Update: This article was originally published in 2011 at Mobiputing.com, and some of these websites and app stores are no longer around (or no longer very good). If you want to see a more recent list of recommended alternatives to the Play Store, check out our updated list of Play Store alternatives.
The original article continues below if you want to see what the state of the Play Store and third-party alternatives was in the early days.
There are a few hundred thousand apps available for download from Google’s official Android Market. But not every Android device can access the Market, and not every app is available from Google’s app superstore.
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Gameloft, for instance, has a reputation for releasing highly polished (if not exactly original) games without always going through the Android Market. Other developers, such as Grooveshark, have been booted from the Market but continue to offer apps for Android users, because unlike iOS, Windows Phone 7, and some other mobile platforms, Android allows users to install apps that aren’t downloaded from the official Market.
Here are 18 places to find free and paid apps without Google’s help. The list is arranged alphabetically, but not all of these app stores are created equal. Look for the asterisk next to the name to find Mobiputing’s favorites.
Note that Appbrain, Cyrket, AndroLib and other third party App directories are not included in this list. Those all require you to download apps through the Android Market. The following app stores are all designed to let you download and install apps directly. I’ve also left out a handful of app stores that are exclusive to a specific wireless carrier or a line of phones or tablets.
* Amazon Appstore
The Amazon Appstore is probably the highest profile alternative to the Google Android Market. Amazon has a well-organized app store which you can navigate on the web or using a mobile app. Once you install the app on your device you can also make purchases or add free apps to your cart using a web browser and simply open the app on your mobile device to view a list of apps available for download.
Apps you purchase on one device will also be available for download as soon as you login on a second Android device. So if you have a phone and tablet the Amazon Appstore makes it easy to keep your favorite apps installed on all of your devices. In fact, Amazon’s system for doing this seems to work better in my experience than the official Android Market.
One of the best reasons to try out the Amazon Appstore even if you’re happy with Google’s offering is that every single day Amazon offers a free app of the day. The company takes a paid app and promotes it with a 1-day giveaway, typically offering savings between $0.99 and $4.99. Amazon has also managed to get a few limited exclusives. For instance the premium version of the popular Angry Birds Rio game debuted in the Appstore a few weeks before it was available from the Android Market.
AndAppStore
Soon to be replaced with a new marketplace called So.cio featuring apps, games, eBooks, and music, AndAppStore currently offers a simple but effective app for locating and downloading apps on your Android device.
AndAppStore
Apps are sorted by category with a number of sub-categories under each. For instance, under the Travel section you’ll find Guides, Navigation, and Timetables.
Where available you can see user ratings next to app titles and on download pages.
Unfortunately AndAppStore’s user interface is very basic. You won’t even find screenshots.
* AndroidPIT
Not only does AndroidPIT offer a web-based app you can use to download and purchase apps, but the company maintains an app news blog and a page with the latest “test reports,” or app reviews.
There’s also a user forum a wiki, and a list of developers. At last check there were over 2500 developers registered with AndroidPIT. All told, AndroidPIT is worth checking out not only for the app store, but also for the latest news and reviews about apps.
There’s also a mobile app with test reports, blog updates, and the latest from the forums. But the mobile app doesn’t include the full app directory and if you want to download an app you read about in the news section, the AndroidPIT app will dump you out to the Google Android Market.
AndroidPIT also has an App of the Week program offering up to 50 percent off of promoted apps.
Appitalism
The key thing setting Appitalism’s web-based app store apart from the crowd is the fact that community takes a social approach and allows user ratings and other social tools to determine which apps to highlight. OK, that might not really be much of a differentiatior. Most app stores have “hot apps” sections.
appitalism
Anyway, you can also find a number of apps which are not available in the Android Market.
* Appoke
Appoke is a social app store, allowing you to see which apps your friends are using to find new apps you might like. You can also send app recommendations to your friends.
There’s also a mobile app which you can use to find new apps and keep up with your friends on your mobile device.
The application selection isn’t comprehensive. Currently there are only about 3300 apps available from Appoke. But the social features of the platform make this app store stand out.
Aproov
The Aproov store specializes in free apps, but you’ll need to register for an account before you can download anything from the Aproov web site.
Aproov
The web site is a little on the barebones side, but the selection is quite good. You can find a large number of free apps which are available in the Android Market as well as some apps which aren’t, such as the free psx4droid lite PlayStation emulator.
Bazaar/Aptoide
This is a sort of DIY Android Market replacement. Anyone can set up a repository for distributing apps, and users can add as many repositories as they like. The upshot is that developers can make their apps available to clients without relying on emailed links or FTP sites. The down side is that there’s nothing stopping users from setting up (or accessing) repositories with illegally shared copies of paid apps.
Bazaar/Aptoide isn’t intrinsically shady, but it can be used for shady purposes, much like BitTorrent or other peer to peer technologies. Still, with the right repositories loaded, Bazaar offers one of the simplest ways to find a huge amount of apps that you can install without the Android market. The easiest way to find repositories to add to the mobile app is to search the Bazaar web site.
* F-Droid
The F-Droid repository is a place to find free and open source apps for Android. Not only are all the apps in the directory open souce, but you can find multiple versions of most apps in case you want to use something other than the latest release.
F-Droid
The user interface is pretty bare-bones. Apps aren’t sorted by category, for instance. You just get a nice long alphabetical list. But you can use the search function to locate the apps you’re looking for.
F-Droid doesn’t have a very extensive list of applications. But if you’re interested in free and open source apps, F-Droid is one of the best places to find mobile apps for Android.
* GetJar
The folks at GetJar have one of the most attractive, informative apps for discovering and downloading mobile applications. What’s surprising is that GetJar runs as a web app. There’s nothing to install on your phone. Just visit GetJar.com in your mobile browser to get started.
The company offers 75,000 mobile apps for Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, and iPhone. A lot of the apps are also available from the Android Market, but GetJar maintains its own download counter and ratings system.
Handmark
I tend to think of Handmark as a company which creates mobile software… but the company also acts as a distributor of mobile apps. You can find hunreds of apps at the Handmark web site. Just enter your name and phone number and the company will email you a download link
Handmark
Each app on the Handmark web site features a description, screenshot, and user reviews — although to be honest, very few reviews are actually available because I don’t think that many people treat the site as a source for apps.
Handster
The folks at Handster provide a white label app store for wireless carriers, smartphone makers and others, but you can also visit Handster yourself to find and download apps.
The company offers directories of Android, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Java, Blackberry, and even iPhone apps — although the iPhone store just provides links to the iTunes App Store in lieu of direct downloads.
Insyde Market
The Insyde Market’s claim to fame is that the app store supports Android netbooks as well as smartphones. But the web-based user interface is slow to load and many of the apps appear to be in Chinese, so if you’re an English speaker looking for big name apps you’ve heard of, this might not be the best option.
Insyde Market
Insyde Market lists paid and free apps.
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