App discovery services are an easy way for mobile users to find popular apps that are temporarily free. Not only does this help users find cool new apps, it helps app developers to get noticed and increase their chances of gathering revenue when their app goes back to regular price. Unfortunately for iPhone and iPad users, however, Apple (News – Alert) doesn’t seem too keen on allowing app discovery services any longer, based on the recent removal of AppGratis from the App Store.

There is a way to circumvent Apple’s strict App Store rules, though, with Tekiki.

As it is based on HTML5, Tekiki allows iOS device users to discover temporarily free apps from their Web browser — outside of Apple’s reach. As such, finding free apps is as easy as heading to the Tekiki website from an iPhone (News – Alert) or iPad.

This is a particularly useful tip for former AppGratis users who have been left high and dry since April, when the app was not only removed from the App Store, but also had its push notifications disabled. As such, the service can no longer gain new users, while current users might miss out on deals without instant notifications. Officially, AppGratis was removed from the App Store for third-party app promotion and using push notification for direct marketing.

According to Lifehacker, Tekiki’s interface isn’t quite up to par with that of an app from the App Store — it actually doesn’t properly fit the iPhone 5’s screen size, for example — but it is perfectly serviceable. The homepage, of course, displays the most popular discounted apps, but the ability to filter by rating and genre helps in finding more obscure apps. Since apps are also sorted by popularity within each category, it’s pretty likely that the better ones will float to the top.

Lifehacker also suggests adding Tekiki as a bookmark to your homescreen to get rid of Safari’s address bar, making it seem more like a real app.