Despite being more than a year old, the HTC One M8 is still a great phone with an okay camera and a great build quality. In fact, the handset is clearly superior to its successor in many departments, including battery life, performance under load and display quality.

While HTC has been regularly updating the handset with firmware updates, it is likely that many One M8 users would have gotten bored with Sense UI by now and are looking for a change. Thankfully, the One M8 is a very popular phone in the Android community, which means that there is no death of custom ROMs for it. Plus, unlike Samsung devices, unlocking the boot loader and rooting the One M8 is a relatively easy process, and users can always flash back to stock Android, if they ever need to claim an in-warranty repair.

So, if you are looking for a custom ROM for your HTC One M8, check out our top 5 recommendations below.

Note: Installing the custom ROMs below will require that your One M8 has an unlocked bootloader, root access, and in certain cases S-OFF as well.

InsertCoin

If you like Sense, have a look at the InsertCoin ROM for the HTC One M8 from developer baadnewz. The ROM is based on Android 5.0 Lollipop and Sense 7, and is among the most customisable Sense based ROMs available for HTC’s 2014 flagship.

The ROM comes with a central hub for themes called InsertCoin Themes, from where you can install Sense based themes on the handset. Similarly, it has InsertCoin Kontrol to allow you to easily manage and play around with the customisation options offered in the ROM.

Since the ROM itself is huge, the developer has also setup an svn that makes it possible to create ZIP update files for the ROM by only downloading the files that have been modified or changed in anyway.

Download: InsertCoin

Stock M8 GPE

Samsung may have ditched the Google Play edition program after releasing the Galaxy S4, but HTC continued with it even in 2014 and released a GPe One M8. While the handset is not available for sale now, its ROM can easily be flashed on the regular Sense variant of the One M8 easily.

Since the Google Play edition ROM comes straight from HTC and Google, it is as stable and smooth as Sense is on the M8.

You can also completely convert your Sense running One M8 to the Google Play edition variant, which will allow you to receive OTA updates straight from Google as well. However, the process is slightly complex and is not really recommended if you are not familiar with how the modding scene of an HTC device works.

Download: One M8 Stock Google Play edition ROM

LeeDrOiD One M8

In case the InsertCoin ROM for the One M8 did not catch your fancy, have a look at LeeDrOiD’s Sense 7 based ROM for the handset. Features wise, the ROM is similar to InsertCoin, and packs in a plethora of options including Ambient Display, Advanced Power Menu, audio drivers from the Harman Kardon One M8, and more.

There are also a bunch of themes that further customise the look of the ROM. The Aroma installer of the ROM makes sure that you only install the features that you want to and don’t end up with unwanted and unneeded features on your device.

Download: LeeDrOiD

SkyDragon

SkyDragon’s ROM for the One M8 is based on Android 5.0.2 and Sense 7. It was among the first Sense 7 ROMs to be released for the handset, and since then the developer has improved it further with regular updates. Additionally, he has also included a custom kernel for better battery life and performance.

SkyDragon might be low on features and customisations compared to other Sense based ROMs for the One M8, but if you want a ROM that is extremely stable and only need to update once in a few months, it is your best option.

The ROM works with GSM as well as CDMA variants of the One M8, and even includes Wi-Fi calling for T-Mobile customers in the United States.

Download: Skydragon Sense 7 ROM

M8 GPE

If the stock Google Play edition ROM is a bit too simple for you, have a look at the M8 GPE ROM from developer loserskater. Based on the very latest version of the GPE ROM — Android 5.1 as of this article — the ROM packs in features like Apps Ops, expandable volume panel, a dark material theme, the ability to change the DPI, and more.

If you want a stable and stock Android experience on your M8, but with more customisations baked in, the M8 GPE ROM is what you should consider flashing on it. The only bummer is that the ROM is based on Android 5.0.1, and not on the very latest build of Lollipop — Android 5.1.

Download: M8 GPE

Others

S.ROM: This is a complete port of the One M9 ROM for the One M8. Since other ROMs for the One M8 are already based on Sense 7, there are only a handful of extra features that this ROM packs. This includes JBL LiveStage, support for Chinese locale, and more.

ViperOneM8: If you want the ultimate customisation option on a Sense based ROM, look no further than ViperOneM8. The ROM offers a plethora of customisations options that are unrivalled by other custom ROMs. However, it is also the only Sense based ROM in this list to not come with Sense 7.

The stock ROM on the One M8 is by no means bad, but if you want more features and customisations options, the above custom ROMs are the one that you should be using on your handset.

Which custom ROM do you use on your HTC One M8? Or are you still using the stock ROM? Drop in a comment and let us know!