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App Store Scraper API alternatives

Teams comparing App Store scraper API alternatives usually want the same thing: Apple App Store and Google Play data from one key, without babysitting proxies or Apple's per-IP rate limit. This page lays out the real options side by side, Apple's own iTunes endpoints, the open-source app-store-scraper and google-play-scraper libraries, the Apify app store actors, the Oxylabs, Bright Data, and ScrapingBee scrapers, and our own, so you can pick the fit for your job and budget.

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1 key

Apple + Google Play

2.6s

median response

1,000

free requests

JSON

structured output

How it compares

Option	Setup	Apple	Google Play	Pricing model	Free tier
appstorescraperapi	one API key	search, product, reviews	search, product	Pay per successful request	1,000 requests
Apple iTunes endpoints	none, but bring IPs	search, lookup, RSS reviews	not covered	Free, rate-limited per IP	free, ~20 req/min/IP
Open-source libraries	add the library, bring IPs	app-store-scraper	google-play-scraper	Free, self-hosted	free, you run it
Apify app store actors	Apify account, actor per job	app store actors	play store actors	Pay per result / usage	monthly free credits
Oxylabs / Bright Data	enterprise contract	parse it yourself	parse it yourself	Subscription, higher entry tier	trial on request
ScrapingBee	you write the parser	parse it yourself	parse it yourself	Credits / subscription	1,000 trial credits

Why it is hard

Most teams look for an alternative because the free routes cost time in three familiar ways: Apple's iTunes endpoints throttle at roughly 20 requests per minute per IP and 403 past that, Google Play has no app-data API at all so you parse its shifting HTML, and the open-source libraries break whenever a store changes its markup. The options below trade those pains differently, so the right pick depends on which one is hurting most.

Quickstart

cURL

curl "https://api.appstorescraperapi.com/api/v1/appstore/product?id=324684580&api_key=$API_KEY"

Python

import requests, os

# One real API call: app id in, the full App Store listing out as JSON.
resp = requests.get(
    "https://api.appstorescraperapi.com/api/v1/appstore/product",
    params={
        "id": "324684580",                 # any App Store id, bundle id, or URL
        "api_key": os.environ["API_KEY"],
    },
    timeout=30,
)
data = resp.json()

print(data["title"], "-", data["rating"], "stars")
print(data["reviews_count"], "ratings, version", data["version"])

Response

200 OK

{
  "id": "324684580",
  "bundle_id": "com.spotify.client",
  "title": "Spotify: Music and Podcasts",
  "seller_name": "Spotify",
  "primary_genre": "Music",
  "price": 0,
  "formatted_price": "Free",
  "rating": 4.78005,
  "reviews_count": 40687986,
  "content_advisory_rating": "12+",
  "version": "9.1.60",
  "minimum_os_version": "16.1",
  "kind": "software",
  "url": "https://apps.apple.com/us/app/spotify-music-and-podcasts/id324684580?uo=4"
}

Use it for

You need Apple and Google Play together

When a project tracks the same app on both stores, one API with dedicated Apple and Google Play endpoints beats wiring an iTunes route to a separate Play HTML parser. That is exactly what our appstore and googleplay endpoints cover under one key.

You stay under Apple's rate limit

If you only make a handful of Apple lookups now and then, the free iTunes Search and Lookup endpoints are the cheapest route, as long as you accept the roughly 20 request per minute per IP ceiling and the 403 that follows.

You want a no-code, one-off pull

For a quick export without integration, an Apify app store scraper actor on its pay-per-result model runs from the dashboard. Apify splits work across separate actors, so a job that needs Apple search, Apple reviews, and Google Play data ends up wiring several actors together rather than calling one key.

You run the open-source libraries

The Node libraries app-store-scraper and google-play-scraper are free and capable, but they run from your IPs (which the stores throttle) and you patch them when a store shifts its markup. A hosted API removes the proxy and maintenance work.

Pricing

Plan	Price	Best for
Free	1,000 requests	Testing and small jobs
Pro	$0.60 / 1k	Production workloads
Pay-as-you-go	$0.90 / 1k	Spiky or one-off volume

Median response 2.6s. You only pay for successful requests.

FAQ

Is there a free App Store API?

Apple offers two free, key-free endpoints: the iTunes Search API for finding items and the iTunes Lookup API for a single item by id or bundle id. Both return JSON and cost nothing, but they throttle at roughly 20 requests per minute per IP and answer a 403 block page once you exceed it. Apple has no public review API for apps you do not own; its reviews come from a public RSS feed. Our own App Store Scraper API adds a 1,000-request free tier with proxy rotation so those limits are handled for you.

What is the best App Store scraper API?

It depends on the job. For a few Apple lookups now and then, Apple's free iTunes endpoints are hard to beat. For Google Play data, which has no official API, or for Apple and Google Play together under one key with proxy rotation and reviews, a hosted scraper API is the better fit. Our API covers Apple search, product, and reviews plus Google Play search and product from dedicated endpoints with one key and success-only billing.

Is there an official Google Play API for app data?

No. Google Play has no public API that returns listing data such as ratings, reviews, or descriptions; the Google Play Developer API only manages your own apps. So the alternatives for Google Play data are all scrapers: the open-source google-play-scraper library, a general scraping platform, an Apify actor, or a dedicated API like ours. Our googleplay endpoints parse the public store pages and return the fields as JSON.

How does Apify pricing compare to a scraper API?

Apify runs app store scrapers as actors billed mostly on a pay-per-result or usage model, with monthly free credits to start, and each job tends to be a separate actor. You run the actor from a dashboard or call it, and the cost scales with results. A dedicated scraper API like ours bills per successful request and returns validated JSON from fixed Apple and Google Play endpoints, so the difference is running managed actors versus calling stable REST endpoints with one key.

What about the open-source app-store-scraper and google-play-scraper libraries?

Both are free, popular Node libraries and a fine choice at small scale. The trade-off is operational: they run from your own IP addresses, which Apple and Google Play throttle, so you add and rotate proxies yourself, and they depend on each store's internal markup, so they break when a store ships a change and you maintain the fix. A hosted API moves the proxy rotation, anti-bot handling, and parser upkeep to our side, and our 1,000-request free tier lets you match the output before you switch.

How does this compare to the Oxylabs, Bright Data, and ScrapingBee scrapers?

Those are capable general scraping platforms priced for enterprise volume, and most of them hand back raw HTML or a generic page payload you still parse into app fields yourself. Our API is app-store-specific: Apple and Google Play detail, search, and Apple reviews each come from a dedicated endpoint as parsed JSON, billed per successful request, with a 1,000-request free tier to test first. For teams whose targets are the app stores, that is usually the better-value alternative.

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