// comparison
RevenueHog vs App Store Connect reports
The honest question every developer should ask before adding a tool: why not just use App Store Connect? Sometimes the answer is 'just use ASC'. It's free, it's Apple, and it's the payout truth. Here's exactly what it shows, what it doesn't, and what RevenueHog computes on top of the same data.
last updated 2026-07-12 · by revenuehog
tl;dr
App Store Connect is the source system: payout truth, reports, configuration. Keep it. What it doesn't give you is an MRR number, a churn rate, or a live view of purchases as they happen. RevenueHog reads the same Apple data and adds exactly that layer. Free, no SDK. ASC plus a telemetry screen on top, not either/or.
What App Store Connect gives you
App Store Connectis Apple's portal for everything about your apps: listings, builds, review, pricing, and the money surfaces. Sales and Trends charts units and proceeds (daily data lands with roughly a one-day lag), the Subscriptions section counts active subscriptions and events, App Analytics covers impressions and conversion, and Payments and Financial Reports records what Apple actually pays you. That last part matters: ASC is the payout truth, and no third-party tool (RevenueHog included) replaces it.
RevenueHogis revenue telemetry built on ASC's own data: connect an App Store Connect .p8 key and every app on the key imports with about a year of daily history (Apple's daily-report limit); wire Apple's Server Notifications V2 and every purchase, renewal and churn event streams into a live feed, with MRR, churn, trials and customer LTV computed on top, and the verbatim signed payloads forwarded to any endpoints you configure. No SDK. Everything on the web is free; the only paid thing is the iOS push-alerts subscription ($4.99/mo or $39.99/yr). Never a percentage of your revenue.
Feature table
| RevenueHog | App Store Connect | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A telemetry layer computed on top of Apple's own data: MRR, churn, live events, alerts | The source system: Apple's portal for your apps, sales reports, payouts and configuration |
| Price | Free on the web: everything. The only paid thing is the iOS alerts subscription ($4.99/mo or $39.99/yr) | Free (included with the Apple Developer Program membership) |
| Payout truth | No. Figures are telemetry; RevenueHog itself points you at Apple's payout reports for exact amounts | Yes: Payments and Financial Reports are the authoritative record of what Apple pays you |
| Report freshness | Same daily reports for history (~1-day lag), plus a real-time event feed via Apple Server Notifications, once wired | Sales and Trends updates on Apple's reporting cadence. Daily data lands with roughly a one-day lag |
| MRR / ARR | Yes: computed from the daily subscription snapshot, methodology public | No MRR or ARR number: subscription charts and counts, but no normalized recurring-revenue figure |
| Churn / trial analytics | Yes: churn events, trial starts and conversions, per app or portfolio-wide | Subscription event counts exist in reports; no computed churn rate or trial funnel |
| Live per-purchase feed | Yes: every verified Server Notification (purchase, renewal, churn) as it happens | No. You can point notifications at your own server, but ASC shows no event feed |
| Event forwarding | Yes: relays Apple's verbatim signedPayload to your endpoints past the one-URL limit | One production + one sandbox notification URL per app; no fan-out |
| Small Business Program proceeds | Report revenue already carries your actual 85% share (Apple states it, no adjustment); a toggle sets the live feed's per-event proceeds estimate to net 15% | Reports and payouts state Developer Proceeds at your actual rate; no per-event estimate |
| Per-customer view / LTV | Yes: customers derived from notification transactions, with net USD LTV | No per-customer revenue view (App Analytics is aggregate) |
| Push alerts on your phone | Yes: per-event alerts, $ thresholds, quiet hours, MRR milestones (the $4.99/mo subscription) | The App Store Connect app shows the same day-lagged trends; no per-purchase pushes |
| App configuration, builds, review | No. RevenueHog reads; it never manages your listing | Yes: this is what ASC is for, and nothing replaces it |
When App Store Connect alone is enough
Skip RevenueHog (and every other tool) if:
- ▸You need payout and accounting truth, nothing more. Payments and Financial Reports answer "what did Apple pay me?" exactly. No telemetry layer improves on that. It can only restate it sooner and approximately.
- ▸You check revenue occasionally, not daily. If a monthly glance at Sales and Trends is your whole workflow, the one-day lag and missing MRR number may simply not hurt.
- ▸You sell paid-up-front apps or one-time IAP only. MRR, churn and trial funnels are subscription concepts; without subscriptions, ASC's units-and-proceeds view covers most of what a dashboard would show you.
- ▸You need App Analytics or ASO data. Impressions, product-page conversion, search sources: that lives in ASC (and in tools like Appfigures), not in RevenueHog.
- ▸You don't want any third party holding an API key. A perfectly sound policy. The DIY route is real: pull the reports yourself and compute your own MRR.
What RevenueHog adds on top
- ▸An MRR number that exists.ASC has subscription charts but no normalized monthly-recurring-revenue figure. Annual plans, trials, grace periods and intro offers all need handling. RevenueHog computes it from Apple's daily subscription snapshot, and the methodology is public.
- ▸The second you get paid, not tomorrow. Apple's Server Notifications become a live feed (real-time once wired) instead of a webhook you'd have to build a receiver for.
- ▸Events in your own systems. Apple allows one notification URL per app; RevenueHog forwards the verbatim signed payload to your backend, RevenueCat, anything. Downstream verification keeps working.
- ▸Small Business Program proceeds that match reality. Apple's daily reports already state Developer Proceeds at your actual 85% share, so report revenue needs no adjustment; the Small Business toggle only sets the live feed's per-event proceeds estimate to net 15%.
- ▸Your pocket buzzing: per-event push alerts with $ thresholds, quiet hours and MRR milestones, plus widgets (the one paid thing).
Use both: you don't have a choice, and that's fine
Every developer uses App Store Connect; the only question is what sits on top of it. RevenueHog is deliberately a read-only layer: it never touches your listing, builds or pricing, and it tells you to trust Apple's payout reports over its own converted figures. Adding it costs nothing (the web product is free and adds no line item) and removes the tab-refreshing: the day-lagged report becomes a live feed, and the missing MRR number becomes a chart.
FAQ
Is RevenueHog a replacement for App Store Connect?
Are RevenueHog's numbers fresher than App Store Connect's?
Does RevenueHog see data App Store Connect doesn't have?
Which numbers should I trust for accounting?
Is it safe to give RevenueHog an App Store Connect key?
What does RevenueHog cost?
Curious what your own numbers look like with the missing layer? Start free, or read pricing first (short version: free).
sources
Apple: Download and view reports — Sales and Trends report availability and daily granularity — developer.apple.com/documentation/appstoreconnectapi (Sales and Finance reports).
Apple: App Store Server Notifications V2 (one production + one sandbox URL per app) — developer.apple.com/documentation/appstoreservernotifications.
Apple: App Store Small Business Program — developer.apple.com/app-store/small-business-program.
Checked 2026-07-12.
// related