SEO & marketing · checked 2026-10-19Can I vibecode NicheMaps?
NOT REALLY· don't bother
NicheMaps sells a database, not an interface: more than five million iOS and Android apps, refreshed daily and joined to the ads that Google and Meta publish in their transparency centers. The table and filters are an afternoon of work, but the data behind them is the product. A personal copy can watch a few hundred apps you already know. Meta's Ad Library API reaches commercial ads only when they were shown in the EU, and Google's Ads Transparency Center has no official API, so a catalog-wide view of which niches buy ads means scraping both at scale and keeping up with their changes. Build a watchlist if you know the apps; to discover niches, browse the free catalog or pay.
$25.99/moprice
$312it costs you a year
multi-daybuild time
—people replaced it
What you need on hand.
DifficultyAdvanced · Real infrastructure or OAuth work.
TimeSeveral days; collecting the data is the slow part
- Claude Code, Codex or CursorAny of them can run the prompt.
- Node.js 22better-sqlite3 compiles a native module, so build tools must be installed.
- A Meta developer accountThe Ad Library API needs identity confirmation, which can take a day.
- A small VPS or an always-on machineDaily collection should not depend on your laptop being open.
Before you buildTry the free NicheMaps catalog first: browsing, search and the daily email cost nothing, and Premium only adds ad signals and creatives.
- 1. Install one agent: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor.
- 2. Make an empty folder and open it in the agent.
- 3. Paste the prompt below, press enter, and answer its questions as it builds.
The prompt
Build me a local app-niche watchlist to partly replace NicheMaps. Requirements: - Node.js 22 + TypeScript: a CLI and a Fastify server with one plain HTML page. `npm start` serves http://localhost:4820 and `npm run collect` refreshes the data. - Storage: better-sqlite3 in ./data/niches.db: watched apps (store, id, name, category), daily snapshots (date, rating, ratings count, installs bucket, price, in-app purchases flag) and ad sightings (date, ad id, first and last seen, creative URL). - Watchlist: `npm run add -- <store URL>` takes Google Play and App Store links, or a text file with one link per line. Refuse to go past 500 apps. - Store data: `google-play-scraper` for rating, ratings count, installs and the in-app purchase flag; Apple's public lookup endpoint (itunes.apple.com/lookup) for rating and ratings count. - Meta ads: the Graph API `ads_archive` endpoint with META_ACCESS_TOKEN in .env, searched by app name with ad_active_status=ACTIVE and the countries in ADS_COUNTRIES. Keep only ads whose page name matches the developer name, and store creative URLs without copying the media. - Pages: a sortable table with filters (running Meta ads, in-app purchases, minimum installs, growth over 7 and 30 days from snapshots), a detail page with the ads, and a "zombie" view of apps rated under 3.5 with an ad seen in the last 14 days. CSV export of the filtered table. - Be polite: one request per second per host, retries with backoff, 24 hours off after a 429. - Single user. No accounts, no telemetry, local-first: only store, Apple and Meta requests leave the machine. - Out of scope: crawling a whole catalog, Google Ads Transparency Center (no official API), install estimates, alerts. - README: creating a Meta developer app and confirming identity, plus a warning that the Ad Library API returns commercial ads only when they were shown in the EU (elsewhere only political and issue ads), so US-only advertisers will not appear.
Opens your agent with the prompt filled in, you press enter. Or copy it and paste it into an empty folder.
Then keep going
Next prompts, same folder.
The first prompt builds the core. Run these one at a time in the same folder to grow it into your own NicheMaps.
Extend the niche watchlist in this folder. Requirements: - A command `npm run seed -- <store> <category> <country>` that adds the top 100 apps of a Google Play or App Store category chart to the watchlist (Play through `google-play-scraper` list(); App Store through Apple's public RSS charts feed). - Skip apps already watched and stop at the 500-app cap, printing what was added and what was skipped. - Tag each app with the category and the chart date so the table can filter by seed run. - Update the README.
Add a daily digest to the niche watchlist in this folder. Requirements: - After `npm run collect`, list apps whose first ad sighting is within the last 7 days, and apps whose ads disappeared after running more than 30 days. - Write the digest to ./reports/YYYY-MM-DD.md and optionally send it through SMTP settings in .env. - Include rating, installs bucket and a link to each creative URL. - Add a --since flag to rebuild a past digest from stored sightings. - Update the README with a cron line.
Add notes and a simple score to the niche watchlist in this folder. Requirements: - A free-text note and up to five tags per app, stored in SQLite and editable on the detail page. - A score from 0 to 100 combining ads running, in-app purchases, rating-count growth over 30 days and a penalty for ratings above 4.5 (a strong incumbent). Show the formula on a Scoring page and let me change the weights in a config file. - Sort and filter the table by score and tag, and include both in the CSV export. - Update the README.
