Find the keywords you can
actually rank for

Sonar is an App Store Optimization (ASO) tool for the iOS App Store and Google Play, built for indie developers and small teams. It combines keyword research (search popularity and difficulty scores for every keyword), daily rank tracking, competitor analysis, keyword gap analysis, review monitoring, and app revenue estimates in one dashboard. Everything is also available through a REST API, a CLI, and an MCP server, so AI assistants like Claude and Cursor can do ASO research with live data. The Indie plan includes everything — 10 apps, 2,500 tracked keywords, competitors uncapped — for $19/month or $189/year, with a 7-day free trial; an Agency plan covers bigger portfolios.

Sonar supports both the iOS App Store and Google Play Store. You can track keywords, rankings, and competitors across both platforms from a single dashboard — no need for separate tools or subscriptions. Data sources include the iTunes Search API for iOS app metadata and search rankings, App Store autocomplete for iOS keyword popularity, and Google Play autocomplete plus install data for Android keyword discovery. Both stores are treated as first-class citizens with full keyword research, difficulty scoring, and daily rank tracking.

Sonar builds its keyword metrics entirely from free, public store signals. For iOS, popularity is synthesized from App Store autocomplete priority combined with competitive signals from the top-ranking apps (review volumes and title relevance), normalized onto a 0–100 score; app metadata and search rankings come from the iTunes Search API. For Google Play, we use autocomplete frequency together with install-count data from the top results. All difficulty scores are calculated by our proprietary algorithm that analyzes the apps currently ranking for each keyword. Building on free public data keeps the tool fast and affordable — no expensive third-party data licenses to pass on to you.

Popularity (0–100) estimates how much a keyword is searched — higher means more potential traffic. Difficulty (0–100) estimates how hard it is to reach the top of the results — higher means the apps already ranking are stronger and harder to displace. Both are directional scores designed for comparing keywords against each other inside Sonar, not absolute numbers you can line up against another tool, since every ASO tool uses its own scale. The Gap column (Popularity minus Difficulty) highlights the sweet spot: high demand with low competition. For a full breakdown of what goes into each score, see trysonar.app/aso-keyword-scores-explained.

Our proprietary difficulty score (0–100) measures how hard it is to break into the top results for a keyword by analyzing the apps that already rank for it. It weighs how relevant those apps are to the term (for example, whether it appears in their titles), how established they are (install volumes, review counts, and ratings), how crowded the keyword is, and whether it's a branded term dominated by a single app. As a rough guide, 0–30 is low competition (a good opportunity), 30–60 is moderate, and 60–100 is highly competitive. We keep the exact weighting under the hood, but it's grounded in established ASO research and continuously calibrated.

Rankings are tracked daily for all subscribers. Automated rank tracking jobs run between 2–5 AM UTC, searching each of your tracked keywords and recording your app's rank in the results. Updated rankings are available in your dashboard by morning. You can also view historical rank trends over time to spot seasonal patterns, measure the impact of metadata changes, and catch ranking drops early. App metadata (ratings, reviews, install counts) is also synced daily to give you a complete picture of how your listing evolves.

Yes — every subscription includes unlimited competitor tracking with no per-app fees. Add any competitor app from the App Store or Google Play and Sonar will monitor their keyword rankings alongside yours. You can compare rankings side-by-side, run keyword gap analysis to discover terms competitors rank for that you don't target yet, and track their metadata changes (new versions, description updates, category switches). Competitor intelligence is one of the fastest ways to find keyword opportunities: if a similar app ranks well for a keyword you're missing, that's a signal worth acting on.

Yes. Sonar is built API-first — every data point in the dashboard is also available through our REST API. Indie subscribers get 1,000 API requests per day across all endpoints (5,000/day on Agency), plus a command-line tool (CLI) for scripting and automation. For API-only users (AI agents, MCP tools, scripts), we offer prepaid credit packs from $10 — no subscription required. Each new account gets 50 free credits on signup. Stateless endpoints cost 1 credit per call (app lookup, search, ASO score, suggestions, reviews, keyword extraction), keyword research costs 10 credits, and bulk revenue calls cost 1 credit per app ID. Credits never expire. API keys use Bearer token authentication with the aso_ prefix. Full documentation with request/response examples is at trysonar.app/docs/api.

The Indie plan is $19/month, or $189/year (which works out to $15.75/month). It covers 10 of your own apps, 2,500 tracked keywords, unlimited competitor tracking, all countries, full ranking history, review monitoring, alerts, and complete API, CLI, and MCP access. The Agency plan ($99/month, or $990/year) raises that to 50 apps, 10,000 keywords, a 5,000/day API allowance, and 5 team seats. Every subscription starts with a 7-day free trial — you won't be charged until it ends and can cancel anytime. If you only need API access (for AI agents or scripts), prepaid credit packs start at $10 with no subscription.

There's no free plan, but you can get real data without paying. Three free tools work in your browser with no signup: the ASO Score Checker (trysonar.app/tools/aso-score) audits any app's metadata, the Keyword Generator (trysonar.app/tools/keyword-generator) turns a seed term into hundreds of scored keyword ideas, and the Keyword Difficulty browser (trysonar.app/keyword-difficulty) has free difficulty scores for thousands of popular app keywords. After signing up you can also browse a read-only live demo of the full product before starting the 7-day free trial, and every new account gets 50 free API credits.

After the 7-day trial, your subscription begins automatically — no action needed. Your data — tracked apps, keywords, ranking history, and competitor groups — is fully preserved. You can cancel anytime during or after the trial from your settings page. The Indie plan is $19/month (or $15.75/month billed annually). The launch deal (50% off for life) is sold out.