Here are some best free app stores for Android enough to consider as top Google Play store alternatives. One can download apps, games or their APK files from these stores.
The Google Play Store on Android phones doesn’t need an introduction and everything we need to enhance the functionality of a smartphone is available there. From small utility and productivity apps to games and other contents, you can find almost everything on the Google Play Store. At the same time, Google is also having a watch on your activities to recommend you the best apps as per your likeness, which sounds interesting primarily. Though Google Play Store is a primary place to download apps and games on our Android Smartphones, Google has strict control over the apps and some apps might not be available for download, for different reasons.
Depending upon the terms of an app it might not be available in your region or Google might assume, your smartphone is not capable of running a particular app or game. In such a situation, you won’t be able to download the app or game on your device. Besides that, due to the availability of a large number of apps on the Play Store, some malware-affected apps make its way to the store, even after Google’s strict stand against malware. Though such apps are immediately removed from the store once Google finds some suspicions within them, it is a threat to your device till then. So there are a number of reasons you should try out a third-party Android Marketplace and I will discuss a few of them here.
Best Free Google Play Store Alternatives
So without any further delay, let’s get started with the top alternatives of Google Play Store that you can count on. Also, the free app stores for Android mentioned below some of them are available as an app and others are just websites. Plus they are not ranked randomly not on the basis of features or number of apps they offer.
Aptoide
Another open-source app market for your Android is Aptoide, which also comes with a cool user interface with almost 700,000 apps from different sources. Aptoide has a great user base and almost 3 billion users have downloaded apps from the store, and the number is growing. Aptoide offers a feed-like interface, where you can even react to the posts and download the apps associated with each of the posts. So, you can always find the latest news about the apps from your favourite developers, and be the first among the users to try them out.
Besides, the availability of Aptoide for smartphones, separate Aptoide app store instances are available for Android TV boxes and other specific devices meant for children. All the apps available on Aptoide is safe to download and you can even download apps submitted by individual users.
On Aptoide, each user can maintain his own app store which delivers a personalized feel to those who use the app market. Just like the Google Play Store, there is an editorial section, where you can explore some great worth-downloading apps.
Uptodown
Uptodown is a great free alternative to the Google Play Store, where you can download apps, where the apps are ensured free from malware, by 50 antivirus programs the website relies on. Uptodown is available in 12 different languages and you can find almost every single app on the platform. Talking about the user interface, which is an important aspect for different users, Uptodown comes with a very intuitive user interface, which will hardly disappoint you in any way. Just like most other Google Play Store alternatives, which I have discussed here, Uptodown also has a desktop website, from where you can download apps and install them on your Android device.
However, there is something unique about Uptodown. Besides the latest version of the apps, Uptodown also keeps a record of the old version of the apps, which you can download and use, just in case some important feature is missing from the latest version of your favourite app. It is not recommended to download and use the old version of an app as it can have different vulnerabilities, but it can still be a saviour in different everyday situations. On Uptodown you can even find a handful of useful tutorials, which is a bonus most users will like.
Apkmirror
It is one of the largest online free app stores for Android to download and install APKs of different apps. Unlike Google Play store the user can download the older version APK files of Android apps which is not possible on the Google Play store.
Amazon Appstore
The Amazon app store for Android is undoubtedly the biggest competitor to Google Play Store, where you can find a great collection of books, movies, and other content besides apps and games which is something that you also find on Google Play Store. The app store has a collection of more than three hundred thousand apps and games, including the paid ones. The Amazon AppStore comes with a colourful user interface and you’ll always love to dig into it to find what’s new.
From time to time, there are numerous offers, when you can grab some top-selling apps at huge discounts, or completely for free. Did I forget to say that you will get a paid app for free every day! Yes, that is also cool, and who knows one day your favourite app will go free for one fine day in the store.
All the apps, games and other content is well organized into different categories so that you don’t face any troubles if you want to discover the best casual games to spend your boring time while sitting in a traffic jam.
F-Droid
If you have recently installed an AOSP version of Android, Google Play Store isn’t available, and that’s when F-Droid is the best alternative you can go for. F-Droid is an Android app store, which comprises open-source apps that can stand out to be perfect alternatives to the everyday apps we all use. F-Droid isn’t the app store for every guy out there, as you cannot find the most general apps, which most people use on a regular basis. But, if you are in love with the nature of open-source projects and want to contribute to the same, go for F-Droid.
On F-Droid, you can even find the source code of the different projects and apps available and you can subsequently make necessary modifications, and update the same on the platform. F-Droid offers an intuitive user interface, though not as good as Google Play Store, but you can at least enjoy those apps, which will not spy on you.
F-Droid is maintained by an enthusiastic team of developers and is dependent on donations. You can even donate the developers if you find an app interesting or helpful. As a number of apps on F-Droid aren’t stable or are under development, you cannot rate the apps on the store.
SlideME
If a great user interface within your app market isn’t a priority, you can go for SlideME. SlideME also comes preinstalled with a number of handsets, that come with an AOSP version of Android. You can even find a number of alternative apps which can do the same work as most regular apps we all use regularly. Besides that, SlideME has a ton of free and paid apps and games, and each of them is grouped into several categories so that you can find the most appropriate app while cruising through your preferred category. Even though SlideME doesn’t offer a great user interface, but it comes with a fresh black background which is something most people like.
All the apps on SlideME are uploaded and are made available after a proper quality-check so that you don’t end up downloading any malware on your daily driver. The apps on the market are quite stable, which means you will never have to compromise on beta and underdevelopment apps, which don’t offer is optimum functionalities.
SlideME is a new player in the arena of Android apps and if you are planning to install an AOSP version of Android in the coming days, SlideME can be the perfect app store that comes with almost every app you will ever need.
There are numerous advantages of using an alternative store to download apps and games for your Android device. Apart from the best 6 alternatives of Google Play Store, which I have discussed here, there are even a number of other alternative app stores, which you can go for. But the 5 app markets I have mentioned here are quite reliable, and you will not have to worry about any vulnerabilities or other associated problems if you download apps from one of the stores I have mentioned here.
Hope the top 5 Google Play Store alternatives I have mentioned here was useful for you. Do you know any other great alternative to the Google Play Store? Feel free to comment on the same below.
Other Alternatives: