The best ASO tools for indie iOS developers in 2026
Nine keyword-tracking and App Store optimization tools, compared on what actually matters at indie scale: what the free tier really includes, what you pay once you outgrow it, and whether the tool can be run by an AI agent instead of only by hand. One of the nine, ASOHawk, is built by the person who runs this site; see how we handle that below.
✓Reviewed and re-checked against each vendor's own pricing page, July 2026.
Comparing nine ASO tools means starting from the same public pricing pages everyone else can see, not from a sales call.
Quick answer
If you want an AI agent to run your ASO end-to-end and don't want to pay AppTweak or Sensor Tower prices, ASOHawk is the strongest fit: free to start, $9/mo for 10 apps once you outgrow it, and the only tool here an agent like Claude or Cursor can operate directly. If you just want to track keywords by hand on a Mac for a flat fee, Astro at $9/mo for unlimited keywords and apps is the strongest alternative. (Disclosure: we built ASOHawk.)
Search “best ASO tool” and most of what comes back is either a listicle written by one of the tools being ranked, or an affiliate roundup that never mentions a downside. Neither is much use if you're a solo developer trying to work out whether $9/mo or $79/mo is the right amount to spend on keyword tracking.
This list ranks 9 tools an indie iOS developer would actually run into while researching ASO software: AppTweak, Astro, Appfigures, Sensor Tower, MobileAction, Asodesk, App Radar, ASOMobile, and ASOHawk, the tool one of us builds. We priced each one from its own current pricing page, not a reseller, and say so wherever a vendor doesn't publish a number.
The scorecard
#
Tool
Starting price
Keywords tracked
Apps
Free tier
AI agent
Best for
1
ASOHawk
Free
30–300 / app
2–30
Yes – no card
Yes – MCP
Solo devs who want an AI agent to run ASO
2
Astro
$9/mo
Unlimited
Unlimited
No – trial + refund
No
Mac-based devs doing manual keyword research
3
Appfigures
$9.99/mo
25–2,500
5 (+$1.99/app)
Limited (after trial)
No
Devs who also want revenue/download analytics
4
ASOMobile
Free
20–6,000
2–100
Yes – no card
No
Devs who want a free plan with room to grow
5
Asodesk
$47/mo
700–5,000
2–30
No – trial only
No
One app that needs deep keyword coverage
6
MobileAction
$15/mo
100–1,500+
5–20
No – 7-day trial
No
Growth-stage devs past the solo/indie budget
7
App Radar
€69/mo
500–3,000
2–15
No – trial needs a card
No
Small teams wanting AI-assisted review replies
8
AppTweak
€79/mo
500–3,000
5–15
No – demo only
No
Funded teams needing long ranking history
9
Sensor Tower
$25k+/yr
Custom
Custom
No self-serve
No
Public companies, investors, market research
Starting prices are the lowest published self-serve tier as of July 2026, in the vendor's own listed currency. €/$ conversions in the write-ups below are approximate.
The full write-ups, in order
FREE – $29/MO
#1
ASOHawk
AGENT-FIRST PICK
Disclosure up front: ASOHawk is built by the person who runs this site, labelled in-house everywhere it appears, and scored against the same public criteria as every tool below. It tracks keyword rankings, App Store visibility and competitor moves, then lets an AI agent (yours, over MCP, not a bundled chatbot) propose metadata and keyword changes that a human has to approve before anything ships.
Official product image, sourced directly from asohawk.cc.
Strengths
Free plan needs no card: 2 apps, 30 tracked keywords each, built entirely on public App Store data.
The only tool on this list built to be run by your own AI agent (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor) over MCP – it proposes metadata and keyword changes, you approve them before anything ships.
Indie plan is $9/mo for 10 apps and 100 keywords each, cheaper than every paid competitor here except Astro.
Watch-outs
iOS only, no Android or Google Play support.
Launched in July 2026, so it doesn't have the years of historical ranking data that AppTweak or Sensor Tower have built up.
Some advanced modules (long-run historical charts, deep multi-year competitor archives) are thinner than what 8-plus-year-old tools on this list offer.
Best for: Solo developers and small teams who want the keyword and metadata busywork run by their own AI agent, and don't mind being an early adopter of a young tool.
Astro is a native macOS app, not a web dashboard, and it isn't distributed through the Mac App Store; it's a direct, notarized download from tryastro.app. For a flat $9/mo it tracks unlimited keywords across unlimited apps, a genuinely better raw number than anything else on this list, including ASOHawk.
Strengths
Unlimited keywords and unlimited apps for one flat $9/mo, no per-app or per-keyword add-on fees.
Popularity and difficulty scores come straight from Apple Search Ads data, not a third-party estimate.
A native Mac app rather than a web dashboard: fast, and usable offline once your data is cached.
Watch-outs
macOS 14 or later only, no Windows, no web dashboard, no Android.
Billed annually only ($108/year); there's no month-to-month option to try it for a few weeks first.
