Bluestacks is one of the best Android emulators for PC.
But, there’s a glitch:
This amazing emulator which was once available for free is now a paid software with monthly recurring payments.
Or, if you don’t want to pay, you’ve to install their sponsored apps in the emulator.
Installing Sponsored Apps can harm you in two ways:
- Increase Bloatware making the software heavier (which is already a high power consumer).
- Some malware-type apps may spy on you and the information you enter in the device.
So, if you don’t want like Bluestacks for any reason, I’ll talk about some better Bluestacks Alternatives in this post.
So, let’s get into the 6 Bluestacks Alternatives which can better run your favourite Android Apps on PC:
1. AMIDuOS
AMIDuOS is one of the fastest Android Emulators of all!
As it’s a complete Android OS, AMIDuOS gives you the full freedom of installing and enjoying any and all the apps from the PlayStore. There’s virtually no limit on its usage.
Another of its impressive feature is that it also includes the Amazon App Store, i.e. you can even install and run apps from the Amazon App Store and enjoy them!
Switching between Windows OS and Android is really super-easy. No dual boots are required. You can switch your running Android device with a single click.
AMIDuOS is a fully featured Android in the real sense. Just like a real Android, it supports multi-finger gestures, multi-touch, consists of sensors, microphone support and much more.
Although, it’s not free.
The Lite version costs you $10 and the Pro version, $15. It’s priced low offering you so many amazing features!
Notable features of AMIDuOS:
- No dual-boot. Seamless switching between Windows and Android: This is one of the most productive features as you don’t have to keep restarting your PC just to switch between the 2 Operating Systems. With just a single click, you’ll then land into your booted Android device.
- Full Android Experience: It’s the real Android phone running on Windows hardware! It’s simply that same Android phone brought to you in a larger screen, with more power and virtually no limitations at all!
- Application Compatibility: AMIDuOS can run almost every Android app from Play Store. To help you get started, it also comes preloaded with the Amazon App Store. It is ARM v7 compatible, which can run all your popular ARM apps as well.
- Performance: There’s a lot with AMIDuOS on board. It supports 3D, to give you a seamless Android gaming experience on a large screen. What’s better is that it uses Windows’ OpenGL drivers to improve the FPS of the games. Along with gaming, it’s carefully crafted to give you the best battery life as well!
- Hardware and Sensor support: AMIDuOS leverages Windows’ device drivers to enable the native Android performance on Windows hardware. It supports your attached cameras, microphone, audio and sensors like Ambient Like, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Compass, and Orientation, giving you a real Android experience.
- Storage and Sharing: It completely integrates with Windows. With AMIDuOS, you can share and save files between Windows and Android easily.
This all makes AMIDuOS the best Android Emulator of all!
If you’re on a budget and are thinking of going for Bluestacks, you should give a shot to AMIDuOS trial version.
Price – $10 for Lite version, $15 for Pro version
2. Andyroid – Andy OS
When it comes to the free Android Emulators, Andyroid beats them all.
Andyroid, also known as Andy OS, is the modern generation’s Android emulator for PC specifically designed to take your Android experience to the next level.
Andy is simply a Windows software application, that consists of an Android client to get your Android running on Windows.
The only glitch with Andy is, it is resource intensive, i.e. you’ll need a PC with high and powerful configuration or else, you’ll spend more time waiting for it rather than using it.
If you’re with a stable and better PC config, Andy comes with some amazing power built-in.
Notable Features of Andy:
- Desktop Push Notifications: This is one of the best features of Andy. Andy seamlessly integrates with Windows and all your Android notifications will turn into Desktop notifications (Andy will run in the background) to notify you even when you’ll close the emulator.
- Cloud Saving: Andy supports Cloud Saving from Android to help you save your important files right to the cloud and access them from any device in future.
- Xbox/PS controller support: Andy integrates with your XBox and PlayStation Joysticks. So, with those controllers, you can control the games and applications running in your Andy on PC!
- Sensors support: Andy supports all the sensors that you’ve in an Android. This makes it feel like you’re using a real Android on a bigger screen!
