Systems and methods allow a user to select one or more applications that are intended to be downloaded to a device (e.g., phone, tablet, PC) and create an emulation environment for testing aspects of the one or more applications prior to download. The emulation environment can be virtual (via emulation or virtual machine) or instrumented by remotely controlling actual hardware. Metrics collected from the emulation environment can include security and usability related aspects of the applications. Interaction between the applications themselves, the applications and other resources, and the user and the applications (e.g., configuration preferences, usage patterns) can be monitored by systems facilitating hosting of the emulation environment. For example, collected metrics can be used to create a measure for security, reputation, user-preference, etc. regarding the applications. Metrics can be shared amongst other potential users to assist in their purchase or usage of the applications.