Comparison · July 2026

Veldo vs Astro: an honest comparison

The disclosure first: we make Veldo. Astro is a genuinely good tool, and this page tries to win on accuracy rather than on trash talk. Where Astro is the better buy, it says so.

Both are native Mac apps that track App Store keyword rankings, and both keep your data on your own machine. If you have been comparing them, the surface overlap is real and the difference is narrower than either marketing page suggests.

The two jobs, in one sentence each

Astro is polished native rank tracking across every Apple platform: iOS, watchOS, tvOS, and the Mac App Store.

Veldo is App Store rank tracking plus your Apple Ads spend and optional RevenueCat revenue, joined per keyword into a verdict.

Neither sentence is a criticism of the other tool. They are answers to different weekly questions: "where am I ranking?" against "which keywords deserve the next dollar?"

Side by side

Public information as of July 2026. Prices and features change, so confirm on Astro's own site before you buy. Spotted something stale? Emailsupport@veldo.app.

Read the first two rows together. The tracking cores are close, and the platform coverage is where Astro is simply ahead: if your app ships on the Watch or the TV, Veldo does not see those ranks at all.

When Astro wins

• You ship on more than iOS. watchOS, tvOS, and Mac App Store rankings are a real gap in Veldo, not a technicality.
• You are not running Apple Search Ads. With no ad spend to join, most of what Veldo adds sits idle, and you are paying for a column that stays empty.
• You want the nicest rank interface. Astro is well made and ships frequently. Liking how a tool feels is a legitimate reason to choose it, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
• Organic is the whole job. If the question is only "where do I rank", the extra machinery is weight you do not need.

When Veldo fits better

• Apple Search Ads is on, or about to be. The moment money is moving, rank alone stops answering the question.
• You are reconciling three tabs. Rank in one, cost per acquisition in another, revenue in a third. That join is the product.
• You want a verdict, not a dashboard. Double down, bid opportunity, cannibalizing, money pit, with the numbers underneath.
• You want to pay monthly. $8.99 a month against an annual commitment is a smaller bet on a tool you have not lived with yet.

What neither of them replaces

Being honest about the boundaries saves everyone a refund request:

• Bulk App Store Connect operations. Screenshots across locales, pricing changes, release workflows. That is a store-ops suite, and ASO.dev is closer to that job.
• Google Play. Neither tool covers it. If Android is real traffic, you need a dual-store tool alongside.
• Enterprise market intelligence. Competitor download estimates and category research at scale belong to the big suites, at their prices. More inthe best ASO tools for indie developers.
• Analytics and revenue reporting. Portfolio financials are a different product again; see theAppfigures comparison.

How to decide in five minutes

1. Do you ship on watchOS, tvOS, or the Mac App Store? If yes, Astro, and you can stop here.
2. Are you spending on Apple Search Ads? If no, either tool works, and Astro's polish is a fair tiebreaker.
3. If you are spending: do you know which keywords earned back what they cost? If not, that is the gap Veldo was built for.
4. Would you rather pay monthly than commit a year? Only one of them offers that today.

Before either, a free check that costs nothing: thekeyword field counter shows whether your metadata even covers the keywords you care about. A tool cannot fix a keyword your listing never mentions.

Common questions

Is Veldo a full replacement for Astro?

Not if you ship on more than the iOS App Store. Astro tracks ranks on watchOS, tvOS, and the Mac App Store, and Veldo does not. For an iOS-only app the tracking cores overlap closely and Veldo adds the spend and revenue join on top.

Can I use both?

Yes, and some people do. Astro for rank watching across every Apple platform, Veldo for the weekly question of which keywords deserve budget. They are both native Mac apps with local data, so nothing conflicts.

Does Veldo track Apple Watch, TV, or Mac App Store rankings like Astro?

No. Veldo is App Store focused today, across 60+ storefronts. If ranks on the other Apple platforms are part of your job, Astro covers them and Veldo does not.

Do I need RevenueCat to use Veldo?

No. Rank, Apple Ads popularity, difficulty, spend, and install-based verdicts all work without it. Connecting RevenueCat adds attributed revenue per keyword, which is what turns a cost question into a profit question.

What is the pricing difference in plain terms?

Roughly nine dollars a year, and one real difference: Astro is billed annually, around $108 up front, while Veldo offers $8.99 a month or $99 a year. If you want to try a tool for one month without committing a year, that is the distinction that matters.

Does either tool guarantee better rankings?

No, and be wary of anything that says otherwise. Both show you what is happening and leave the decisions to you. Veldo goes one step further by labelling what the numbers imply, but a label is an argument, not a promise.

If you want the Veldo side

The method is written up inwhich Apple Ads keywords actually make money, the case for a native Mac tool is inASO on your Mac, and everything else lives in the guides hub. Agents and scripts can read the same data through the read-only MCP server and CLI.

Veldo is pre-launch at $8.99 a month or $99 a year.Join the waitlist and you get one email when it ships. If Astro is the better fit for your apps, buy Astro. That is a fine outcome for this page.