What you lose
- The catalog of 5M+ apps with daily install and rating history
- Ad status and creatives joined to every app, on both Google and Meta
- Advertiser rankings by how long they have run ads, and week-over-week niche activity
- The zombie hunter list of low-rated apps that still buy many ads
- Someone else repairing scrapers when Google or Meta change their pages
Why people still pay
Indie developers pay to skip weeks of data collection. Ad spend is a stronger signal than store charts, and NicheMaps has it matched to the catalog and refreshed daily. It markets itself as a lighter alternative to enterprise app-intelligence suites, which is the audience that can't justify those contracts.
NicheMaps or your own copy?
Over
Your usage
24h ×$/h
NicheMaps, 1 yr$312
Your own copy, 1 yr$255running + build session
You keep$57pays for itself in 3 months
Estimate · A watchlist of a few hundred apps fits a $5 VPS or your own machine. Catalog-wide scraping needs proxies or a paid scraping service, which can pass the $26 Premium price. The build is token usage on your agent plan.
Take your data, then cancel.
1 · Take your data out of NicheMaps
- 1Premium lists CSV-ready tables: open the catalog table with your filters applied and look for the export control. We found no help article that describes the steps.
- 2Nothing else of yours is described as stored: the product is a database you query, so what you carry away is your notes on niches and the filters you used.
2 · Cancel NicheMaps
- 1Open your account page and use the billing link, which opens the Stripe billing portal, then cancel the subscription.
- 2Cancelling stops future charges and you keep access until the current billing period ends.
- 3The free daily email is separate: unsubscribe from it in one click from any message.
- A full refund of the first payment can be requested within 14 days: email support@nichemaps.io from your account address with Refund in the subject.
- Renewal charges are generally not refundable, but an unexpected charge after trying to cancel is reviewed case by case.
- Screenshot or copy the creatives and notes you still need: the ad data lives on NicheMaps, and the Meta Ad Library and Google Ads Transparency Center are free to search by hand afterwards.
The escape hatch
Don't feel like building it? These are already free.
Meta Ad LibraryFreeMeta's public search of ads running on its apps, free to browse by advertiser. Its API covers commercial ads only when shown in the EU, plus political and issue ads elsewhere.they host it
WebVisit ↗Google Ads Transparency CenterFreeGoogle's searchable archive of ads by advertiser, free in the browser. We found no official API or bulk export.they host it
WebVisit ↗google-play-scraperOpen sourceMIT Node.js library that pulls Google Play app details, ratings and install buckets for a watchlist.★ 3.0k · active Oct 2026 · self-host, real ops
CLIVisit ↗
WebVisit ↗Google Ads Transparency CenterFreeGoogle's searchable archive of ads by advertiser, free in the browser. We found no official API or bulk export.they host it
WebVisit ↗google-play-scraperOpen sourceMIT Node.js library that pulls Google Play app details, ratings and install buckets for a watchlist.★ 3.0k · active Oct 2026 · self-host, real ops
CLIVisit ↗
The numbers
NicheMaps pricing
| Plan | Monthly | Annual, per month | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | Catalog browsing and search, app metadata, installs, ratings, growth, category and traction filters, and a daily email with one app that is running ads. |
| Premium | $25.99 | — | Every advertiser, filter and live Google and Meta creative in the catalog, niche views and CSV-ready tables. No usage limits are stated. |
- Free tier
- No ad status, creatives or ad-based filters on Free; one emailed app a day.
- Billing
- Monthly through Stripe. The first billing period is one month plus 7 days. Cancel at any time from the account page or the Stripe billing portal and keep access to the end of the paid period. No free trial is mentioned.
- Hidden costs
- None listed. Renewal charges are generally not refundable.
- Source
- nichemaps.io
Also on the list
Related apps
Free covers browsing and searching the app catalog, app metadata, installs, ratings, growth and category filters, plus one ad-running app by email each day. Ad signals are Premium only.
Not really. Indie developers pay to skip weeks of data collection. Ad spend is a stronger signal than store charts, and NicheMaps has it matched to the catalog and refreshed daily. It markets itself as a lighter alternative to enterprise app-intelligence suites, which is the audience that can't justify those contracts. The prompt on this page builds the closest honest substitute.
About $25.99 a month on the Premium plan, $311.88 a year (checked 2026-10-19).
The catalog of 5M+ apps with daily install and rating history; Ad status and creatives joined to every app, on both Google and Meta; Advertiser rankings by how long they have run ads, and week-over-week niche activity; The zombie hunter list of low-rated apps that still buy many ads; Someone else repairing scrapers when Google or Meta change their pages. If any of those matter to you, keep paying.
Yes: Meta Ad Library (free), Google Ads Transparency Center (free), google-play-scraper (open source).