Uptodown launches its Transparency Center to debunk myths about the safety of independent app stores

The platform is publishing real metrics that demonstrate security, quality-control, and governance processes on par with major app stores.

• Uptodown processes and updates security information of over 42,000 files per day through the VirusTotal service. About 6.5% show at least one alert from the antivirus engines used in the analysis.
• Thirty percent of the files submitted by registered developers never reach publication because they fail to meet the platform's security and quality policies.
• Uptodown's infrastructure currently handles 1,600 TB of stored data and delivers more than 10 petabytes of bandwidth each month.

Málaga, January 27, 2026 - Uptodown, one of the world's largest independent app-distribution platforms, has launched its new Transparency Center, a public hub offering unprecedented visibility into its internal processes of security, quality control, community management, and governance. The initiative aims to challenge the dominant narrative that independent app stores operate with lower security standards, using open, regularly updated data to prove otherwise.
Challenging the "alternative store" myth

App stores not operated by major platforms have long been viewed as less secure or rigorous. Uptodown addresses this perception with verifiable data. "[...] There's a persistent myth that app stores outside the major gatekeepers compromise security and quality control. The Transparency Center uses real data to prove this narrative false [...]", says Luis Hernández, CEO and co-founder of Uptodown.

The Center reveals that Uptodown processes more than 24,000 files per day and requests over 43,000 VirusTotal reports daily, an operational scale comparable to leading distribution platforms. In the most recent reporting period (from December 20, 2025, to January 10, 2026), more than 2 million files were analyzed in a single month.

Security is one of the core pillars of the Transparency Center. Every file published on Uptodown goes through a multi-layered review system:

• Universal VirusTotal scanning, integrating more than 75 antivirus engines.
◦ 2,293,035 unique files analyzed in the most recent 30-day period.
◦ 94.5% of files showed no detections.
◦ Only 0.85% showed four or more detections and were subjected to an in-depth manual review.
• Human editorial review, essential for identifying false positives and assessing the real legitimacy of each app.
• Large-scale infrastructure, with over 1,600 TB of stored data and roughly 3 TB of new files processed daily, delivering more than 10 PB (1 PB = 1,024 TB) of bandwidth each month.

QUALITY CONTROL AND PROTECTION OF THE DEVELOPER ECOSYSTEM

The Transparency Center also details how Uptodown actively filters its catalog to protect both users and legitimate developers:
• 197,591 registered developers, with thousands of new sign-ups each month.
• In the last reviewed cycle, 1,407 out of 3,462 submitted apps were rejected.
• 60.84% of rejections were due to failing to meet minimum quality standards.
These figures show that the platform is not a passive repository but a curated and supervised ecosystem.

PUBLIC METRICS ACROSS FIVE KEY AREAS

The Transparency Center publishes monthly, accessible data on:
1. Threat control: file analysis, detections, and security criteria.
2. Quality and developers: sign-ups, submissions, rejections, and reasons.
3. Publishing and catalog:
◦ 328,099 unique apps
◦ More than 4.3 million published files
4. Legal and governance: content-removal requests and regulatory compliance.
5. Community:
◦ 47.8 million registered users
◦ Activity in ratings, comments, and moderation. Twenty-one percent of user interactions are not published because they fail to meet community guidelines.
This level of openness is uncommon even among the most established app stores.

TRANSPARENCY AS A STRATEGIC POSITION

For Uptodown, transparency is not a one-off initiative but a product and policy stance. "[...] Closed ecosystems are often presented as the only path to security, but incidents on major platforms show that opacity is not the same as protection. Our approach proves that openness, security, and rigor can coexist [...]", Hernández explains. He also challenges the industry's terminology: "[...] Continuing to call these platforms 'alternative' or 'third-party' reinforces the idea that only platform owners should act as software gatekeepers. A healthy ecosystem requires separating ownership from distribution [...]".
A long-term commitment

In addition to providing extensive, daily-reviewed data, the Transparency Center is fully updated monthly and maintains accessible historical reports, allowing users, developers, and journalists to track the platform's evolution and verify its data over time.

LINKS

- Transparency Center: https://en.uptodown.com/about-us/stats
- Press Release: https://blog.en.uptodown.com/uptodown-transparency-center-press-release
- Uptodown Website: https://en.uptodown.com

Avenida Andalucia 31, Planta Ent. Puerta Of 4 Málaga, Andalucia 29006 Spain

Uptodown is an international platform for digital app distribution specializing in Android, established in 2002 and based in Malaga (Spain). This alternative and completely independent app store is based on the principle of respecting the user's privacy, not requiring user registration and allowing users to download software both from our own official app and through our website. We offer a catalog of over 320,000 apps with more than 4 million files, divided into thematic categories and hosted on our own servers. Each app comes accompanied by an informational description prepared by our own team of editors and complemented by our users' opinions. Available in seventeen languages, we currently have 100 million active users worldwide and facilitate more than 450 million downloads each month. More than 190,000 developers already rely on the platform to distribute their products.

This release was published on openPR.