List of mobile app distribution platforms
This list of mobile app distribution platforms includes digital distribution platforms , or marketplace 'app stores ', intended to provide mobile applications, aka 'apps' to mobile devices . For information on each mobile platform and its market share, see the mobile operating system and smartphone articles. A comparison of the development capabilities of each mobile platform can be found in the article on mobile app development . For cross-platform development, see the mobile development framework. The mobile app article contains other general information.
These application marketplaces, or 'm' are native to the major mobile operating systems. Anyway, the relative store APK can often be installed in other compatible systems without rooting a device, as it happens for Huawei AppGallery and stock Android.
There are 17 native mobile app distribution platforms currently on this list.
app store name
date established
status
owner
available apps
download count
installed base
device platform
allows individual developers to publish
cut fordeveloper per sale
developer fees (per year)
development tools (SDK )
free of chargeIDE ?
Amazon Appstore for Android
22 Mar 2011
live
Amazon.com, Inc.
591,818 (2025 estimate) [ 1]
unknown
unknown
Android OS(customised) , Android , BlackBerry 10
yes
70%
free [ 2] (previously: US$ 90)
Amazon Mobile App SDK [ 3]
yes
Apple App Store (iOS / iPadOS )
10 Jul 2008
live
Apple Inc.
1,640,000 (approx., 2025) [ 4]
unknown
unknown
iOS [ l 1] iPadOS
yes
60–70% [ 5]
US$ 99[ 6]
iOS SDK ,Xcode
yes [ 7]
BlackBerry World
1 Apr 2009
closed [ 8]
BlackBerry Limited
223,601 (26 Oct 2013) [ 9]
3 billion(May 2012) [ 10]
75 million(Jan 2012)
BlackBerry OS , BlackBerry Tablet OS , BlackBerry 10 OS [ l 2]
closed for new app submission
70%
free
BlackBerry 10 native SDK (with full POSIX and Qt support), HTML5 Qt4 SDK, Android (via BlackBerry Android Tools SDK), Adobe AIR SDK , BlackBerry OS SDK
yes
Download Fun / Catalog
20 Sep 2003
[ 11]
closed [ 12]
Danger, Inc. / Microsoft
unknown
unknown
unknown
Danger OS
yes
40%
free
Danger OS SDK [ 13]
yes
Firefox Marketplace
6 Sep 2013
closed [ 14]
Mozilla Foundation
5,957 (Mar 2014) [ 15]
unknown
unknown
Firefox OS
yes
70% [ 16]
unknown
unknown
yes
Google Play (formerly Android Market)
22 Oct 2008
live
Google, LLC
1,800,000 (approx., Apr–May 2025; post-purge) [ 17] [ 18]
50 billion(historical: Jul 2013)
over 2 billion(historical: May 2017)
Android [ 19]
yes
70%
One-time registration fee: US$ 25[ 20]
Android SDK , Android Studio
yes
HP App Catalog
6 Jun 2009
closed
Palm, Inc. / Hewlett-Packard
10,002 (Dec 2011)
108 million(Aug 2011)
2.6 million(Jul 2010)
webOS [ l 3]
yes
70%
free
Enyo
yes
Huawei AppGallery
2011
live
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
220,000 (HMS apps; reported 2022) (HMS-enabled / HMS app count reported Nov 2022) [ 21]
432 billion(Q4 2022 - historical downloads figure) [ 22]
1 billion(Huawei ecosystem / device numbers reported by Huawei; see notes) [ 23]
Android ,Huawei EMUI , HarmonyOS
yes
100% for first 2 years, then 70%-90% flexible
free
Android SDK ,HMS Core ,HMS Toolkit HarmonyOS SDK ,DevEco Studio
yes(Huawei Quick App IDE and DevEco Studio).
Microsoft Store (formerly Windows Store)
26 Oct 2012
closed
Microsoft Corp.
