UTC Orbit vs LSTclock
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
UTC Orbit
This utility converts between human-readable dates and a YYDDD.FFFFFF format essential for spacecraft orbital element calculations. It also features a UTC alarm clock based on the day of the year and a large digit UTC display.
- UTC time conversion
- YYDDD.FFFFFF format display
- UTC alarm clock
- Day of Year alarm setting
- Large digit UTC clock display
- Background alarm notifications
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UTC Orbit; is a time conversion utility for use with Earth orbital elements calculations for spacecraft. The application also contains a UTC alarm clock that is based on "Day of Year". UTC stands for "Universal Time Coordinated", but is also known as Zulu Time or GMT Time. The application allows the user to select any epoch time in the future or past via pick wheels and that time is then displayed as YYDDD.FFFFFF where YY=Two digit year, where DDD=day of the year (000 - 366), and where .FFFFFF is the decimal fraction of the day. This is the standard format for manipulation of spacecraft tracking TLE's (Two Line Element sets). The app also works in reverse where the user types in the epoch time and the pick wheels will spin to the human readable date. The alarm is set via the pick wheels and operates in the background for sound and screen notification as well as the foreground if application is running. The user must "allow notifications" for the background to function. A useful feature of the app is that if you rotate the iPhone you then have a large digit UTC clock. iPad large digit clock is selected by touching the button "UTC screen". Note that this locks the screen rotation on all devices and to return to the calculation screen you must touch "Back to main screen".
LSTclock
This utility app displays local sidereal time for registered locations on iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS. It can also calculate sidereal time and Julian Date for any date and time, and sync locations between devices.
- Local sidereal time display
- Julian Date calculation
- Supports multiple registered locations
- Location sync between iPhone and Apple Watch
- Date and time specific calculations
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LSTclock is an iOS/iPadOS/watchOS app that displays the local sidereal time (LST) at registered location(s). On iOS/iPadOS, it can also calculate LST and Julian Date for any date and time. The list of locations can be synced between iPhone and paired Apple Watch(es).
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: UTC Orbit at 100% against LSTclock's 55%. UTC Orbit also leads on rating (5.0 vs 3.8). LSTclock's advantage is update cadence (every 2 months vs every 8 months) and ratings volume (10 vs 2). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
UTC Orbit holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: LSTclock has 10 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of UTC Orbit's written reviews are positive against 55% of LSTclock's.
UTC Orbit ships an update every 8 months, LSTclock every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 15, 2026 and September 26, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | UTC Orbit | LSTclock |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | 3.8 (10 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 54.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 10 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 8 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Dave Massey | Tsuyoshi Sawada |
Customer experience
UTC Orbit
LSTclock
In-app purchases
UTC Orbit
No in-app purchases
LSTclock
No in-app purchases









