Check Update (4.2@1,331) Ǥ 14 3
AppBrain App Market (4.1@79,843) Ǥ 13 3
AppFollow: app review monitor (4.1@41) Ǥ 5 2 LastUpdate: 2020-05-29
/r/Android App store (4@2) 1 LastUpdate: 2019-06-08 Github; Reddit curated app list; linking to Playstore
Tablet Market (3.9@19,883) 2 2 LastUpdate: 2014-12-15
Easy Changelog (3.6@82) 0 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2015-04-08
PlayPermissionsExposed (0@0) LastUpdate: 2016-01-31 XDA; Github
Play Store Changelog (0@0) LastUpdate: 2017-10-15 Github; always show full changelog before update/install (not just 4 lines)
StorePrefs (0@0) LastUpdate: 2016-02-09 Github; block rapid updates, skip unwanted updates, more
Play Store Fixes (0@0) LastUpdate: 2014-06-19 Github
ApkTrack (0@0) 7 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2018-01-15 Github; Check for updates on PlayStore (if you don't use the Play Store app), F-Droid, Xposed and more sources
Google Play Theme Engine (Trial) (0@0) LastUpdate: 2017-08-19 XDA with screenshots; 15d trial
InstallerOpt (0@0) LastUpdate: 2017-01-24 Github; XDA; XInstaller fork

Some candidates are not tolerated in the Google Play Store, as they "don't fit the guidelines". Those include, amongst others:

Access the Play Store from your PC:

gplaycli: Python, command-line; Debian packages available
Raccoon: Java with GUI
APK Downloader: Firefox addon

Top apps, special offers, and more

2023-05-31

The best of the best of the best, sir? And never miss a discount? Then you might wish to take a look at these apps:

AppsFree (4.5@31,226) Ǥ 8 3
Drippler - Daily Android Tips (4.4@302,904) Ǥ 5 14 LastUpdate: 2019-06-26 App/Device/Android news, tips, recommendations
AppSales (4.3@37,065) Ǥ 9 4
AppHunt - discover new apps (4.3@1,401) Ǥ 6 2 LastUpdate: 2017-10-05
Limited free app offers (4.2@3,553) Ǥ 4 5 LastUpdate: 2020-11-07
Price Drop App - Paid apps on (3.9@740) Ǥ 9 5 LastUpdate: 2021-06-11
Freapp - Free Apps Daily (3.3@19,875) Ǥ 12 11 LastUpdate: 2018-09-30

And then, there's also Best Apps Market...

Alternative Markets

If the Google Playstore once more is "temporarily out-of-order" – just take a different one! If your favorite grocery store has closed, you won't stay whining at its door either, right? Luckily, with Android there are alternative choices as well:

F-Droid

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F-Droid is a place where you only get FOSS apps – that means apps where the source code is free and open, no proprietary components, all transparent. There's also more than one repository – and everybody and his little sister can host their own repo following their own rules. While the F-Froid.org repo still is the biggest, the second largest is the one run by IzzyOnDroid. Find more details, links etc. at the bottom of this page.

Aurora Droid (5@4) 13 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2021-07-22 GitLab; another F-Droid client, from the dev of Aurora Store; Interview 10/2019 DE | EN
G-Droid (5@1) 6 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ GitLab; alternative F-Droid client
F-Droid (4.3@15) 16 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ / F-Droid Basic alpha (0@0) 12 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ / F-Droid Privileged Extension (5@3) 2 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ GitLab; Intro/Vorstellung 7/2014; Vorstellung & Hintergründe 6/2017 | 3/2018; Vorstellung 12/2018 | 12/2018; Video Vorstellung 5/2019; Einführung 5/2019; more below (footer); IzzyOnDroid recommendation! / GitLab
F-Droid Nearby (3.5@125) 15 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ GitLab; exchange apps device-to-device (w/o Internet); compatible with the built-in Nearby feature in the F-Droid app
Droid-ify (0@0) 9 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github
Neo Store (0@0) 12 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github; fork of Droid-ify
M-Droid (0@0) 5 LastUpdate: 2019-01-15 Github; Material F-Droid client
F-Droid Classic (0@0) 5 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ GitLab; the classic design
DEfO ECH Apps (0@0) 15 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github; experimental F-Droid fork to use TLS ECH with Cloudflare as the default host
IzzyOnDroid (0@0) 9 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ GitLab; inofficial client for the IzzyOnDroid repo
Foxy Droid (0@0) 5 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2020-08-12 Github; minimalistic client for F-Droid following the classic design

