# Salla & Zid App Store Tracker (`abdulwhab95/salla-zid-app-store-tracker`) Actor

Every app in the Salla App Store and the Zid App Market: developer company, category, rating, rating count and price. Track new apps and rating or price changes between runs. HTTP only, no browser, no key.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/abdulwhab95/salla-zid-app-store-tracker.md
- **Developed by:** [ABDULWAHAB NASER RASHED ALQARAWI](https://apify.com/abdulwhab95) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce, Lead generation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.00 / 1,000 apps

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Salla & Zid App Store Tracker

Every app in the **Salla App Store** (apps.salla.sa) and the **Zid App Market**
(apps.zid.sa) — the two app stores behind most online shops in Saudi Arabia and
the Gulf — with the developer company, category, rating, number of ratings and
price.

Turn on **Only new or changed apps**, schedule it, and each run returns only
the apps that were just listed or whose rating or price moved.

No API key, no login, no browser, no proxy.

***

### What you get

One row per app, **22 fields, every one always present**. Missing values come
back as `null`, never dropped. Example values from a run on 15 Sep 2026:

| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| `platform` / `appId` | `salla` / `939200655` |
| `name` | Noti Money |
| `developer` | وادي بلسم لتقنية المعلومات |
| `category` / `categories` | `Marketing` / `["Marketing", "Analytics", "Chat", "Others"]` |
| `rating` / `ratingCount` | `4.8` / `297` |
| `pricingText` | `69 SAR / Monthly (Free Trial 7 Days)` |
| `price` / `currency` / `isFree` | `69.0` / `SAR` / `false` |
| `url` | `https://apps.salla.sa/en/app/939200655` |
| `changeType` / `changedFields` | `UPDATED` / `["rating", "ratingCount"]` — only with *Only new or changed apps* |
| `previousRating` / `previousRatingCount` / `previousPrice` | the values at the last run — only with `UPDATED` |

Plus `shortDescription`, `iconUrl`, `lastUpdated` and `scrapedAt`.

**`developer` is a business, never a person.** Many developers list only their
own name. When a listing shows a person's name instead of a company, `developer`
is `null`. This is decided by a rule, not a registry: a name with no business
word (company, LLC, Est., شركة, مؤسسة, …) that starts with a common given name is
treated as a person. On 15 Sep 2026 it hid 74 of 802 Salla apps' developers and
35 of 326 Zid apps' developers. No developer email, phone or reviewer name is
collected.

**`rating` is `null` for apps nobody has rated.** Both stores display a default
score for unrated apps (Zid shows 5 stars); that is not a rating.

**`price`** is the amount in the pricing text, `0` for free apps, and `null` when
the store shows no amount — free trials and usage-based plans.

***

### Input

| Input | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| `platforms` | `["salla", "zid"]` | Which stores to read. |
| `language` | `en` | `en` or `ar` — names, categories and pricing text as each store shows them in that language. |
| `maxAppsPerPlatform` | `5000` | Stop after this many apps from each store, in the store's own order. With `onlyChanges` it counts apps checked. |
| `onlyChanges` | `false` | Tracking mode — see below. |
| `stateStoreName` | `gulf-app-stores-state` | Named key-value store that keeps the snapshot between runs. One name per independent tracker. |

***

### Tracking: only new or changed apps

Turn on `onlyChanges` and schedule the Actor. Each run compares every app with
the last run and delivers only:

- **`NEW`** — an app not seen before (the first run delivers every app as `NEW`), or
- **`UPDATED`** — its `rating`, `ratingCount`, `price` or `pricingText` changed.
  `changedFields` says which; `previousRating`, `previousRatingCount` and
  `previousPrice` hold the values from the last run.

A quiet day costs nothing in results: measured 15 Sep 2026, the second run over
both stores delivered **0 rows** in 90.3 s.

Honest limits of tracking:

- An app removed from a store is not reported; it simply stops appearing.
- The snapshot is kept per store and per language. Switching `language` on the
  same `stateStoreName` starts a fresh snapshot.
- An app cut off by your spending limit is left out of the snapshot, so it comes
  back as `NEW` next run rather than being missed.

***

### Use it for

- **Market research** on the Saudi and Gulf e-commerce app ecosystem — which
  categories are crowded, what apps charge, who has traction.
- **Competitor tracking** for app developers — rating and review growth, price
  changes, new entrants in your category.
- **Partnership and sales lists** — the companies building for Salla and Zid merchants.

