Reddit discussion threads about the best ASO tools compared side by side for 2026

Search "best ASO tools Reddit" and you'll find something most tool roundups won't give you: developers with no affiliate links complaining about the products they actually paid for. That's exactly why people append "reddit" to searches — they want the unfiltered version.

So we did the reading. We went through the major ASO tool threads on r/AppStoreOptimization, r/iOSProgramming, r/AppBusiness, and r/iOSAppsMarketing from the past 12 months — over 150 comments across recommendation threads, rant threads, and open-source launch posts — and pulled out what developers actually say when nobody's selling to them.

One disclosure before anything else: AppDrift (this site) makes an ASO platform. We've ranked it first because we think it answers the exact complaints Reddit keeps repeating, but we've laid out those complaints — and every competitor's honest strengths — so you can check our reasoning instead of trusting it.

How we researched this (and why Reddit threads need decoding)

Our method was simple: read every substantive ASO tool thread from the past year, tag each comment as a genuine user experience, a founder promoting their own product, or a drive-by mention, and only count the first category as sentiment.

That filtering matters more than you'd think. In the biggest recommendation thread we analyzed — "Best ASO tools for the App Store in 2026?" on r/AppStoreOptimization^[1] — roughly a third of the replies came from founders recommending their own tools. Some disclosed it. Many didn't.

We also spotted a textbook astroturfing pattern: the same account posting near-identical "I tried everything and tool X is the best" updates across two different subreddits within weeks, both praising a tool almost nobody else had mentioned.^[2] Keep that in mind whenever you read a suspiciously enthusiastic tool endorsement — including ours. More on how to spot the fakes later in this article.

What Reddit actually complains about in 2026

Four recurring developer complaints about app store optimization tools: pricing, data accuracy, dashboards without actions, and astroturfing

Before ranking anything, it's worth understanding the four complaints that show up in nearly every thread. They're the evaluation criteria Reddit has effectively written for the whole ASO tool industry.

1. Pricing built for agencies, not developers

This is the loudest one. Indie developers describe being "tired of the standard industry tools that charge $100+/month" and looking for hidden gems that don't cost a fortune. One long-time Appfigures user said they left because it was too expensive for what they actually wanted — tracking keyword ranks over time.^[1] Enterprise platforms like Sensor Tower don't even publish prices; Reddit consistently reports quotes starting around $500/month.

The frustration has real consequences: the past year produced a visible wave of open-source and local-first ASO tools built by developers who explicitly said they were done paying subscription prices.^[3]

2. Data that disagrees with itself

A recurring experiment in these threads: put the same keyword into several tools and compare. Developers report the same term scored as high popularity in one tool and low in another, with big differences even between tools that claim the same data source.^[1]

The reason is structural. Apple and Google don't publish search volumes, so every tool reverse-engineers popularity from indirect signals — Apple Search Ads popularity scores, autocomplete ordering, rank movements. Estimates built on different signals disagree. That's not fraud; it's physics. But it means absolute numbers matter far less than trends measured consistently in one tool.

3. Dashboards that don't do anything

The sharpest comment we found put it this way: the big keyword platforms are strong on search data but ignore the second half of the equation — whether your listing actually converts the traffic.^[1] Another developer said they'd rather have a boring tool that helps answer diagnostic questions (did visibility drop or conversion? did competitors move?) than a fancy one that just says "optimize your metadata."

Ranking data without execution is homework without a pen. You still have to write the metadata, design the screenshots, translate the locales, and push it all to two consoles. Most tools stop exactly where that work begins.

4. Late-2025 accuracy drift

Since roughly October 2025, developers report keyword metrics behaving strangely. A 15-year indie veteran described new app launches getting indexed for ~17 keywords where the same strategy used to produce 200–300, and multiple developers suspect Apple tightened indexing thresholds in response to the flood of AI-built apps.^[4] The thread title says it all: "ASO Tools are Dead?"

The community's conclusion was more measured than the title: tools aren't dead, but they're estimating with less signal than before, and the smart response is shifting effort toward conversion — screenshots, ratings, store page quality — where your data is first-party and reliable. We covered the underlying algorithm shifts in our 2026 App Store algorithm updates breakdown.