Various app markets

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APKMirror (5@1) 4 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2017-09-30
APKMirror Installer (Official) (4.9@13) Ǥ 14 3 Video Review 4/2020
Aptoide (4.6@6,569) 19 Vorstellung 7/2019
APKUpdater (4.4@19) 5 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2021-01-03 Github; XDA; XDA Spotlight; Intro 2/2017; Updates from APKMirror, APKPure and Google Play
Appteka (4.3@4) 7 3 Github
Aptoide Uploader (3.1@232) 5 upload apps to your Bazaar repository
SkyDroid (0@0) 6 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2021-05-04 Github; decentralized domain-based App Store
OSS Tracker (0@0) 2 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github; keep track of updates to Open Source Applications directly from their resp. repositories
APKGrabber (0@0) 7 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2021-02-24 Github
DirectAPKInstall (0@0) LastUpdate: 2016-01-11 Github; keep "unknown sources" turned off and decide on install
UpgradeAll (0@0) 11 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Github; updates from various sources: Android apps, Magisk modules & more
APKMirror (0@0) 4 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2021-03-24 GitLab

Again, some candidates are not found directly at Google Play itself (Google doesn't like competition), but neither do the official repos of F-Droid & Aptoide have them all. So you might also wish to check here:

Uptodown: only free apps; own app to keep your installations up-to-date
Amazon Appstore: Kurzvorstellung 7/2019
SAM (SlideME)
APK-files of free Apps (recent and previous versions) can be downloaded at Android Drawer
or using the Evozi APK Downloader
EFF’s apkeep supports multiple sources, incl. APKPure, PlayStore, F-Droid (PC & mobil)
The 7 Best Sites for Safe Android APK Downloads lists some download sites
See also the alternative-markets tag-wiki at Stack Exchange.

Further Readings:

