Comparison

Pocket Planets vs My Cosmic Compass

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

Head to head
About

Pocket Planets

Explore our solar system with detailed information on planets, moons, and astronauts. Track who is currently in space and receive notifications about new launches. Discover physical and orbital characteristics, atmospheric data, and view NASA images.

Highlights
  • Detailed planet and moon data
  • Astronaut mission information
  • Real-time space tracking
  • Launch notifications
  • NASA image gallery
  • Orbital characteristic visualization
Features
Read full description

Pocket Planets gives you all the information you need about our solar system and human activity in space. Learn more about all 565 astronauts who been to space. What was their mission? How long had they been up there? See who is in space now! Get notified when somebody goes into space. Get up to date information about every planet and moon in the solar system. Including: - Physical characteristics: mass, radius, density, gravity, escape velocity - Orbital characteristics: real-time distance from the Sun and Earth, orbital period, orbital speed, eccentricity, apsis, periapsis, visualise orbit - Atmosphere: pressure, atmospheric composition - Images from Nasa - Moons: compare their size and distance

About

My Cosmic Compass

Discover celestial alignments with this tool that uses your iPhone's GPS, compass, and camera to identify stars and planets rising and setting along any line. Explore historical and future celestial events from 5000 BC to 3000 AD, including lunar standstills.

Highlights
  • Capture alignments with GPS, compass, and camera
  • Track 21 navigational stars and major planets
  • Calculate positions from 5000 BC to 3000 AD
  • Detect lunar standstill points
  • View sites on a satellite map
  • Save alignments to calendar
  • Export to Google Earth
Features
Read full description

The iPhone tool for discovering which stars and planets rise and set along any alignment, today and thousands of years ago. Reveal the celestial connections hidden in ancient monuments, sacred sites, or your own backyard. WHAT IS COSMIC COMPASS? Point your iPhone along any structure: a temple axis, a stone circle, a pyramid edge, a garden wall. Cosmic Compass records the precise bearing using GPS, compass and camera, then calculates which stars and planets rise or set along that line, and when they did so throughout history. Does that Neolithic monument face the rising of Sirius? Which star rose along a Maya temple axis in 900 AD? Did the builders catch Venus at dawn? Or which stars rise along your own street? A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME Calculate star and planet positions for any year from 5000 BC to 3000 AD. Set the year a temple was built and see exactly where Sirius, Venus or the Pleiades rose when it was new. Dates appear in the Julian or Gregorian calendar of the time. Precession slowly wobbles Earth’s axis, shifting star positions by about 1° every 72 years, and every star drifts on its own path. Cosmic Compass combines the Vondrák long-term precession model with proper motions from the Hipparcos catalogue. Planets are calculated with VSOP87, the theory used by professional observatories. AS THE BUILDERS SAW IT Near the horizon the air absorbs starlight. Cosmic Compass places each star where it first becomes visible, following Alexander Thom’s work on the British stone rows. THE MOON’S SECRET CYCLE Every 18.6 years, the Moon reaches its most extreme rising and setting points: the lunar standstills. Monuments from Scotland to New Mexico were aligned to them. Cosmic Compass detects them and marks the standstill points around every site. EVERY SITE ON THE MAP Your sites appear on a satellite map of the world. Open a site and a compass ring shows its lines, the Moon’s standstill points and where each line’s star rose in the year you choose. Move through time and watch the stars travel along the horizon. HOW IT WORKS Point your iPhone along an alignment and tap to capture. The answer appears in one sentence, with the horizon drawn as a night sky. Below it: what lies on your line, what lies near it, and how it was calculated. A Celestial Convergence shows when a star and a planet share the same line. FEATURES • Capture alignments with compass, GPS and camera • 21 navigational stars including Sirius, Vega, the Pleiades and the Hyades • Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon • Any year from 5000 BC to 3000 AD • Precession and proper motion for true historical positions • Lunar standstill detection • Satellite site map with moving star marks • The Moon tonight on the home screen • Star Catalog with time travel • Save upcoming alignments to your calendar • Export to Google Earth as KML • Featured sites including Stonehenge, Callanish, Chimney Rock, Uxmal, Teotihuacan, Angkor Wat, Dendera and Versailles • Works offline in the field • Designed for normal, large and foldable screens & iPhone Duo WHO IS IT FOR? Anyone who stands at an ancient site and wonders: what were they watching? Heritage enthusiasts, travelers, students and educators, field researchers, astrophotographers planning star-rise shots, and anyone curious about the sky above their own home. YOUR DATA, YOUR RESEARCH Your sites are stored in your own iCloud Drive and sync across your devices. Nothing is shared, no account needed. START EXPLORING The ancients built with the stars in mind. Let Cosmic Compass reveal what they knew.

Screenshots

Pocket Planets4 screens
My Cosmic Compass4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Pocket Planets at Free against My Cosmic Compass's $6.99. Pocket Planets also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 6 months) and ratings volume (22 vs 1). My Cosmic Compass's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (100% vs 67%). On 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Pocket Planets is free to download; My Cosmic Compass costs $6.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

My Cosmic Compass holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Pocket Planets has 22 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 67% of Pocket Planets's written reviews are positive against 100% of My Cosmic Compass's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pocket Planets ships an update every 3 weeks, My Cosmic Compass every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on November 11, 2026 and November 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard9 real differences · 1 level
Pocket Planets versus My Cosmic Compass: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPocket PlanetsMy Cosmic Compass
PriceFree — better$6.99
Rating4.6 (22 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews66.7% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings22 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterEvery 6 months
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationAd-supported — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.0 — better26.1
Further details — not scored
Size48 MB16 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAd Lunam Kereskedelmi es Szolgaltato Korlatolt Felelossegu TarsasagAdventuring B.V.

Customer experience

Pocket Planets

All ratings22 ratings
Positive86.4%
Neutral4.5%
Negative9.1%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral16.7%
Negative16.7%

My Cosmic Compass

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Pocket Planets

No in-app purchases

None

My Cosmic Compass

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pocket Planets free?
Pocket Planets is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is My Cosmic Compass free?
My Cosmic Compass costs $6.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Pocket Planets or My Cosmic Compass?
My Cosmic Compass is rated higher. Pocket Planets averages 4.6 out of 5 from 22 ratings, while My Cosmic Compass averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Pocket Planets or My Cosmic Compass have ads?
Pocket Planets shows ads; My Cosmic Compass does not.
Which is updated more often, Pocket Planets or My Cosmic Compass?
Pocket Planets ships an update every 3 weeks, and My Cosmic Compass every 6 months. Most recently, Pocket Planets was updated on November 11, 2026 and My Cosmic Compass on November 9, 2026.

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