Alternatives to Zapstore
An open Android app store built on Nostr where each release is signed by its developer. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Zapstore
An open Android app store built on Nostr where each release is signed by its developer.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Zapstore.
F-Droid
An app store and client for free and open-source Android apps that works without a Google account.
F-Droid builds free and open source apps from source instead of shipping developer-signed releases, and adds offline Nearby sharing, with no Nostr integration.
Accrescent
An open-source Android app store focused on security and privacy, with pinned signing keys and signed metadata.
Accrescent also keeps developers in control of signing keys and pins them, but it is in alpha under Apache-2.0 with a smaller catalogue.
Obtainium
An Android updater that installs apps directly from developer release pages such as GitHub and GitLab.
Obtainium pulls releases straight from developer pages such as GitHub and GitLab, with no curated catalog, and requires Android 8.0 or newer.
Droid-ify
An uncluttered Android client for browsing and installing apps from F-Droid repositories.
Droid-ify installs apps from F-Droid-format repositories with background updates and Shizuku or root installs, but has no tipping or comments.
Komi Store
An open-source app store for installing apps published as releases on GitHub, Codeberg and Forgejo.
Komi Store installs apps from GitHub, Codeberg and Forgejo releases with a discovery view, limited to apps publishing releases on those forges.
Aurora Store
An open-source client for the Google Play catalog that installs and updates apps without a Google account.
Aurora Store installs apps from the Google Play catalog without a Google account, relying on a reverse engineered API rather than developer signatures.
Also worth comparing
These listings name Zapstore as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
IzzyOnDroid
A third-party F-Droid repository of open-source Android apps built and signed by their own developers.
Zapstore also distributes developer-signed releases but through a Nostr-based open source store app with more than 3,000 apps and direct tipping.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
APKUpdater
An open-source Android app that checks several sources for updates to your installed apps.
InstallerX Revived
An open-source Android package installer that handles APK, split APK and bundle formats.