Checkliste: 8 Tipps für die Auswahl von Apps
AppChecker: Warum wir Daten lieben – und Verbraucherschutz notwendig ist (3/2021)
F-Droid
- IzzyOnDroid: List of 3rd party repos (continually updated)
- References to „F-Droid in the media“ (continually updated)
- implant: maintain your own F-Droid repo using Docker
- What Is F-Droid, and Can It Replace the Google Play Store? (8/2022)
- F-Droid: Was ist das, wie benutzt Du es (Video; 6/2022)
- F-Droid: So benutzt du ihn (+ Die besten Apps) (Video; 6/2022)
- F-Droid als App-Bezugsquelle (12/2021)
- Recommended F-Droid FOSS Apps For Android-Based Devices (11/2021)
- Video: Our Favourite Free/Libre & Open Source F-Droid Android Apps (reclaim your privacy & freedom!) (7/2021; ~12min)
- F-Droid: the definitive un-Play Store (4/2021)
- Wie du eine App bei F-Droid veröffentlichst (4/2021)
- A loja de apps para Android de um mundo ideal existe (2/2021)
- Android: Trying to break free (1/2021)
- Video: Das sind die besten 30 Apps aus dem F-Droid-Store (5/2020)
- Video: F-Droid: A free software app store you must have | Tutorial (3/2020)
- Video: F-Droid: App-Store für Android mit viel Datenschutz (12/2019)
- Video: F-Droid:Pimp your Android(-fork) with the best Free Software apps (9/2019)
- Trust is good, control is better: Reproducible builds at F-Droid (7/2019)
- Extensive video: Good apps on F-Droid (10/2018)
- Video: F-Droid recap review, de-Googling my phone
- Video: F-droid репозитории дополнительные и полезные. Прокачай смартфон: also introduces IzzyOnDroid (4/2018)
- Ausführliche Artikelserie bei IzzyOnDroid: 1 | 2 | 3 (12/2018-3/2019)
- So installieren Sie den App-Store F-Droid (2/2018 - 7/2019)
- To Avoid Malware, Try the F-Droid App Store (1/2018)
- Video: Peter introduces F-Droid: The private, secure, free and open app store for Android at LinuxConfAU (1/2018; ~45min)
- Video: F-Droid for Android (1/2018)
- Video: De-Googling my Android phone with F-droid and open-source software (12/2017)
- Mit F-Droid auf App-Jagd / F-Droid einrichten und nutzen (1/2017 - 3/2017)
- Der freie App-Store F-Droid und seine Apps (12/2016 - 12/2021)
- F-Droid: Verbraucherfreundlicher App-Store für Android (1/2016 - 1/2022)
- Ein Repo für F-droid erstellen
- How to add new software repositories (2/2015)
- Eigene App in den F-Droid Store hochladen (1/2015)
OpenGApps: customized GApps packages for your stock or custom ROM
- XDA thread incl. Q&A
- Github repo with package comparison and FAQ
- Open GApps: Webseite von XDA-Veteranen macht Download von Google-Apps zum Kinderspiel (11/2015)
- Open Gapps Project: Best Place for Downloading Latest and Correct Google Apps (7/2015)
Raccoon as open-source Desktop Client to access the Playstore from Linux, Mac, and Windows:
Google Play
- Play Store Search by criteria like adfree, iAP free, size, up-to-dateness
- Download purchased APK from play store
- Your app is not compliant with Google Play Policies: A story from hell (2/2022)
- Google Play's developer support has become so terrible, its own translation tools are causing apps to get flagged (1/2022)
- For Developers: Why letting Google sign your apps is a bad idea: Uncomfortable Questions About App Signing (9/2020)
- Install Apps from Play Store without Google Account or Google Services (5/2020)
- Googles Play-Store: Zahlen, Fakten, Tipps (6/2019 - 11/2020)
- Bedrohung für Android-Handys: Immer mehr Schadsoftware im Google Play Store (11/2018)
- App-Deal-Apps für Android: Rabatte im Play Store finden (7/2014 - 3/2019)
- Google-Play-Fehlermeldungen im Überblick: So löst Ihr die Probleme (7/2014 - 4/2019)
  also see the google-play-store tag-wiki at Android.SE for a more complete list of error messages incl. solutions
Google Play Alternatives
- The 10 Best Alternative App Stores for Android (3/2022)
- 10 best third party app stores for Android and other options too (1/2021)
- 5 Google Play Store alternatives for the Huawei P40 Pro (6/2020)
- Smartphone ohne PlayStore? - Diese Alternativen gibt es (1/2020)
- 5 Google Play Store alternatives for Huawei smartphone owners (5/2019)
- How to Android without Google (easy way) (5/2018)
- Android ohne Google: Alternative App-Stores zu Google Play (7/2017)
- Play-Store-Alternativen: Uptodown, Aptoide, F-Droid, Amazon App Shop (4/2015 - 12/2017)
- Apps-Stores für Android: Die Qual der Wahl (07/2016 - 7/2019)
- Best App Store Alternatives to Google Play Store (8/2015)
- IzzyOnDroid: Android Markets: How safe are alternative sources? (7/2014)
  Only using „Google Play“ still doesn´t mean „generally safe“: Malicious Android apps spamming users with adware have reportedly made their way into the Google Play Store (2/2015)
- What are the alternative Android app markets?
Video: Most PRIVATE App Stores (5/2023)
The 7 Best Sites for Safe Android APK Downloads (9/2022 - 4/2023)
6 Ways to Check an Android App Is Safe to Download (10/2021)
Video: 3 Tipps für die App-Recherche (5/2020)
Avoid GetJar! Thousands of Free Mobile Apps With the Risk of Malware (2/2020)
Apps manuell installieren: Keine Angst vor unbekannten Quellen (9/2018)
Understanding the Security Management of Global Third-Party Android Marketplaces (PDF; 9/2017)
only Market where no Mal- and Adware was found? G… nope: F-Droid!
Kostenpflichtige Apps gratis: 100 Prozent auf Alles (7/2014 - 3/2019)

2023-05-31