Google Play Store is the go-to place for all your Android app needs. Here one can get all types of apps & games he/she wants. There are plethora of apps available in the Play Store. Most of the app developers & official companies release their apps exclusively on Google Play Store. But Play Store isn’t the only place to go for your app needs. There are some other 3rd party app stores also available for Android. But Google doesn’t allow downloading of other app stores from the Play store. To get any other app store for Android phone, all you need is an APK file of that app store.
Some of the best 3rd party app stores are listed below,
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Amazon App Store :
After Google Play store, this is the most used & best app store. It has very huge collection of Apps in it. Many apps & games which aren’t released on Play Store come to this store. As the name suggests,it is owned by e-commerce company Amazon.
They conduct a sale which brings paid apps for free though the sale lasts for sometimes only.They offer some business apps for free on regular basis.
2. ApkMirror :
ApkMirror is not an app store but a website which allows us to download APKs & install it manually. It is the most used APK website worldwide.This site has collection of mostly all the APKs of apps with each & every version .You can get APKs of paid apps also in this website. It has a very good design with search bar on the top. The searching, finding & downloading process is also nice.
3. GetJar :
It is also a website cum web app store.There isn’t any app available for this store but this store also has a huge collection of apps with all the versions in detailed view. GetJar was also available for Symbian based devices. As the name suggests it was used to find .jar files for Nokia phones running Symbian.
4. Mobogenie :
Mobogenie has most of the apps available in Play Store but claims to have an “intelligent” recommendation system to suggest the best apps for your use. The app itself has an inbuilt file manager which lets you easily browse your APK files & manage them .It has a very neat & professional look. Design is also very consistent throughout the app.
5. 1Mobile Market :
1Mobile market is a very good store if you are looking for an alternative to the Google Play Store. It has a web store and an app is also available. They announced having 800,000 apps which can be downloaded on any Android device. This is a very good platform for developers also because uploading apps is free.
6. Opera Mobile Store :
Opera Mobile Store, developed by the makers of Opera browser, is also a very nice & lightweight Android app store. It can be accessed via the opera browser on any Android phone.The have more than 200,000 apps in their store which is continuously increasing day by day. Publishing apps on this store is also free.
7. F-Droid :
F-Droid a complete free app manager app for Android devices. It allows you to download app through clients. Apps available in this store are listed by their FOSS(Free and Open Source Software) category. In this store, the apps do not have any rating.
8. Aptoide :
Aptoide is also one of the very popular because of it’s unique feature.It is popular among users of Play Store also because there are very good chances that you can get a paid app for free in this store.Although the authenticity of paid apps is questionable at times as most of them are full of ads.
9. Yendex
Yendex is also an app store that allows you to download Android apps directly . It is also an alternative to the Google’s own Play Store.
10. SlideMe :
SlideMe is an alternative to the Google Play Store. It is one of the oldest app & has a large user base than others. You can easily find APKs from this site just by browsing through your PC. Once the APK is downloaded to your PC, you can easily it to your Android phone & install the APK.
These are the top rated 3rd party Android app stores. Each has it’s own advantage. One offers some free apps ,another offers better design & another offers more business apps for free. We can not ignore any of these but the listing has been shortlisted according to the app availability & user base.
Apart from the above stores, there are many more app stores available for us like, Pdassi, Pandaapp, Nexa App store, AndApp online, Android Pit center, Apps Lib etc.
This post was last modified on May 20, 2017 7:25 pm