# App Store Monitor — iOS Releases, Prices, Charts & ASO (`xqfech/appstore-monitor`) Actor

Watches the Apple App Store between runs: app releases (version bumps), price and rating changes for watched apps, top-chart entries/exits with position bands, and keyword result sets for ASO. Structured field-level change events.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/xqfech/appstore-monitor.md
- **Developed by:** [Emmanuel Obiefule](https://apify.com/xqfech) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $20.00 / 1,000 change events

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/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## App Store Monitor — Track iOS Releases, Price Changes, Top Charts & ASO Keywords

ASO platforms charge hundreds of dollars a month for change feeds. This Actor watches the Apple App Store **between runs** and reports exactly what moved — as structured change events with field-level before/after diffs, for cents.

Built on Apple's official iTunes Lookup/Search APIs and official RSS chart feeds. No scraping fragility, no login, runs in seconds.

### What it does

- **Watch specific apps** — pass app IDs. Tracks version releases (an `app_changed` with `version: 3.1 → 3.2` is your competitor-shipped alert), price changes, rating movement, rating-count milestones, release dates.
- **Watch ASO keywords** — each keyword is a monitored result set: new apps entering results for your keyword, apps leaving, their field changes. Know when a new competitor starts ranking for your term.
- **Watch top charts** — `top-free` / `top-paid` per country. Chart entries, exits, and **position band moves** (top-3, top-10, top-25, top-50) — banded so you get "broke into top 10", not noise about #14 → #15.
- **Any storefront** — set a country code and monitor that regional store.

### Who uses this

- **App developers & ASO specialists** — competitor releases, pricing moves, keyword landscape shifts, chart breakthroughs.
- **Mobile agencies** — per-client keyword and competitor feeds straight into Slack or Sheets.
- **Investors & analysts** — chart churn and category dynamics per country.

### Output example

```json
{
  "type": "app_changed",
  "source": "watch",
  "appId": 310633997,
  "name": "WhatsApp Messenger",
  "url": "https://apps.apple.com/us/app/whatsapp-messenger/id310633997",
  "changes": [
    { "field": "version", "before": "26.30.76", "after": "26.30.77" },
    { "field": "releaseDate", "before": "2026-07-28", "after": "2026-08-03" }
  ],
  "detectedAt": "2026-08-04T10:00:00.000Z"
}
```

### Input

| Field | Description |
| --- | --- |
| `appIds` | Apple app IDs tracked with field-level diffs |
| `searchTerms` | ASO keywords watched as result sets |
| `charts` | top-free / top-paid charts with position bands |
| `country` | Storefront country code |
| `maxResultsPerList` | Result set size per chart/keyword |
| `monitorId` | State namespace shared between runs |

### Reliability

Official Apple JSON APIs only — the most stable data source an App Store tool can have. Strict schema validation on every item; the run fails loudly rather than storing garbage. Rating counts are banded and chart positions bucketed so you only see meaningful movement. First run stores a baseline; change events start from run two.

### Scheduling

Run daily via an Apify Schedule and pipe events to Slack, email, webhooks, or Google Sheets through Apify integrations. Quiet days produce no change events and cost almost nothing.

# Actor input Schema

## `appIds` (type: `array`):

Numeric Apple app IDs (the number after 'id' in the App Store URL). Tracks version releases, price, rating, rating count and release dates with field-level diffs.

## `searchTerms` (type: `array`):

Each keyword is watched as a result set: new apps entering results for your keyword, apps leaving, and their field changes.

## `charts` (type: `array`):

Any of: top-free, top-paid. Tracks chart entries/exits and position band moves (top-3, top-10, top-25, top-50).

## `country` (type: `string`):

Two-letter storefront country code (us, gb, de, ua, ...).

## `maxResultsPerList` (type: `integer`):

Result set size per chart/keyword.

## `monitorId` (type: `string`):

State namespace. Runs with the same Monitor ID share the previous-run snapshot.

## `emitBaseline` (type: `boolean`):

On the very first run the full initial snapshot is pushed as baseline items so you still get data.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "appIds": [
    310633997
  ],
  "searchTerms": [
    "meditation"
  ],
  "charts": [
    "top-free"
  ],
  "country": "us",
  "maxResultsPerList": 50,
  "monitorId": "default",
  "emitBaseline": true
}
```

# 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 = {
    "appIds": [
        310633997
    ],
    "searchTerms": [
        "meditation"
    ],
    "charts": [
        "top-free"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("xqfech/appstore-monitor").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 = {
    "appIds": [310633997],
    "searchTerms": ["meditation"],
    "charts": ["top-free"],
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("xqfech/appstore-monitor").call(run_input=run_input)

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

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

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "appIds": [
    310633997
  ],
  "searchTerms": [
    "meditation"
  ],
  "charts": [
    "top-free"
  ]
}' |
apify call xqfech/appstore-monitor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=xqfech/appstore-monitor",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/AC8Yc6OAMionsjtTW/builds/LuBQAa3CuOi4mlM3b/openapi.json