F-Droid

F-Droid is a free and open-source app store for Android. It only carries apps whose source code is public, and the F-Droid project itself builds every package from that source, so what ships matches what was reviewed. Ciaran Gultnieks started it back in 2010. The catalog now sits well past three thousand apps.

Every entry gets reviewed for what F-Droid calls anti-features. Trackers, ads, non-free network calls, and non-free dependencies all get labeled on the listing before you install. The client itself sends no analytics. Metadata is cryptographically signed, and apps with reproducible builds get a green badge so anyone can verify a third party rebuilt the same APK byte-for-byte.

You can't get F-Droid from the Google Play Store. Google's policies block app stores that distribute outside the Play ecosystem, so you download the APK from f-droid.org and install it once. From there the F-Droid client handles updates. You can also add third-party repositories like IzzyOnDroid or Guardian Project for apps that don't quite fit the main repo rules. Power users often swap the stock client for Droid-ify or Neo-Store, which are faster and prettier but read from the same repo.

  • Only FOSS apps, no ads, no in-app purchases
  • Anti-feature labels flag trackers, telemetry, and other non-free bits before you install
  • Apps are built and signed by F-Droid's own build farm
  • Reproducible builds verify the APK matches the source
  • Add third-party repos in two taps
  • Auto-updates run in the background, no Google account needed
  • Ships as a plain APK from f-droid.org