Quick comparison: the tools Reddit talks about

Tool	Reddit's short version	Paid entry price	Both stores	Best for
AppDrift	Affordable all-in-one; generates and publishes, not just reports	$9.99/mo	Yes	Indies and small teams who want execution, not dashboards
AppTweak	Great data "if you're ready to invest and spend time"	$69/mo	Yes	Funded teams that live in keyword data
MobileAction	Solid volume + difficulty data; "not cheap if you're just testing an idea"	$15/mo (Lite), $69/mo (Basic)	Yes	Teams running Apple Search Ads alongside ASO
Appfigures	Reasonably priced for indies; some still find keyword tracking costly	$29/mo	Yes	Indie analytics + rank tracking in one place
Astro	Genuinely divisive — cheap and useful, or "underwhelming," depending who you ask	~$108/yr	iOS only	Budget iOS keyword research on a Mac
Sensor Tower	Best-in-class market data, priced for enterprises only	~$500+/mo (custom)	Yes	Enterprises and investors
App Radar	Good keyword database, monthly price called expensive for solo devs	$69/mo (free plan exists)	Yes	Marketing teams managing multiple apps
Open-source wave	RespectASO, OpenASO, aso.dev — free, local, privacy-first	$0	Mostly iOS	Zero-budget research and tinkerers

1. AppDrift — the answer to Reddit's complaints (yes, it's ours)

Full disclosure again: AppDrift is our product. Grade this section accordingly. Instead of superlatives, here's how it maps against the four complaints above — that's the fairest test we can offer.

On pricing: the paid plan Reddit would call the "indie tier" costs $9.99/month — 5 apps, 500 AI tokens, 50 tracked keywords, and every paid feature included. Pro is $19.99/month (20 apps, 500 keywords) and Studio $39.99/month (50 apps, 1,500 keywords, competitor rank tracking). The most expensive AppDrift plan costs less than the cheapest meaningful tier of most tools in this list. Full breakdown on the pricing page.

On data honesty: AppDrift's keyword research pulls live autocomplete suggestions directly from the App Store and Google Play per market, on top of popularity and difficulty modeling. Autocomplete is real store behavior, not a third-party estimate — which matters more than ever given the accuracy drift developers reported through late 2025. We won't pretend our difficulty scores escape the estimation problem every tool has; no tool's do.

On execution vs. dashboards: this is the actual bet behind the product. AppDrift generates ASO-optimized metadata with AI (respecting character limits, in your brand voice), translates it into 40+ languages with per-market keyword research, builds screenshots in a completely free drag-and-drop editor, and then publishes everything to both stores across 150+ countries in one click.

The ASO Autopilot goes one step further: a weekly prioritized action plan per app — keyword pushes, rank drops, review tasks, competitor moves — with before/after impact reports for every metadata sync. That's a direct answer to the Redditor who wanted a tool that explains why a metric moved instead of saying "optimize your metadata."

AppDrift free screenshot generator editor for App Store and Google Play listings

What it's honestly not: AppDrift is newer than AppTweak or Sensor Tower, and its historical keyword database is smaller than platforms that have been logging ranks for a decade. There's Apple Ads intelligence for competitor research, but no bid management — if you spend five figures monthly on Apple Search Ads, you'll want MobileAction alongside it. And Android rank tracking beyond the top ~30 positions is limited by what Google's surfaces expose — a constraint we display honestly in the UI rather than papering over.

Best for: solo developers and small teams — 5,000+ developers use it across 150+ countries — who want one subscription that researches, writes, localizes, designs, and ships. If you mostly want to stare at market data, buy a data tool. If you want your listing improved and published this week, this is the gap AppDrift fills. There's also an MCP server and public API if you'd rather drive your ASO from Claude or Cursor — increasingly common in the same subreddits, where developers now ask which tools support agent workflows.

2. AppTweak — respected data, priced for commitment

AppTweak comes up in Reddit threads with a consistent framing: excellent if you're serious. The most upvote-worthy phrasing was a developer recommending it "if you're ready to invest and spend some time"^[1] — both halves of that sentence doing work. It costs real money (from $69/month, with country-based pricing that climbs fast for international tracking) and takes real time to learn.

