--- title: 4 Android app stores I always use instead of the Google... description: A practical guide to four alternative Android app stores: F-Droid (with the Droid-ify client) for open-source apps, APKMirror for version-specific APK... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/4-android-app-stores-i-always-use-instead-of-the-google-play-store-uc4w5ggpx twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: 4 Android app stores I always use instead of the Google Play Store | daily.dev og:description: A practical guide to four alternative Android app stores: F-Droid (with the Droid-ify client) for open-source apps, APKMirror for version-specific APK... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/4-android-app-stores-i-always-use-instead-of-the-google-play-store-uc4w5ggpx og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/UC4W5ggPx.png og:image:alt: 4 Android app stores I always use instead of the Google Play Store og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # 4 Android app stores I always use instead of the Google Play Store **[XDA Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A practical guide to four alternative Android app stores: F-Droid (with the Droid-ify client) for open-source apps, APKMirror for version-specific APK archives, Aurora Store for anonymous Google Play access without a Google account, and Obtainium for pulling updates directly from developer sources like GitHub or GitLab. The post also touches on Google's recent moves to restrict sideloading on certified Android devices, which threatens one of Android's key differentiators from iOS. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository](https://daily.dev/posts/f-droid---free-and-open-source-android-app-repository-g4v02l9sp) · Hacker News · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [These 4 free open-source apps fix what Google left broken on my Pixel phone](https://daily.dev/posts/these-4-free-open-source-apps-fix-what-google-left-broken-on-my-pixel-phone-gllaj8yze) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Google Play opens to third-party app stores on 22 July](https://daily.dev/posts/google-play-opens-to-third-party-app-stores-on-22-july-rzov08ekj) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [F-Droid says Google’s Android developer verification plan is an ‘existential’ threat to alternative app stores](https://daily.dev/posts/f-droid-says-google-s-android-developer-verification-plan-is-an-existential-threat-to-alternative--s53kffimo) · The New Stack · 4 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#apple](https://daily.dev/tags/apple), [#android](https://daily.dev/tags/android), [#google-play](https://daily.dev/tags/google-play) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/4-android-app-stores-i-always-use-instead-of-the-google-play-store-uc4w5ggpx) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"4 Android app stores I always use instead of the Google Play Store","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/4-android-app-stores-i-always-use-instead-of-the-google-play-store-uc4w5ggpx","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/4-android-app-stores-i-always-use-instead-of-the-google-play-store-uc4w5ggpx"},"datePublished":"2026-07-17T19:34:46.515Z","dateModified":"2026-07-17T19:35:10.247Z","description":"A practical guide to four alternative Android app stores: F-Droid (with the Droid-ify client) for open-source apps, APKMirror for version-specific APK...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/3d37d8d584d9a1896bda2a4e7df224e9?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/3d37d8d584d9a1896bda2a4e7df224e9?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"XDA Developers","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"XDA Developers","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--kCg6yyAP--/f_auto,q_auto/v1774964407/logos/xda-developers?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/4-android-app-stores-i-always-use-instead-of-the-google-play-store-uc4w5ggpx","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"open-source,apple,android,google-play","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"XDA Developers","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"4 Android app stores I always use instead of the Google Play Store"}]} ```