What those tools are actually built for
Appfigures, Sensor Tower, and data.ai are strong, established products aimed at agencies and teams managing a portfolio of apps across multiple clients, or publishers who need to watch competitors. That shows up in what they prioritize: multi-platform coverage (iOS and Android), ASO keyword rank tracking, competitor intelligence, and review aggregation across many territories and apps at once.
Why that can be overkill for one developer
If you’re a solo developer with your own handful of apps — not managing client portfolios, not doing competitor research, not tracking Android at all — a lot of that surface area goes unused, and the pricing is built around the agency/portfolio use case rather than a single developer’s own numbers.
What Manifest does instead
Manifest is narrower on purpose: it keeps your own App Store Connect data beyond Apple’s roughly two-week API window, computes an honest week-over-week trend (never inventing a zero for a day Apple hasn’t reported yet), and gives you a “Copy for AI” export so you can get growth analysis from an AI chat you already use, instead of paying for a built-in analytics dashboard and keyword tools you won’t touch. Pricing is scaled for a solo developer’s app count — Indie is $14/mo for up to 8 apps, not agency pricing for a portfolio.
What Manifest doesn’t do
To be direct about it: Manifest doesn’t track Android, doesn’t do ASO keyword rank tracking, and doesn’t watch competitors. If that’s what you actually need, Appfigures, Sensor Tower, or data.ai are the right tool for that job and this isn’t a substitute for it. Manifest is specifically for keeping your own App Store Connect numbers honest and permanent, nothing more.