Prices and plan limits were checked on applyra.io/pricing and appdrift.co/pricing on September 10, 2026. Disclosure: AppDrift is our product. We have tried to make this the comparison we would want to read if it were not.
Short answer: Applyra and AppDrift cost the same ($9.99 a month) and are built for the same person, an indie developer shipping on both stores, but they sell different halves of the ASO job. Applyra is a keyword and competitor tracker with no limits: unlimited keywords, apps and competitors, plus AI suggestions, an API and an MCP server. AppDrift is a workflow tool: it researches keywords, writes and translates the listing into 60+ languages, generates screenshots, and publishes to App Store Connect and Google Play, and it caps tracked keywords at 50 on Basic and 500 on Pro. If tracking is the whole job, Applyra is the cheaper way to do it. If you need the listing produced and shipped, AppDrift is the only one of the two that does it.
Quick Comparison Table
| Capability | Applyra | AppDrift |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $9.99/month ($99.99/year) | $9.99/month ($99/year) |
| Free plan | Yes: 1 app, 5 keywords, 1 competitor, 7-day history, no AI | Yes: 1 app, 5 keywords forever, 50 AI tokens, ASO score, unlimited screenshot exports |
| Tracked keywords on the $9.99 plan | Unlimited (fair use) | 50 (Pro $19.99: 500 · Studio $39.99: 1,500) |
| Apps on the $9.99 plan | Unlimited | 5 (Pro: 20 · Studio: 50) |
| Stores | App Store + Google Play | App Store + Google Play |
| Keyword difficulty and popularity scores | Yes | Yes, 0-100 difficulty + popularity beside every keyword, free plan included |
| Competitor tracking | Unlimited competitors | 3 / 10 / 25 competitors by plan; competitor rank tracking on Studio |
| AI metadata generation | Suggestions only | Yes, full title, subtitle, keywords, description, release notes |
| Translation and localization | No | Yes, 60+ languages with per-market keyword research |
| Screenshot generator | No | Yes, free and unlimited |
| Publish to the stores | No | Yes, App Store Connect and Google Play |
| Apple search-term data (impressions, TTR, conversion per keyword) | No | Yes, synced daily from App Store Connect Analytics on paid plans |
| Store monitoring and alerts | No | Yes: metadata changes, rating drops, rank regressions |
| API / MCP | REST API (10k requests/month) + MCP server on paid | REST API from Basic + appdrift-mcp on npm |
| Trial | Permanent free plan, no trial needed | 7-day card trial on paid plans; free plan has no card |
What Is Applyra?
Applyra is a flat-price ASO tool for indie developers that launched with one loud promise: no limits. Its single paid plan, Unlimited, costs $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year and removes every cap on apps, tracked keywords and competitors, subject to a fair-use policy. The free plan is permanent rather than a trial and is deliberately small: one app, five keywords, one competitor, seven days of ranking history, no AI.
Where Applyra is strong is exactly where it says it is. Keyword research and daily rank tracking on both stores, unlimited competitor tracking on the paid plan, CSV and PDF exports, a REST API with 10,000 requests a month, and an MCP server so an AI agent can query your data. The AI feature on the paid plan is listing suggestions: the tool tells you what looks weak in your metadata, then you write the change yourself.
Where it stops is the production work. Applyra does not write metadata, does not translate it, does not make screenshots and does not push anything to App Store Connect or Google Play. Its own comparison page ranks AppDrift as "same price as us, capped at 50 keywords", which is accurate, and the rest of this article is about what that cap buys.
What Is AppDrift?
AppDrift is an all-in-one ASO platform for indie developers and small studios. It covers the whole listing workflow in one tool: keyword research and rank tracking with a difficulty score beside every term, AI metadata generation that regenerates until the copy fits Apple's and Google's character limits, translation into 60+ languages built on live per-market keyword research, a free screenshot generator, store monitoring with alerts, and one-click publishing to both stores.
Since August 2026 it also syncs Apple's own keyword analytics from App Store Connect: impressions, tap-through rate, conversion, retention cohorts and revenue per acquisition search term, for your own app, daily, at no token cost on paid plans. That is data no third-party tracker can estimate, and it is the reason we now put a "measure it against Apple's numbers" step in every workflow.
AppDrift's limits are worth stating plainly. AI actions are metered in tokens (500 a month on Basic, 3,000 on Pro, 8,000 on Studio; a full metadata generation costs 7 tokens per language on iOS and 8 on Android). Tracked keywords are capped: 5 on Free, 50 on Basic, 500 on Pro, 1,500 on Studio. Competitor rank tracking is a Studio feature. Google Play rank checks see the top 30 or so results, because that is all the public Play surface exposes. It does not manage Apple Search Ads campaigns.
Features Compared
Keyword tracking
Applyra wins on volume. Unlimited keywords for $9.99 is a straightforwardly better deal than 50 keywords for $9.99 if tracking is what you are buying. AppDrift's answer is scope rather than volume: every tracked keyword shows a 0-100 difficulty score and a popularity score computed from the current top-ranking apps, and the same scorer powers the free keyword difficulty checker, so you can size a keyword before you spend a slot on it. On the free plan, five keywords are tracked forever with daily refreshes and no card.
