Alternative App Store for iOS has 300,000 monthly users

AltStore, an alternative App Store for iOS, has about 300,000 monthly users three years after its release. That’s what the founder said. A total of one and a half million people have tried the software.

Because about 6000 people have decided to support the founder financially, he has already been able to make the maintenance of the software his job, reports Fast Company. The software makes it possible to sideload apps on iPhones and iPads by using the method developers can also use through Xcode. A developer account is not necessary and jailbreaking is not necessary. The software came out in 2019.

With the number of 300,000 monthly users, AltStore’s market share among iOS users is small. There are estimated to be more than a billion users of Apple’s mobile operating system. This means that the share of AltStore users is less than 0.03 percent.

This week, the option will be available for Trusted Sources, allowing users to discover apps that the founders have reviewed themselves. This seems to mainly concern apps that emulate desktop environments or old game consoles. Those are apps that Apple doesn’t allow in the App Store. Installation of apps is via ipa files on the desktop; there are few to no apps in the software itself.

AltStore has limitations. For example, only two apps installed via AltStore can be on an iPhone at the same time and the iPhone must be on the same WiFi network as the desktop software once every week to authenticate use.