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App Store competitor analysis
A competitor is the app standing between you and a keyword you want. See who ranks above you on each term, which keywords you share, and what they changed and when.
Free plan: 1 app, 25 keywords in each of 2 storefronts, 30 days of history, no card, no end date. Pro is $20/mo.
What the screen shows
What you do with it
Pick winnable keywords
A wall of 200 ratings and a wall of 400,000 are not the same opportunity, however similar the rank looks.
Track the keywordsCatch abandoned leaders
Leaders that stopped updating marks top-10 apps that have not shipped in over a year. Their places are the easiest to take.
React to their changes
When a competitor renames its app, swaps its screenshots or changes its price, the update is in the list with its date.
Get it as an alertAd partners
For the competitors you track, the ad networks they work with:
- Each competitor with the ad networks it names as direct partners and the resellers it lists.
- The networks most of your competitors work with, and how many of them use each one.
- A competitor that names no partner is shown as such, not counted as one that runs no ads.
- Read it before you choose an ad network for your own app, or to see where a competitor sells its ad space.
What you see for each competitor
| View | What it answers |
|---|---|
| All competitors | Every competitor of your app with its rating count, latest version and the keywords where it ranks above you. |
| Competitor sets | Groups of competitors you choose. For each one: the keywords you share and the ones only they rank for. |
| Competitor updates | What each tracked competitor changed and when: name, icon, screenshots, description, price, category, languages, publisher and minimum iOS version. |
| Ad partners | The ad networks a competitor works with, when it shows ads. |
| Keyword screen | The apps above you, their rating counts and last update. Two cards sit beside them: Leaders that stopped updating and Apple's own apps. |
What each plan includes
| Free | Pro | Studio | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apps above you shown per keyword | 5 | 10 | 10 |
| Tracked competitors per app | 5 | 10 | 25 |
| Competitor updates | Last 7 days | 9 months | up to 18 months |
| Storefronts compared | 2 | All 175 | All 175 |
| Competitor keyword lists | — | 10 a month | 50 a month |
Pro is $20/month or $200 a year ($16.67/month), Studio $60/month or $600 a year ($50/month). Competitor tracking is on every plan, Free included.
How it works
- Add your app. Your competitor list fills with the apps you meet in search, up to your plan's limit, and you can add or remove any app by its link.
- Group them in Competitor sets, for example by market or by feature, and compare keywords set by set.
- Read Competitor updates: every change to a tracked competitor's store page appears with its date.
- Open a keyword to see the apps above you, how many ratings each one has and when it last shipped an update.
How to read a competitor
A named app above you on a named keyword.
Every competitor here is tied to the keywords where it stands above you, in a storefront, on a date. That is something you can act on today.
- The list changes when the search results change, so a new rival shows up on its own.
- Leave a competitor's brand words aside: its own name is not a market you can enter.
- A competitor's revenue and downloads are one click away in App Intelligence (Pro and Studio).
How to do App Store competitor analysis, keyword by keyword
- Start from the search result, not the category. An app in your category that never appears on your terms is not your competitor; one that stands above you on three of them is.
- The number beside a term is its ratings wall: it shows how established the apps you would compete with on that term are. Use it to compare terms; it does not tell you how many ratings you need or guarantee a rank. how many reviews top-ranking apps have
- Strip their brand. A rival's brand words are not an opportunity for you; the free brand filter removes them from a list.
- Date their changes. A rival that edits its title and moves up a week later has told you something; a leader that has not touched its listing in two years is the softest target in the result.
Updated:
Frequently asked
How are competitors chosen?
Your list fills with the apps that rank around you on your tracked keywords, up to your plan's limit. You can add any app by its link and remove the ones you don't care about.
Can I see when a competitor changed their store page?
Yes. Competitor updates lists each change with its date: name, icon, screenshots, description, price, category, languages, publisher and minimum iOS version. Free shows the last 7 days.
Can I see a competitor's downloads or revenue?
Yes, in App Intelligence on Pro and Studio: paste any App Store link and Hive tells you its monthly revenue and downloads, worldwide and by country.
Why show the highest rating count instead of the median?
Because the highest is the one that actually blocks you. A median describes a middle nobody has to beat.
Can I track competitors for free?
Yes. The free plan tracks 5 competitors per app, shows the top 5 apps above you on each keyword and the last 7 days of competitor updates.
See this for your own app
Paste your store link, add your keywords. Rank, the apps above you and demand are measured every day.
Start free →Free plan: 1 app, 25 keywords in each of 2 storefronts, 30 days of history, no card, no end date. Pro is $20/mo.