Some exciting news from 2025, F-Droid was awarded $50,000 in funding from FLOSS fund, an initiative dedicated to supporting critical, impactful, and valuable Free/Libre and Open Source projects globally. This support comes when the project needs it most. Our volunteer-run app ecosystem is growing stronger with open source mobile tech now carrying more hope than ever, thanks to this kind of backing.

Some information about FLOSS/Fund

FLOSS Fund aims to donate up to $1 million annually to FLOSS projects worldwide with ‘no strings’ attached with the purpose of empowering developers and maintainers through financial resources to sustain and grow critical open-source ecosystems. Notable FOSS projects like Blender, FFmpeg, OpenStreetMap have gotten this support in the past and now F-Droid has too. The introduction of the funding.json standard, built on JSON, allows projects to add funding details in the codebase, making it easier for backers to navigate aid efforts. This streamlines donor support and quietly builds a stronger financial foundation across community-driven tech work.

How to apply for the Fund

If your app is on F-Droid you may qualify for FLOSS fund.

The fund is currently focused on supporting existing, widely used and impactful open source projects towards their long term sustainability. If your app has a meaningful user base, we encourage you to apply by:

Creating a funding.json file as directed here and add the manifest to your project’s repo

Submit the application via the portal FLOSS Fund

Await feedback - the FLOSS Fund team is very responsive to emails. Once accepted, they will reach out for paperwork i.e., residency tax documents and an agreement as required by Indian law. The disbursement is done once the documents are received.

Here is what the F-Droid project page looks like to see an example and here you can find the registry of other projects requesting funding. Please note, we are aware that there is an error message on the page and FLOSSFund is actively fixing the bug:)

How we will use the funds

This funding goes to support the work in maintaining F-Droid as a trusted source distributor of free and open-source Android apps. This means better systems, safety checks, and public involvement so F-Droid stays trustworthy, respects privacy, while offering a contrasting option compared to mainstream app centers.

Because of this support, we will be able to:

Move some key tasks forward like supporting core operations i.e., updating infrastructure, securing new features for better access to ad-free, community-built software reaching more users. In turn, bug fixes happen faster with larger goals taking shape through improved app reviews and faster updates hitting devices.

Working on supporting a new format called funding.json. This is a standard way for app creators to share information about how people can donate money to support their projects. Once this work is complete, F-Droid Server (the tooling we use to manage our app store) will be able to automatically collect donation information from app projects that have set up funding.json on their website. How we show donation information on our website and app won’t change. But app creators can also keep providing their donation information directly.

For 15 years now, F-Droid has striven to give people real power by giving them control over their devices through trusted and verifiable open source software/apps. Because of support like this, the project’s sustainability is reinforced, allowing innovative ideas that benefit the community; users, developers, etc.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to the FLOSS fund team for their belief in our mission.