Solar System vs DIY Solar System
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Solar System
Explore planets, dwarf planets, and moons in your own space using augmented reality. Walk around the solar system, view celestial bodies in scale, and access detailed information about each planet and its moons.
- Augmented reality solar system view
- Explore planets, dwarf planets, and moons
- Scale mode for size and distance comparison
- Detailed planet and moon information
- Interactive exploration
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Place the Sun on your table or on the floor and walk among the planets in augmented reality. Get close to Saturn's rings, look at Jupiter's moons from below, or find out how far away Pluto really is when the Sun is one metre wide. THREE WAYS TO SEE IT • Learn: everything fits in one room, so you can see every planet at once. • To scale: the planets' sizes are true to each other. Earth is 4 cm, Jupiter 45 cm, and Neptune is 30 metres from the Sun. • Real scale: everything to the same scale. Earth is a 9 mm marble 107 m away; Pluto is more than 4 km from you. Follow the labels to find them. WHERE THE PLANETS ARE TODAY Every planet starts at its real position in its orbit. Speed up time to watch the years pass, or tap Today to come back. REAL PHYSICS • Orbits with their true tilt: Pluto 17°, Eris 44° • Axes that always point the same way, which is what makes the seasons • Moons that always show the same face to their planet • Triton orbiting backwards, and Io, Europa and Ganymede in their 1:2:4 dance • Haumea, the dwarf planet shaped like a rugby ball 21 WORLDS The Sun, the eight planets, five dwarf planets and seven moons. Each one has a fact sheet with NASA figures — diameter, distance, length of the day and the year, temperature, gravity, moons, who discovered it — a size comparison with Earth and a surprising fact. Great for school, for curious minds of every age, and for anyone who has wondered how big space really is. Augmented reality needs an iPhone or iPad with ARKit. On other devices the app opens in 3D mode.
DIY Solar System
Explore the solar system with interactive activities and an augmented reality planet walk. Learn about space travel, design a moon base, and identify celestial objects. Developed by leading science institutions, this app makes learning about space engaging for families and educators.
- Interactive space activities
- Augmented reality planet walk
- Design a moon base
- Grow a space garden
- Control a Mars rover
- In or Out space game
- NASA imagery
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DIY Solar System makes it easy for families and educators to explore the solar system from anywhere, anytime! The app was developed by the Children’s Creativity Museum, Sciencenter, and Museum of Life and Science, in partnership with UC Berkeley’s The Lawrence Hall of Science. INTERACTIVE ACTIVITIES DIY Solar System includes 11 easy-to-use activities to learn about space travel, living in space, and the unique objects that make up the planetary system we call home. Design a Moon base, grow your own space garden, or experience what it’s like to control a rover on Mars! Each activity includes step-by-step instructions that have been tested by educators, kids, and families. Activity materials are easily available and inexpensive—you may already have many of them in your home! AUGMENTED REALITY PLANET WALK Don’t have the time to travel several billion miles to reach Neptune? Try dropping a scale version of the solar system outside your home to start a walk that will show you planets, dwarf planets, and asteroids. At each stop, examine the space object up close using real images from NASA. Don’t forget to take a space selfie with your favorite planet! IN OR OUT GAME Quickly scan awe-inspiring images of space objects from NASA’s Earth and space observatories to decide if the objects are in or out of the solar system. While the solar system is vast, it only represents a tiny corner of the universe. After you have mastered your solar system knowledge, challenge yourself to a new round of objects in or out of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Funding Source This work was supported by NASA under award number 80NSSC21M0082. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in these programs are those of the author and do not reflect the views of NASA. Compatibility Requires iOS 12.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone and iPad. Rated 4+.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: DIY Solar System at 4.5 against Solar System's 3.7. DIY Solar System also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 67%) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 107 months). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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.
DIY Solar System holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 30 and 17 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 67% of Solar System's written reviews are positive against 100% of DIY Solar System's.
Solar System ships an update every 107 months, DIY Solar System every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Solar System | DIY Solar System |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.7 (30 ratings) | 4.5 (17 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 66.7% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 30 — better | 17 |
| Update frequency | Every 107 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 12 MB | 180 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Luis Carvajal Hoyos | The Lawrence Hall of Science |
Customer experience
Solar System
DIY Solar System
In-app purchases
Solar System
No in-app purchases
DIY Solar System
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Solar System free?
Is DIY Solar System free?
Which has better reviews, Solar System or DIY Solar System?
Do Solar System or DIY Solar System have ads?
Which is updated more often, Solar System or DIY Solar System?
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