A new version of AltStore — AltStore PAL — has launched as an Apple-approved alternative app marketplace in the European Union.
It’s an open-source app store made specifically for independent developers. Europeans running iOS 17.4 or later can now install AltStore PAL directly from the AltStore website. It debuts with two apps: the Nintendo emulator Delta and the clipboard manger Clip.
Unlike the App Store, all apps on AltStore are self-hosted. Once an app has been notarized by Apple, developers can download the processed “alternative distribution packet” (ADP) and upload it to their own server. To then distribute with AltStore, a developer just needs to create a “source” — which is just a JSON file containing basic app metadata uploaded to a public URL. Users must then add this source to their AltStore, after which all apps from that source will automatically appear for them to download.
