Astro tracks iOS from a Mac. Sonar tracks both stores.

Yes — Sonar covers the same ASO workflow as Astro (keyword research, rank tracking, competitor analysis) with two key differences: it works for both iOS and Google Play, and it's web-based, with rank tracking that runs on its servers and a REST API, CLI and MCP server, rather than a native Mac app.

Astro sells one plan: a single Mac license at $108/year, shown on its site as $9/month and billed annually, with unlimited keywords and a 14-day refund window. A free version tracks up to 10 keywords. Sonar is $29/month or $290/year. Astro is the cheaper tool — you trade away Google Play coverage, rank tracking that runs when your Mac is off, and a public API and CLI.

No — Astro is iOS-only. If you ship to both stores, Sonar (or another cross-platform tool) is required.

No. Astro collects rankings inside its Mac app, once a day at a time you choose (8:00 by default), and only while the app is open. When the Mac is off or the app is closed, no ranks are collected, so rank history can have gaps — on a Mac where Astro was rarely opened, a 30-day rank chart showed a single data point. Sonar tracks every keyword daily on its servers, whether you open the dashboard or not.

Astro does not publish a public REST API or a CLI. It does ship an official MCP server (beta) inside the Mac app, which AI assistants on the same Mac can call while the app is running — nothing outside that Mac can reach the data, and everything is stored locally. Sonar's API and CLI are first-class — every paid plan includes them, and its MCP server can run hosted.

Astro's popularity scores, like those of most iOS ASO tools, are based on Apple's own Search Ads popularity index (5–100) — the only primary source of iOS keyword volume that exists. Sonar reads the same index directly from the Apple Ads console and refreshes it daily, then pairs it with a difficulty score computed from the apps actually ranking in the live top 10. The practical difference between tools isn't the source — it's how fresh the value is and whether you can act on it with tracking, alerts, and an API.

No — Astro is a native macOS app and requires a Mac. Sonar is web-based, so it works in any browser on any OS, plus via CLI and API on any machine.

Yes — Astro ships an official MCP server, currently in beta, built into the Mac app. Once you enable it in Settings, it serves 12 tools (list apps, read keywords, rankings and ratings, add apps and keywords, set notes and tags, search the App Store, get keyword suggestions) over HTTP at 127.0.0.1:8089, limited to 60 requests a minute per client. It accepts localhost connections only, and runs only while the Astro app is open. Cursor, VS Code, Claude Code and Antigravity connect directly; Claude Desktop needs a Cloudflare quick tunnel. Sonar's MCP server (@sonarapp/mcp) covers its full API and runs hosted or locally, so an agent can query your rankings with your laptop closed.