# App store optimization tools: what AI models recommend, October 2026

GTM AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "app store optimization tool" and as "ASO platform for mobile app rankings", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Added to the October 2026 Edition on October 4, 2026; its answers are read by the distilled judge (ai-indexes-judge-qwen3-14b-run3), not the claude-opus-5 judge of the earlier categories. Page: https://gtm-ai-index.com/marketing/app-store-optimization/

**Standing:** AppTweak leads with 39% of first choices; verdict contested. 56 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AppTweak | 39% | 9% | 57 |
| 2 | Appfigures | 9% | 7% | 28 |
| 3 | AppFollow | 7% | 2% | 47 |
| 4 | App Radar | 7% | 6% | 47 |
| 5 | Sensor Tower | 7% | 40% | 48 |
| 6 | MobileAction | 5% | 6% | 32 |
| 7 | ASOMobile | 5% | 9% | 11 |
| 8 | Sonar | 2% | 18% | 11 |
| 9 | SplitMetrics Optimize | 0% | 0% | 14 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: AppTweak, Appfigures; alternatives AppFollow, Lengreo, Sensor Tower
- GPT-5.4 mini: AppTweak; alternatives App Radar, MobileAction, SplitMetrics Optimize
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: AppTweak; alternatives App Radar, AppFollow, MobileAction
- Perplexity Sonar: AppTweak; alternatives MobileAction
- Grok 4.1 Fast: AppTweak; alternatives App Radar, AppFollow, Mobile Action
- Mistral Small: Guideflow; alternatives AppFollow, Applytics, MobileAction
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: AppTweak; alternatives App Follow, MobileAction
- Llama 4 Maverick: Applytics; alternatives AppFollow, AppTweak, Guideflow
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: App Radar, AppTweak; alternatives AppFollow
- Kimi K2: AppTweak; alternatives AppFollow, MobileAction
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: AppTweak; alternatives App Radar, AppFollow, Appfigures
- MiniMax M2.5: App Radar, AppTweak; alternatives ASO.dev, AppFollow, MobileAction
- GPT-6 Luna: MobileAction ASO Intelligence Pro; alternatives AppTweak Grow
- Muse Glimmer 30B: AppTweak; alternatives App Radar, Applytics

## Sources the answers cite

78 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- appfollow.io: 49 answers, 78 citations
- appradar.com: 39 answers, 61 citations
- appdrift.co: 32 answers, 37 citations
- g2.com: 30 answers, 52 citations
- apptweak.com: 28 answers, 42 citations
- trysonar.app: 27 answers, 34 citations
- webseotrends.com: 26 answers, 26 citations
- businessofapps.com: 24 answers, 26 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://appfollow.io/blog/aso-tools (45 answers)
- https://appradar.com/academy/aso-tools (33 answers)
- https://appdrift.co/blog/15-best-app-store-optimization-tools (29 answers)
- https://webseotrends.com/blog/best-aso-tools (26 answers)
- https://trysonar.app/blog/best-aso-tools (23 answers)
- https://businessofapps.com/marketplace/app-store-optimization/aso-tools (22 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/best-aso-tools (21 answers)
- https://clickup.com/blog/aso-tools (17 answers)
- https://asomobile.net/en/blog/best-aso-tools-2026-platform-comparison-pricing-and-features (14 answers)
- https://blog.9cv9.com/top-10-best-app-store-optimization-aso-tools-in-2024 (14 answers)

## Warned against

- Sensor Tower: 19 of 48 labels negative. "Enterprise pricing (custom, typically $25K+/year), overkill for mid-market needs" (Kimi K2, direct prompt)
- AppTweak: 5 of 57 labels negative. "Almost all major ASO tools (e.g., AppTweak, MobileAction, Sensor Tower, AppFigures, Astro) offer proprietary metrics... these metrics are entirely educated guesses" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)
- App Radar: 3 of 47 labels negative. "starts at €69/month (~$75) ... Better if you have a slightly larger budget." (DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt)
- Appfigures: 2 of 28 labels negative. "Almost all major ASO tools (e.g., AppTweak, MobileAction, Sensor Tower, AppFigures, Astro) offer proprietary metrics" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://gtm-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://gtm-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as GTM AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition, gtm-ai-index.com.