This guide ends with something concrete: a shortlist of iOS apps that match one market question, plus enough evidence to decide what to investigate next. You do not need an existing app or an ASO background.
Before you open Explore
Write one sentence that defines the research task. Good questions have an audience, problem, or market boundary.
- “Which recently released sleep apps are gaining reviews without a large incumbent brand?”
- “What do successful paid photo utilities charge, and how often are they updated?”
- “Which habit-tracker complaints appear across several competitors?”
Avoid starting with “show me profitable apps.” That mixes unrelated categories, business models, and maturity levels, so the ranking produces noise instead of a comparable market.
1. Create your workspace
- Open Create account.
- Continue with Google or use email and a password.
- Start the 3-day Pro trial. Checkout is tied to the account you just created, so access is applied to the correct workspace automatically.
- You will land in Apps, the main research table.
Already registered? Log in.
2. Turn the question into filters
Open Apps and add only the filters required by the question. For the sleep-app example:
| Question part | Explore control | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Sleep market | Search | sleep |
| New entrants | Released | Last 90 days |
| Some user traction | Reviews | Minimum 100 |
| Current momentum | Growth | Up, 30-day window |
| Avoid obvious outliers | Revenue | Leave open for the first pass |
Start broad, inspect the result count, then narrow one control at a time. If you set six strict filters immediately, an empty result does not tell you which assumption was wrong.
3. Build a comparable set
Sort by the signal most relevant to the question—growth for momentum, reviews for established demand, or release date for new entrants. Open 10–20 plausible results in app detail and check:
- Is the app actually solving the same user problem?
- Is the business model comparable: free, freemium, or paid?
- Is growth supported by a meaningful review base, or is one new review creating a large percentage change?
- Do the screenshots, description, and recent reviews support the positioning you inferred from the title?
Save the credible candidates to Favorites. The goal is not the longest list; it is a coherent cohort you can compare.
4. Triangulate before deciding
Do not use one modeled revenue number as the verdict. A defensible opportunity usually has at least three independent signals:
- Demand: sustained momentum, audience scale, or recurring chart visibility.
- User pain: repeated complaints or requests across multiple apps.
- Reachability: an ASO keyword or positioning angle that is not dominated by the same incumbents.
Revenue and download values are directional outputs from GetAppNiche’s proprietary intelligence model. Read Data, freshness & confidence before putting them in a pitch, forecast, or client report.
What a useful first result looks like
At the end of the pass, record:
- the exact question and active filters;
- 5–10 comparable apps, not isolated winners;
- the date of the data shown in the product;
- two signals that support the opportunity and one reason it may fail;
- the next validation step: keyword research, review analysis, pricing research, or customer calls.
Continue the workflow
- Learn the filters and metrics in Apps & market analysis.
- Understand modeled numbers in Data, freshness & confidence.
- Turn a market into an ASO shortlist with ASO & keyword research.
- Connect your own scripts with the REST API quickstart, or give an AI assistant live research tools through GetAppNiche MCP.