There are millions of apps in the Google Play Store, making it the biggest app market on the planet. That’s not all,
- It comes with almost every android phone as a pre-installed module.
- It has useful security measures to filter unnecessary apps, and you can find pretty much any app you need.
However, if you need something extra, unordinary, or quirky, you have to look somewhere else. Because sometimes, it does not always have what users are looking for.
Benefits Over the Play Store
There are good reasons to choose a 3rd party app store over the Google Play Store. Let’s talk about facts.
- Free of cost – If you visited the Play Store, you would see that most of the apps are free. But if you filter apps that are useful, either they have in-app purchases, or you must purchase them to use. But in many other app stores, you can download them for free.
- Latest version to earliest version – Usually, the latest version of an app would work on many android versions. Still, sometimes it might not work on your phone for reasons like early OS edition or lack of hardware capacity. In such cases, you need to find an earlier edition of that app for your phone. 3rd party app stores got you covered.
- Tweaked apps – You can download many tweaked apps using alternative app stores. In case you wonder, a tweaked app has more power and more features than the stock app, yet it is free. As an example, let’s take an app like Whatsapp plus. It can hide last seen, has more emoticons, and many other features.
- Download Mod games – Modified games alter one or more aspects of a game to give more functionalities or behaviors. Such as unlimited lives, premium armors, or loads of coins, so you are never run out of them.
Best App Markets – Top 3
Below we have listed the best of the best third-party app stores today, which we filtered based on trustworthiness, app inventory, and modernistic characteristics. We hope you enjoy them. Please let us know if you know any other app stores in the comments below.
ACMarket – Best for Tweaks, Tools and Mods
ACMarket app is one of the leading app stores that can download apps and tweaks for Android phones. It is another version of Google Play but for tweaks.
What’s on It
It has several sections and categories for the following types of apps, Games, Apps, Bingo Games, and Books. I don’t think you need to focus on the categories other than Games and Apps, because it has all you need if you are looking for Mods or tweaks.
How to Download It
The ACMarket app is free to download on acmarket.download. In there, you can find the download file (apk) and instructions on how to install it.
Pros
- It is free – The apps available on it and the app itself is free.
- Latest apps – There are plenty to download. You will find many of them are up to date with the latest updates.
- User-friendly – It looks and behaves like the play store. The way everything is organized, it is easy to find anything you want in there within a few seconds.
- Security – There are few bold security measures taken only to host good quality mods in their market.
- No restrictions – ACMarket app has no regional or country base restriction for any app in the market. You can download anything in anyware of the world.
Cons
- Advertisements – The app has ads more than the usual amount. You can remove them by becoming a VIP member, but we don’t recommend it. A free account is very much enough for any app, but you are still annoyed by ads; consider getting the VIP membership.
- The app is a little larger than the competition – Compared to many other app markets ACMarket app is a bit big. It is more than 30MB in size and needs more than 50MB to install it in your phone.
HappyMod – Mod Platform for User Uploads
HappyMod app is more of a community than an app store. It has registered and verified users who upload Mod apps and games and other users verify their authenticity.
What’s Available on It
It is trendy with Mod games and has lots of popular games in its arsenal. It has over 30000 games hosted in the store. Some of the popular games are Clash of the clan with unlimited money and stones, Subway surfers with infinite coins, etc.
How to Download It
You can download the HappyMod app from the developer’s website. The app is compatible with Android version 4 or higher versions of phones. As the ACMarket app, this also comes in the APK format.
Pros
- Faster download speed – It has better technologies to provide good download speed for your apps. There are some app markets lacking in this section.
- Good user community – It is a user-based community. You can read and get ideas of apps’ quality from their reviews before downloading it from the market.
- App requests – There is an app request page specially designed if you couldn’t find what you’ve looking for in the store.
- It is free – Same as the ACMarket app; Happy Mod is also free to download and use.
Cons
- Lots of advertisements – This one has many ads like many other 3rd party app stores out there.
- Lack of quality apps – Because it is a community-based and everyone is allowed to post their mods (after verification), sometimes it is hard to find quality apps to download. This is where the review system of them comes in handy.
APPVN
APPVN is another useful app market for Android with thousands of apps. It is most popular in countries like Brazil, Vietnam, and India. The app works as a mobile content social network so users can share their favorite apps with colleagues and friends.
What’s on the APPVN app
APPVN app has two minor categories to include books and funny games with another two major sections to include their apps and games.
How to Download It
This is a hybrid app market that you can download on two major mobile Oss, Android, and iOS. There are two separate markets for both. Since we are talking about Android, it is easy to download APPVN on your phone. There is a download button on the top right corner. Click to start installing.
Pros
- No registration – You do not need to provide any kind of credentials to download apps from APPVN app.
- Excellent repository – Like above two app markets, it has a huge number of apps in their repository.
- Old – This is one of the oldest 3rd party app stores for Android and it has been around for several years now.
- More than apps – You can download themes to make your phones’ screen more unique and gadgets to make it quirkier.
Cons
- Asian oriented – The app store originated in Vietnam and in the first few years it was only available for Asian countries. Now a lot has changed, but still it is more suitable if you’re from around Asia.
- Few Bugs – The app has few bugs over time. One of which is, some users encountered a problem with downloading a single app several times with a single click.
Bonus Tips
How to Install a 3rd Party App on Android?
Without the Google Play Store, there are two procedures to install third-party applications. The first is via third-party app stores like ACMarket, APPVN, etc. The second is to find the APK on the site and install it manually.
Google updated the way they install the APK on the latest version of Android. Android can add a bit of nuisance but hasn’t changed since. Here’s how to install a third-party app on all the latest versions of Android.
- Download the APK.
- You can use a file browser to access the downloads folder or click the completed download in your mobile browser to start the installation.
- Android asks the file browser or web browser for permission to install the app. After granting permission, you are returning to the installation screen. Otherwise, go back to the download folder to permit it and try again.
- Your app will install safely.
Is It illegal to Use 3rd Party Apps?
Using third-party applications is not illegal. However, suppose your terms of use for a service or application specify that a third-party application is not allowed. In that case, your account will block if you try to use it to connect to that service or application.
Disclaimer
There is a risk of involvement in downloading anything outside the Google Play Store. Please be cautious about what you’re downloading and what permissions are granting to an app.