ASIAIR vs Star Stacker
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ASIAIR
This app acts as an intelligent wireless controller for astrophotography, enabling control of various cameras and equatorial mounts. It offers comprehensive tools for deep-sky and planetary imaging, including focusing, alignment, and stacking, all accessible from your mobile device.
- Wireless camera and mount control
- DSLR/MILC and equatorial mount support
- Built-in SkyAtlas for imaging tasks
- Auto-focus and polar alignment
- Live stacking and post-stacking
- Multi-target and mosaic planning
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ASIAIR is an intelligent wireless controller that includes the device and app. You can control all ASI USB 3.0 and Mini-series cameras, selected DSLRs/MILCs, and popular equatorial mounts. Also, you can handle more gears, such as EFW and EAF from ZWO. Just connect your phone or pad to ASIAIR WiFi and explore the universe. ASIAIR has SkyAtlas built-in. It can handle almost all DSO and Planetary imaging tasks. Such as preview, plate solve, auto-focus, polar-align, guiding, plan (multi-target, mosaic), video recording, live stacking, post-stacking, etc. You can even share and chat with global Astro-pals.
Star Stacker
Create stunning star trail images and time-lapse videos from sequences of night sky photos. Offers various effects like full trails, faded trails, shooting stars, and warp mode. Supports importing photos from your device's gallery.
- Create star trail images
- Generate time-lapse videos
- Full trails effect
- Faded trails effect
- Shooting star effect
- Warp mode effect
- Import photos from gallery
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Star Stacker allows you to import a sequence of star photos taken throughout the night and turn them into star trail images or a time lapse video. After importing you can create the images and/or a time-lapse video with a few different effects. - Full trails - every star at full brightness - Faded trails - Stars get brighter as the process runs - Shooting star - Like faded trails but the last image is brighter than any previous giving a shooting star effect - Javelin - Both ends of the trail are faded - Warp mode - zooms into the image stack slowly creating a warped effect. This will also affect the foreground so post processing may be required if the images have the foreground included. You can also choose to save a video of the time-lapse based on the options used for the image stacking. Can import images from your photos app. RAW files that have been recently imported from an SD card reader, may take a few minutes before the full resolution files are available. There are resolution limits depending on the device being used and the memory it has: - 6gb - 62mp - 5gb - 62mp - 4gb - 62mp - 3gb - 42mp - 2gb - 30mp
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: ASIAIR at Free against Star Stacker's $3.99. ASIAIR also leads on iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.0). Star Stacker's advantage is rating (4.3 vs 3.9) and chart position (#127 vs unranked). On review sentiment, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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
ASIAIR is free to download; Star Stacker costs $3.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Star Stacker holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 3.9. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 245 and 99 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 52% of ASIAIR's written reviews are positive against 57% of Star Stacker's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ASIAIR | Star Stacker |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $3.99 |
| Rating | 3.9 (245 ratings) | 4.3 (99 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 52.3% of reviews | 56.9% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 245 — better | 99 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Best chart rank | — | #127 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1.1 GB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | SuZhou ZWO Co., Ltd | michael webb |
Customer experience
ASIAIR
Star Stacker
User reviews
ASIAIR
From 245 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Powerful and feature-rich
- 👍 Easy to use and intuitive
- 🔒 Reliable and stable
- 🌟 Excellent automation and control
- 💻 Seamless integration with ZWO ecosystem
Room to improve
- 🐛 Buggy software updates
- 🔍 Limited camera/mount compatibility
- 🔧 Difficult to troubleshoot issues
- 🔋 Connectivity and Wi-Fi problems
- 🗺️ Inaccurate object locating and plate solving
Star Stacker
From 99 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use
- ✨ Great results
- 🚀 Fast processing
- 💡 Versatile for different uses
- 👨🏫 Useful for teaching
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes
- 💸 Not worth the money
- 🤔 Unintuitive interface
- 🤷♂️ Lack of documentation
- 🐌 Slow stacking speed
Bugs and requests
ASIAIR
Reported bugs
5 issues- Crashes and freezes with recent updates
- Guiding and tracking issues after updates
- Connectivity problems with certain mounts
- Polar alignment and plate solving failures
- Incompatibility with newer iOS versions
Requested features
5 requests- Improved object catalog and sky atlas
- Support for more camera brands and models
- Mosaic imaging capabilities
- Customizable file naming and organization
- Notifications and alerts for issues during sessions
Star Stacker
Reported bugs
12 issues- App crashes when starting stack
- App crashes when attempting to stack
- App crashes during stacking process
- App crashes when rendering video
- Cannot load photos
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- Cannot enter the app
- Cannot select photos after choosing specific access
- App crashes at nearly 90%
- App crashes after stacking completes
- App crashes on MacBook Pro
- App crashes when trying to stack images
- App crashes when adding images
Requested features
12 requests- Option to export live photos
- Help info for stacking options
- Manual stacking option
- Advanced editing software
- Automatic alignment function
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- Ability to set picture format
- Support for .raw files
- Ability to import from Files app
- Option to select all photos
- Clear all option
- 4K video export
- Chinese language support
In-app purchases
ASIAIR
No in-app purchases
Star Stacker
No in-app purchases
