ASO agencies, compared
ASO agencies split into three kinds of engagement. Full-service mobile growth agencies (Phiture, Yodel Mobile, Gummicube) run ASO alongside paid user acquisition and lifecycle marketing, and suit funded teams with multi-market ambitions. ASO specialists (AppAgent, Redbox Mobile, ConsultMyApp) go deeper on store strategy and creative testing for a single product. Boutiques and independent consultants handle one-off audits and rewrites at a fraction of a retainer. Before signing any of them, check what ships in the first fortnight, how many locales the fee covers, and whether your keyword research stays with you when the contract ends.
Key takeaways
- Match the agency type to the engagement: full-service for multi-channel growth, specialists for store depth, boutiques for one-off work.
- Retainers cluster at $3,000–$15,000 a month with a three to six month minimum; audits are $1,500–$4,000 one-off.
- Ask what ships in the first two weeks — a discovery phase that produces nothing shippable is a cost, not a deliverable.
- Locale coverage is the most common hidden price escalator in ASO contracts.
- If your only bottleneck is hours on recurring metadata work, a retainer is an expensive way to solve it.
How we compared them
Agencies are grouped by the type of engagement they are built for rather than ranked one to ten, because a full-service growth agency and a one-off audit shop are not substitutes. Each entry is assessed on the scope they publicly take on, whether store work is their core practice or an add-on to paid media, and the size of client they typically serve. We do not publish per-agency pricing: it is quote-based, varies by app count and locale count, and a stale figure would mislead. appXL is listed last and is not an agency — it is included so the comparison is honest about the alternative.
The agencies, by engagement type
- 1
Phiture
Best for: Funded teams running ASO alongside retention and paid growth
A mobile growth consultancy with a well-documented ASO practice and a strong published body of work on the mobile growth stack. Best when store optimization is one workstream inside a broader growth mandate rather than the whole engagement.
- 2
Gummicube
Best for: Data-led ASO with proprietary store search data
Long-established US ASO specialist pairing an agency service with its own store search dataset. Suits teams who want the analysis and the execution from the same vendor, and who value US market depth in particular.
- 3
Yodel Mobile
Best for: App launches and international market entry
A London-based mobile marketing agency with a launch-and-scale focus. Strong choice when the job includes going into unfamiliar markets, where local competitive judgement matters more than raw keyword coverage.
- 4
AppAgent
Best for: Games and creative-heavy store optimization
Specialists with deep games experience and a creative testing practice. The right call when screenshots, icons and video are the conversion bottleneck rather than keywords.
- 5
ConsultMyApp
Best for: Enterprise apps needing stakeholder-facing partnership
Full-service app growth agency working with larger brands, covering ASO, CRM and paid. Appropriate where part of what you are buying is an accountable partner in the room.
- 6
Redbox Mobile
Best for: Apple Search Ads paired with organic store work
Focused on Apple's ecosystem, combining Search Ads management with ASO. Useful when paid and organic App Store strategy sit with the same team, less so for Android-first products.
- 7
Independent ASO consultants
Best for: One-off audits, second opinions and interim cover
Typically $75–$200 an hour or $1,500–$4,000 for an audit and rewrite. Frequently better value than a retainer for apps that ship a few times a year, with the obvious trade-off that there is no bench behind them.
- 8
appXL
Best for: Continuous metadata and keyword work without a retainer
Not an agency — an agent. It audits the live listing, researches keywords, drafts metadata inside each store's character budget and does it again every release. It will not produce your screenshot sets or make positioning calls, so it complements a creative agency rather than replacing one.
Which type of agency fits your situation
| Your situation | What to hire | What to avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-launch, single market | Independent consultant for a launch audit | A twelve-month retainer |
| Funded, scaling across channels | Full-service growth agency | A store-only specialist |
| Traffic but poor conversion | Creative-led ASO specialist | More keyword research |
| Entering new countries | Agency with native-language market teams | Machine-translated metadata |
| Portfolio of five or more apps | In-house hire plus automation | Per-app agency pricing |
| Listing untouched for six months | An agent, then reassess | A discovery phase |
What to ask before you sign
- What ships in the first two weeks, and is it shippable or a document?
- How many locales does the fee cover, and what does each additional one cost?
- Is metadata revised per release or per calendar month?
- Which metrics will you report against — impressions, product page views, conversion rate — and what is the target?
- Who owns the keyword research and creative when the contract ends?
- Is creative production included, or billed as a separate design project?
- What is the notice period, and is there a break clause at 90 days?
When not to hire an agency at all
If the honest diagnosis is "we know roughly what to do and nobody has got round to it", a retainer is an expensive way to buy hours. That work — keyword refresh, metadata drafting, competitor monitoring — is the automatable core of ASO, and the cost difference against an agency is roughly two orders of magnitude.
The reverse is also true. If you need a screenshot set across six locales, or you are relaunching in a category you have never sold into, no amount of automation replaces people who have done it before.
Frequently asked questions
How much do ASO agencies charge?
Retainers typically run $3,000 to $15,000 a month on a three to six month minimum, priced by app count and locale count. Independent consultants charge $75 to $200 an hour, or $1,500 to $4,000 for a one-off audit and metadata rewrite.
How do I know if an ASO agency is any good?
Ask for a case study in your category with before-and-after impressions and conversion rate, not install totals — installs move for many reasons. Then ask what they would ship in the first two weeks on your listing specifically. Vague answers to a specific question are the strongest signal you will get.
Should I hire an ASO agency or do it in-house?
In-house wins from roughly five apps upward, where an agency's per-app pricing exceeds a salary. Below that, an agency or an agent is cheaper than a hire, and an agent is cheaper than an agency for recurring metadata work.
Can an ASO agency guarantee top rankings?
No. Store ranking is not purchasable and depends on installs, ratings and retention that the agency does not control. Treat any guaranteed-ranking claim as a reason to walk away.
appXL Research
App Store Optimization Research Team
The appXL research team analyzes App Store and Google Play ranking data across the apps our agent manages, and publishes what it finds.