If your app lives on the App Store and you have a paid AppDrift plan, the tracking view also joins Apple's own per-keyword impressions and conversion to your tracked ranks. Applyra, like every other third-party tool, cannot see that data.
Metadata: suggestions versus generation
Applyra's AI suggests. AppDrift's AI writes. That is the practical difference for a solo developer with no copywriter: AppDrift produces the title, subtitle, keyword field, description, promotional text and release notes for a target market in under a minute, regenerates rather than truncates when a field runs long, and lets you reuse a previous generation for the next version. Applyra hands you a list of weaknesses and expects you to fix them.
Localization
Applyra has no translation feature. AppDrift translates the full listing into 60+ languages, and before it writes the German or Japanese version it pulls live autocomplete suggestions from that market's store so the keywords are the ones people there actually type. When we scored 123 real listings, 94% graded D on localization, which is why we weigh this feature more heavily than the keyword charts.
Screenshots and publishing
Neither is in Applyra. AppDrift's screenshot editor is free for everyone with no export limit, and publishing pushes the drafted metadata to App Store Connect and Google Play through your own connected credentials, with a recovery ladder for Apple's locale rejections.
Developer access
Both tools take the AI-agent audience seriously. Applyra's paid plan ships a REST API and an MCP server. AppDrift has API access from Basic and publishes appdrift-mcp, which exposes keyword difficulty, rank checks, ASO scoring and metadata generation to Claude Desktop, Cursor and any MCP client.
Pricing Compared
| Plan | Applyra | AppDrift |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 1 app, 5 keywords, 1 competitor, 7-day history | 1 app, 5 keywords forever, 50 AI tokens, screenshots, ASO score |
| $9.99/month | Unlimited apps, keywords, competitors; AI suggestions; API; MCP | Basic: 5 apps, 50 keywords, 500 tokens, every paid feature |
| $19.99/month | - | Pro: 20 apps, 500 keywords, 3,000 tokens |
| $39.99/month | - | Studio: 50 apps, 1,500 keywords, 8,000 tokens, competitor rank tracking |
| Annual | $99.99/year | $99 / $199 / $399 per year |
Read the table as two products, not two prices. Applyra's $9.99 buys unlimited tracking. AppDrift's $9.99 buys 50 tracked keywords plus the writing, translation, screenshots, monitoring and publishing that Applyra does not offer at any price. A developer who needs 200 tracked keywords and nothing else should pay Applyra. A developer who needs the listing produced in six languages and shipped should pay AppDrift, and 50 keywords is usually enough to cover one app's real targets.
Who Should Pick Which
Pick Applyra if
- You track many keywords across many apps and want no ceiling on any of them
- You write your own metadata and handle localization elsewhere
- You want an API and MCP access for under $10 a month
- You want a permanent free tracker beside whatever else you use
Pick AppDrift if
- You need the listing written and translated, not just diagnosed
- You ship to several markets and want per-market keyword research done for you
- You want to publish from the same tool you researched in
- Your app is on the App Store and you want Apple's own per-keyword conversion data next to your ranks
- You want free screenshots for every device size
Can You Use Both?
Yes, and on the free tiers it costs nothing. AppDrift's free plan tracks five keywords forever and gives you the editor, the audit and 50 tokens for a first generation. Applyra's free plan is an independent second tracker for five keywords and one competitor. Paying for both ($19.98 a month) makes sense for a developer with a large keyword list who also wants generation and publishing; most people will find one of the two covers the job.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Applyra or AppDrift better for indie developers?
It depends on the job. For tracking alone, Applyra at $9.99 with unlimited keywords is cheaper per keyword. For producing and shipping the listing, AppDrift at $9.99 is the only one of the two that does it; its trade-off is the 50-keyword cap on Basic (500 on Pro).
Does Applyra generate or translate App Store metadata?
No. The paid plan includes AI listing suggestions, which tell you what to change. It does not write, translate or publish the listing. AppDrift does all three.
Which tool tracks more keywords for the money?
Applyra: unlimited keywords, apps and competitors on the $9.99 plan under a fair-use policy. AppDrift tracks 50 on Basic, 500 on Pro and 1,500 on Studio, each with a difficulty and popularity score.
Can I use both free plans together?
Yes. AppDrift's free plan (5 keywords forever, 50 tokens, screenshots, ASO score) and Applyra's free plan (5 keywords, 1 competitor, 7-day history) complement each other for a single app, and neither asks for a card.
Which has an API or an MCP server?
Both. Applyra's Unlimited plan has a REST API and an MCP server. AppDrift has API access from Basic and the appdrift-mcp server on npm.
Conclusion
Applyra is the better unlimited tracker at $9.99. AppDrift is the better place to do the work the tracker points at: write the listing, translate it, screenshot it, publish it, and measure it against Apple's own keyword data. Start with the two free plans and see which half of the job you keep coming back to. For wider context, see the 22 best ASO tools compared, AppDrift vs Sonar and AppDrift vs Astro.