669,000 (historical figure, 2015) (reported Sep 2015) [ 24] [ 25]
no recent public total(no authoritative global app-count published since 2015)
410 million(historical figure for Windows PC device base — Sep 2015 estimate)
Windows 8 , Windows RT , Windows 8.1 , Windows 10 , Windows 11 , Windows 10 Mobile , Windows Phone
yes
70% - raised to 80% if developer sales exceeds US$ 25,000 in a year
individuals: US$ 19, or free for student; companies: US$99.One registration fee for both Windows Phone Store and Windows Store (historical).
Visual Studio (various versions), Windows App Studio (historical)
yes
Nokia Download!
2006
replaced with the Ovi Store
Nokia Oyj
unknown
unknown
unknown
Symbian (S60 ),Series 40
unknown
unknown
unknown
unknown
Nokia Store (formerly Ovi Store)
26 May 2009
closed, replaced with theOpera Mobile Store [ 26]
Nokia Oyj
120,000 (Aug 2012)
17 million /day(Oct 2012)
~ 885 million
multiple [ l 4] Symbian , MeeGo , Maemo , S40 , Nokia X software platform
yes
70%
€ 1[ 27]
Qt 4 SDK , Nokia Web Tools , Nokia SDK for Java
yes
OpenStore for Ubuntu Touch
Sep 2014
live
UBports(a democracy)
many most Linux software applications will run on Ubuntu Touch
unknown
unknown
open-source mobile phones
yes(anything packaged in the Ubuntu package database should run)
—
free
Linux
yes
PureOS Software Center
Nov 2017 ? [citation needed ]
live
Purism supported by The Debian Project (a democracy)
quite many most Linux software applications will run on PureOS [ 28]
unknown
unknown
open-source mobile phones
yes (anything packaged in the Debian package database should run)
0
free
Linux
yes
Samsung Galaxy Store (formerly Samsung Galaxy Apps)
Sep 2009
live
Samsung Electronics
unknown
unknown
over 1 billion (Oct 2020 - device / service related metric)[ 29]
Android ,Tizen ,Windows Mobile ,Bada
unknown
unknown
unknown
unknown
Snap Store
9 Dec 2014
live
Canonical Limited
unknown
unknown
unknown
Linux distributions
yes
—
free
Snapcraft
unknown
Ubuntu Software Centre aka Ubuntu App Store
17 Oct 2013
closed, replaced by Snap Store
Canonical Limited
2,650+ (Dec 2015, incl. web apps & scopes)
unknown
unknown
Ubuntu Touch
yes
—
free
Ubuntu SDK
yes
Windows Phone Store (formerly Windows Phone Marketplace)
21 Oct 2010
closed, merged with theWindows Store [ 30]
Microsoft Corp.
400,000+ (Mar 2015)
9 billion(Mar 2015)
100 million(Jun 2015)
Windows Phone
yes
70%
individuals: US$ 19, or free for student; companies: US$99 / unlimited paid apps, and 100 free apps submissions.[ 31]
Windows Phone Developer Tools , includes specialty versions of Microsoft Visual Studio , Expression Blend
yes
date established
status
owner
available apps
download count
installed base
device platform
allows individual developers to publish
cut fordeveloper per sale
developer fees (per year)
development tools (SDK )
free of chargeIDE ?
Notes
Google Play — App figures reported by app intelligence firms in 2025 indicate a substantial reduction in listed Play Store apps (from ~3.4M at the start of 2024 to ~1.8M in 2025) following tightened policy enforcement and purges. For details see TechCrunch / The Verge coverage. [ 32] [ 33]
Huawei AppGallery — commonly reported HMS / AppGallery figures (220k+ HMS apps; ~580M MAU) are from Huawei / industry reporting in 2022; Huawei's HarmonyOS native app totals (HarmonyOS NEXT) and developer counts have been advanced in Huawei's 2024–2025 messaging (see Harmony Developers report). [ 34] [ 35]
Third-party platforms are software distribution platforms which are used as alternatives to operating system native distribution platforms. Independent operating systems are software collections that use their own software distribution, customised user interface (UI), software development kit (SDK) and application programming interface (API) (except billing API which is related only to the application store).
