Publishing FAQs

Common publishing questions

How can I distribute my Adalo Apps on a free plan?

On the free plan, you can publish Web Apps, using the Adalo Subdomain. Click on the Share option on the menu bar or in the Publish section of the left panel.

To learn more about Web app publishing on a Free plan & Adalo Subdomains, please go to the Publishing Web Apps section.

Can I publish an App on a Trial Plan?

You are not able to publish an app using a Custom Domain or in the Play/App Stores on a Trial Plan.

What happens to my published app if I downgrade my plan?

If you downgrade your plan to Free, any published apps will no longer be marked "Published" in the App Stores or on a Custom Domain and all Actions will fail.

What is an AAB file?

Starting August 2021, new apps are required to publish with the Android App Bundle (AAB) on Google Play.

The Android App Bundle is the publishing format on Google Play. Publishing using app bundles helps to reduce the size of your app, simplify releases, and enable advanced distribution features.

You can read more in the Google Help Doc | App Bundle Features & Benefits

Can I download a signed APK from Adalo for direct distribution outside the Play Store?

At this time, Adalo does not provide a ready-to-distribute signed APK for apps published through our platform. This is due to the way Google has structured Android app publishing, not a limitation unique to Adalo.

Since 2021, Google has required all new apps submitted to the Play Store to use the Android App Bundle (AAB) format instead of APKs. When you publish your app through Adalo, we generate the AAB for you to upload to your Google Play Listing.

Why doesn’t Adalo just give me a signed APK?

While we do not create the APK directly, you are able to download it directly from the Google Dev Console using the App Bundle Explorer after publishing the AAB file downloaded from the Adalo Builder. We made this help doc to walk you through the process!

What if I want to distribute my app outside of Google Play?

We understand that some makers need to distribute apps via direct download or alternative app stores. Supporting this would require a separate publishing flow where you bring your own signing key and take full control of the release process. This is not currently on our roadmap.

Read more about this in the Google Help Docs | Inspecting app versions with App Bundle Explorer