Comparison

StellarMate vs OnStep Controller

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

StellarMate

Control your astrophotography equipment remotely. Capture images, stream video, and perform precise alignment. Automatically back up your photos to the cloud with rich metadata for easy searching.

Highlights
  • Remote equipment control
  • Image capture and video streaming
  • Polar alignment assistant
  • Cloud image backup
  • Metadata search and sorting
  • Software updates
Features
Read full description

Use StellarMate App to discover and connect to your StellarMate controller. Control StellarMate functions and access the Web Manager and Web based VNC Viewer. Join StellarMate to your home WiFi network. Use Ekos to capture images, stream video, guide, focus, and align. With Polar Alignment Assistant tool, get very accurate polar alignment using internal astrometry engine. Never lose your images again with EkosLive Pro. All captured images are automatically uploaded to the cloud with a rich set of metadata that enables powerful search and sorting. Use custom tags to uniquely tag important frames for later use. Check the health of your device, and use the software updater to keep it up to date.

About

OnStep Controller

Features
Read full description

OnStep Controller Take full control of your OnStep telescope mount from your iPhone. OnStep Controller is a clean, dark-mode companion app for amateur astronomers — connecting over WiFi (OnStep or OnStepX) or Bluetooth Low Energy (OnStepX with the BLE plugin required) to give you everything you need from setup to the final star. Connect and Configure Connect to your mount over your local WiFi network or via Bluetooth Low Energy. Send your GPS coordinates and current time directly to the mount for accurate alignment, and verify that the mount's site data matches your device before you start observing. Interactive Sky Chart Browse a live star chart showing hundreds of named stars and Messier deep-sky objects projected for your exact location and time. Pan and zoom freely, then tap any object to see its details and issue a GoTo command. Horizon, overhead, and meridian flip limits are drawn directly on the chart so you always know what your mount can reach. Visual Star Alignment Begin a 1- to 9-star alignment from the Setup tab and get guided through the process on the sky chart. Pick your alignment stars visually, slew to each one, then fine-tune with the on-screen directional pad and accept. Full Mount Control Move the mount in any direction at four slew rates — Guide, Center, Find, and Slew. Toggle tracking on and off, switch between Sidereal, Lunar, and Solar tracking rates, park and unpark, and find home — all from a single screen with live RA, Dec, Alt, and Az readouts. GoTo from a Catalog Search a built-in catalog of stars, open clusters, globular clusters, nebulae, galaxies, and planetary nebulae. Filter to objects currently above the horizon and slew to any target with a single tap. Or enter coordinates manually for objects not in the catalog. Designed for the Dark The entire app runs in forced dark mode with a deep red accent color chosen to protect your night vision at the eyepiece. Requires an OnStep or OnStepX telescope mount controller. WiFi works with both; Bluetooth requires OnStepX with the BLE plugin installed. iOS does not support Classic Bluetooth.

Screenshots

StellarMate4 screens
OnStep Controller4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: StellarMate at 15.1 against OnStep Controller's 17.0. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
StellarMate versus OnStep Controller: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStellarMateOnStep Controller
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.3 (20 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews34.6% of reviews—
Number of ratings20 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 8 days—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.1 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size119 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperIkarus Astronomy Company For Scientific Instruments & ToolsGray Digital Arts LLC

In-app purchases

None

StellarMate

No in-app purchases

None

OnStep Controller

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is StellarMate free?
StellarMate is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is OnStep Controller free?
OnStep Controller is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do StellarMate or OnStep Controller have ads?
Neither StellarMate nor OnStep Controller shows ads.

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