No AI agent, no team seats, no revenue or analytics data beyond keyword tracking itself.
Best for: A solo developer on a Mac who wants to do keyword research by hand and doesn't need automation, team seats or revenue data.
Appfigures started as an app-analytics dashboard and added ASO on top, and its pricing shows it: tiers are keyed to keyword count from 25 up to 2,500, with App Store revenue and ranking data living in the same dashboard rather than a separate product.
Strengths
Bundles App Store and Google Play revenue, download and review analytics with ASO in one dashboard; most other tools here only do ASO.
Entry Connect tier is $9.99/mo, the second-cheapest paid entry point on this list after Astro.
Annual billing takes roughly 20% off every tier for anyone comfortable committing for a year.
Watch-outs
Connect's 25 tracked keywords is thin; real day-to-day keyword work needs Monitor at $44.99/mo for 100 keywords.
Every tier ships with 5 apps included and charges $1.99/mo per app beyond that, which adds up for a multi-app portfolio.
No AI agent, and no permanent free plan; the free option is a time-limited trial that drops to a limited basic plan afterward.
Best for: Developers who want revenue and download analytics bundled with baseline keyword tracking, and don't mind paying more once they need real keyword coverage.
ASOMobile's free plan is one of only two on this list, alongside ASOHawk, that needs no credit card. It covers 20 keywords and 2 apps for $0, with five paid tiers stepping up to 6,000 keywords and 100 apps for larger portfolios.
Strengths
Free plan includes 100 review replies a month, competitor analysis and trending-search data, not just a keyword count.
Five paid tiers scale up to 100 apps and 6,000 keywords, so it doesn't box you in once you outgrow the free plan.
No card required to start on the free plan, one of only two tools on this list where that's true.
Watch-outs
The jump from the free plan to the first paid tier is steep: roughly $47–59/mo to go from 20 to 500 keywords and 2 to 5 apps.
No AI agent; every change is made by hand in the dashboard.
The interface and onboarding feel dated next to newer tools on this list.
Best for: A developer who wants a genuinely free plan today and the option to scale into a larger paid tier later, without an agent workflow.
Asodesk's entry Pro plan trades apps for depth: only 2 apps, but 700 tracked keywords each, more than AppTweak's 500-keyword entry tier at nearly twice the price. Review replies are bundled up to 100 a month; volume above that is a paid add-on, not a base cost.
Strengths
Entry Pro tier tracks 700 keywords on 2 apps, more keywords per app than anything else in this price range.
100 review replies a month are included free on every paid tier, not sold as a separate product from day one.
Higher tiers (Guru, Power) scale to 5,000 keywords and 30 apps without switching products.
Watch-outs
Entry tier is capped at 2 apps, so a multi-app portfolio needs Guru (roughly $127/mo annual) just to get room for 10 apps.
Going over the included 100 review replies a month costs an add-on starting around $24/mo.
No AI agent, and the $47/mo price requires annual billing; month-to-month is closer to $59/mo.
Best for: A single app that needs deep keyword coverage, where paying more for depth rather than breadth is worth it.
MobileAction's ASO Intelligence line runs four tiers from Lite ($15/mo, 100 keywords, 5 apps) up to a custom Enterprise plan. Pricing pages quoting different numbers for this tool are common online; we used MobileAction's own current pricing page rather than a reseller or an older review.
Strengths
Lite tier is $15/mo (or about $12.50/mo billed annually), a genuinely low entry price for a multi-tier growth platform.
Includes Apple Search Ads intelligence alongside keyword tracking, useful once you start running paid user acquisition.
Pro tier adds 3 team seats, useful the moment you're not working solo anymore.
Watch-outs
Lite's 100 keywords on 5 apps is thin; the realistic tier for active ASO work is Basic at $69/mo for 500 keywords.
No permanent free plan for the ASO product itself, only a 7-day trial.
No AI agent, and its separate Apple Search Ads manager (CMP) has its own free tier that's easy to confuse with a free ASO plan – it isn't one.
Best for: A developer who has outgrown solo-indie tools and wants Apple Search Ads intelligence bundled with keyword tracking, without AppTweak or Sensor Tower pricing.
App Radar publishes exact limits on its own pricing page, which not every tool on this list does: Essentials is €69/mo for 2 apps and 500 keywords, stepping up to Scale at €299/mo for 15 apps and 3,000 keywords.
Strengths
Growth and Scale tiers bundle AI-assisted review replies (100–200 a month) alongside keyword tracking and competitor data.
Pricing, limits and seat counts are fully published on its own pricing page, no demo call required just to see numbers.
Multiple seats from the Growth tier up, useful once you're not working alone.
Watch-outs
Its 7-day trial requires a credit card up front, unlike most tools on this list.
Entry Essentials tier is priced in euros (€69/mo, roughly $75) for just 2 apps and 500 keywords, pricier per app than Asodesk's entry tier.
