Temu, Hims, and Lisa AI Stand Out in Digital 100 Apps Ranking

Apps in Shopping, Health & Fitness, and Photography, grew engagement by over 1,000%

The most successful digital businesses not only build engagement with consumers across all channels but also pay ever-increasing attention to the intimate and constant connections mobile apps make possible. Getting consumers to download your app is a victory, but convincing them to use it regularly is an even bigger win. So who did it best in 2023? That’s the focus of Similarweb’s Apps 100 ranking, a new companion to the Digital 100 ranking of websites.

Building on the Digital 100 methodology, Similarweb identified the top ranking apps with the most growth between 2022 and 2023. The ranking is based on estimates of average monthly active users (MAU) for iOS and Android combined within the US. Studying MAUs, rather than app downloads, shows how much apps are actually used.

The winners in 10 categories

The full Apps 100 report identifies 10 winners in 10 industry categories. The first-place winners are in each category listed below, ranked by those with the biggest percentage gain.

• Shopping: Temu: Shop Like a Billionaire, +4,173%, 107M average MAU for iOS and Android combined in 2023
• Health and Fitness: Hims: Telehealth for Men, +2,175%, 1.5M MAU
• Photography: Lisa AI: Cartoonify Avatar Art, +1,064%, 979.2K MAU
• Streaming and Media: The Chosen, +1,014%, 511.4K MAU
• Personal Finance: Fidelity Bloom: Save & Spend, +748.4%, 827.7K MAU
• Business: Etsy Seller: Manage Your Shop, +451.2%, 1.3M
• Travel and Tourism: Airalo: eSIM Travel & Internet, +369%, 540.1K MAU
• Food and Drinks: Food Lion To Go, +143.5%, 441K MAU
• Education: Plantum – Plant Identifier, +106%, 847.2K MAU
• Home and Real Estate: Wansview Cloud, +55.3%, 429.5K MAU

To qualify for inclusion, each app needed an average of more than 300,000 monthly active users in 2023 and at least 30,000 in 2022. Discount shopping juggernaut Temu qualified even though it launched in the US in late 2022, growing so quickly that the app’s engagement in those first few months averaged to more than 2.5 million MAU for the year. This growth continued into 2023, when Temu’s average monthly active users topped 107 million.

While Temu saw dramatic growth in web traffic, the company always encourages app downloads and delivers many of its most powerful features through mobile apps, including enhanced gamification of the shopping experience.

Shopping: transactional and merchant apps

The retailer of the year – Temu – made the top spot in the Shopping apps category in 2023 with Super Bowl ads that ignited the interest of US consumers and continued throughout the year. Social shopping apps performed well – both Blidz and Flip.shop operate a business that gives users the ability to save money by promoting products and providing genuine user reviews. Whatnot, a social commerce platform based on communities, also saw impressive growth. Second-hand shopping gained popularity, especially for big-ticket purchases, with luxury platform Vestiaire Collective and refurbished tech goods site Backmarket grabbing a spot in the top 10.

The Shopping apps with the highest usage growth reflect consumers’ price sensitivity (Temu, Back Market, Blidz) and other themes like sustainability and convenience.

Health & Fitness: meditation, coaching apps, sexual health, and health monitoring

Category winner Hims, up 2,175%, is best known for offering easy access to sexual health treatments for men, as well as addressing other sensitive issues like hair loss.

The rest of the fastest-growing Health & Fitness apps range from those intended to improve physical health – BetterMe, Renpho Health, Welltory, MyNetDiary, WHOOP, and ClassPass – to those improving mental well-being – ShutEye and Balance.

Photography: image editing apps, AI photo, AR cameras, and smart frame apps

The top five photography apps all have “AI” in their name, emphasizing the popularity of using artificial intelligence to simplify retouching images or creating variations on an image. Top-ranked Lisa AI lets you “cartoonify” an image of yourself. The app also allows users to create ‘hand drawn’ versions of photos or create completely new pieces of AI art using a few words as a prompt.

Streaming & Media: streaming platforms, tv, and publications

The Chosen, an app companion to the streaming TV series about the life of Jesus, grew MAU over 1,000%. This is one of many niche programming apps to make the list – joined by ViX, which broadcasts Spanish content and Zeus, which provides exclusive reality TV.

There is space to grow in this category amongst the big players, but newcomers need to offer something unique to make headway.

