The best free ASO tools in 2026
Free offers checked on each vendor's website on
The short version
- Keyword ideas: App Store search suggestions, AppTweak's Keyword Suggest tool and Keyword Tool. All free, none needs an account.
- Real search demand: only Apple has it. Apple Ads shows a popularity rating for keywords once you have an account and a campaign.
- Difficulty: AppTrendKit's free ASO keyword tool shows how hard a US keyword is and why; Sonar's Keyword Generator scores up to 20 ideas per run for both stores.
- Did it work? App Store Connect shows how many of your downloads came from App Store search.
No free tool gives you exact search volume, because Apple doesn't publish it, and none tracks your rankings day after day. That is what the paid plans are for.
Nine free ASO tools compared
What you get without paying, as each vendor describes it. Two are ours; we say so, and we list what they can't do.
1. AppTrendKit Free ASO Keyword Tool
OursFree: Difficulty, popularity and opportunity for a search as Low, Medium or High, the reasons behind the score (how many ratings the top 10 apps have, how many put the phrase in their title, whether it's another app's brand name) and the top 3 apps.
Limits: US App Store only, and only keywords AppTrendKit records daily; for others it suggests close matches. Bands, not exact scores, without an account.
Best for: Deciding whether a keyword is winnable, and why.
App StoreAccount: NoOpen the tool2. Apple Ads keyword suggestions
Free: Apple's own keyword suggestions for your app, with a search popularity rating from Apple's search data (five circles in the suggestion tool, 1 to 5 in the recommendations table).
Limits: Needs an Apple Ads account and a campaign; recommendations appear for apps with running campaigns that get enough impressions. No difficulty.
Best for: The closest thing to real search demand: it is Apple's data.
App StoreAccount: Yes (Apple Ads)ads.apple.com3. App Store search suggestions
Free: The phrases the App Store suggests as you type in its search field, which come from what people search for.
Limits: No numbers: no popularity, no difficulty, and only a handful of suggestions per prefix.
Best for: Long-tail ideas in the words searchers actually use.
App StoreAccount: Noapps.apple.com4. App Store Connect App Analytics
Free: For your own apps: how many people find and download them from App Store search, App Store browse, app and web referrers and your campaign links.
Limits: Your own apps only, and no per-keyword breakdown.
Best for: Checking whether a metadata change brought more search downloads.
App StoreAccount: Yes (Apple Developer)developer.apple.com5. AppTweak free tools
Free: A Keyword Suggest tool (App Store and Google Play autocomplete as you type), a Keyword Shuffle tool for long-tail combinations, a keyword density counter for descriptions, an instant ASO report and top charts.
Limits: Ideas and checks rather than scores; difficulty, volume and rank tracking are in the paid plans (from €79 a month).
Best for: Collecting autocomplete ideas for both stores in one place.
App Store and Google PlayAccount: Noapptweak.com6. Sonar free tools
Free: A Keyword Generator that scores up to 20 ideas per run for difficulty and popularity, with CSV export; an app rank tracker for up to 5 keywords; an ASO score checker; a screenshot generator.
Limits: 20 scored ideas per run and 5 keywords per rank check; daily tracking and history are in the paid plans (from $29 a month).
Best for: A scored list of ideas from your app description, and a quick rank check.
App Store and Google PlayAccount: Notrysonar.app7. Keyword Tool (App Store)
Free: App Store keyword suggestions you can copy or export.
Limits: Search volume needs a paid subscription.
Best for: A long list of suggestions to sort through.
App StoreAccount: Nokeywordtool.io8. Appfigures Starter
Free: Analytics for up to 5 of your own apps.
Limits: Keyword tracking starts on paid plans ($44.99 a month for 100 keywords); keyword research from Optimize.
Best for: One dashboard for your own apps' downloads and sales.
App Store and Google PlayAccount: Yesappfigures.com9. AppTrendKit iOS Keyword Field Optimizer
OursFree: Packs your keyword list into the 100-character keyword field: leaves out words already in your title and subtitle, exact duplicates and generic filler, and says why each term was skipped.
Limits: Works with your own list; it doesn't find keywords.
Best for: The last step: fitting the keywords you chose into 100 characters.
