Northern Light Aurora Forecast vs SpaceWeatherLive
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Northern Light Aurora Forecast
This app monitors real-time auroral activity and sends alerts when the Northern Lights may be visible. It provides short-term and long-term forecasts, weather conditions, and solar wind data to help you plan your viewing experience.
- Real-time auroral activity monitoring
- Push alerts for potential aurora visibility
- Short-term (1 hour) and long-term (3 days, 27 days) forecasts
- Weather conditions and moon illumination data
- Probability of seeing Northern Lights by location
- Solar wind data from NASA satellites
- Customizable alerts based on Kp index and solar wind
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Aurora Alerts is an app designed to monitor real-time auroral activity and push alert to let you know if there may be aurora borealis (northern lights) visible tonight. Whenever you are home or away, Aurora Alerts will notify you if the possibility of seeing the northern lights exists. Main features: - short-term aurora forecast for next hour with weather conditions and moon Illumination - long-term aurora forecast for the next 3 days with weather conditions - long-term northern lights forecast for the next 27 days - show probability to see Northern Lights based on your or custom location - current auroral activity (based on observed and predicted Kp Indices from U.S. Air Force Weather Agency) - weather forecast to check visibility conditions before planning to see northern lights - solar wind data directly from the NASA satellite (wind speed, Bz, Bt and density) - unlike many other apps, it uses the local time instead of UTC Alerts: - when northern lights may be visible at current or custom location at the horizon or overhead - Kp index reaches chosen value - solar wind data reach chosen values - you can filter out alerts based on time of the day Boost your chances of viewing the northern lights!
SpaceWeatherLive
Track aurora and solar activity in real-time with detailed forecasts and historical data. Receive customizable push notifications for significant space weather events. Explore an extensive archive and learn from expert reports.
- Aurora and solar activity tracking
- Real-time forecasts
- Push notifications for space weather events
- Dark mode for night use
- Detailed graphs and reports
- Extensive historical data archive
- Beginner-friendly explanations
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SpaceWeatherLive is the ultimate app for those who dream of seeing the northern lights or want to know everything about the activity on our Sun. With this app you will be able to see and understand how active the aurora is right now and if there might be a good chance to spot the northern or southern lights in the coming days. You will never miss an aurora display again with this app in your pocket no matter where you go! Beginner friendly - While the SpaceWeatherLive app is filled with all the space weather information you can think of both for beginning and advanced space weather enthusiasts, every item has a pop up with additional information to help you along if something is unclear. Learn more as you go along! Everything in one app - Switch between the auroral activity and solar activity modes with just one click! Dark mode - Preserve your night vision with our special dark mode! Ideal for aurora chasing out in the field! Push notifications - Free push notifications informing you of significant space weather events like solar flares, geomagnetic storms, earth-facing coronal holes and much more! You can turn any notification on or off so if you don't want to receive any notifications at all or are only interested in specific notifications: we got you covered! Modern graphs - All the data that you are interested in are represented in sleek, responsive graphs. Dials don't cut it when you are out in the field, you want to know how the data looks like in the past and right now. Our graphs provide all the information you need in the blink of an eye! News - Not only do we provide a ton of different automated alerts, we even have a dedicated team of space weather enthusiasts who write detailed hand written reports during high solar or auroral activity! Extensive help section - Are you a beginner and does our app look a bit daunting when you first open it? Fear not, we have a dedicated help section with tons of articles and a FAQ section. Give it a read and soon you will be able to make your very own aurora forecasts! Huge space weather archive - Ever looked back at your old aurora pictures and wonder what space weather was like on that specific date? We got you covered! Take a dive in our space weather archive that is filled to the brim with geomagnetic and solar data from the year 1996 until yesterday. Dig around and discover large sunspot regions, extreme geomagnetic storms and exciting data from the past! Free for all - Best of all... Our app is completely free of charge! We do have ads but those can be removed by purchasing a subscription which in turn supports us to keep our services online! PRICE AND TERMS: Although the app is free, it does contain advertising at the bottom of the screen which helps us to keep our services online. Don't want the ads? No problem, with a simple in-app purchase you can remove them! A monthly subscription is $0.99, half-yearly subscription $5.49 and yearly subscription $9.99. These prices apply to United States residents. Prices may vary in other countries respecting your local currency exchange rate. Your subscription will be charged to your iTunes account. At the end of the term, unless auto-renewables subscriptions are disabled, your subscription will automatically renew in your iTunes account. You will be charged for the regular price of your subscription within 24 hours prior to the end of the current term. You can turn off automatic renewal in your iTunes account settings at any time, but you must do so at least 24 hours before the end of the current term. Refunds will not be provided for the unused portion of any term. Terms and conditions: https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/app/terms-and-conditions Privacy policy: https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/app/privacy-policy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: SpaceWeatherLive at 4.0 against Northern Light Aurora Forecast's 2.7. SpaceWeatherLive also leads on review sentiment (54% vs 42%) and chart position (#197 vs unranked). Northern Light Aurora Forecast's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 4 months). On price, ratings volume, 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. Northern Light Aurora Forecast sells 10 one-off in-app purchases and SpaceWeatherLive sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
SpaceWeatherLive holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 2.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 208 and 189 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 42% of Northern Light Aurora Forecast's written reviews are positive against 54% of SpaceWeatherLive's.
