Disclaimer: We don’t recommend Installous or any other Installous alternatives in any manner to Install .IPA files. Developers put a lot of effort to create apps and what’s a dollar or two to spend on buying these apps? The only reason we post on these alternatives is to help users try out costly apps before they decide to purchase it. Under no circumstances should this be misconstrued as supporting piracy or piracy-related apps.

Aside from discussions on cracking piracy, which is an entire topic of its own, the immediate thing that happens after a crippling news is people go looking for alternative solutions. Installous is gone and by now, your vocabulary is quite rich with the names of alternative of Installous which promise the same features.

The official website of Hackulo.us, the team that created and managed Installous, Crackulous and AppSync for several years states:

We are very sad to announce that Hackulous is shutting down. After many years, our community has become stagnant and our forums are a bit of a ghost town. It has become difficult to keep them online and well-moderated, despite the devotion of our staff. We’re incredibly thankful for the support we’ve had over the years and hope that new, greater communities blossom out of our absence.

Why did Installous come to an end?
The answer to that question is anyone’s guess and some of the folks are talking about piracy issues and stuff but I think that’s not it. That’s just not it. Installous has been having a lot of issues lately. iOS 6 compatibility has taken a big hit this year and the emergence of alternatives like AppCake+ and vShare have proved kind of disturbing.

Installous had a great run even till yesterday. For folks who’ve come to depend on the app, the news is a big blow. Now, it’s back to square one.

Installous Alternatives
Without a doubt, every user is now looking for alternative solutions. From SSH-ing into your iPhone to install ipa and deb files to getting a good solution like i-Funbox, there are ways out of this mess, of course.

1. AppCake stands out from the crowd right now. The reason is you don’t need AppSync for AppCake to run. Most other alternatives require something like AppSync to be running on your iPhone/iPad to get the downloaded IPA files installed and run.
2. vShare is a viable option and we’ve taken a look at it. Interestingly though, people who have already installed AppSync on their iDevices are in luck: you’ll have vShare run smoothly. For the rest, you’ll need to find AppSync from other third-party sources. We’re trying to find AppSync alternatives too and we’ll get back soon with that list.
3. i-Funbox remains a worthy alternative but then again, you’ll need AppSync alternatives right now.
4. iFile+SSH into the applications directory is an alternative for those willing to get a little deeper into muddy waters of SSH.