How we source software
MirrorNest is built to be transparent about why some titles are mirrored on our own servers while others link straight to the publisher — the deciding factor is always licensing, checked automatically against each listing's own published terms, never a manual guess.
At a glance
Open-source apps with redistribution rights are mirrored; anything closed-source or unclear links to its official listing.
Official open-source builds we've verified are mirrored; everything else, including apps only available as an install script, links to the publisher.
Genuinely open-source packages are mirrored; closed-source ones, and formats with no single downloadable file, link out or show an install command instead.
Every listing is sourced from Homebrew Cask and mirrored the same way — scanned for malware before publishing — with a one-line Homebrew install command offered alongside the download when we detect you're on a Mac.
Mirrored downloads
We only host a copy of a file ourselves when both of these are true:
- The software is open-source or freeware, and its own published license or distribution terms permit redistribution. This is checked automatically against each listing's real license metadata, not assumed.
- The exact file we received from the publisher has passed an automated malware scan. Nothing we mirror is modified in any way — no repackaging, no bundled installers, no cracks, no mods, ever.
Link-out only
For paid, commercial, or otherwise unclear-license software, we never host the installer ourselves. The download button takes you directly to the official publisher's site. We do this even when a file is completely unmodified and clean, because redistribution rights are separate from a file being safe — only the publisher can grant those rights.
Some Linux software has no single downloadable file the way a traditional installer does — it's installed straight from its own package repository instead. On a title like that, the product page shows a copyable install command rather than a download button when we can tell you're on Linux.
Some Windows software is only distributed as an install script rather than a redistributable installer — the actual binary is fetched by that script from wherever the publisher hosts it, not embedded in anything we could mirror. We link straight to the software's own project page in that case.
Found something that shouldn't be here, or a link that's broken? See our DMCA / takedown page.