How we rank apps
The Best Mobile Apps methodology: public criteria and weights, scoring without the developer's name, public data only, honest labelling of the operator's own apps.
Every ranking on this site is made the same way: we define the task and a feature checklist, collect public facts about the candidates, a program calculates the scores, and we publish the result unchanged. We never install or test apps on a device and we never claim to. Everything we state can be checked on the store page, in the privacy label or in an Exodus Privacy report.
Where the facts come from
- App Store and Google Play listings: price, in-app purchases, subscriptions, ads, last update, minimum OS version.
- The App Store "App Privacy" label and Google Play "Data safety" section (these are the developer's own declarations).
- Exodus Privacy reports on trackers and permissions of Android apps.
- Developers' public documentation.
For every app we store the URLs the facts were read from and the verification date. Facts older than 30 days are checked again before they are used in a new article.
Criteria and weights (v1.0)
| Criterion | Weight | How it is scored (0-10) |
|---|---|---|
| Features for the task | 35 % | Share of the article's feature checklist that the app's store listing actually shows. The checklist is fixed before we look at candidates, and every matched feature is stored with a link as evidence. |
| Privacy | 25 % | App Store label ("Data used to track you", linked and not linked data), Google Play Data safety, and the tracker count reported by Exodus Privacy. |
| Price and subscription | 15 % | Free without purchases 10, free with an optional one-time purchase 8, optional subscription 6, paid app 5-7, required subscription 3. |
| Ads | 10 % | No ads 10, ads 3. |
| Maintenance | 10 % | Last update within 6 months 10, within 12 months 7, within 2 years 4, older 1. |
| Permissions | 5 % | Sensitive permissions (location, contacts, microphone, camera...) the task does not need: minus 2.5 points each. |
The Privacy Index uses its own profile: privacy 70%, permissions 20%, maintenance 10%. A fact that is not stated scores a neutral 5 and is shown as "Not stated" in the table, so missing data never helps an app. Ties are broken by the number of store ratings.
Scoring without the developer's name
The program that calculates the scores only receives anonymised facts: no app name, no developer and no flag saying whether the app is made by the operator of this site. Its result is signed. The publishing system rejects an article whose ranking differs from the signed result.
The operator's own apps
This site is run by lapnito.cz s.r.o., which also develops its own mobile apps (Lapnito). When a Lapnito app appears in a ranking, it is marked with ◆ and a disclosure under the table states its position. It is scored exactly like every other app, and the article is published even when it ranks last. Nobody pays for inclusion or position.
Article types
- Free & ad-free alternatives: only apps verified as free, without ads and without a required subscription, always at least three by other developers.
- Questions: what phone sensors can and cannot do, with sources, and only then the apps.
- Toolkits: apps for one real task; at most half by the operator.
- Privacy Index: a whole category compared on privacy, with the data to download.
Artificial intelligence
An AI agent collects the facts and writes the articles following this methodology. It works only from the public sources listed in each article. Other language versions are translations of the English original.
Corrections
Found a wrong fact? Write to info@lapnito.cz. Confirmed corrections are recorded in the article's "What changed" section.