With the availability of various app creators and consumers, businesses are rapidly turning their traditional business models into digital platforms. Undoubtedly, app developers can empower you with wonderfully created apps that enable you to create an online presence of your brand in an overcrowded market.

But the question is, where would you launch your application?

While Google play store and Apple App Stores are already capturing 89% of the market share, then how would you make your way to lead the market?

Well, there are various mobile app stores designed for specific niches, industries or purposes. All you need is to custom tailor your app keeping in mind the market needs and what people are enjoying accessing your app. Moreover, no matter what type of app you are developing, it is important that you are promoting it on the right platform. 

Undoubtedly, many mobile app stores have shut down in the last few years, therefore choosing the right app store to launch an app will be a serious concern of app investors. Being an investor, you never want to launch an app on a platform where it has no visibility. So before you get straight to the best mobile app store list, you need to understand why you need to look beyond Android and iOS app stores to launch an app…

Reasons Why You Need to Choose Mobile App Stores Wisely?

Despite having the availability of the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, many of you are curious to know why there is a need for an industry-specific app store to release an app. If you are also chasing the same question then here are a few reasons that you may need to know:

• The popular operating systems like App store and playstore are extremely crowded, therefore trying to get the visibility of your app on these platforms has become a bit challenging for the investor. 
• Moreover, there are certain countries where Play store is not even supported and unfortunately, you will miss the biggest segment of the potential market. And China is the biggest example where the Play store is not accessible and surely you won’t miss this huge market. 
• There are industry-specific app stores and releasing your app on the same will ensure better user engagement. Marketing your app becomes more profitable and focused on these platforms as opposed to launching an app on highly popular bigger app stores.
• Choosing and launching your app on the niche app store can offer you better revenue models than the primary app stores like Playstore and App Store. 
• In addition, there are certain devices that offer access to certain app stores such as Windows App Store only and restrict the access to Playstore and App Store.
• Getting approval from the alternative app stores is far easier and quicker. If you can’t get your app approved on Playstore and App Store, these other app stores offer a fertile market.  

Hopefully, these points are giving you complete insights of why it is worthy to consider the number of app stores in your app marketing strategy. While mobile apps have completely revolutionized the way we are living our life. With that said, it is fair enough to say that mobile apps are becoming big business platforms with the projection to make $953 billion by 2023.

Hence, for all the reasons said above and the reason to monetize your app on every app store, you need to look for an app development company that can help you customize the app as per your business needs. Following the platform-specific guidelines, developers can create an app that helps you put your mouth where money is and spend your app marketing budget in the right places. 

Let’s get started with the list of popular app stores:

Google Play Store

Indeed, Google Play Store doesn’t require any introduction but still, there is a hierarchy where we can’t just get started with the wildcats of the market without mentioning the tiger. So Google Play Store is already capturing the biggest mobile app market share and is home to over 3.5+ million apps. While 72% of smartphone users are owning Android handsets, therefore businesses are curiously looking forward to launching an app on Google Play Store. By hiring an Android app developer you can create an app and make it far easier to get your app on this app platform without facing any rejection.

Apple App Store

While listing the best platforms to launch an app, the Apple App store is the second on the list. While approx 30% of all smartphones in the world are owning iOS devices therefore only access Apple’s official app store for app download. Since Apple App Store’s apps are ensuring the highest ROI. But at the same time, you can’t ignore the fact that they often reject the iOS apps in the effort to maintain the quality of their app store. 

Appland

It is one of the top cross-platform app launch platforms that combines the features of an app installer with an app store manager for iOS and Android. It offers unmatched support for developers and provides the flexibility to reach global markets. By hiring a React Native app developer, you can create a cross-platform app that is available on multiple platforms and enables you to reach various locations such as Panama, Myanmar, Malaysia, Oman and more.

SlideMe

SlideMe is an alternative App Store that also serves as the marketplace and allows app developers to distribute their apps to the people who are accessing iOS devices. In fact, when it comes to reaching global Android apps, SlideMe ranks just second to Google Play Store. The simple logic is, there are a number of devices that don’t come preloaded with Google Playstore, but they often come with SlideMe as per the company’s on-device strategy that partners with device vendors and provide them access to Android apps as well as the iOS users. 

