Any alternative to the Mac App Store?

You don’t have to use the Mac App Store. There are plenty of low-quality products elsewhere too.

However, selling software on the internet is more difficult than it seems. You have to comply with tax, privacy, and consumer laws all over the world. There are even some payment providers like Paddle or Fastpring that handle most of that for you. But you will need to setup your own infrastructure to handle payments, licensing, etc.

Due to my own poor choice of projects, I sell in both the Mac App Store and directly. Direct sales are a royal pain. My goal is to be 100% in Apple’s App Stores. Then, all I have to worry about is my app. Apple handles virtually everything else.

What john daniel said plus…

At a technical level, you can find info about building an app for distribution outside of the Mac App Store on our Signing Mac Software with Developer ID page.

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What do you think about MacEggs.com ?

There's no rule to that and no other store-fronts, really, but developers who (also) sell off the Mac App Store usually use services of either FastSpring or Paddle, as John said above, to run their stores. We've been using FastSpring since 2009 (so before the Mac App Store even opened). It does require work on your end to set these stores up, both in the applications (license checking for example) and on web site. If you also sell on the Mac App Store, this means you have to build two separate versions. It's doable and not hard on Xcode but again, additional work.

There are benefits to selling outside the Mac App Store (you have emails of your customers, lower commissions, can participate in sales outside the app store, can let people try your app or have a different trial mechanism, can sell apps that are not allowed on the Mac App Store and have a backup solution in case Apple decides not allow your app in the store for any reason).

There are also some web site that list apps that are not on the Mac App Store, like macupdate.com (probably the largest of them), so that's an additional way to get discovered.

What do you think about MacEggs.com ? 

Never heard of it until you mentioned it. They seem to be trying to capitalize on comments about Apple developer platforms that are popular on social media right now.

All I can tell you is to make sure to do good research before entering into any legal agreement. Make sure you know what your rights and responsibilities are. Make sure you know who, specifically, you are entering into an agreement with. Do they have a good reputation? What other apps are using them? How does the licensing work? Who, ultimately, has control over your software and your customers? What sort of infrastructure will you need?

Pay particular attention to your responsibilities for sales tax/VAT, privacy regulations, and consumer law. In many jurisdictions, these laws are applicable based on where the customer is located, not where the vendor is located. And who are you, specifically, in that relationship? Are you really the vendor? Or are you, as a developer, something else in some kind of grey area in between?

If you use Apple, then you have a lot of institutional support and legal recognition. By that I mean you can tell your accountant, your lawyer, and you government tax agency that your business is selling software through Apple's App Stores and they will understand and know how to deal with it. If you do something else, then make sure to consult with your accountant and lawyer first so that they know what you are doing and can tell you exactly how you need to manage the taxation and legal issues.

I’ve never really released a full app, but as a consumer perspective, I think putting it on MAS is the best.

Don’t expect for people to find you so in MAS as there are too many low quality apps, but clicking the MAS link and installing it is much less friction than downloading a .dmg/.zip and moving files manually or installing a .pkg.

My advice is to makes a pretty static site with feature explanations and a big button to the MAS.

Your choice may depend on several factors:

• Is it a specific app for a well defined group of users ?

• Do you target international sales or essentially your own country ?

• What is the business model (price, subscription, …)

• What are your target volumes of sales ?

If you answer specific / own country / high price / low-medium volumes
you could even consider direct sales

If any answer is different, I feel AppStore is the best way to go.

Note that within or without Appstore, you'll have to promote your app. And that may be the most complex and expensive part.