I’ve been using Obtainium as my main way of getting apps for over a year now and I haven’t had the best time. For me, it has recently felt like the cons outweigh the benefits I get. Some issues I’ve encountered include:
Constant rate-limiting and errors even with background checks set to once per day, of which I’m guessing was caused by my Always On VPN.
Automatic updates almost always wouldn’t work, to the point I don’t remember the last time it did work.
Downloads were slow and prone to failing.
App itself was really laggy and occasionally crashed, probably from the large amount of apps I’d installed with it.
I’ve recently gotten a new phone, so I have an opportunity to reconsider how I install apps. I thought of my own process of elimination, and I’d like to know what you all think of it:
Accrescent
The people at Privacy Guides and GrapheneOS have a high opinion of this store from what I’ve read. I only get a few from there since they have very little apps, but I think that’s fine enough.
F-Droid Basic (App specific repositories)
The updates I’ve gotten from F-Droid have always updated with little issue, so I’d prefer to use it when I can. Sometimes apps have their own F-Droid repositories I can use instead of the official one, such as Brave and Cromite.
F-Droid Basic (IzzyOnDroid)
In the F-Droid section of Privacy Guides, they mention why it’s prefered over F-Droid’s official repository. It seems like it’d be good enough to mostly replace Obtainium for me.
Other popular third-party repositories for F-Droid such as IzzyOnDroid alleviate some of these concerns. The IzzyOnDroid repository pulls builds directly from code forges (GitHub, GitLab, etc.) and is the next best thing to the developers’ own repositories. They also offer reproducible builds for hundreds of applications and have developers who verify the reproducibility of developer-signed APKs. Furthermore, the IzzyOnDroid team conducts additional security scans of apps housed in the repo, which usually result in deliberations between them and app developers toward privacy improvements in their apps. Note that apps may be removed from the IzzyOnDroid repo in certain circumstances.
Obtainium
I’d use Obtainium if an app isn’t available on any of the above.
Aurora Store
For updating the Android system and the singular app I use that’s exclusively on the Google Playstore.
I am already a digital minimalist and know what apps are worth downloading and using and what are not. And because I’m already thankfully knowledgeable here, I keep things simple for myself on my GrapheneOS and only use Aurora Store. I don’t have play services installed on my Owner profile.
It’s because there’s only one place I need to look for updates and because F Droid takes way too long to release new updates given their own verification of the apps. That’s a deal breaker for me.
Obtanium is too much for a DIY option and the cons for me outweigh the pros even though I love the idea for how it’s supposed to work if it worked well.
I have also found izzyondroid to be both very useful and extremely reliable for installs and updates. Definitely a repository to add for those of us that prefer to build without Schmoogle dependencies.
I do agree with you, though I’m using the IzzyOnDroid repository, not the official one. The updates from IzzyOnDroid often come just a couple hours after the github releases.
If an app isn’t on IzzyOnDroid or have their own repository, then I prefer to use Obtainium. I think most of my issues came from having to many apps on Obtainium. Right now, I’ve only installed a few apps with it and I haven’t encountered the same issues so far.
I use F-Droid and I love it. It works great on my phone. I have IzzyOnDroid and Guardian repositories. It took a little in the beginning to get F-Droid bugs out but it updates the repositories and checks apps daily. Although, Google is now supposed to be banning side-loaded apps so naturally, F-Droid is a little miffed. Who knows but if everyone complains enough maybe they won’t implement it. The single reason I use android is that I can sideload apps. What’s the point of android if we can’t?
Do you have “Only check installed and track only apps for updates “ turned on? I had the constant rate limit problem too until I turned that setting on, and haven’t ran into it since then.