How we source software

SoftHub is built to be transparent about where every file comes from and why some titles are mirrored on our own servers while others link straight to the publisher.

Mirrored downloads

We only host a copy of a file ourselves when both of these are true:

• The software is open-source or freeware, and its license or distribution terms permit redistribution — for example, apps from the F-Droid catalog, or official builds published by open-source Windows projects on GitHub Releases.
• The exact file we received from the publisher has passed an automated malware scan. Nothing we mirror is modified in any way — no repackaging, no bundled installers, no cracks, no mods, ever.

Link-out only

For paid, commercial, or otherwise unclear-license software, we never host the installer ourselves. The download button takes you directly to the official publisher's site. We do this even when a file is completely unmodified and clean, because redistribution rights are separate from a file being safe — only the publisher can grant those rights.

Automation, not manual curation

Most of the catalog is discovered and kept up to date automatically: Android apps sync from F-Droid's public repository, and Windows freeware is tracked from an admin-curated list of projects that publish official releases on GitHub. Nothing gets mirrored without passing the license check and the malware-scan gate described above.

Found something that shouldn't be here, or a link that's broken? See our DMCA / takedown page.