Astro alternatives for App Store keyword research (2026)

If Astro's $108 a year no longer fits, the nearest replacements are two other Mac apps sold once — VisualASO and Wow Keywords — and three web suites, ASO.dev, AppTweak and AppFigures, for teams that need one login. Which fits depends on whether you want Windows, a one-time price, shared team access, or data beyond keywords. Prices below were checked on 29 October 2026, taxes not included.

The short answer

Want to stop paying every year and stay on a Mac: VisualASO or Wow Keywords. Need Windows: Wow Keywords, which has a Windows 11 beta. Need several people in one account with release work, downloads or revenue beside keywords: ASO.dev, AppFigures or AppTweak. Want Apple Ads popularity for every term with no account to connect: stay with Astro. The side-by-side table with sources has the detail.

The options at a glance

Astro is a Mac app on one plan — "$9/m", "$108 Billed annually" — a "Single Mac License", "Available for MacOS 14 and up", with unlimited keyword tracking and coverage of "over 60 stores where Apple Search Ads is available". The five options below differ most in how they measure demand and how you pay. Everything here comes from each vendor's own pages.

Option	Runs on	Price, checked 29 Oct 2026	Demand source, as the vendor states it	Free tier
Astro	Mac, macOS 14 and up	$108 a year	Apple Search Ads popularity	Not shown
VisualASO	Mac, macOS 14 or later	$99 once (Pro)	Apple's search suggestions; Apple Ads popularity if you sign in	Yes, no time limit
Wow Keywords	Mac; Windows 11 beta	$109 once	Ratings of the apps that match	Not shown
ASO.dev	Web	Indie: $39 a seat a month, or $348 a year	Not stated on its pricing page	Not shown
AppTweak	Web	Essential: €79 a month, or €949 a year	Not stated on its pricing page	Not shown
AppFigures	Web	Monitor: $44.99 a month	Not shown on the pages checked	Yes (Starter)

VisualASO

VisualASO is our product. It is a Mac app for macOS 14 or later with a free tier that has no time limit: 1 app, 3 countries, 25 keywords. Pro is one payment of $99 for 3 Macs and all future updates. It covers 52 countries, writes store text with an AI tool running on your own Mac, and fills an App Store Connect version without ever submitting it.

Demand comes from two places and each number is labelled with its source. Its own estimate reads Apple's search suggestions, measured per phrase per country. If you sign in to your own Apple Ads account, VisualASO also shows Apple Ads popularity for the terms you look at. Anything not yet measured shows "?" rather than a guessed figure. We publish how close the suggestion estimate lands in our study of search-suggestion demand: about 12 points of error on charted terms, so it sorts keywords better than it sizes them.

Pro also tracks Google Play ranks and ships an MCP server with 69 tools, so you can drive keyword work from Claude Code or another agent. It writes name, subtitle and keyword field options, translates them, and stages a new version for you to review and submit yourself.

Two honest limits. The 52 countries are fewer than Astro's 60-plus stores. And the free demand estimate is less precise than Apple Ads popularity, which Astro reads for every term without you connecting an account.

Pick it if: you want to pay once, work on up to three Macs, and have your own AI tool write store text that VisualASO stages for you. Details are on the pricing page.

Wow Keywords

Wow Keywords is a Mac app for macOS 14 and later, Apple Silicon or Intel, with a Windows 11 beta — the only option here that runs outside macOS. It costs "$109 once" for "Lifetime access. No subscription." and covers 2 computers per licence. Its page says the price goes up $10 every 50 licences.

It measures demand differently from everything else on this page. Its FAQ puts it plainly: "Volume estimates the audience behind a keyword from the ratings of the apps that match it, not Apple's search counts." It is a different instrument from Apple's popularity.

It covers 52 countries, keeps your keyword database on your own computer, ships an MCP server with 89 tools, and works with Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode or Ollama for AI features. Like VisualASO, it fills an App Store Connect version without submitting it — see our comparisons for the field-by-field view.

Pick it if: you need Windows, or want a one-time price covering two computers. The product page is wowkeywords.com.

ASO.dev

ASO.dev is a web service priced per seat. The Indie plan, "Special for indie developers", costs $39 per seat per month, or $29 a month when billed $348 a year. It includes keyword sets, rankings, competitors and ASO Check, and the pricing page lists an "AI Companion (MCP)". Prices exclude VAT. Nothing on that page stated an Apple Ads popularity source on 29 October 2026.

Because it runs in a browser, there is no Mac requirement and no per-machine licence to count. The per-seat price is the thing to watch: two people double it.

Pick it if: you want a web tool that handles App Store Connect and Google Play release work in one place, and a monthly or yearly plan suits you. See the ASO.dev pricing page.

