What happened to App Annie
App Annie rebranded to data.ai in late 2021, and Sensor Tower acquired data.ai in March 2024. There is no separate App Annie product to sign up for any more, so “App Annie alternative” really means “what should I use for the job App Annie used to do?”
That job was two different jobs, and the right replacement depends on which one you had.
Job 1: market intelligence
If you used App Annie to size a category, estimate a competitor’s downloads or revenue, or plan ad spend, you were using modeled data about apps you do not own.
- Sensor Tower now carries the data.ai datasets and is the direct successor for this job. It is aimed at companies doing competitive research.
- Appfigures combines market intelligence and keyword tools with your own store analytics, and also serves independent developers. See Appfigures vs App Annie for the comparison.
Manifest is not a substitute for either. It has no competitor estimates, keyword rankings or Android data.
Job 2: reviewing your own apps
If you mostly opened App Annie to check your own downloads, proceeds and subscriptions across several apps, you do not need modeled data at all. Apple already reports those numbers to you, and the gap is keeping them in one place long enough to compare them.
You have three options:
- App Store Connect directly. Free, and the source of truth. The cost is that history is limited and each report answers a different question. Why Sales and Trends and Analytics show different numbers, and what Apple actually keeps.
- A spreadsheet you maintain. Cheap, but you have to download the reports on schedule or the history has holes.
- Manifest. It captures Apple’s reports daily and keeps them, marks missing days as unreported instead of counting them as zero, and shows every figure as a sum, ratio or difference over Apple’s own reports. No model, no panel. Indie is $14/month for up to 8 apps and Studio is $39/month for an unlimited portfolio, both with a 7-day trial.
Quick way to choose
- Competitor and category estimates: Sensor Tower.
- Estimates plus your own numbers and keyword tools: Appfigures.
- A permanent, checkable record of your own apps: Manifest.
- Only occasional checks on one or two apps: App Store Connect.
These are not mutually exclusive. Many solo developers use App Store Connect for day-to-day checks and add a market-intelligence tool only when they have a competitive question to answer.
Before you switch
Whatever you choose, check that your own reports are complete before you trust any trend. A day with no data is not a day with zero downloads. Why App Store Connect shows zero downloads walks through the four checks.
Related
- Appfigures alternative: where Manifest fits against Appfigures.