If you have been reading about LiveContainer and SideStore, you have found the current free meta for unlimited sideloading on iPhone: no computer after setup, and a way around Apple’s three-app limit. It genuinely works. It is also a multi-part setup with a weekly chore attached. Here is what each piece does, how the free stack fits together, and where the simpler path is.
The pieces: SideStore, LocalDevVPN, and LiveContainer
SideStore is a fork of AltStore that does not need AltServer running on a PC. It signs and installs apps on-device. To refresh those apps wirelessly it relies on a local VPN trick.
LocalDevVPN is that trick — a small on-device VPN that spoofs the connection SideStore expects from an AltServer, so refreshes happen over Wi-Fi instead of a cable.
LiveContainer is the clever part. A free Apple ID can only sideload three apps at once. LiveContainer is a single app that runs other apps inside it, so they do not each need their own slot or signature — only LiveContainer is signed, and everything you load into it rides along. That is how people run ten or twenty sideloaded apps on a free account.
How the free setup works
The usual route is the bundled build — a version of LiveContainer with SideStore baked in. You sideload that bundle once (using a loader and your free Apple ID), install LocalDevVPN from the App Store, point SideStore at it for wireless refresh, and then add apps into LiveContainer from there. Done carefully, you end up with a phone full of sideloaded apps and no cable in sight.
The catch: the 7-day refresh still applies
A free developer certificate is valid for seven days. When LiveContainer’s certificate expires, nothing inside it launches until you refresh — open SideStore, find LiveContainer, and re-sign it before the timer runs out. Miss the window and you re-do part of the setup. The VPN can also drop and need re-enabling. It is powerful, but it is maintenance, and it is a lot of moving parts to keep aligned.
The simpler path: builds.io
builds.io gets you to the same place — many apps the App Store will not carry, on a normal iPhone — without the stack. There is no LiveContainer to juggle, no three-app math, no VPN to configure, and no seven-day refresh. You open an app page, tap GET, and install. The builds stay signed, so they keep working instead of expiring on a weekly timer.
The first time you add your device, most iPhones are ready within a day; some take up to three days while Apple processes the device on the signing certificate. That happens once. After that, every install is one tap and stays put.
Weighing the options? Our breakdown of AltStore vs SideStore vs LiveContainer compares each free method side by side.