- x86 native apps and ARM support: With Andy, you can run all your .apk and favourite ARM files right from it.
Price – Free
3. Genymotion
Genymotion is specifically built for developers.
It’s a complete Android apps testing environment with some advanced collaboration and tools for developers to build and test better Android apps.
Although, this doesn’t mean that you can’t use it to run your favourite Android apps.
As it is built for developers, it’s built with special care. All the factors like speed, ease of use, reliability, power, performance, features are taken into consideration and the product that’s built out of these is – Genymotion.
So, you can easily rely on Genymotion without having to bother about it running slow or lagging.
It’s built to develop and test rigorous and powerful apps. So, Genymotion is itself a powerhouse that can tolerate the testing and running of some memory and power consuming apps.
Notable features of Genymotion:
- Access to All Android version: With Genymotion, you have the flexibility to install any Android version easily with a click.
- Emulation of more than 40 devices: Genymotion can completely mimic over 40 devices. So, if you want Nexus 7 on your PC, you can easily install it with a click.
- Plugin/Testing Tools: Although this is for developers, Genymotion is compatible with Android SDK Tools, Android Studio, and Eclipse.
- Unlimited Screencasts: With Genymotion, you can take unlimited screenshots and screencasts and save it on your PC without any special app. It’s already built-in!
- Comprehensive App Support: Genymotion supports any and every APK files to run easily on it. So, next time when you have a custom apk file to install on your Android emulator, Genymotion is ready to your rescue.
Price – Free (for personal use)
4. Droid4X
Droid4X is another Android emulator that provides some amazing features overall, being lightweight and less power consumer.
It’s more of an Android simulator, which when installed and run on PC can be controlled from your mobile devices as well!
So, this makes your favourite Car Racing and other games a truly real experience.
Notable Features of Droid4X:
- Powerful Performance: With the same hardware config, their tests have revealed that Android kernel and graphics rendering along with the overall performance of the device in VT Enabled Environment is 50% more than other similar simulators!
- Compatibility: Droid4X supports ARM applications running in the x86 environment making almost every Android app work on it.
- Controllability: Droid4X simulator supports multi-touch, taking your gaming experience to the whole new level!
Price – Free
5. Windroy
Windroy is a lightweight freeware coming from Chinese developers that completely portraits an Android device giving you almost a full Android experience.
The advantage of it being lightweight in size is, it’s simple in design and functionality and requires less power consumption.
Although, not a full Android, Windroy does a good job at characterizing almost all the features of an Android.
It supports both windowed and a full-screen mode so that you can enjoy your Android experience at a larger screen level.
One of the advantages of Windroy is, it integrates well into Windows and supports Windows applications like Flash.
It’s specifically made for developers to test their Android apps, although there are no restrictions on using it for personal use.
Price – Free
6. YouWave
YouWave is a tablet styled Android emulator.
Tablet-styled meaning, it launches an exact Android sized emulation with the UI completely same as that of Android.
The main motive of this is, to make you feel you’re using a real Android phone.
Although trying to depict a complete Android phone, Youwave lags behind in many of the fields.
Youwave looks like a software designed years ago. The layout outside of the emulator is difficult to understand in the first time itself. You’ll get acquainted with it as you start using it.
Also, it’s a bit laggy when used on not-so-high PC config. So, YouWave needs your PC to be of better configuration.
About its features, it is an exact replica of Android with all the Android features and a LAN / WAN connection so that you can use PC’s internet in YouWave.
Price – Free (Android v4.0); $30 (android v5.1)
Best Bluestacks Alternatives:
- AMIDuOS
- Andyroid
- Genymotion
- Droid4X
Conclusion
Except these 6, there are many other Android emulators which can be a replacement of Bluestacks. But, when it comes to some serious Bluestacks alternatives, these 6 provides some real, powerful performance!
After having tried all these 6 emulators myself, I personally like AMIDuOS very much and recommend it to anyone who has some budget reserved for paying for Android emulator.
If you’re looking for the best free Bluestacks alternatives, Andy is the one which I like the most. Genymotion and Droid4X are also other emulators with some serious power and performance.
Know of any other better Bluestacks alternative? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