Personal Finance: financial services for the consumer

The fastest-growing Personal Finance apps reveal consumers who want to get the most out of their purchases, giving apps offering cashback and rewards high marks. Winners Fidelity Bloom, Bilt Rewards, and Upgrade operate different business models, from providing credit cards to rewarding rent payments. Bright also makes the list with a smart AI-driven solution that helps consumers reduce their debt and increase their savings through personalized payment plans. This is an innovative example of the new age of AI accessibility, and it will be interesting to see how other consumer-facing Finance apps utilize the technology in the new year. Lastly, Flex offers a Buy Now, Pay Later solution for cash-strapped consumers struggling with rent payments.

Business: financial services for small businesses, delivery systems, and workforce management apps

The fastest-growing Business apps show US consumers were on the hunt for a side hustle in 2023. Many apps in the top 10 business apps allow flexible ways to earn additional money. For the creative folk, the Etsy Seller and Shopify apps give users seamless shop management. And for those with a little spare time, Spark Driver helps them earn by delivering Walmart orders at a time and place that suits them. Most other apps involve on-the-go HR management platforms, allowing employees to check their schedules and remain productive wherever they are.

UKG, formed by the merger of Ultimate Software and Kronos, scored with two such apps, one for business leaders (UKG Ready) and the other primarily for employees (UKG Dimensions).

Travel & Tourism: travel-related services and travel booking sites

US consumers’ desire to save money on long-distance travel was top of mind in 2023. The fastest-growing travel app is Airalo, which allows users to save on data roaming fees abroad. Budget airline easyJet was also featured in the top 10 – despite not operating any flights directly out of the US – along with price comparison service Super.com and “price-hack” platform Skiplagged, which helps customers to find cheaper flights by leaving the aircraft during layovers. For those vacations closer to home, Universal and Seaworld theme parks proved popular destinations, rounding off the top 10 travel apps.

Food & Drinks: fast food, groceries pickup & delivery, and meal prep/recipes apps

Top fast food retailer apps offering rewards and offers to returning customers delivered exceptional growth – Dairy Queen, QDOBA and Hardee’s. The top spot, however, belongs to Food Lion to Go, a grocery delivery and pick-up service. Meal planning and prep resonated with US consumers in 2023. Factor, which provides nutritionally balanced chef-prepared meals, increased MAU by 136%, while recipe services Tasty and eMeals also landed in the top 10. Lastly, with Too Good To Go, consumers can combine savings with eco-friendly behaviors; the app allows customers to buy restaurant leftovers at a fraction of the original price.

Education: both B2C services and platforms for schools and learners

The fastest-growing Education apps are a mixture of those used in academia and those for personal education purposes. The #1 app in this category, Plantum, allows users to snap a picture of a plant and then tells them what species it is, along with additional information such as how to care for it. Mimo, the coding education tool, rounds off the top 10 education apps, emphasizing how important coding has become in the modern world as consumers look to upskill and make their jobs easier. Babbel claimed the 4th spot with its gamified language learning app.

Home & Real Estate: smart home apps & home listings

Smart security systems continue to become more prominent, as shown by the fastest-growing Home app of 2023, Wansview Cloud,as well as the fifth-place winner eufy Security. Smart apps are not limited to home security. Both GE’s Cync and SmartHQ made the list. These apps allow users to control multiple smart devices from one app. Outside of smart-device apps, Apartment List grew by 25% as US consumers looking for a new place to live, and rent payment app RentCafe grew by over 22%.

Apps foster deep digital connections

Whether they achieved mind-blowing growth or “only” double-digit gains in competitive markets, we celebrate each of these apps and the companies behind them for their momentum in 2023. We will continue to watch to see whether they can maintain their victory in 2024. Download the Apps 100 report for more details.

The Similarweb Insights & Communications team is available to pull additional or updated data on request for the news media (journalists are invited to write to press@similarweb.com). When citing our data, please reference Similarweb as the source and link back to the most relevant blog post or similarweb.com.

Contact: For more information, please write to press@similarweb.com.

Report By: David F. Carr, Senior Insights Manager

Methodology

Disclaimer: All names, brands, trademarks, and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The data, reports, and other materials provided or made available by Similarweb consist of or include estimated metrics and digital insights generated by Similarweb using its proprietary algorithms, based on information collected by Similarweb from multiple sources using its advanced data methodologies. Similarweb shall not be responsible for the accuracy of such data, reports, and materials and shall have no liability for any decision by any third party based in whole or in part on such data, reports, and materials.

by David F. Carr

David covers social media, digital advertising, and generative AI. With a background in web trends since the 1990s, he’s also the author of "Social Collaboration for Dummies".