I Missed a $40 App Sale by Three Days — So I Set Up Actual Price Tracking
A video editing app I'd been eyeing for months went on sale for 70% off, and I found out exactly three days after it ended, back to full price, because I happened to check the App Store on a random Tuesday instead of tracking it properly. That was the push I needed to actually set up real tracking instead of relying on remembering to check manually. Here's what I found, including one popular recommendation that's already dead.
A Correction Before the List: AppSliced Is Gone
If you've seen AppSliced recommended anywhere — including in older versions of this kind of article — it's worth knowing it shut down and redirected its users to a different tracker, AppRaven. A number of "best app tracker" articles still list AppSliced as an active option, which is exactly the kind of stale recommendation that wastes someone's time trying to download something that no longer exists.
AppRaven: What I Actually Use Now
AppRaven is free, iOS-native, and picked up a lot of AppSliced's former user base after that shutdown. You build a wishlist by searching for apps or adding them directly from the App Store via the share extension, and it notifies you when something on your list goes on sale or drops to free. It also shows price history for tracked apps, which turned out to be the most useful feature in practice — I almost bought an app during a "sale" that turned out to be its normal recurring price, and the history graph caught that before I wasted money on a fake discount. The community/collection features (other users sharing curated app lists) are there too, though I've used that less than the core price-tracking function, which is really the reason to have this installed.
AppAgg: The Web-Based Backup
AppAgg is a browser-based alternative that covers more than just iOS — it tracks apps across Android, Steam, and several other platforms too, which is useful if you're managing purchases across more than one ecosystem. I use this less often than AppRaven day-to-day since it's not a native app with push notifications, but it's a solid second check if AppRaven's database doesn't have a specific app I'm looking for.
Setting It Up, Realistically
Download AppRaven, search for or share-extension-add the apps you actually want (be selective — a bloated wishlist of apps you're only vaguely interested in just creates notification noise you'll start ignoring), and make sure push notifications are actually enabled for the app in your iPhone's Settings, not just inside AppRaven itself. That second step is easy to miss and is exactly why my first week of "tracking" produced zero alerts — the app-level toggle was on, but iOS's own notification permission wasn't.
What Actually Goes On Sale, Based on What I've Tracked
Photo/video editing apps and productivity suites are where I've seen the steepest drops — 50-70% off isn't rare for these categories during a promotional push. Games see frequent free periods but smaller percentage discounts on paid ones. Utility apps (the boring, useful kind) go on sale less predictably, so tracking matters more for those than for anything with a known seasonal pattern.
Quick FAQ
Is AppRaven safe to use?
It only needs App Store data to function, not personal device information, and it's a long-standing, actively maintained app with a solid rating history.
Does iOS have a built-in way to do this?
No — there's no native App Store feature for price-drop notifications, which is exactly why a third-party tracker is necessary rather than optional.
Can I track literally any app?
Most publicly listed App Store apps show up in AppRaven's database. Very new or extremely niche developer apps occasionally take a bit to appear, but coverage is broad for anything reasonably established.
Conclusion
That $40 video editor is still full price as far as I know, and I still haven't bought it — but I haven't missed a sale on anything else since setting this up properly. Skip anything still recommending AppSliced, and double-check your iOS notification permissions are actually on, not just the setting inside the tracking app itself.
More real-use iPhone app guides like this are up on Tech & Rewards.