# Shopify App Store Rankings Tracker (Category Positions) (`mrslm_data/shopify-app-category-rankings`) Actor

Rank of every app in any Shopify App Store category: position, ad slots, rating, reviews and rank change since your last run. Schedule it to track rivals.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/mrslm_data/shopify-app-category-rankings.md
- **Developed by:** [shawn slam](https://apify.com/mrslm_data) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce, Developer tools, SEO tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.80 / 1,000 app ranking rows

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

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

## Shopify App Store Rankings Tracker (Category Positions)

**See where every app ranks in any Shopify App Store category, which apps buy the ad slots, and how ranks moved since your last run. $1.00 per 1,000 app positions.**

### Quick start

1. Press **Start**. The form is already filled with this example input, so the first run returns real rows in under a minute:

```json
{
  "categories": [
    "marketing-and-conversion-customer-loyalty",
    "store-design-search-and-navigation"
  ],
  "maxRankPerCategory": 20
}
```

2. Swap in your own values, or call the Actor through the Apify API, Make, Zapier, n8n or the Python/JS clients with the same JSON.
3. Download the results as JSON, CSV or Excel from the **Output** tab, or schedule the run to repeat.

### Sample row (real data; previousRank/rankChange appear from the second run of a tracker)

```json
{
  "categoryHandle": "marketing-and-conversion-customer-loyalty",
  "categoryName": "Customer loyalty apps",
  "categoryTotalApps": 489,
  "rank": 2,
  "isAd": false,
  "appHandle": "joyio",
  "appName": "Joy Loyalty Program Rewards",
  "rating": 4.9,
  "reviewCount": 1788,
  "pricing": "Free plan available",
  "builtForShopify": true,
  "appUrl": "https://apps.shopify.com/joyio",
  "previousRank": 3,
  "rankChange": 1,
  "snapshotAt": "2026-10-27T08:03:12.675Z"
}
```

Fields: category, organic rank (ads excluded), ad flag and ad slot, page, app handle/name/URL/icon, rating, review count, pricing label, tagline, Built for Shopify badge, and, with comparison on, previous rank and change. Apps that dropped out of your top N are listed in the run summary.

### Who uses this

- **App founders and marketers**: track your rank and your rivals' every day.
- **Investors and analysts**: spot fast-rising apps early.
- **Agencies**: see which apps lead each category before recommending one.

### How to use it

1. Paste category URLs or handles (e.g. `marketing-and-conversion-customer-loyalty`), or turn on **All categories**.
2. Set **Max rank per category** (default 50).
3. Keep **Compare with previous run** on and schedule it daily for a rank history.

### Pricing

**$1.00 per 1,000 app positions** (Silver $0.90, Gold $0.80) + $0.00005 per run. Example: 10 categories x top 50 daily = 500 rows = $0.50 per day.

### FAQ

**Why no keyword search ranking?** The App Store's robots.txt doesn't allow crawling search results, so we only read category pages.

### Is it legal?

This Actor only reads pages and feeds that the website itself publishes to every visitor without a login. It obeys each site's robots.txt, keeps a polite request rate, and never tries to get past logins, paywalls, captchas or bot checks. It does not collect personal data such as emails, phone numbers or names of private individuals. You are responsible for how you use the data: follow the source site's terms, copyright and the privacy laws that apply to you (GDPR, CCPA, etc.). This tool is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by the platforms it reads.

# Actor input Schema

## `categories` (type: `array`):

Category handles or category page URLs from apps.shopify.com, e.g. "marketing-and-conversion-customer-loyalty" or "https://apps.shopify.com/categories/store-design-search-and-navigation".

## `allCategories` (type: `boolean`):

Track every category listed in the App Store's public category sitemap (about 160). Combine with a small max rank to keep costs low.

## `maxRankPerCategory` (type: `integer`):

How many organic (non-ad) positions to record per category. About 24 apps per page. 0 = the whole category.

## `includeAds` (type: `boolean`):

Also save the sponsored listings shown on each page (marked isAd, with their ad slot). They never take an organic rank.

## `compareWithPreviousRun` (type: `boolean`):

Adds previousRank, rankChange (positive = moved up) and isNewInTopN by comparing with the last run of the same tracker. Schedule the Actor daily or weekly to build a rank history.

## `trackerName` (type: `string`):

Keeps separate rank histories for separate schedules or clients. Runs with the same name compare against each other.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Safety cap on saved rows. 0 = no cap. Your max cost per run is always respected.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Usually not needed. Turn on Apify Proxy only if you track many categories very often.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "categories": [
    "marketing-and-conversion-customer-loyalty",
    "store-design-search-and-navigation"
  ],
  "allCategories": false,
  "maxRankPerCategory": 20,
  "includeAds": true,
  "compareWithPreviousRun": true,
  "trackerName": "default",
  "maxResults": 0,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

All results as a dataset (JSON, CSV, Excel and more via the API or Console).

## `summary` (type: `string`):

Counts of results, targets that succeeded or failed, and the stop reason.

# 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 = {
    "categories": [
        "marketing-and-conversion-customer-loyalty",
        "store-design-search-and-navigation"
    ],
    "maxRankPerCategory": 20
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("mrslm_data/shopify-app-category-rankings").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 = {
    "categories": [
        "marketing-and-conversion-customer-loyalty",
        "store-design-search-and-navigation",
    ],
    "maxRankPerCategory": 20,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("mrslm_data/shopify-app-category-rankings").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 '{
  "categories": [
    "marketing-and-conversion-customer-loyalty",
    "store-design-search-and-navigation"
  ],
  "maxRankPerCategory": 20
}' |
apify call mrslm_data/shopify-app-category-rankings --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,mrslm_data/shopify-app-category-rankings"
        }
    }
}
```

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/iMgAIz8ilvJATfKwF/builds/yRA1frJN9MSK4Q9ps/openapi.json