But this type of app store carefully distributes apps to niche markets based on their geographical location and device configuration to enhance the user experience, 

CodeNgo

If you are trying hard to target multiple operating platforms or need to distribute your app across different app stores by filling a one form, then CodeNgo is the perfect operating system to opt for. By using this platform, startups can send apps on operating systems ranging from Amazon, Samsung, Opera, and more. If you are wondering whether this app store is worthy to launch an app, then you need to know that it offers a rich list of Top Chinese app stores where Android apps can be distributed to the fastest-growing markets.

Amazon App Store

Amazon being the biggest marketplace offering everything under one roof, couldn’t stay far from the lucrative app market. Amazon Appstore is one of the premium alternatives to Google Play that offers cross-platform services. The best part is, that it is easily available on all Amazon devices such as Kindle Fire and Firestick, Amazon Appstore offers Android apps on various devices.

GetJar

Many of you may be unfamiliar with the popularity of GetJar Interface, but the simplicity of this website and mobile app store quickly grab the attention of both developers and consumers. It’s an open app store that offers the flexibility of launching apps for Android, iOS, Windows and other OSs. The best part about choosing this platform is that it can help you target an audience of multiple devices.

Sony Apps 

Like several competitors, the Sony Apps market is also designed for people with sony mobile devices and smart TVs. Users won’t have to search natively on their phones and tablets without turning to Google Play. 

Aptoide 

Many Android users choose Aptoide instead of the larger mobile app stores because of the ways it displays app listings. It’s highly attractive and easy to navigate store makes it an appealing alternative to the Google Play store. Moreover, if you are wondering how it accommodates your app in the app store, then you must know that Aptoide will remain just as broad as the other mobile app stores. It is home to various apps from different niches such as gaming, productivity apps, store apps and more. 

These are the few most popular mobile app stores that you can consider launching an app but the central question is how to release an app and how much does it cost to market your app?

Let’s find the answer…

How To Release an App Rightly?

No matter how brilliantly you have crafted your mobile app, your efforts will be in vain if not marketed rightly. So to avoid draining the efforts and distributing an app widely on multiple platforms to increase app downloads, startups made the mistake of putting an app in every available store.

To successfully market your app, you need to design your own mobile app strategy so that when consumers switch phones or operating systems, they will be more likely to take your app with them. Avoid placing barriers in between their entry or accessing the app store. 

Secondly, make sure you market your app in a way that even all the submissions in the world won’t be able to make your app discoverable. You need to optimize your app for search so consumers will always find it on the top listing. 

To achieve that, you can start with the name and description of the app. Next, think about the target audience who is probably accessing your app and accordingly include the keywords that best describe your app. 

To make your marketing strategy work well, make sure you fill out every field available on the app store you have chosen. In fact, some app stores allow you to attach tags to your app whereas others allow you to customize your description for better targeting. 

Lastly, optimize the thumbnail and images for the specific app stores. Some app stores recommend a specific image ratio to make your images render properly. Make sure the pixels won’t get scratched, as it will leave an unprofessional impact on the users.

Apart, most importantly, each app store has its own guidelines for promoting an app, therefore, it is required to hire an app development company that not only helps you create a wonderful app but also enables you to launch it successfully. The team of experts have all the expertise and industry knowledge that empower them to list an app without experiencing rejection.

Now the question is how much does it cost to market an app…and how does it take to upload an app on any operating system…

How Much Will It Cost To Market An App?

The average cost to promote an app on an app store can range from $50 monthly to $99 yearly whereas some are free to market an app. The cost of each app store is different depending upon the standard and maintenance of the app store. As far as the app launch time is concerned, you need to submit an app for approval to the app store. Depending upon the review process, the app store can approve it in less than 2 hours to takes a week to provide approval. But in case you’re submitting an app on an app store that follows strict guidelines like the Apple App store, then you need to be careful to avoid rejection.

How Can We Help You?

Developing your mobile app is just the beginning. To get successful in this overcrowded market, you need to keep track of the backend, promote it to the right mobile app store and need to make various adjustments to the technologies, screen design and more. At Alcax we take the guesswork out of the app development process and provide you with a cost-efficient way to release your app on the store and make it visible globally. Knowing the guidelines of each app store, our experts put extra effort into customizing the app for various online app stores and making sure that it will deliver the best user experience.

While there are plenty of alternative app stores, therefore it always becomes challenging for the startups to choose the right app store to market their app. There’s a lot of competition, and everyone wants to be successful. So you need to take an extra step to ensure your app is available to everyone on the app. That’s where Alxac can help you make a better choice and enables you to list an app that helps you generate more revenue.