App Annie vs AppFit vs Birst: Which Is Right for You in 2026?
Two of these three names no longer represent standalone, independently sold products: App Annie's mobile app market-intelligence technology now lives inside…
Best for: Organizations already invested in Infor's enterprise software suite who need cloud BI as part of that ecosystem (as Infor Birst).
At a Glance
App Annie
AppFit
Birst
Primary category
Analytics
Analytics
Analytics
Rating
Not documented
Not documented
Not documented
Pricing model
custom
freemium
custom
Starting price
Not documented
$9/month
Not documented
Free plan
Not documented
Not documented
Not documented
Free trial
Not documented
Not documented
Not documented
Platforms
Not documented
Not documented
Not documented
Team collaboration
Not documented
Not documented
Not documented
AI features
Not documented
Not documented
Not documented
Public API
Not documented
Not documented
Not documented
Standout Differences
Two legacy names, one live product
App Annie and Birst are both historical brand names now absorbed into larger companies — Sensor Tower and Infor, respectively. AppFit is the only tool of the three actively sold and marketed independently under its own name today.
App Annie, Birst, AppFit
Wildly different scale and pricing transparency
AppFit starts at $9/month with a freemium tier, publishing clear self-serve pricing for small teams. App Annie's technology (via Sensor Tower/data.ai) and Birst (via Infor) historically served enterprise buyers through custom, unlisted pricing.
AppFit, App Annie, Birst
Three unrelated core jobs
App Annie tracked mobile app market intelligence and competitor benchmarking; Birst was general-purpose cloud business intelligence and dashboarding; AppFit is lightweight in-product metrics paired with a Product Journal for correlating releases with performance. None of the three compete directly on features.
App Annie, Birst, AppFit
Feature-by-Feature
Product Status
Feature
App Annie
AppFit
Birst
Independently sold under this brand name today
Unavailable
Available
Unavailable
Free tier
Not documented
Available
Not documented
Published self-serve starting price
Not documented
Available
Not documented
Core Capability
Feature
App Annie
AppFit
Birst
Mobile app market intelligence & competitor benchmarking
Available
Unavailable
Unavailable
General-purpose cloud BI & dashboarding
Unavailable
Unavailable
Available
Lightweight product/app metrics with a release journal
Unavailable
Available
Unavailable
Pricing Compared
Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.
App Annie
No individual plan breakdown documented yet.
AppFit
Free — $0 monthly
Starter — $9/month monthly
Growth — $49/month monthly
Birst
No individual plan breakdown documented yet.
Pros & Cons
App Annie
Pros
Historically one of the most trusted and widely cited sources of mobile app market data
Long operating history and deep data sets built up over more than a decade
Core capabilities live on, now consolidated within Sensor Tower's broader data panels
Cons
App Annie no longer exists as an independent brand or product to purchase
The rebrand and subsequent acquisition history creates confusion for anyone researching the name today
The company's history includes a 2021 SEC securities fraud settlement over data manipulation practices
No current, App Annie-specific pricing or support exists; buyers must go through Sensor Tower instead
AppFit
Pros
Simple, focused interface aimed at small teams rather than an overwhelming enterprise dashboard.
Unique Product Journal feature helps correlate business actions with metric changes.
Affordable entry-level pricing compared to full analytics suites.
Free plan available with unlimited team members for small teams to get started.
Limited public information on the company itself, including founding year and team size.
Free and Starter plans are limited to a single company and project.
Less data depth and analytical sophistication than large dedicated analytics platforms.
Best suited for smaller teams, so it may not scale well for larger organizations with complex analytics needs.
Birst
Pros
Long track record as one of the original cloud-native BI platforms, dating back to 2004
Strong automation for data preparation and modeling reduces manual data engineering work
Deep, native integration with Infor's ERP and CloudSuite products for existing Infor customers
Offers a free trial without requiring credit card details
Backed by Infor's larger enterprise resources and continued, active product development
Cons
No longer operates as an independent company or standalone brand; it is one product line within Infor's broader suite
Pricing is not publicly listed and requires a custom quote from Infor
Best-fit value is strongest for organizations already using Infor ERP products rather than as a pure best-of-breed standalone BI tool
Faces intense competition from dedicated BI leaders such as Power BI, Tableau, and Looker
Third-party estimates suggest enterprise costs can scale into the thousands of dollars per month, though Infor does not publish these figures officially
Use Cases
Choose App Annie: Researchers or buyers looking for historical context on mobile app market intelligence — the live product to evaluate today is Sensor Tower.
Choose AppFit: Small teams that want simple, affordable product and app metrics without enterprise BI overhead.
Choose Birst: Organizations already invested in Infor's enterprise software suite who need cloud BI as part of that ecosystem (as Infor Birst).
App Annie
Historical research on mobile analytics history — Understanding App Annie's role and legacy in shaping the mobile app analytics industry.
Redirecting to a current provider — Users who remember the App Annie or data.ai brand can be pointed toward Sensor Tower for current mobile app intelligence services.
Due diligence on acquired SaaS brands — Illustrates how a well-funded, well-known SaaS brand can be renamed and then absorbed through acquisition, relevant for buyers evaluating brand continuity risk.
AppFit
Correlating releases with metric shifts — A product team logs each release in the Product Journal and reviews whether retention or acquisition metrics moved afterward.
Lightweight founder reporting — A solo founder connects AppFit to their app to get automated weekly email summaries of key metrics without building a dashboard.
Cross-functional metric visibility — A startup uses AppFit's weekly reports to keep non-technical team members informed of product performance and recent changes.
Birst
Infor ERP Analytics — Organizations running Infor CloudSuite use Infor Birst as the native analytics and reporting layer on top of their ERP data.
Enterprise Self-Service Reporting — Business users build their own dashboards and reports on governed data models without waiting on IT for every report.
Multi-Source Data Consolidation — Analytics teams combine data from multiple business systems into a unified semantic layer for company-wide reporting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is App Annie still a company you can sign up with?
No, not under that name. App Annie rebranded to data.ai around 2021 to 2022, and data.ai was itself acquired by Sensor Tower in March 2024, so the App Annie name now redirects into Sensor Tower's product line.
Is Birst still sold as a standalone product called Birst?
Not as a standalone company. Infor acquired Birst in 2017, and it now operates as Infor Birst, a product line inside Infor's broader enterprise software suite rather than an independent purchase.
What does AppFit do differently from App Annie or Birst?
AppFit is a lightweight product and app metrics platform built for small teams, pairing key performance data with a Product Journal to show how releases and changes affect the numbers. That's a much narrower, cheaper, self-serve tool than either enterprise BI (Birst/Infor Birst) or mobile market intelligence (App Annie/Sensor Tower).
What's the cheapest option among these three?
AppFit, starting at $9/month with a freemium tier. App Annie's and Birst's current pricing is custom and unlisted, sold through Sensor Tower and Infor respectively.
Which of these could a solo founder or small startup actually sign up for today?
AppFit. It's the only one of the three still self-serve and independently branded — App Annie and Birst require going through Sensor Tower's or Infor's current enterprise sales processes under their new names.