Fotocast vs Stargazing Weather
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Fotocast
This app provides hyperlocal weather forecasts specifically tailored for outdoor photographers. It offers unique tools like a "Fotoscore" for optimal conditions, sunrise/sunset quality predictions, and minute-by-minute precipitation alerts. Plan your photo sessions with confidence, get gear-based suggestions, and access historical weather data.
- Hyperlocal weather forecasts
- Fotoscore™ for photography conditions
- Sunrise & Sunset quality prediction
- Minutely precipitation alerts
- Daylight phases (blue hour, golden hour)
- Photo suggestions based on weather & gear
- Photo session manager
- Animated radar & weather maps
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Fotocast is the only revolutionary hyperlocal weather forecast app designed for outdoor photographers. With weather info like any other high-rated weather forecast app, it is custom made for photography with many additional photography weather tools you won't find in any other app. And best of all, it's ad-free! ▶ Introducing Fotoscore™ See a simple score from 0 to 10 telling you if conditions outside are optimal for photography, based on your photographer type! ▶ Sunrise & Sunset Quality Know if sunrise or sunset is likely to be colorful & beautiful based on weather conditions that have been known to affect the quality of the sky at that magical hour. ▶ Real-time Minutely Hyperlocal Forecasts Never get your camera wet again! See precipitation information minute by minute, configure alerts when rain is starting, and more. ▶ Intuitive "Daylight Phases" See the times for blue hour, golden hour, high noon, sunrise, sunset, and more... like never before. Designed just for photographers. ▶ Photo suggestions based on weather conditions and the gear you own! See helpful photography tips automatically based on weather conditions and the type of photographer that you are! Save your photography gear into the intuitive database and configure which weather conditions you need them for! ▶ Photo Session Manager Program your future photography sessions into Fotocast and get notified when bad weather is expected. Don't wonder if you and your clients will get wet at that park you are shooting at next week! ▶ Trip Log Record your photography session mileage on the go. ▶ Inspiration See photos from other photographers automatically based on your current weather condition and photographer type for quick inspiration on the go! ▶ Alerts, Notifications & Customizations Configure more types of weather alerts than any other weather app. Want to know if the wind speed is going to be low at your favorite pond or lake so you can get some nice reflection shots on the water? Fotocast has you covered. Want to know if it's going to be foggy so you can take some creatively killer shots? Fotocast does that too! The interface of Fotocast is fully customizable, as well. Pick any color you want to use as a theme, and hide weather conditions that aren't important to you! ▶ Animated Radar & Maps Track the path of precipitation around you with animated radar. Fotocast also includes many other weather maps for any type of weather condition... even a light pollution map for night time photographers! ▶ Almanac (Historic Weather) With Fotocast's built in Almanac, you can research what the weather conditions were on any day for many years in the past. Take it a step further than any other weather almanac by automatically analyzing weather conditions on that day for the past 50 years, and produce an average weather condition! ▶ Sunny 16 Rule Indicator Automatically changing Sunny 16 rule indicator based on current weather! ▶ Photography Calculators There are more than 10 handy photography calculators! ▶ Sun/Moon Direction Tool Plan your outdoor photography by knowing which direction the Sun will be in at any time, on any date, any location! ▶ Live Aurora Borealis Info Never miss the northern lights! ▶ A lot more! There's a lot more features and tools for photographers we can't fit into this description! Download Fotocast today to see what the hype is about. Some features require a subscription of $4.99/month or $29.99/year for Fotocast Premium. Subscriptions are charged to your iTunes account at confirmation of purchase and automatically renew each month or year, unless turned off in your iTunes settings 24 hours before the end of the current period. Any unused portion of the trial period, will be forfeited when you purchase a subscription. You may manage subscriptions and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to your Account Settings after purchase. Terms of Use: https://bit.ly/2HVHi7p
Stargazing Weather
This app provides detailed astronomy weather forecasts, including cloud coverage, visibility, and optimal viewing times for celestial events. It helps users plan their stargazing, planet watching, and satellite spotting sessions.
