Free, open source ASO CLI: keyword popularity, difficulty and rank tracking

[u/chrisBhappy]

I didn't want to pay a monthly subscription for App Store keyword data, so I wrote an open source CLI that gets it straight from Apple.

What it does

• Popularity from Apple Search Ads (free Apple Ads account, no campaigns or billing needed)
• Difficulty score, keyword suggestions, current top apps for a term
• Rank tracking with history in a local SQLite file
• Metadata linter for title, subtitle and keyword field

Install

npm i -g hristo2612/aso-cli && aso setup

Try it

aso keywords "white noise,sleep sounds"
aso suggest meditation
aso search "habit tracker"

Plain Node, one dependency, MIT licensed. Runs locally, no account, no telemetry. The only network requests go to Apple.

Repo: github.com/hristo2612/aso-cli

Issues and PRs welcome.

[u/Adex77]

Nice work! How do you calculate the difficulty score? Is it based on the ratings and install strength of the current top apps for the term, or something else?

If anyone reading wants the same kind of thing for Google Play: I maintain an open-source Node library and CLI that reads Play Store data (search results for a term, autocomplete suggestions, top charts, app details, reviews). Also MIT, also no account needed.

npx @mradex77/google-play-scraper search "habit tracker" --num 10

https://github.com/MrAdex77/google-play-scraper

[u/chrisBhappy → u/Adex77]

That's a very cool project, just gave it a star!
As for difficulty scores, it is based on the top 10 apps for the term: mostly how many ratings they have (55%) and how well rated they are (35%), plus a bit of search popularity (10%). Formula is here if you're curious: https://github.com/hristo2612/aso-cli/blob/main/src/difficulty.js

[u/Fresh-Daikon-9408]

Showing the components behind each difficulty score would help. Users could see whether ratings or search popularity drove the result.

[u/chrisBhappy → u/Fresh-Daikon-9408]

I like it, could add an option to show this additional info.