There are 17 third-party mobile app distribution platforms currently on this list.
app store platform name
date established
status
owner
available apps
download count
install base
device platform
cut fordeveloper per sale
developer fees (per year)
developer console
development platform(s) (SDK )
Appcircle App Distribution
2021
live
Appcircle Inc
unknown
unknown
unknown
Android and iOS
0
free
Yes
—
Appland
2011
live
Appland
130,000 [ 1]
25 million(Mar 2016)
5 million(Mar 2016)
Android and iOS
up to 70%
free
unknown
unknown
Applivery App Distribution
Feb 2017
live
Applivery Mobility Management[ 2]
2,000,000+ (Dec 2020) [ 2]
unknown
unknown
Android and iOS
0
free
Yes
Android SDK , iOS SDK
Aptoide
17 Nov 2009
live
Aptoide
1,100,000 (Oct 2020)
17.5 billion(Oct 2020)
120 million(Oct 2020)
Android and iOS
up to 75%
free
unknown
Android SDK , Java ME
Cafe Bazaar
Apr 2011
live
Hezardastan Technologies
160,000 (May 2019) [ 3]
unknown
40 million(May 2019) [ 3]
Android
up to 70%
free
unknown
unknown
Cydia
Feb 2008
live
saurik
unknown
unknown
30 million
iOS
—
free
unknown
iOS SDK , Xcode
F-Droid
29 Sep 2010
live
F-Droid Limited
4,002 [ 4]
248 million(Mar 2015) [ 5]
unknown
Android
—
free
unknown
Android SDK
GetJar
2004
live
GetJar ,Accel Partners
849,036 (Mar 2015) [ 6]
3 billion(Mar 2015) [ 7]
200 million users[ 6]
multiple [ 8] Android , BlackBerry OS , Flash Lite , Java , iOS , Palm OS , Symbian , Windows Phone
—
free[ 8]
unknown
unknown
Handango
2000
closed
PocketGear
190,000 (MMM 20YY) [ 9]
unknown
unknown
multiple [ l 5] Android , BlackBerry OS , Palm OS , PSP , Symbian , Windows Mobile
≈42%
free
—
unknown
Handmark
2000
closed
Handmark
unknown
unknown
unknown
multiple [ l 6] Android , BlackBerry OS , iOS , Java , Palm OS , Symbian , Windows Mobile
unknown
unknown
unknown
unknown
MiKandi
29 Nov 2009
closed
MiKandi
unknown
unknown
80000 (Dec 2009) [ 10]
Android [ 11]
unknown
unknown
unknown
unknown
Opera Mobile Store
Mar 2011
closed
Opera Software
300,000 (Nov 2014) [ 12]
45 million per month(Dec 2012) [ 13]
unknown
multiple [ 14] Android , Java , Symbian , BlackBerry OS , Windows Mobile , iOS
70% : Android, Symbian, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile; 50%: Java [ 15]
free[ 15]
unknown
Android SDK , Java ME , S60 , BlackBerry SDK , Windows Phone Developer Tools
Pocket Gear
1999
closed
PocketGear
140,000 (Jun 2010) [ 16]
unknown
unknown
multipleAndroid , BlackBerry OS , Java , Palm OS , Symbian , Windows Mobile
≈55%
free
unknown
—
Rootpk
2022
live
Rootpk
700,000+ (Sep 2022)
unknown
unknown
Android
90%
free
Yes
—
RuStore
2022
live
VK (company) , MinTsifry Of Russia
21,000+ (Oct 2022)
unknown
unknown
Android
unknown
free
unknown
—
Updraft App Distribution
2014
live
Apps with love AG / Moqod BV .
unknown
350,000+ in 2022[ 17]
15,000 Users in 2022[ 17]
Android and iOS
0
free
Yes
iOS SDK, Android SDK
Uptodown App Store
Nov 2011
live
Uptodown Technologies
2,500,000 (Mar 2021) [ 18]
450 million per month(Nov 2021) [ 19]
unknown
Android
80%
free
Yes
—
date established
status
owner
available apps
download count
install base
device platform
cut fordeveloper per sale
developer fees (per year)
developer console
development platform(s) (SDK )
See also
References