- Detailed cloud coverage forecasts
- Real-time visibility conditions
- Hour-by-hour viewing quality predictions
- International Space Station visibility
- Intuitive timeline grid
- Forecasts for today and tomorrow
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Starglow is your stargazing forecast. It tells you when the sky will be clear, where it will be darkest, and what you’ll see when you get there. KNOW WHEN TO LOOK UP An hour-by-hour timeline shows when conditions are best tonight: • Total cloud cover, plus high, mid and low cloud • Visibility and viewing quality, hour by hour • Seeing and transparency: steady air for planets, clear air for galaxies (Pro) • Models Clear: how many of six weather models agree on a clear sky (Pro) • Forecasts up to 5 days ahead (Pro) FIND DARK SKIES • Dark Site Finder: light pollution from NASA satellite data, your Bortle class, and the darkest places nearby ranked by tonight’s cloud (Pro) • Best Location Tonight: your saved spots ranked by cloud and darkness (Pro) • Save and name your favourite observing spots (Pro) SEE THE SKY BEFORE YOU GO • Moon map and AR: the Moon’s direction, path and phase, on the map or through your camera • 3D Map with real terrain and buildings, and the Moon at its true size (Pro) • Vantage Point: stand anywhere and see the Moon, stars, planets, the Milky Way and the ISS over the real skyline (Pro) • Star Trails: plan a long exposure and preview every trail over the skyline (Pro) • ISS passes in AR: follow the station’s path across your sky (Pro) NEVER MISS A CLEAR NIGHT • Alerts for dark skies, moonrise and moonset, new and full Moons, and ISS passes • Clear night alerts when a good night is coming (Pro) • Home and Lock Screen widgets (Pro) • Siri and Shortcuts: ask about tonight’s sky, the Moon phase or the next ISS pass • Red night mode to protect your night vision STARGLOW PRO Pro unlocks 5-day forecasts, seeing and transparency, the Dark Site Finder, Vantage Point, Star Trails, widgets and more. Share it with up to five family members. Already using Alpenglow for sunrise and sunset? Pair it with Starglow to cover the sky from golden hour to the Milky Way. Terms of Use: https://starglowapp.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://starglowapp.com/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Stargazing Weather at 4.1 against Fotocast's 3.8. Stargazing Weather also leads on review sentiment (50% vs 30%). Fotocast's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 6 weeks) and ratings volume (88 vs 15). 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. Fotocast sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Stargazing Weather sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Stargazing Weather holds the better App Store score, 4.1 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Fotocast has 88 ratings behind it against 15, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 30% of Fotocast's written reviews are positive against 50% of Stargazing Weather's.
Fotocast ships an update fortnightly, Stargazing Weather every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 11, 2026 and November 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Fotocast | Stargazing Weather |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.8 (88 ratings) | 4.1 (15 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 30.0% of reviews | 50.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 88 — better | 15 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 6 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 188 MB | 99 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Dunbar Technology, LLC | Andrew Yates |
Customer experience
Fotocast
Stargazing Weather
Bugs and requests
Fotocast
Reported bugs
44 issues- Nothing working
- No data available
- Never updated to my location
- App is abandoned
- Nothing loads in any category
Show 39 moreShow fewer
- Completely useless app
- Never loads my location
- Watch app crashes immediately
- No updates to fix
- App will not load info
- Crashes constantly
- Free version never worked
- Apps that haven’t been updated within a year
- Nothing geht (German for nothing works)
- App now stops on age consent form
- Will not open on Apple Watch
- Crashes trying to read terms of use
- Dunkelmodus funktioniert nicht (German for dark mode not working)
- Location not updating
- GPS auto update not working
- Radar is premium subscription
- Double dip (billing issue)
- Sunrise/Sunset quality scores are useless
- Quality Scores update retrospectively
- Fotoscore number is random
- Bugs with regards to notifications
- My Location (Auto GPS) doesn’t update location
- App crashes as soon as I open it
- Crashes every time I open the app
- App installs well and asks to locate for forecasting, etc. when you give approval it follows by crashing
- Latest version crashes upon opening
- Whenever I select a location it automatically quits out
- App will not work. Each time I open the app it crashes
- App crashes within a split second when I try to open it
- Thinks it's clear when loads of clouds and vice versa
- Can't get the current weather right
- Reverts to other locations
- Attempt to edit gear causes app to force close
- Address search results in “my photo places” cannot be selected and improperly displays
- Use of the camera in the “my photo places” results in force close of app
- In app support fails to send
- Can’t add locations
- Can’t make it use location services
- Thinks it is nighttime when it is 1000
Requested features
24 requests- Pull apps down if abandoned
- Remove payment options from abandoned apps
- Fix app updates
- One-time payment option instead of subscription
- Fix app to work
Show 19 moreShow fewer
- Fix watch app
- Fix age consent form bug
- Fix dark mode
- Fix GPS auto-update
- Make radar not premium
- Fix double billing
- Fix notification bugs
- Fix quality score calculation
- Fix fotoscore calculation
- Fix support ticket sending
- Fix gear editing crash
- Fix address search
- Fix camera use crash
- Fix support message sending
- Fix app quitting out
- Allow adding locations
- Enable location services
- Fix daytime/nighttime display
- Add more features for iOS
Stargazing Weather
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Fotocast
- Fotocast Premium Monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
- Fotocast Premium Annual7 Days trial$29.991 Year
- Fotocast Premium - One Time$19.99
Stargazing Weather
- Pro Monthly$1.991 Month
- Pro Yearly$14.991 Year
- Pro$24.99
Questions
Is Fotocast free?
Is Stargazing Weather free?
Which has better reviews, Fotocast or Stargazing Weather?
Do Fotocast or Stargazing Weather have ads?
Which is updated more often, Fotocast or Stargazing Weather?
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