Psyhackological/AAA: A Curated FOSS Android App List With Entry Rules
:iphone: Curated list of THE BEST FOSS Android apps to maximize your freedom & privacy!
At a glance
- What is it?
- AAA is a CC-BY-4.0 list of FOSS Android apps maintained on GitHub and Codeberg, with a documented admission checklist. It is a starting point for de-Googling a phone, not a package manager or a scanner.
- Who is it for?
- Adopt AAA if you are de-Googling an Android phone and want a shortlist of FOSS apps that already passed someone else's checklist; skip it if you need automated malware scanning or an F-Droid replacement, because it is a Markdown list with links. Before trusting any entry, open its F-Droid page or its source repository and check the last commit date yourself, since AAA records a tested-at-some-point status rather than a live one.
- Can I use it commercially?
- Yes, with credit. CC-BY-4.0 allows commercial use as long as you credit the authors and indicate what you changed. It is written for creative content, so check how it applies to any code.
- Is it still maintained?
- Yes. The repository last received commits 19 days ago.
- What is it written in?
- GitHub does not report a main language for this repository.
Answers come from the project's GitHub data, last synced on September 25, 2026, and from our analysis. They are not legal advice.
Editorial analysis
What AAA Actually Is, and Who the List Is For
AAA, short for AwesomeAndroidAlternatives, is a curated Markdown list of FOSS Android apps. The README calls it "a list of THE BEST FOSS apps according to us", with a link to the contributors graph and an invitation to argue on the contributing page. That framing matters: this is an opinionated shortlist, not an index of everything on F-Droid.
The audience is narrow but real. If you are replacing stock Google apps on an Android phone and want candidates that are open source, free of charge, ad-free and account-free, the list saves you the first pass. It is not for people who want a store, a scanner, or an automated updater. There is no code here to run, only links. The repository holds README.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, RULES.md, WHY.md, PRIVACY.md, PRIVACY_MANUAL.md, LICENSE and an img/ directory.
One structural detail tells you how the list is meant to be read: AAA is published on GitHub and mirrored on Codeberg, with the homepage field pointing at the Codeberg copy. The last push was on 2026-09-12, and the repository is not archived, so the list is still being edited.
The Admission Rules Behind Every Entry
The value of a curated list lives in its rejection criteria. AAA publishes them in the README as a checklist, and RULES.md is linked for a longer explanation. An app must be open sourced, free of charge on F-Droid and on its source repository releases, free as in freedom, ad-free, installed and tested by the maintainer or a contributor, privacy-friendly aware, easy to use, still in development or a polished experience, and not lacking features compared with the proprietary app it replaces. It must not require an account, with self-hosted apps as the only stated exception, and it must have a dark theme.
The account rule is the sharpest one. It rules out a large class of otherwise decent FOSS clients that want a login before they do anything, and it explains why the self-hosted section is carved out separately. The dark theme rule is the opposite: trivial to satisfy, and it says something about who writes the list.
Two entries in the checklist are softer than they look. "Installed and tested by me or by contributor" records a moment, not a state, and nothing in the repository format captures when that test happened. "Still in development or polished experience" is a judgement call made by hand. Treat both as claims to verify rather than facts.
How the List Is Organised and How to Use It
The README is one long document with a table of contents linking to roughly a hundred category anchors, from 2FA, Ads & Trackers and AI through Dialer, Firewall, Launcher, Maps, Password Manager and Terminal Emulator, ending at YouTube. Each category holds app entries. Each entry is an app name, sometimes a heart marker, an icon image, and a row of links: Google Play, F-Droid, GitHub, and an official page. A missing store is shown as an unchecked box rather than omitted, so you can see at a glance that AdAway, for example, has no Google Play link.
The heart marker is defined in the README as "Someone's Personal Favourite", which is a useful signal about the list's honesty: it does not pretend to rank apps by objective quality. The README also states the counter, currently 274 apps, and tells readers to use the Home button to return to the top.
The workflow the format implies is manual. You pick a category, open two or three candidate entries, follow the F-Droid or GitHub link, and decide for yourself. Nothing in the repository automates discovery, installation or comparison.
Reading the List Without Being Misled
The biggest limitation is that AAA is a set of links, not a maintained database of app health. An entry can satisfy every rule on the day it was added and rot afterwards. The checklist promises an app is "still in development", but the README format has no field for a last-release date, no automated check, and no expiry. If a project stops shipping, the entry stays until a human notices.
The second limitation is scope. AAA is Android-only. It has nothing to say about iOS, desktop Linux or web apps, and the topics list is explicit about the platform. If your de-Googling plan spans devices, this list covers one of them.