AppTweak

AppTweak is a web suite aimed at teams. Its ASO Intelligence "Essential" plan costs €79 a month billed monthly, or €949 a year billed annually, and follows 5 apps. The page describes it as "For individuals and small apps getting started with ASO". Larger plans cost more. Its entry plan costs the most of the entry plans here.

What you get for that is breadth: market and competitor data well beyond a keyword list, in a tool built for several people to share.

Pick it if: you work in an agency or a team and want market data around the keywords, not only the keywords. Plans are listed on the AppTweak pricing page.

AppFigures

AppFigures is a web suite that puts keywords next to downloads, revenue and reviews. There is a free Starter plan. On monthly billing, Connect is $9.99 a month and lists "0 Keywords"; Monitor is $44.99 a month with 100 keywords; Optimize is $149.99 a month with 500 keywords; Amplify reaches $1,399.99 a month. Its ASO page promises to "Track keyword ranks with hourly updates across countries and stores".

Read the plan rows carefully. The cheapest paid tier tracks no keywords at all, so the real entry point for keyword work is Monitor at $44.99 a month.

Pick it if: several people need one web login and you want store performance numbers in the same place as rank tracking. Plans are on the AppFigures pricing page.

When to stay with Astro

Stay with Astro if you want Apple Ads popularity on every keyword without connecting your own Apple Ads account, or if you need more than 52 countries. Astro reads popularity straight from Apple Search Ads, and its numbers track Apple's. It also tracks unlimited keywords on one Mac for $108 a year, less than any web suite here.

Astro's own description: it "extracts popularity data directly from Apple Search Ads and calculates how challenging it is to rank among the top 10 apps for a keyword." We measured how closely those readings match Apple's own charts across 459 cells in October 2026: they agreed at Spearman 0.90 and read a median 3 points high. That is a tight fit. If popularity for every term is what your work turns on, that is a real reason to keep paying. Our guide to the Apple Search Ads popularity score explains what the scale means, and you can look up single terms with our keyword popularity tool.

Astro also runs a local MCP server, enabled in Settings; its docs say "The MCP Server is currently in beta".

Two things to know before choosing. Astro's privacy policy (sections 3.2–3.3) describes in-app usage analytics through Mixpanel and crash reports through Sentry, which may be tied to a paying customer's email address. Its server also stores aggregated keyword data about the apps that rank for keywords users add.

Pick it if: popularity coverage and country count matter more to you than paying once. The product is at tryastro.app.

Three years of each

Over three years the gap between a one-time Mac app and a web seat is large. The arithmetic below uses the prices above, checked on 29 October 2026, taxes not included, and the cheapest billing each vendor lists.

Option	Three years	How it adds up
VisualASO Pro	$99 once	one payment, 3 Macs
Wow Keywords	$109 or more, once	price rises $10 every 50 licences
Astro	$324	$108 × 3, yearly billing
ASO.dev Indie	$1,044	$348 × 3, yearly billing
AppFigures Monitor	$1,619.64	$44.99 × 36, monthly billing
AppTweak Essential	€2,847	€949 × 3, yearly billing

Per-seat and per-machine terms change these figures. ASO.dev bills each seat, AppTweak Essential follows 5 apps, Astro licenses a single Mac, Wow Keywords covers 2 computers and VisualASO Pro covers 3.

Moving from Astro to VisualASO

Export your keywords from Astro, then in VisualASO choose File → Import Astro Export. Your terms arrive with their Astro numbers kept and labelled as Astro's, shown 3 points lower than Astro displays them, because that is the median offset we measured against Apple's charts. Nothing is overwritten by an estimate, and you keep both readings side by side.

That labelling matters when you compare a term you imported with one VisualASO measured from Apple's search suggestions. The two scales are not the same, and the app tells you which you are looking at rather than blending them. Terms with no measurement show "?".

The free tier covers 1 app, 3 countries and 25 keywords with no time limit. The app is on the download page.

Questions

Is there a one-time-payment alternative to Astro?

Two. VisualASO Pro is one payment of $99 for 3 Macs with all future updates. Wow Keywords is "$109 once" for 2 computers, and its page says that price goes up $10 every 50 licences.

Which alternative reads Apple Ads popularity?

Astro reads it for every term. VisualASO reads it when you sign in to your own Apple Ads account, and otherwise shows a measured estimate from Apple's search suggestions. The other pages listed here did not state an Apple Ads popularity source on 29 October 2026.

Does Astro have an MCP server?

Yes. It runs locally and you switch it on in Settings. Astro's MCP documentation says "The MCP Server is currently in beta".

What does Astro cost?

On 29 October 2026 its page listed one plan: "$9/m" or "$108 Billed annually", for a "Single Mac License", with unlimited keyword tracking. Taxes are not included.

Can I keep my Astro keyword lists if I switch?

Yes. Export from Astro and use File → Import Astro Export in VisualASO. The imported numbers stay labelled as Astro's and appear 3 points lower, matching the median offset we measured against Apple's charts.