What you get for it: keyword volume and difficulty data that big publishers trust, an ASO Timeline that correlates metadata changes with rank movements, and strong ad intelligence. Nobody on Reddit disputes the data quality. The disputes are about whether an indie shipping their second app needs it yet.

Reddit verdict: the default recommendation for funded teams; overkill below that. We ran a deeper head-to-head in AppTweak vs AppDrift if you're deciding between the two.

3. MobileAction — the Apple Search Ads combo pick

MobileAction earned one of the more balanced genuine-user reviews in the 2026 recommendation thread: solid keyword volume and difficulty data, easy competitor tracking, good for spotting keyword gaps, strong Apple Search Ads management — but "not cheap if you're just testing an idea."^[1] That tracks with its pricing: a $15/month Lite tier exists, but the useful Basic tier is $69/month and Pro jumps to $239/month.

Its differentiator is the paid-organic combination. If you run Apple Search Ads seriously, having ASA intelligence and organic keyword data in one platform genuinely saves time, and that's the use case Reddit endorses it for.

Reddit verdict: worth it once you're past the experiment stage — particularly if ASA is part of your mix.

4. Appfigures — the indie analytics workhorse

Appfigures gets warm mentions in indie threads — "good features, solid ASO tools, and reasonably priced for indie devs" was the top reply in one r/iOSProgramming thread.^[5] Its Ranked Keywords feature (which keywords your app is indexed for, and where) is the one developers cite by name; it's also how the "stuck at 17 indexed keywords" discovery in the accuracy-drift thread was made.^[4]

The counterpoint, from the same community: at least one long-time user left because $29–79/month felt like too much for keyword rank tracking alone. Appfigures makes the most sense when you use the whole package — revenue analytics, review monitoring, and ASO in one clean interface.

Reddit verdict: the sensible indie choice for analytics-plus-ASO; less compelling if you only want one feature from it.

5. Astro — Reddit's most divisive ASO tool

No tool in these threads splits opinion like Astro. On one side: developers who like the low price (about $108/year) and say its popularity data closely mirrors what they see in Apple Search Ads. On the other: a developer who used it for a full year and "didn't really see any results," another who bought it and came away underwhelmed, a third calling its data "completely irrelevant," and several complaints that there's no free trial to check before paying.^[5]

Reading all of it together, the split makes sense. Astro is a Mac-native, iOS-only keyword research tool. Developers who wanted exactly that — cheap keyword data on a Mac — are satisfied. Developers who expected a tool to improve their downloads were disappointed, because research tools don't write metadata or fix screenshots. It also does nothing for Google Play, which rules it out for cross-platform teams.

Reddit verdict: fine at its price for iOS-only keyword lookups; don't expect it to move your numbers by itself.

6. Sensor Tower — the enterprise standard nobody indie recommends

Sensor Tower appears in these threads mostly as a reference point: the expensive thing indie tools define themselves against. Developers building their own tools repeatedly framed the problem as "AppTweak or Sensor Tower do this well, but they're clearly built for teams with large budgets." Its market intelligence — download and revenue estimates across 60+ countries, ad creative tracking — is genuinely best-in-class, which is why investors and large publishers pay reported $500+/month for it.

But in a year of Reddit ASO threads, we didn't find a single indie developer recommending buying it. Not one. The pricing isn't even public; you have to talk to sales.

Reddit verdict: excellent product, wrong audience. If you need cheaper competitor intelligence, we compared the options in 10 Best Sensor Tower Alternatives.

7. App Radar — good database, price friction for solos

App Radar (now part of SplitMetrics) draws moderate, qualified praise. A representative bilingual comment from r/iOSProgramming: it's quite good, but the monthly price is quite expensive — from a developer who then recommended Astro plus free tools for zero-budget setups.^[5] Its 45-million keyword database and direct store integration (you can push metadata updates from the tool) are real strengths, and it does have a free plan.

Reddit verdict: solid mid-market option; the $69/month ASO tier is the sticking point for solo developers.