Third, the selection is deliberately narrow. The rules bar anything ad-supported, anything with a required account, and anything that lacks features against its proprietary counterpart. That produces a clean shortlist, but it also excludes capable FOSS apps that ask for a login or that are intentionally minimal. If you want breadth, an F-Droid category browse or a larger awesome list will serve you better; if you want a shortlist with reasons attached, AAA is the tighter tool.
Finally, the licence is CC-BY-4.0, which covers the list text itself. It says nothing about the apps linked from it, each of which carries its own licence.
Starting With AAA: Open the README, Then Follow One Link
There is no package to install and no command the repository documents for reading it. AAA is consumed by opening README.md on GitHub or the Codeberg mirror, where the table of contents links to each category anchor. The README tells readers to use the Home button to return to the top of the page.
A first real use is picking one category and reading its entries end to end. Aegis, Stratum Auth and Ente Auth sit under 2FA, each with its own row of links. The README gives the Aegis row as a Google Play link, an F-Droid link to com.beemdevelopment.aegis, a GitHub link and an official page at getaegis.app. Ente Auth's F-Droid link points at the package io.ente.auth, and Stratum Auth's F-Droid link points at the project's own repository at stratumauth.com/fdroid/repo/ rather than at f-droid.org.
That last detail is the practical lesson. Not every entry installs from the main F-Droid index; some, like Stratum Auth, direct you to a third-party repository that you would add to your F-Droid client first. The README does not walk through adding such a repository, so that step is on you. Once you have chosen an app, installation happens in F-Droid or from the project's own release page. AAA itself never installs anything, and the repository contains no scripts, manifests or build files.
Alternatives to AAA and Where They Differ
The closest alternative is F-Droid itself. F-Droid is a repository and client: it builds apps from source, signs them, serves them over its own index, and handles installation and updates on the device. AAA is a document. The difference in approach is that F-Droid answers "what can I install and keep updated", while AAA answers "which of these did someone vet against a written checklist". They complement each other; AAA entries routinely link to F-Droid pages.
A second alternative is a general awesome list for Android or for self-hosted software. Those lists optimise for coverage and accept a wider range of projects, including ones with accounts or ads. AAA trades that coverage for the admission rules described above, which is the whole reason to prefer it when the rules match your priorities.
A third option is to skip curated lists entirely and browse F-Droid categories yourself. You get current metadata and update status, but no editorial filter and no statement of why an app is on the list. That is a real trade: AAA gives you reasons, F-Droid gives you freshness.
Maintenance, Contributions and Licence Terms
The repository is not archived and the last push was on 2026-09-12, so edits are still landing. Releases are sparse and named by app count rather than by version: 250 ("250 New Apps!") on 2024-05-07, 240v2 on 2024-03-30, and 240 on 2023-11-01. Those tags mark milestones in list size, not software versions, so do not read them as a changelog for anything installable.
Upgrade cost is close to zero in the software sense and non-zero in the attention sense. Re-reading the README shows new entries and edited links, but nothing tells you which apps changed upstream. Contributions go through the process described in CONTRIBUTING.md, and disagreements about inclusion are expected, since the README explicitly invites readers to prove the maintainers wrong there.
The list text is licensed CC-BY-4.0, which permits reuse with attribution. That licence covers the repository contents, not the linked applications; each of those has its own licence, and the README's rules require them to be open source but do not make them all the same licence. Verify the licence of any app you plan to redistribute or bundle.
Editorial conclusion
Adopt AAA if you are de-Googling an Android phone and want a shortlist of FOSS apps that already passed someone else's checklist; skip it if you need automated malware scanning or an F-Droid replacement, because it is a Markdown list with links. Before trusting any entry, open its F-Droid page or its source repository and check the last commit date yourself, since AAA records a tested-at-some-point status rather than a live one.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best open-source Android apps according to AAA?
AAA does not rank apps against each other; it groups them by category and marks some with a heart, which the README defines as "Someone's Personal Favourite". The README states a counter of 274 apps across categories such as 2FA, Browser, Launcher, Maps and Password Manager.
Which app in AAA is totally free?
Every entry must be free of charge on F-Droid and on its source repository releases, and the rules also require it to be ad-free and to not need an account, with self-hosted apps as the only stated exception. So the free-of-charge condition applies to the whole list rather than to individual picks.
Does AAA replace F-Droid or an APK store?
No. AAA is a Markdown list of links, and each entry points to an F-Droid page, a Google Play page, a GitHub repository and an official page where those exist. Installation still happens through whichever store or repository you choose.
How do I add an app to AAA?
Contributions go through the process described in CONTRIBUTING.md, and the README invites readers to challenge the maintainers' choices there. An app has to satisfy the README's checklist, which includes being open source, free of charge, ad-free, account-free and having a dark theme.
Can I reuse the AAA list in my own project?
The repository is licensed CC-BY-4.0, which permits reuse with attribution. That licence covers the list contents, not the linked apps, which carry their own licences.
Official sources
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