Flathub
Ranked 6 of 10 app stores by recommenders
Recommended as a central Linux app store with a large catalogue and clear permission warnings; the main caveat is limited review, with critics doubting its safety.
14 people recommended Flathub in Hacker News comments, 5 had mixed feelings and 13 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026.
Summary written by Claude from 29 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 28 of those comments still count.
32 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 14
- mixed feelings
- 5
- warn against or regret it
- 13
The record
Recommended in 9 of 12 months
In 17 different threads.
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1 recommender for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 9 of 12 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
- Recommended in 17 threadsNeeds 5 or more, met.
- The biggest thread supplies 7% of its recommendersNeeds half or less, met.
The same rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. Mixed feelings count toward neither side. How the badge works
What people say about it
Reasons grouped from a sample of 27 of the 36 opinions about it, picked in proportion to how many people recommend it, have mixed feelings and criticize it. Each mark is one comment in the sample. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Large catalogue beyond distro repos
“The Debian, Ubuntu, and even Fedora repos are very large and include all the software you could ever want. And then flathub takes the rest.”
Comment from 22 Jul 2026 in “LG to Ban Residential Proxies from Smart TV Apps” “You want direct to customer platforms (Snap, Flathub, etc”
Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client” Consistent reviewed apps across distros
“plus Flathub, are easily the most consistent”
Comment from 1 Nov 2025 in “Free software scares normal people” “Flathub's model is slightly better”
Comment from 29 Jul 2026 in “More AUR Malware” Works well on Fedora
“Make sure flathub is added instead of using the fedora flatpak source. Big difference.”
Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “OpenSUSE Kalpa” “Just use Flathub on Fedora for anything proprietary including codecs.”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “Fedora is now the default Linux recommendation, and Ubuntu did this to itself” Clear permission warnings and notices
“Flathub is very explicit and obnoxious about such unsafe permissions and can easily be modified by the user.”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “Problems with D-Bus on the Linux desktop” “The flathub website warnings are good”
Comment from 28 Aug 2026 in “Sovereign Tech Agency invests €500k in Flatpak”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Review process seems limited
“I thought Flathub has a review and approval process. Does it fall short in some fundamental way?”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “AUR Packages Compromised with Infostealer and Rootkit” “don't perform basic Flathub developer verification”
Comment from 28 Oct 2026 in “The Advantages of Mobile Linux over AOSP (LineageOS, CrDroid, GrapheneOS, etc.)” “Flathub only reviews the manifest.”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “AUR Packages Compromised with Infostealer and Rootkit” Malware and inconsistent policy fears
“Flatpak and Flathub terrify me, it's only a matter of time until malware appears.”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “AUR Packages Compromised with Infostealer and Rootkit” “The policy as it stands is contradictory with flathub practice”
Comment from 30 May 2026 in “Flathub prohibits AI-generated code” Apps and runtimes break often
“Flatpak and Flathub still break all the time”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Veracrypt Project Update”
Other app stores people recommend
The four most recommended other app stores, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Mixed | Criticize | Approval | Months | Had for | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F-Droid | 180 | 41 | 80 | 69% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Aurora Store | 43 | 15 | 16 | 73% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Apple App Store | 39 | 28 | 461 | 8% | 11 | — | — |
| Obtainium | 34 | 2 | 5 | 87% | 10 | — | Approved |
| FlathubThis page | 14 | 5 | 13 | 52% | 9 | — | — |
Also compared with Google Play and Droid-ify.
What people said
27 of the 36 opinions about it, picked in proportion to the three counts, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“don't perform basic Flathub developer verification”
“I'm going to feel a lot better about getting software from Flathub from now on.”
“you aren't allowed to use this permission on Flathub, only the blanket "all devices" permission”
“The flathub website warnings are good”
“Flathub's model is slightly better”
“The Debian, Ubuntu, and even Fedora repos are very large and include all the software you could ever want. And then flathub takes the rest.”
“they're basically saying they won't care about the laws until the authorities try to actively intervene and take down their repo”
“the linux phone could do many apps from FlatHub flawlessly with touch and everything”
“Flathub only reviews the manifest.”
“I thought Flathub has a review and approval process. Does it fall short in some fundamental way?”
“Flatpak and Flathub terrify me, it's only a matter of time until malware appears.”
“The policy as it stands is contradictory with flathub practice”
“The current wording seems terrible.”
“So yeah, that's pretty much hysteria at this point.”
“they're volunteers running a free service and simply want to keep flathub working long-term”
“Cool, another pointless middleman thinking they can control the universe.”
“The same applies to things like Flathub.”
“Just use Flathub on Fedora for anything proprietary including codecs.”
“Flatpak and Flathub still break all the time”
“It's just an app store like any other platform. Even the majority of games work without tweaking.”
“Flathub as a vendor-independent central app store with volunteer reviewers”
“Make sure flathub is added instead of using the fedora flatpak source. Big difference.”
“uses apps from flathub - that does not out work well with a 16GB eMMC”
“You want direct to customer platforms (Snap, Flathub, etc”
“Flathub doesn't merge Windows applications using the Wine runtime unless the submitter is also the upstream maintainer.”
“Flathub is very explicit and obnoxious about such unsafe permissions and can easily be modified by the user.”
“plus Flathub, are easily the most consistent”
Counts come from 1,791,911 Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, November 2025 to October 2026, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 2 Nov 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.