8. The open-source wave: RespectASO, OpenASO, aso.dev and friends

The most interesting Reddit development of the past year isn't a commercial tool at all. Frustrated with subscription pricing and with cloud tools that log every keyword you research, developers started shipping free alternatives — and the community response has been enthusiastic. RespectASO (self-hosted keyword research, now a native macOS app with optional AI features), OpenASO (keyword tracking, review exports, competitor screenshot research), and CLI tools that run keyword workflows locally have collectively pulled hundreds of upvotes.^[3]

Two honest caveats surfaced by the community itself. First, accuracy: one user compared RespectASO's popularity scores against Apple's own Search Ads data and found them meaningfully different — the estimation problem doesn't disappear because software is free.^[4] Second, scope: these are research tools. They don't write metadata, localize listings, or publish anything. Budget your own time accordingly.

Reddit verdict: genuinely good for $0, especially for keyword research and competitor recon. Pair them with an execution workflow — ours is laid out in the complete App Store listing workflow — or with a free tier like AppDrift's for the production side.

We also keep a dedicated roundup of the best free ASO tools updated, if the $0 category is where you plan to stay for a while.

How to read Reddit ASO threads without getting played

Because a third or more of replies in tool threads come from founders, treat Reddit recommendations as leads to verify, not verdicts. Signals we used, which you can reuse:

Check the commenter's history. An account whose entire history is praising one tool across multiple subreddits is marketing, not experience. We found exactly this pattern for at least one heavily-praised tool during research.^[2]
Weight disclosed bias over hidden bias. Comments starting with "I'm the founder, so I can't be objective" are ironically more trustworthy — you know the angle.
Prefer specific complaints to generic praise. "Session timeouts make me re-login constantly" is a real user. "Game changer for my workflow!" is not.
Look for longevity. "I used it for a year and here's what happened" beats "been using it 3 days, will update" — especially when the 3-day review is already superlative.
Cross-reference threads. A tool praised once might be astroturfed. A tool with consistent, differently-worded experiences across months and subreddits is probably real.

So are ASO tools dead in 2026?

No — but the job description changed. The late-2025 accuracy drift is real: Apple exposes less search data than it used to, new-app keyword indexing appears tighter, and every third-party volume estimate got fuzzier at once.^[4] What died is the fantasy that a keyword dashboard alone grows an app.

What still works, per the same threads: tracking your actual ranks (first-party, reliable), watching competitors, mining reviews for language users actually type, and — above all — conversion. If you rank #50 for a keyword, you effectively don't exist; multiple developers noted that the top 3 organic slots sit below as many as two ads now. Getting into the top 10 and converting the impression is the whole game, which runs through metadata quality, screenshots, ratings, and localization more than through another keyword export. Our 2026 ranking factors guide covers what actually moves positions.

Which should you pick?

$0 budget: RespectASO or OpenASO for research, AppDrift's free plan for screenshots and first metadata generation.
Under $20/month: AppDrift Basic ($9.99) if you want research plus execution; Astro (~$9/month equivalent) if you only want iOS keyword lookups on a Mac.
$30–80/month: Appfigures for analytics-first indies; MobileAction Basic or AppTweak Starter for data-first teams; App Radar if direct store integration appeals.
Running Apple Search Ads at scale: MobileAction, possibly alongside a cheaper execution tool.
Enterprise market intelligence: Sensor Tower, if the budget question makes you laugh rather than wince.

And take the advice Reddit gives itself in nearly every thread: there is no single best tool, and plenty of successful developers run two — one for data, one for doing. Just make sure at least one of them actually ships changes to your listing.

Conclusion

Reddit's collective take on the best ASO tools in 2026 boils down to four demands: charge indie prices, be honest that your volume numbers are estimates, help with conversion rather than just visibility, and don't astroturf the threads. Most tools fail at least two of those. The ones worth your money — whichever you choose — are the ones you'll actually act on every week.

If you want the acting-on-it part handled — AI metadata, 40+ language localization, free screenshots, one-click publishing to both stores, and a weekly plan telling you what to fix next — start with AppDrift's AI metadata generation on the free plan and see if it earns the $9.99.

ASO Tool Comparison

Best ASO Tools According to Reddit: 2026 Comparison