sonarSonar vs Sensor Tower
The ASO side of Sensor Tower, without the sales call.
Keyword research, daily rank tracking and competitor gaps for the App Store and Google Play, at a public $29/month instead of a custom quote.
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Which one to choose
Choose Sonar if…
- You're an indie developer or run a small studio
- Your monthly ASO budget is under $100
- You want an API and CLI included, not as an enterprise add-on
Choose Sensor Tower if…
- You're an investor, analyst, or BD team doing market research
- You need ad creative libraries across Meta, TikTok, and Google
- You need download and revenue estimates as your primary use case
We build Sonar (trysonar.app), so weigh this accordingly. Sensor Tower's plans and features were checked against its public pages on Oct 19, 2026, and this page says plainly when Sensor Tower is the better pick.
Feature by feature
How Sonar and Sensor Tower compare
Checked against Sensor Tower's public pages on Oct 19, 2026.
| Feature | Sonar | Sensor Tower |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing and access | ||
| Public, self-serve pricing | Yes | No: Sales-led, contracts only |
| Free trial without sales call | Yes: 7-day, full access | Limited: Free signup; paid plans through sales |
| Monthly billing under $50 | Yes | No |
| ASO core | ||
| Keyword research (volume + difficulty) | Yes | Yes |
| Daily rank tracking | Yes | Yes |
| 2,500 tracked keywords | Yes | Limited: Not published — set per contract |
| 10 apps at a flat price | Yes | Limited: Not published — set per contract |
| Competitor keyword gap analysis | Yes | Yes |
| All countries included | Yes | Limited: Not published — set per contract |
| API, CLI and agents | ||
| REST API included | Yes: 1K req/day on Indie | Paid add-on: Separate API subscription |
| Native CLI | Yes | No: None found as of Oct 2026 |
| MCP server for AI agents | Yes: Hosted MCP server | Yes: Official MCP server (Jul 2026), needs an API subscription |
| CSV / JSON export | Yes | Yes |
| Beyond ASO | ||
| Ad creative library | Limited: Ad Spy: competitors' Meta ads + TikTok posts | Yes |
| Download & revenue estimates | Limited: Revenue estimate endpoint only | Yes |
| Audience demographics | No | Yes |
| Cross-app user overlap | No | Yes |
The other side
When to choose Sensor Tower instead
If you just need to pick keywords, track rankings and watch competitors on the App Store and Google Play, Sonar does that self-serve for $29/month. Sensor Tower's value — and its price — is in everything beyond ASO: download and revenue estimates, ad intelligence and audience data.
Where Sensor Tower is stronger
Built for: Enterprise app publishers, ad agencies, financial analysts, and investors who need market-wide mobile intelligence — not just ASO.
- Industry-standard download and revenue estimates
- Ad intelligence across networks, from its Pathmatics acquisition
- Cross-platform audience and consumer insights
- Trusted source for press, analyst and M&A reports
- Official MCP server (July 2026) for API subscribers
What Sonar doesn't do
- No market-wide download, revenue or audience data: Sonar's revenue figures are rough per-app estimates, not a panel-based dataset like Sensor Tower's.
- Ad Spy covers only the Meta ads and TikTok posts of competitors you track, with no spend or impression data. It is not a network-wide creative library.
- No analyst services, custom data deals or enterprise support contracts.
- Apple reports a popularity of 5 for most long-tail iOS searches, so Sonar's number below that floor (and every Google Play popularity) is its own calibrated estimate, not an Apple figure.
- Sonar is young and founder-led: keyword history starts when Sonar began tracking a term (2026 at the earliest), and there are no account managers or managed services.
Pricing
What each one costs
Sonar
Self-serveIndie
10 apps, 2,500 keywords, MCP, CLI and API · $290/yr billed annually
$29/mo
Agency
50 apps, 10,000 keywords, 5 seats · $1,490/yr billed annually
$149/mo
API credits
Pay per call, no subscription · 50 free credits to start
From $10
Indie and Agency start with a 7-day free trial. Full pricing
Sensor Tower
Sales-ledAll tiers
Custom quote per customer; no public price list
Not published
Third-party purchase data from Vendr (updated Feb 2026) shows a median contract of about $75,000 a year across 40 purchases, ranging from roughly $29,500 to $115,000.
Published pricing as of Oct 19, 2026 — confirm on Sensor Tower's site.
Why Sonar
Where Sonar is different
80
tools in the hosted MCP server
Your agent can run it
A hosted MCP server, a CLI and a REST API, on every plan.Both stores, one plan
The App Store and Google Play side by side, with every country included.
App Store popularity- habit tracker56
- habit tracker app16
Apple's own numbers
Apple's Search Popularity where Apple reports it, and Apple's true search order for iOS ranks.- habit tracker
FAQ
Sonar and Sensor Tower, answered
Sonar is an alternative for the ASO portion of Sensor Tower's platform — keyword research, rank tracking, and competitor monitoring. Its Ad Spy shows the Meta ads and TikTok posts of competitors you track, but Sonar does not replace Sensor Tower's network-wide ad-creative library, market intelligence, or audience features.
Sensor Tower does not publish pricing — its pricing page says only that plans are customised per customer, and you go through sales. Third-party purchase data from Vendr (updated Feb 2026) puts the median contract at about $75,000 a year across 40 purchases, with a range of roughly $29,500 to $115,000. Sonar's Indie plan is $29/month, listed publicly, no call required.
Not for everything Sensor Tower does: no free tool matches its download, revenue and ad-intelligence data. For the ASO part, Sonar has free tools that need no signup. The ASO Score Checker audits any App Store or Google Play listing, the keyword generator suggests keywords for an app, and the rank checker shows where an app ranks for up to five keywords. Sonar's API also has a free tier that works without an API key, and new accounts get 50 free API credits. Daily rank tracking and keyword research in the dashboard need the Indie plan ($29/month) after a 7-day free trial.
Yes. Sonar is fully self-serve with a 7-day free trial. Sign up, add an app, and start tracking keywords in minutes. No demos required.
Sonar has a revenue-estimate API endpoint that returns monthly revenue estimates per app. Sensor Tower's market-intelligence offering is broader, with daily download/revenue charts across geos and historical depth Sonar does not match.
Test Sonar against Sensor Tower
Add your app and the keywords you care about, then compare the numbers yourself.
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