***

### How it works

Both store websites load their app lists from a public JSON API in the visitor's
browser. The Actor reads the same API, over plain HTTP:

1. **Salla:** the app list (15 apps a page), then each category's app list, so
   every app gets the categories it appears under.
2. **Zid:** the app list, 100 apps a page. Zid's list repeats some apps; each app
   is delivered once.

Measured 15 Sep 2026 on a home connection (speed on Apify's servers will differ):

| Run | Apps delivered | Requests | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Both stores, first run | 1,128 (802 Salla + 326 Zid) | 169 | 94.1 s |
| Both stores, `onlyChanges`, second run, nothing changed | 0 | 169 | 90.3 s |
| Both stores in Arabic, 5 apps each | 10 | 112 | 57.9 s |

Zero failed requests in all three.

**Why a full run takes about a minute and a half.** Salla's API allows 240
requests a minute (its `x-ratelimit-limit` header; the count resets every 60 s)
and answered HTTP 429 to a run started right after two unpaced runs. The Actor
now sends at most 120 requests a minute, and if a store still answers 429 it
waits (honouring `Retry-After`) instead of giving up. Every Salla run walks the
category lists in full, so a small `maxAppsPerPlatform` still costs about 110
requests.

***

### Honest notes

**Not from the websites' HTML.** apps.salla.sa's sitemap names only 29 apps and
its pages hold only a few, so the Actor uses the JSON the site itself loads.
These APIs are not documented for public use and may change without notice.
When a store's list cannot be read to the end, the run report says so
(`listingComplete: false`) and the status message names the store.

**robots.txt is respected** on both API hosts (checked 15 Sep 2026: both allow
general crawling).

**Categories on Salla:** `category` is the first category other than
"Others"; `categories` lists all. 4 of 802 apps were in no category list and have
`category: null`.

**Ratings are rounded by the stores' lists:** Salla to one decimal, Zid to a
whole star.

**Currency on Zid** follows the location the request comes from, and the store
sends no currency choice of its own. A run from Kuwait saw `KWD`; a run on
Apify's servers (15 Sep 2026) got amounts with no currency mark, such as
`From 126.50 / 1 Month`, so `currency` is `null` there and the amount's
currency is unknown. Salla prices always carry `SAR`. Only 54 of 326 Zid apps
show an amount at all; the rest are free, trials or usage-based.

**`lastUpdated` is always `null` today.** Neither store publishes an update date
in its listing or app details (checked 15 Sep 2026). The field is kept so the
schema does not change if one appears.

**Every run publishes a report** to the key-value store under `RUN_REPORT`:
apps listed and delivered per store, new/updated/unchanged counts, failed
requests, whether each list was read to the end, and a summary — free apps,
rated apps, median rating, apps without a category, developers hidden as
personal names.

***

### Questions, or an app that is missing?

Open an issue with the app's store link.

# Actor input Schema

## `platforms` (type: `array`):

Which app stores to read.

## `language` (type: `string`):

Language of app names, categories and pricing text, as the stores show them.

## `maxAppsPerPlatform` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many apps from each store, in the store's own listing order. With 'Only new or changed apps' it counts apps checked, not apps delivered.

## `onlyChanges` (type: `boolean`):

Tracking mode. Remembers every app between runs and returns only apps that are new or whose rating, rating count, price or pricing text changed (with changeType, changedFields, previousRating, previousRatingCount and previousPrice). The first run returns every app as NEW.

## `stateStoreName` (type: `string`):

Named key-value store that keeps the last snapshot for 'Only new or changed apps'. Use a different name for each independent tracker.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "platforms": [
    "salla",
    "zid"
  ],
  "language": "en",
  "maxAppsPerPlatform": 5000,
  "onlyChanges": false,
  "stateStoreName": "gulf-app-stores-state"
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

## `runReport` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "platforms": [
        "salla",
        "zid"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("abdulwhab95/salla-zid-app-store-tracker").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "platforms": [
        "salla",
        "zid",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("abdulwhab95/salla-zid-app-store-tracker").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "platforms": [
    "salla",
    "zid"
  ]
}' |
apify call abdulwhab95/salla-zid-app-store-tracker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,abdulwhab95/salla-zid-app-store-tracker"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/g32k3q5JvHZQoh0ry/builds/hUk29TO5vLxA8dMa9/openapi.json