Sources in, data out
Where the data comes from, what each source covers and what it cannot tell you. You never need your own platform keys.
Data sources
| Source | Supplies | Coverage | Limits | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple App Store | metadata, charts, reviews, keywords | Overall charts in 11 storefronts, 22 US category charts; metadata via Lookup | No revenue or download data; ~20 requests/min | Live |
| Google Play (public store pages) | metadata, charts, reviews | Overall US charts | Public pages, not an official API; replace with a licensed source before scale | Live |
| New apps (daily, 7 pm India time) | metadata | Every evening at 19:00 IST, checks Apple's and Google's app lists for new files and queues the apps not stored yet; the catalog jobs import them first | A new app shows up once the store adds it to its public sitemaps, usually within a day or two of release | Live |
| Trial emails (welcome to win-back) | emails | Five emails across the 7-day trial and just after it, each sent once, stopping when the person subscribes | Uses the email provider set up under Email; skips anyone who turned off the newsletter | Live |
| Daily database backup (Cloudflare R2) | backups | A compressed copy of the whole database every day; the last 7 are kept | R2's free tier holds 10 GB; backups protect the data but the live database still lives on the Railway volume | Live |
| Meta Ad Library API | ads, eu reach | Ads delivered in the EU/UK (non-political); political ads worldwide | No spend for commercial ads; creative format not reported | Live |
| Snapchat Ads Library | ads | Ads delivered on Snapchat in the EU (Digital Services Act library), searched by paying advertiser | EU only; no spend; Snap rate-limits hard, so each run checks 30 apps slowly, rotating through the top 600 earners | Live |
| Meta ads: Facebook and Instagram (via Apify) | ads | Active Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads ads of each app's developer page in the Meta Ad Library, worldwide, with copy, button, placements and the real creative | A third-party scraper (Apify) reads the public Ad Library, no Meta approval needed; no spend or reach; 5 apps a day (6 ads each), rotating through the top 150 earners, well under $1 a month | Live |
| TikTok ads (TikTok Ad Library, via Apify) | ads | Ads each app's developer ran on TikTok in Europe, from TikTok's public Ad Library, with run dates and the real video | TikTok's library covers ads shown in the EU, EEA, UK and Switzerland only; a third-party scraper (Apify) reads it; 3 apps a day, rotating through the top 150 earners, about $2.50 a month | Live |
| YouTube ads (Google Ads Transparency, via Apify) | ads | Video ads each app's developer ran on YouTube in the US, with run dates and the real video, from Google's Ads Transparency Center | Google publishes no API, so a third-party scraper (Apify) reads the Transparency Center; no spend or reach; 5 apps a day (4 ads each), rotating through the top 150 earners, about $1.20 a month | Live |
| TikTok videos (via Apify) | videos, creators | Public TikTok videos found by searching each app's name, with plays, likes, comments, shares and creator | Collected by a third-party scraper (Apify), not licensed by TikTok; 5 apps a day (4 videos each), rotating through the top 150 earners to stay inside Apify's free $5 a month | Live |
| Instagram Reels (via Apify) | videos, creators | Public Instagram Reels under each app's hashtag (#calai for Cal AI), with plays, likes, comments and creator | Collected by a third-party scraper (Apify), not licensed by Meta; 5 apps a day (4 reels each), rotating through the top 150 earners to stay inside Apify's free $5 a month | Live |
| Bluesky and Hacker News mentions | mentions | Public Bluesky posts and Hacker News stories and comments that name an app | Each run checks 40 apps, rotating through the top 800 earners; one-word app names must appear as "<name> app" | Live |
| Reddit mentions | mentions | Reddit posts that name an app, with subreddit, score and comment count | Uses Reddit's Data API when its keys are set (commercial use needs Reddit's approval); otherwise a scraper of Reddit's public search through Apify, about $0.002 a post | Live |
| X (Twitter) mentions | mentions | Posts on X that name an app, with likes and replies | Uses the X API when a Bearer token is set (paid plan); otherwise a scraper of X's public search through Apify, about $0.0004 a post | Live |
| YouTube Data API v3 | videos, creators | Public videos worldwide | 10,000 quota units/day (search = 100); organic unless YouTube reports a paid placement | Live |
| TikTok Commercial Content API | ads | Ads shown in the EU/EEA/UK only | Requires TikTok application approval; ingestion is enabled once approved | Awaiting platform approval |
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