Raccoon vs. Webservices

A number of websites and webservices exist that promise to download APK files from Google Play. This page contains lists advantages and disadvantages of choosing such a webservice over Raccoon.

Advantages of using Webservices

• No software installation required on your desktop computer.
• Your IP address is (likely) completely hidden from Google, providing you greater privacy.
• No need to create a Google account yourself, providing you with greater privacy.

Disadvantages of using Webservices

• Google Play enforces a download quota for the number of apps that can be downloaded per day per account. All users of the webservice share this quota.
• Apps go unorganized to your webbrowser's Downloadfolder. There is no way of automatically fetching updates.
• Because of the quota, webservices tend to cache APK files, resulting in delays in delivering updates.
• Not possible to download paid apps at all since you cannot use your own account.
• Not possible to download large Apps (50MB+) as Google requires these to be split into several files.
• No way of performing a batch download.
• No way of verifying if the downloaded APK file has been tampered with.