Our Favorite FOSS Alternatives to Popular Android Apps
Free and open-source alternatives to build a mobile self-hosted powerhouse
Self-hosted software and hosting your own content isn't limited to servers and desktop PCs. Most popular mobile applications are guilty of the same privacy practices users typically try to escape when abandoning services like Google Drive, AirTable, and Feedly. Fortunately, the openness of the Android ecosystem means developers can create applications free of these concerns and distribute them as they please.
To encourage this, we've compiled a list of our favorite self-hosted, open-source applications for Android devices to increase privacy and limit the data shared with external parties. If you aren't crazy about any of our recommendations, feel free to browse AlternativeTo's list of alternative Android apps or reddit's FOSSdroid community for more options.
Note: In an attempt to respect user privacy, some of the applications below cannot be found in the Google Play Store and will require the installation of a FOSS app store like F-Droid or a direct download from the source's code repository.
DAVx⁵ (Google Contacts, Calendars, and Tasks)
DAVx⁵ is a sync app that can be used to easily sync contacts, events, and tasks to your device from any CalDAV/CardDAV server client. It does require users to have an existing DAV solution like Radicale, Baïkal, or Nextcloud to sync with, but the experience beyond that is relatively seamless.
App Store Links: F-Droid, Google Play
ReadYou (Google News/Feedly/Inoreader)
ReadYou is a modern RSS reader meant to replace hosted RSS reader apps. It has both native capabilities as well as integrations with popular self-hosted software like FreshRSS, Miniflux, and anything using Fever API if that's your jam.
AshinchApp Store Links: F-Droid
Koler (Phone)
Koler is a minimal phone app meant to replace the default Google dialer that comes preinstalled on most phones. A simplistic design helps the app focus on the functions it was developed to replace – and little more.
ChoolooApp Store Links: F-Droid, Google Play
Aegis (Google Authenticator/Authy)
Aegis is an open-source authenticator app that allows users to store 2-step and MFA tokens from online services. The design is minimal and has all the functionality you'd expect from an authenticator app, although we'd recommend manually configuring its backup options given the lack of cloud syncing. There's also an active GitHub community dedicated to providing icons for various applications to be used for easy browsing in the app.
App Store Links: F-Droid, Google Play
GeometricWeather (Weather)
GeometricWeather is an open-sourced weather app that provides the functionality you'd expect from just about any weather app. It hasn't quite filled the hole in our Android hearts left by the departure of Dark Sky, but we've been more than happy with it as a FOSS alternative.
WangDaYeeeeeeApp Store Links: F-Droid
Simple Gallery (Gallery/Photos)
Simple Gallery is a gallery replacement app that also comes with some advanced features – photo editing, file recovery, hidden galleries, and more. It won't quite replace the functionality of something like Google Photos that backs your memories up to the cloud, but there are self-hosted options that can be paired with Simple Gallery to achieve this.
SimpleMobileToolsApp Store Links: F-Droid, Google Play
Birday (Birthday Reminders)
Birday is an open-source app designed to "remember" and deliver notifications for birthdays and other events. Events can be manually added or imported via contacts (birthdays). The app provides a ton of customization options for viewing upcoming events and other pertinent information.
m-i-n-a-rApp Store Links: F-Droid, Google Play
OpenCalc (Calculator)
OpenCalc is exactly what it sounds like – an open-source calculator app. Its functionality extends to what is typically found in a calculator app and also includes a variety of themes.
Darkempire78App Store Links: F-Droid, Google Play
OpenReads (GoodReads)
OpenReads is an open-source alternative to GoodReads that helps users track books and reading habits. Note that the project's GitHub page claims feature development has been paused as the app is being migrated from Kotlin to Flutter, but despite this it remains an adequate alternative in its current state.
mateusz-bakApp Store Links: F-Droid, Google Play
DroidFS (File Encryption)
DroidFS is an open-source file encryption application that allows users to store files in encrypted volumes that can't be accessed or decrypted by other applications. It also includes its own file explorer for viewing encrypted contents.
hardcore-sushiApp Store Links: F-Droid
YetAnotherCallBlocker (Spam/Blocked Calls)
YetAnotherCallBlocker is an open-source application that utilizes crowd-sourced spam databases to block unwanted calls to your phone. It comes with a number of configuration options, including the ability to download the database for offline use.
App Store Links: F-Droid
Have a favorite open-sourced app that we've missed? Reach out and send us a link to have it included in our next FOSS Android feature.
Thanks, and happy selfh.st/ing!
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