Northern Light Aurora Forecast ships an update every 3 weeks, SpaceWeatherLive every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Northern Light Aurora Forecast | SpaceWeatherLive |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.7 (208 ratings) | 4.0 (189 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 41.8% of reviews | 53.9% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 208 — better | 189 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | — | #197 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 21 MB | 30 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Letovaltsev Maxim | Parsec vzw |
Customer experience
Northern Light Aurora Forecast
SpaceWeatherLive
User reviews
Northern Light Aurora Forecast
From 208 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Detailed information
- 👍 User-friendly interface
- 💡 Customizable alerts
- 🔍 Accurate forecasting
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes
- 🔁 Inconsistent/unreliable updates
- 💰 Paid features required
- 📍 Location-specific issues
SpaceWeatherLive
From 189 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Excellent space weather information
- 🔍 Detailed and informative data
- 📚 Helpful tutorials and explanations
- 🌍 Useful for aurora chasers and enthusiasts
- 🤖 Comprehensive data from various sources
Room to improve
- 🔍 Overwhelming amount of information
- 🔔 Too many notifications/alerts
- 💰 Ads becoming too intrusive
- 🔌 Notifications not always working
- 🤔 Confusing navigation at times
Bugs and requests
Northern Light Aurora Forecast
Reported bugs
4 issues- App crashes on launch
- Restore purchases not working
- Alerts not triggering correctly
- Long-term forecast not loading
Requested features
4 requests- Improved tutorial/documentation
- Ability to manually set location
- Sortable saved locations list
- Explanation of data metrics
SpaceWeatherLive
Reported bugs
4 issues- Video links not working
- Alerts disappearing after opening the app
- Inconsistent performance after updates
- Notification count not clearing properly
Requested features
5 requests- Customizable notification settings
- Dark mode option
- Location-based alerts
- Ability to track solar activity trends
- Integration with other weather/astronomy apps
In-app purchases
Northern Light Aurora Forecast
- Aurora forecast for 1 month$0.99
- Kp index alert for 1 month$0.99
- Solar Wind parameters alert service for 1 month$0.99
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- All alert services for 1 month$1.99
- 27 days aurora forecast unlock$1.99
- Aurora forecast for 6 months$2.99
- Kp index alert for 6 month$2.99
- Solar Wind parameters alert service for 6 months$2.99
- All alert services for 6 months$4.99
- Aurora forecast lifetime alert$12.99
SpaceWeatherLive
- Ad-free - monthly package$0.991 Month
- Ad-free - half-yearly package$5.496 Months
- Ad-free - yearly package$9.991 Year
Questions
Is Northern Light Aurora Forecast free?
Is SpaceWeatherLive free?
Which has better reviews, Northern Light Aurora Forecast or SpaceWeatherLive?
Do Northern Light Aurora Forecast or SpaceWeatherLive have ads?
Which is updated more often, Northern Light Aurora Forecast or SpaceWeatherLive?
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