Tracking App Growth From Downloads to Revenue: Metrics Indie Devs Should Watch
Updated Oct 10, 2026
On this page (6 sections)
The app marketing metrics that matter most for an indie subscription app form one funnel: impressions, product page views, conversion rate and downloads on the store side, then trial starts, trial-to-paid, MRR, churn and LTV on the revenue side. App Store Connect covers the first half; RevenueCat covers the second. Growth decisions need both, joined by app and date.
Quick answer
What metrics should an indie app developer track?
Track a short funnel: impressions, product page views and conversion rate from App Store Connect; downloads; then trial starts, trial-to-paid conversion, MRR, churn and LTV from your subscription data. Add retention and crash rate for product health. Review them weekly, and always look at store and revenue metrics together.
Store metrics (App Store Connect)
App Store Connect's App Analytics is free and covers how people find and install your app. (App Store Connect Help: App Analytics)
| Metric | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Impressions | How often your app was seen on the App Store (search, browse, featuring) |
| Product page views | How many people opened your product page |
| Conversion rate | Share of visitors who downloaded; shows how persuasive your listing is |
| Total downloads (first-time and redownloads) | Raw install volume |
| Source type | Where downloads came from: search, browse, web referrer, app referrer |
| Proceeds | What you earned after Apple's commission |
| Retention and sessions | Whether people come back (for users who share analytics data) |
| Crashes | Stability problems that hurt ratings and retention |
What is a good app conversion rate?
It depends heavily on category, so compare yourself with similar apps instead of a universal number. App Store Connect's peer group benchmarks show how your conversion rate compares with apps in a similar category and business model. Aim to move from below the middle of your peer group toward the top, and track changes after each metadata update.
See Apple peer group benchmarks explained for how to read them.
Subscription metrics (RevenueCat)
RevenueCat tracks what happens after the install. (RevenueCat docs: Charts)
| Metric | Definition (plain English) |
|---|---|
| Trial starts | New free trials started in a period |
| Trial-to-paid conversion | Share of trials that became paid subscriptions |
| Active subscriptions | Paying subscribers right now |
| MRR (monthly recurring revenue) | Subscription revenue normalized to a monthly amount |
| Churn | Share of subscribers who didn't renew in a period |
| Refund rate | Share of purchases refunded |
| LTV (lifetime value) | Expected revenue per customer over their lifetime; an estimate until you have long cohorts |
| Revenue per install | Revenue in a fixed window ÷ installs; the bridge between store and revenue data |
Joining store and revenue data
How do I connect App Store Connect and RevenueCat data?
Line them up by app and date. Export downloads and conversion data from App Store Connect, export trials, revenue and subscription data from RevenueCat, and join them in a spreadsheet on app, country and day. Or use a dashboard that connects both directly, such as GROWNX, so the funnel updates without manual exports.
Why joining matters: each source alone misleads.
- A metadata change that raises conversion rate but attracts users who never pay looks like a win in App Store Connect and a loss in RevenueCat.
- A paywall change can lift MRR while downloads fall for unrelated reasons, hiding the real effect unless you look at revenue per install.
- Countries differ: a market with cheap installs may bring little revenue.
Manual join, step by step:
- Pick a fixed window (for example, the last 28 days and the 28 days before).
- From App Store Connect, export impressions, product page views, downloads and proceeds by app and territory.
- From RevenueCat, export trials, new paid subscriptions, revenue and churn by app and country.
- Join on app, country and date; compute revenue per install and trial rate per download.
- Annotate the dates of metadata releases, price changes and ad tests.
A weekly metrics review for multiple iOS apps
If you run multiple iOS apps, a short, fixed review beats ad-hoc dashboard browsing. Thirty minutes a week:
- Portfolio view: downloads, revenue and MRR change per app versus last week. Which app moved most?
- Store funnel: for the app that moved, check impressions, product page views and conversion rate. Was it visibility or persuasion?
- Revenue funnel: trial starts, trial-to-paid, churn and refunds. Did quality of users change?
- Changes log: match movements to what you shipped (metadata, price, paywall, ads).
- One action per app: write down a single next step, then do it before next week's review.
Keep a monthly deeper review for LTV and cohort retention, which move too slowly for weekly reading. For reporting habits and tools, see the ASO Tools & Reporting course and App Store Connect Mastery. For product health metrics, see application performance monitoring metrics for growth teams.
GROWNX pulls your App Store Connect and RevenueCat data into one free-to-start dashboard, so you can see whether your keyword, metadata and paywall changes actually move revenue. Ask GROWNX, the built-in AI copilot, answers questions about your numbers in plain language, and AI action plans suggest what to do next. Try GROWNX free.
FAQ
Do I need a paid analytics tool?
Not to start. App Store Connect's App Analytics is free, and RevenueCat has a free tier, so you can build the whole funnel with exports and a spreadsheet. A paid or freemium dashboard mainly saves time once you check metrics weekly, run multiple iOS apps or want both sources joined automatically.
How often should I review metrics?
Weekly for the funnel (downloads, conversion rate, trials, revenue) and monthly for slow metrics like LTV, cohort retention and churn trends. Daily checks mostly show noise for small apps. Review right after every release or price change too, but wait for enough data before drawing conclusions.
Which single metric matters most?
For a subscription app, revenue per install over a fixed window is the most useful single number, because it connects store performance with monetization. It moves when either side changes. Still, read it alongside conversion rate and churn so you know which side caused the change.
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