What I check in App Store Connect before buying an iOS app

How should I show App Store Connect to a buyer?

Without giving away your account. Three ways work, from least to most access:

• Screenshots of the screens below, with the dates visible. Enough for a first look and usually for an offer.
• A screen-share, where the buyer asks you to open a screen or change a filter. Good for due diligence.
• A user with only the Sales role, if the buyer wants to click around. It sees sales and subscription data but can’t change the app (Apple’s role permissions). Remove the user when you’re done.

Never share the Account Holder’s Apple Account password. Do this after an NDA if you want one; what else a buyer asks for, outside App Store Connect, is in the app due diligence checklist.

What do I look at in Sales and Trends?

Proceeds, month by month, for the last 12–24 months. Sales and Trends shows units, sales and proceeds, filtered by period, app and country or region. What I read from it:

• The trend. Growing, flat or declining is the single biggest factor in the price. A slow decline isn’t a dealbreaker, but I have to price in where it stops.
• The last 3 months. My price is a multiple of monthly profit, and the profit I use is the average of the last 3 months, so those months get the closest look.
• Countries. Revenue spread across many countries survives a shock better than revenue from one.
• Spikes. A sudden jump right before a sale usually means paid ads or a feature, and I ask what it was.

Sales and Trends records a transaction when the customer starts it, and the data arrives the next day (Apple’s overview of reporting tools). That makes it the best view of the trend, but not the final word on money.

Why do Payments and Financial Reports matter?

Because they show what Apple actually paid, after refunds and settlement. Financial reports only include paid transactions where Apple collected the money, and they follow Apple’s fiscal calendar, so they won’t match Sales and Trends to the dollar. What I check is that the two tell the same story over a year, and that the payments match what reached your bank.

You can download the financial reports yourself and share the files. For larger deals, a few matching bank statements settle the question quickly.

What do the subscription pages tell me?

For subscription apps, more than anything else in App Store Connect. The subscription summary, retention and event pages show:

• Active subscriptions over time, by subscription and territory.
• Retention rate: the share of subscriptions that renewed out of those that could. The 12-month view is the one I read.
• Conversion from introductory offers to the standard price, if you run free trials or intro prices.
• Active subscriptions by proceeds rate: Apple pays 70% in a subscriber’s first year and 85% after a year of paid service, so this shows how many subscribers have stayed past a year.
• Events: activations, renewals, cancellations, refunds and billing retry.

The plan mix matters too: annual plans are worth more than weekly ones, because the revenue is steadier. How a buyer reads the rest of a subscription business is in selling a subscription app.

What does App Analytics show about your users?

Where they come from, and how well the listing converts. According to Apple, App Analytics shows which sources drive traffic to your product page, your conversion rate from product page views to downloads, engagement by country, and how your app compares with similar apps.

The part I care about most is the source. Downloads from App Store search keep arriving after the sale; downloads bought with ads only continue while someone pays for them. If most of your installs are organic, that’s the strongest thing on the screen. If they’re paid, I want the ad dashboards next to it (see selling an app that grows with paid ads).

One caveat: App Analytics usage data comes only from users who agreed to share diagnostics, and Apple hides it below a minimum number of data points. It shows the shape, not every user.

What do ratings, reviews and App Review history show?

How healthy the listing is, and whether anything could put it at risk.

• Ratings and reviews: the average, how many there are, and what recent reviews complain about. The ratings and reviews screens show them by country.
• App Review history: past rejections, warnings or removals, and why. Store history problems cut the price sharply, because they put the app itself at risk. Incentivized or bought reviews are a dealbreaker: Apple’s App Store Review Guidelines forbid manipulating ratings and reviews.
• Update history: whether the app has kept up with recent iOS releases.

What do I check for the transfer itself?

That nothing will block Apple’s transfer at the end. The common blockers are a version waiting for review, an In-App Purchase still in review, TestFlight builds that haven’t been removed, and In-App Purchase product IDs that already exist in the buyer’s account. Both accounts also need the latest agreements accepted. Apple’s full list and the steps are in how App Store app transfers work.

What doesn’t App Store Connect show?

Everything on the cost side, and a few things only you know:

• Costs: ads, servers and APIs, tools and contractors. Profit is proceeds minus these, so they matter as much as the revenue.
• Ad spend and results, from Apple Ads, Meta or Google.
• Revenue outside the App Store: ad networks, web purchases, sponsorships.
• Your time: how many hours a week the app needs. An app that runs on a few hours a week transfers cleanly.

Those come from their own dashboards and from you. Why each of them moves the multiple is explained in how I value an app.

How do I use this when you send me an app?

In two steps. For a first look I only need the App Store link and rough numbers: monthly proceeds and costs, as an average of the last 3 months. If the app fits, I send a written offer, usually within a few days. The screens above come after that, in due diligence, under an NDA if you want one. The whole sale takes about 14 days from first message to a closed deal, everything included.

Want a number first? Try the app valuation calculator, or send me your app. I usually reply within a few hours.