An Astro alternative with monthly billing and a lower yearly price
Astro and Ascope are both native Mac apps for App Store keyword research, with popularity data from Apple. Ascope adds monthly billing, a lower yearly price and an MCP server for AI assistants. Astro has a few features Ascope doesn't have yet. Here's an honest comparison.
Ascope vs Astro at a glance
| Ascope | Astro | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | Native Mac app (macOS 14+) | Native Mac app (macOS 14+) |
| Keyword popularity | From Apple Search Ads (5–100) | From Apple Search Ads (5–100) |
| Difficulty score | Yes | Yes |
| Daily rank tracking and history | Yes | Yes |
| Keyword suggestions | Yes | Yes |
| App Store countries | 50+ | 60+ |
| Free plan or trial | No, 14-day money-back guarantee instead | Free trial |
| Monthly billing | Yes, $29.99/month | No, annual only |
| Yearly price | $99.99/year | $108/year |
| Unlimited apps and keywords | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server for AI assistants | Yes | Yes (beta) |
| Competitor keyword discovery | Track competitor apps for your keywords | Yes, from a keyword database |
| Ratings and reviews tracking | No | Yes |
| Keyword translation | No | Yes (DeepL) |
| Refund window | 14 days | 14 days |
Astro details are taken from tryastro.app and public pricing as of October 2026. Check their site for current information.
When Ascope is the better fit
- You prefer paying monthly. Pay $29.99 a month and cancel anytime, instead of committing to a year up front.
- You want the lowest yearly price. Ascope Pro is $99.99 a year, with a 14-day money-back guarantee.
- You work with AI assistants. Ascope's MCP server is included in Pro and lets Cursor, Claude Code and Claude Desktop read your rankings and run keyword research.
When Astro is the better fit
- You need to see which keywords a competitor ranks for, from a large keyword database.
- You want ratings and reviews tracked across stores.
- You localize into many languages and want built-in keyword translation.
Switching from Astro
- Get Ascope Pro, download the app and activate your license key.
- Add your app by name or App Store ID.
- Copy your keywords from Astro and paste them into Add Keywords, separated by commas.
- Ascope fetches rank, popularity and difficulty right away and tracks them daily from then on.
Frequently asked questions
Is Ascope cheaper than Astro?
On the yearly plan, yes: Ascope Pro is $99.99 per year, and Astro lists a single annual plan at $108 per year. Ascope also has a monthly plan at $29.99 if you don't want to commit for a year, and a 14-day money-back guarantee on both plans.
Do Ascope and Astro use the same popularity data?
Both show the popularity score Apple reports in Apple Search Ads, on Apple's 5–100 scale. Difficulty scores are calculated differently by each app.
Can I move my keywords from Astro to Ascope?
There's no automatic import yet. You can paste a comma-separated list of keywords into Ascope's Add Keywords sheet and it will fetch rank, popularity and difficulty for all of them.
Astro is a product of 28 bit S.R.L. Ascope is not affiliated with Astro.
Switch to Ascope
Pro from $8.33/month, billed yearly. 14-day money-back guarantee.
Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later.