No AI agent, and no permanent free plan at any tier.
Best for: A small team past the solo stage that wants fully published pricing and AI-assisted review replies without a sales call.
AppTweak is one of the older, more established names in ASO, and it prices accordingly: Essential starts at €79/mo for 500 keywords and 5 apps, up to Grow Plus at €499/mo for 3,000 keywords and 15 apps, every tier limited to one user seat.
Strengths
Essential tier tracks 500 keywords across 5 apps, broader entry-level app coverage than Asodesk or App Radar.
A long-running product with years of historical ranking and Apple Search Ads crossover data competitors can't match.
Reporting Studio and competitor tooling are built for agencies managing several client portfolios at once.
Watch-outs
Every tier, including the €499/mo Grow Plus tier, is limited to a single user seat.
Entry price of €79/mo (roughly $85) is close to 9 times ASOHawk's Indie tier for a comparable app count.
No self-serve free tier and no AI agent your own agent can call; its AI features are a bundled assistant, not something external tools can operate.
Best for: A funded team or agency that needs multi-year ranking history and deep Apple Search Ads data, and has the budget for it.
Sensor Tower is built for market intelligence at a portfolio or industry level, not single-app keyword tracking. There's no public pricing page and no self-serve signup; every plan is a custom sales conversation, and independent transaction data puts the median deal size in the tens of thousands of dollars a year.
Strengths
The broadest market-intelligence dataset on this list: download and revenue estimates across the entire app economy, not just your own apps.
Used by publicly traded companies and investors for competitive and market research, not just single-app ASO.
Dedicated account management and custom modules for large, complex portfolios.
Watch-outs
No published pricing, no self-serve signup and no free trial; every deal starts with a sales call.
Independently reported transaction data puts the median annual spend in the tens of thousands of dollars, priced for market-intelligence budgets, not indie developers.
Massively more platform than a solo developer needs if all you want is keyword tracking for your own app.
Best for: Companies and investors who need industry-wide market intelligence, not a solo developer optimizing one app's keywords.
We pulled pricing, keyword limits and app limits directly from each vendor's own current pricing page in July 2026, not from a reseller or a review aggregator, wherever the vendor publishes one.
Where a vendor doesn't publish a specific limit (parts of App Radar's history, MobileAction's Enterprise tier, Sensor Tower's entire pricing model), we say so instead of guessing a number.
We use ASOHawk daily, because we built it. For every other tool, we did not create a paid or trial account; the numbers here come from public documentation, not hands-on use of a competitor's paid product.
We ranked on criteria that matter to a solo iOS developer on an indie budget: entry price, whether a free tier needs a credit card, keyword and app limits at entry, and whether the tool can be operated by an AI agent rather than only by a person.
This list is reviewed and re-checked whenever pricing changes; the “updated” date at the top of the page reflects the last check.
Frequently asked questions
What's the best free ASO tool for an indie iOS developer?+
ASOHawk and ASOMobile are the two tools on this list with genuinely free plans that need no credit card. ASOHawk's free tier covers 2 apps and 30 keywords each using public App Store data; ASOMobile's covers 2 apps and 20 keywords.
Is there an ASO tool that costs less than $10 a month?+
Yes: Astro is a flat $9/mo (billed annually) for unlimited keyword tracking on a Mac, and ASOHawk's Indie plan is also $9/mo, for 10 apps and 100 keywords each.
Can an AI agent actually manage App Store keywords and metadata?+
Only one tool on this list is built for that. ASOHawk exposes an MCP server your own agent (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor) can call to propose metadata and keyword changes, which a human then approves before anything goes live. Every other tool here is a dashboard a person operates by hand.
What's the difference between AppTweak, Sensor Tower and a tool like ASOHawk or Astro?+
Scale and price. AppTweak and Sensor Tower are built for funded teams, agencies and investors with multi-year ranking history and market-wide data; entry pricing starts around €79/mo (AppTweak) and moves into five figures a year (Sensor Tower). ASOHawk, Astro, Appfigures and ASOMobile all have entry tiers under $50/mo aimed at a single developer.
Does Asodesk or Appfigures charge extra for more apps?+
Yes, in different ways. Appfigures charges $1.99/mo per app past its included 5. Asodesk doesn't charge per extra app but requires moving up a whole tier, from Pro to Guru, to unlock more than 2 apps.
Is Astro available on the Mac App Store?+
No. Astro is a native macOS app distributed directly from tryastro.app, notarized by Apple, not through the Mac App Store.
Independent, and upfront about the one exception. Indie ASO Desk does not take payment for placement from any company on this page. One of the nine tools reviewed, ASOHawk, is built by the person who publishes this site; it is labelled “in-house” everywhere it appears and scored against the same public pricing pages and documentation as every competitor. See our methodology for exactly how we researched each tool.
Astro
Appfigures
ASOMobile
Asodesk
MobileAction
App Radar
AppTweak
Sensor Tower
