Astro Tools vs Ping NetTool
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side β with what reviewers say about each.
Astro Tools
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Every astronomy tool, in a single app. Astro Tools brings together the astronomy tools from Polar Scope Align Pro and Xasteria, while adding new tools including an Augmented Reality Sky Planner and a Digital Finderscope. It is a complete toolkit for amateur astronomers: plan the night, find targets, aim a telescope, check the weather, follow satellites, calculate an imaging setup and explore the sky - all from one app. PLAN THE NIGHT SKY Use any date, time and location to plan ahead. Browse Moon phases by month, with Moon and Sun rise, set and altitude graphs plus twilight times. Compare astronomy-focused forecasts for cloud layers, seeing, transparency, wind and precipitation, or use the Multi forecast to combine 7Timerβs astronomy data with MET Norway or Apple Weather forecasts. Check aurora forecasts, light pollution, animated satellite cloud maps, and the visibility of the ISS and other bright satellites. WIDGETS Keep essential observing information on your Home Screen. Widgets provide astronomy weather forecasts, aurora conditions and upcoming satellite passes. FIND AND OBSERVE Explore more than 22,000 deep-sky objects, stars and Solar System targets. Search, filter and create observing lists, then see object details and altitude charts. Turn a manual telescope into a Push-To system: attach your phone, select a target and follow live arrows. Sync on a known star or use star-hopping for improved accuracy. Digital Finderscope provides a live, zoomable sky map that follows your phone and guides you to a selected target. SEE THE SKY IN AUGMENTED REALITY AR Sky Planner overlays a star chart on your live camera view. Move through time to see where targets will be above the horizon or behind landmarks, whether you are planning an observing session or a nightscape photograph. LOCATE OBJECTS IN YOUR ASTROPHOTOS Plate Solver identifies the stars in a photo to find its sky coordinates, field of view and orientation. Overlay constellation lines and object labels on the image. ALIGN, MEASURE AND CONTROL Polar-align a star tracker or equatorial mount without a polar scope, even in daylight. Start with the compass or calibrate using the camera on the Sun, Moon or stars. Use Laser / Hop Align when the pole star is obstructed, measure level and tilt, inspect GPS and sensor data, or control compatible iOptron WiFi mounts. FOR OBSERVERS AND IMAGERS More than 30 calculators cover observing and astrophotography, with shared inputs and remembered values for quick comparisons. Find and simulate solar eclipses for your exact location, and use tools for field of view, magnification, exposure, focal length, image scale and more. Whether you observe with binoculars, a manual telescope, a GoTo mount or an imaging rig, Astro Tools keeps the information and practical tools you need close at hand. Many tools are completely free, for the rest there is a single Pro subscription with a free trial. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Ping NetTool
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Ping Network Tool is the network diagnostic companion that works for everyone β from the non-technical user who just wants to know whether the internet is down, to the developer or sysadmin who needs raw ICMP data and route tracing on the go. SIMPLE MODE β ONE TAP IS ALL IT TAKES Open the app and you are greeted by a single, friendly screen: "Is my internet working?" Tap the button. Within seconds, Ping Network Tool sends a probe to a reliable server, interprets the result, and answers in plain language β "Internet is available. Your connection is working normally." or an equally clear explanation of what went wrong and what you might try. No jargon, no numbers to decode. If you are curious about the underlying data, tap "See technical details" to reveal the raw ping output, or tap "Switch to Advanced" to unlock the full toolkit. ADVANCED MODE β LINUX-FAITHFUL PING OUTPUT IN YOUR POCKET Power users and professionals get a streamlined terminal-style interface with three tabs: Ping, History, and Network. The Ping tab lets you enter any hostname or IP address, choose your packet size, interval, and count, then press Ping to watch results stream in line by line β exactly as you would see them in a Linux terminal. A live RTT graph plots each round-trip time as responses arrive, giving you an instant visual of jitter and packet loss. When you are done, tap Trace to run a full traceroute to the same host and see every hop between your device and the destination, with per-hop latency. Copy the entire session output to the clipboard with one tap for sharing or logging. The History tab preserves every ping and traceroute session automatically. Browse past runs, review RTT statistics β min, avg, max, and mdev β and compare connectivity over time. Sessions persist across restarts so you always have a record. The Network tab shows a live snapshot of this device: your Wi-Fi IP address, external IP (via ipify.org), DNS server, and detected country. Tap Refresh at any time to update the external IP or country information. It is ideal for quickly verifying VPN connectivity, confirming your external address, or checking which DNS resolver your device is using. HOST BOOK β SAVE AND REUSE YOUR TARGETS The Host book stores up to five hosts in the free plan so you can jump straight to the targets you care about without retyping them. Each saved host can also be enrolled in background monitoring, which silently pings it at regular intervals and alerts you when it becomes unreachable. PREMIUM β ONE-TIME PURCHASE, NO SUBSCRIPTION Ping Network Tool is free to use with no time limit. A single optional in-app purchase of $1.99 unlocks the full feature set permanently: β’ TCP Ping: probe a specific port number instead of relying on ICMP alone. Useful for checking whether a web server, mail server, or game server is actually accepting connections on the relevant port. β’ Unlimited hosts and monitoring: remove the 5-host limit in the host book and enable background monitoring for as many targets as you need. β’ No upsell banners: permanently removes the promotional banner and weekly reminder that appear in the free plan. β’ Family Sharing: the purchase is shared automatically with everyone in your Family Sharing group on iOS at no extra cost. There is no subscription, no auto-renewal, and no hidden fees. Pay once and the unlock is yours forever, even after reinstalls. PRIVACY AND PERMISSIONS Ping Network Tool does not collect personal information. Network requests are limited to the hosts you explicitly choose to probe and a single call to ipify.org to retrieve your external IP address when you open the Network tab. No account is required. No data is uploaded to any server. Whether you are a home user troubleshooting a slow connection, a network engineer checking infrastructure from your phone, or a developer verifying that a deployment is reachable β Ping Network Tool is the fast, clean tool you have been looking for.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Ping NetTool at none against Astro Tools's 3. On price, update cadence, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Astro Tools sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Ping NetTool asks for nothing beyond the download.
Astro Tools ships an update every 10 days, Ping NetTool weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Astro Tools | Ping NetTool |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days | Weekly β better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No β better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod β better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15 β better | 16.0 |
| Further details β not scored | ||
| Size | 33 MB | 61 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Dimitrios Kechagias | TLM Software Design, Inc. |
In-app purchases
Astro Tools
- Astro Tools Pro Monthly3 Days trial$0.991 Month
- Astro Tools Pro 6 Months3 Days trial$2.996 Months
- Astro Tools Pro Annual3 Days trial$4.991 Year
Ping NetTool
No in-app purchases