App StoreAccount: NoOpen the tool
| Tool | Ideas | Popularity | Difficulty | Account |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AppTrendKit Free ASO Keyword Tool | Close matches | Band | Band, with reasons | No |
| Apple Ads | Yes | Apple's own rating | No | Yes |
| App Store search suggestions | Yes | No | No | No |
| App Store Connect | No | No | No | Yes |
| AppTweak free tools | Yes | No | No | No |
| Sonar free tools | Yes | Score | Score | No |
| Keyword Tool | Yes | Paid | No | No |
| Appfigures Starter | No | No | No | Yes |
Why the reasons matter more than the score
A difficulty number alone hides what makes a keyword hard. Two US searches from the free ASO keyword tool show the difference.
“budget app”
US App Store, 16 October 2026- Median ratings of the top 10 apps: 23,441
- Top 10 apps with the phrase in their title: 1
- #1 has 16,202 ratings; #3 has 114,668
Big brands rank, but almost none of them use the phrase in their title. A new app that puts "budget app" in its title competes on relevance few rivals bother with.
Check “budget app” today“habit tracker”
US App Store, 18 October 2026- Median ratings of the top 10 apps: 13,422
- Top 10 apps with the phrase in their title: 8
- #1 has 148,031 ratings; #2 and #3 have about 2,500
Fewer ratings than "budget app", yet harder: 8 of the top 10 already put the phrase in their title, so a title match no longer sets you apart. Two indie apps with about 2,500 ratings still hold #2 and #3, so it isn't closed, but you need more than the phrase.
Check “habit tracker” todayA free ASO workflow for your next release
- Collect ideas. Type the start of what your app does into App Store search and note every suggestion. Add Apple Ads suggestions if you have an account, and AppTweak's or Keyword Tool's lists for more variants.
- Check difficulty. Run your 10 to 20 best ideas through a free ASO keyword tool. Drop brand searches (people looking for another app) and keywords where most of the top 10 already have the phrase in their title and tens of thousands of ratings.
- Place them. Your strongest, most relevant keyword goes in the app name, the next ones in the subtitle. Apple matches words across the name, subtitle and keyword field, so don't repeat them.
- Fill the keyword field. Fit the rest into 100 characters, separated by commas without spaces, with the keyword field optimizer. Check the other fields with the character counter.
- Measure. A few weeks after the release, compare downloads from App Store search in App Store Connect with the weeks before. Keep the keywords that moved it and swap out the rest in the next update.
What free tools can't tell you
- Exact search volume. Apple publishes none. Every popularity score is a rating or an estimate.
- Your ranking over time. Free rank checks show today's position; daily tracking and history are paid features everywhere.
- What the keyword is worth. Ranking #1 for a search nobody makes, or one whose top apps earn little, doesn't pay. Check what the apps that rank download and earn, for example with the app revenue estimator.
Questions developers ask
- Is there a free ASO keyword tool with search volume?
- Not with real numbers. Apple doesn't publish App Store search volume. The closest is Apple Ads, which shows a popularity rating from Apple's own search data once you have an Apple Ads account and a campaign. Third-party "volume" and popularity scores are estimates built from Apple's popularity data, autocomplete or the apps that rank.
- What is the best free ASO tool for keyword difficulty?
- One that shows why a keyword is hard, not only a number. AppTrendKit's free ASO keyword tool shows how many ratings the top apps have, how many put the phrase in their title and whether the search is another app's brand name, for the US App Store, with no signup. Sonar's free Keyword Generator scores up to 20 ideas per run, for both stores.
- Can I do ASO without paying for a tool?
- Yes, for a first launch. Collect ideas from App Store search suggestions and Apple Ads, check the difficulty of the best ones with a free checker, put the strongest in your title and subtitle and the rest in the keyword field, then watch App Store search downloads in App Store Connect. Paid tools add tracking over time, history and competitor data.
- Which fields does the App Store search?
- The app name (30 characters), the subtitle (30) and the hidden keyword field (100 bytes). Apple doesn't use the description for App Store search, so keyword density in the description matters for Google Play, not for iOS.
- Are free ASO tools accurate?
- They are as good as the data behind them. Suggestions from autocomplete are real searches; popularity and difficulty scores are estimates. Compare keywords with one tool rather than mixing scores from several, and check the apps that actually rank before you commit.
AppTweak, Sonar, Keyword Tool, Appfigures, Apple Ads and App Store Connect are trademarks of their owners. AppTrendKit is not affiliated with or endorsed by them. Details come from each vendor's public website as of 20 October 2026 (Appfigures: 11 October 2026); free offers change, so check the vendor's website before you decide.
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