# Sensor Tower alternatives for indie app developers

By Mika Heinonen (Indie iOS developer and maker of Fledly). Published 2026-10-28, updated 2026-10-28.
Canonical: https://fledly.app/compare/sensor-tower-alternatives/

> Sensor Tower is sold by custom quote, often tens of thousands of dollars a year. These are the alternatives an indie developer can actually afford, grouped by the question you need answered: market revenue, app ideas, or keyword tracking.

**Key takeaways**

- **Sensor Tower publishes no prices.** Plans are quoted by sales; buyer data puts the median contract around **$75,000 a year**. For an indie developer that's usually out of reach.
- **For revenue of other apps on a budget:** Fledly (revenue ranges from Top Grossing rank, free to start), Appark (free, by its own description), GetAppNiche and AppKittie (paid, prices not published on the pages we checked).
- **For app idea research:** Fledly scores app concepts on young apps that already earn.
- **For your own apps and keywords:** Appfigures (free plan, from $9.99 a month), Astro ($108 a year, Mac), Sonar ($29 a month).
- **For agencies:** AppTweak (from $79 a month billed yearly) and Mobile Action (from $15 a month).

*Disclosure: we make Fledly. Prices are from each vendor's public pages or third-party listings, checked on October 28, 2026, and change often. Where we couldn't find a published price, we say so.*

## First, what do you actually need?

Sensor Tower covers a lot: market-wide downloads and revenue for both stores, years of history, ad intelligence and audience data. An indie developer rarely needs all of it. Pick the question first:

1. **"How much do other apps make?"** You need revenue estimates for apps you don't own.
2. **"What should I build?"** You need evidence that an idea works for newcomers, not just for incumbents.
3. **"How do I rank my own app?"** You need keyword research and rank tracking.

## The alternatives

| Tool | Best for | Stores | Price (Oct 2026) |
|:--|:--|:--|:--|
| **Fledly** | App idea research and young apps already earning; keyword tracking | iOS | Free; Pro $9/month or $79/year; Studio $24/month |
| **Appfigures** | Your own sales and downloads, plus keywords; market estimates on top plans | iOS, Google Play | Free Starter; Connect $9.99/month; Grow $599.99/month for download estimates |
| **Sonar** | Keyword tracking with API and MCP across two stores | iOS, Google Play | Indie $29/month or $290/year |
| **Astro** | Simple keyword tracking on a Mac | iOS | $108/year |
| **AppTweak** | Agencies and teams: history, keywords, market add-ons | iOS, Google Play | Essential from $79/month billed yearly |
| **Mobile Action** | Apple Ads management with ASO | iOS, Google Play | From $15/month |
| **Appark, GetAppNiche, AppKittie** | Browsing other apps' revenue and downloads | iOS, Google Play | Appark describes itself as free; the others didn't publish prices on the pages we checked |

## For revenue of other apps

**Fledly** estimates monthly revenue for every app on the US Top Grossing charts, overall and in every category, from chart rank with a [published model](/blog/how-much-do-top-grossing-apps-make/). Each figure is a range from a third to three times the middle value. It's rough, but it's on the free plan, and it's good enough to tell a $50,000-a-month app from a $2-million-a-month one.

**Appark** describes itself as a free app data platform with top charts, filters by download and revenue range, and competitor tracking. **GetAppNiche** and **AppKittie** sell app revenue and download data with search filters; AppKittie also tracks ads and creators. We couldn't find published prices for these two on the pages we checked.

**Appfigures** includes global download estimates on its Grow plan ($599.99 a month), and revenue and download estimates inside its Keyword Inspector on Boost ($299.99 a month).

None of these match Sensor Tower's accuracy or history. Use them to compare and shortlist.

## For app idea research

This is the gap Sensor Tower leaves for indie developers: it tells you who is big, not what a newcomer can still win.

**Fledly** looks only at apps under 24 months old that aren't from big publishers and already appear on the US Top Grossing charts, groups them into concepts, and scores each concept from 0 to 100 on proof (revenue), repeat (how many unrelated developers made it work), pull (new ratings per month) and window (how recently the newest one launched). It then discounts ideas that look ad-driven or are hard to build alone. See [this month's 22 proven ideas](/blog/best-app-ideas-indie-ios-2026/) for an example.

## For your own apps and keywords

- **Appfigures** if you want your own sales, downloads and reviews next to your ranks. See [Fledly vs Appfigures](/compare/fledly-vs-appfigures/).
- **Astro** if you want a Mac app with unlimited keywords. See [Fledly vs Astro](/compare/fledly-vs-astro/).
- **Sonar** if you need Google Play, all countries and an API. See [Fledly vs Sonar](/compare/fledly-vs-sonar/).
- **Fledly** if you are iOS only, want a free plan, and want the idea research too.

## When Sensor Tower is still worth it

If you need numbers you can defend to investors or a board, Google Play download estimates, ad creatives or years of history, no indie tool replaces it. We compare the two directly in [Fledly vs Sensor Tower](/compare/fledly-vs-sensor-tower/).

## Frequently asked questions

### Is there a free alternative to Sensor Tower?

For some uses. Fledly's Free plan shows young apps earning on the US Top Grossing charts with revenue ranges and 3 scored app ideas a week. Appark describes itself as free. Appfigures' free plan covers your own apps. None has Sensor Tower's coverage or accuracy.

### What is the cheapest way to estimate another app's revenue?

Look up its Top Grossing rank and apply a rank-to-revenue model. Fledly does this daily for every app on the US charts and shows a range. You can try the model yourself in the calculator in [How much do iPhone apps make at each Top Grossing rank?](/blog/how-much-do-top-grossing-apps-make/).

### How much does Sensor Tower cost?

Sensor Tower doesn't publish prices. Vendr's buyer data, as cited in a competitor's review in October 2026, puts the median contract at about $75,000 a year.

## Sources

- Sensor Tower: [sensortower.com](https://sensortower.com/) and [Toolradar's pricing page](https://toolradar.com/tools/sensortower/pricing); Vendr figures as cited in [Sonar's comparison](https://trysonar.app/alternatives/sensor-tower).
- [Appfigures pricing](https://appfigures.com/pricing) and [Toolradar listing](https://toolradar.com/tools/appfigures/pricing); [Sonar](https://trysonar.app/for/indie-developers); [Astro](https://tryastro.app/).
- AppTweak and Mobile Action prices as listed in October 2026 (see [our ASO tools comparison](/blog/aso-tools-for-indie-ios-developers/)).
- [Appark's own description](https://appark.ai/en/blog/sensor-tower-free-alternative-for-indie-Devs) (updated May 2026); GetAppNiche and AppKittie from their public pages and listings.