Celestia vs TrueSize
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Celestia
Explore the universe in real-time 3D. Visit planets, moons, star clusters, and galaxies, viewing them from any point in space and time. Customize your experience with expandable content and detailed simulations.
- Real-time 3D space visualization
- Explore planets, moons, stars, galaxies
- Accurate solar system object positions
- Interactive planetarium mode
- Expandable content with add-ons
- Customizable celestial databases
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Celestia — real-time 3D visualization of space 3D Space Simulator | Celestia lets you explore our universe in three dimensions. Celestia simulates many different types of celestial objects. From planets and moons to star clusters and galaxies, you can visit every object in the expandable database and view it from any point in space and time. The position and movement of solar system objects is calculated accurately in real time at any rate desired. Interactive Planetarium | Celestia serves as a planetarium – for an observer on any celestial object. You can easily navigate to any world and land on its surface. When used as a planetarium, Celestia shows accurate positions of solar system objects in the sky. You can switch labels and other supporting features on and off with hotkeys, or zoom in and out on an object of interest, for example Jupiter’s system of moons. Expandable Content | Customize Celestia according to your needs. Celestia’s catalogues can be easily expanded. There are many different add-ons available containing new objects like comets or stars, high-resolution textures of Earth and other well mapped solar system bodies, as well as 3D models for asteroids and spacecraft on precise trajectories. Even fictional objects from well-known sci-fi franchises can be found. EULA(End User License Agreement): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
TrueSize
Explore the true scale of countries, continents, and regions with accurate size comparisons based on spherical geometry. Visualize historical and modern maps, access detailed information, and even test your knowledge with a geography mini-game. Customize your experience by importing and editing map data.
- Accurate size comparisons using spherical geometry
- 140,000+ countries, regions, and territories
- Detailed tooltips and insights
- Historical and modern maps
- Import & edit GeoJSON / TopoJSON files
- Geography mini-game
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Explore the true size of countries, continents, and regions with TrueSize app. Move territories around an interactive map and compare their real proportions without the size distortion of traditional flat maps. Key Features • True-size comparisons Compare countries and regions using spherical geometry, without the size distortion caused by flat map projections. • 750,000+ geographic regions Explore countries, territories, states, provinces, historical borders, islands, and more. • Natural features Explore mountains, peaks, deserts, islands, peninsulas, archipelagos, seas, bays, lakes, rivers, and river basins. • Geography games Play the TrueSize Challenge to guess the larger territory, or test your knowledge with the Flag Quiz. • Measurement tools Measure true geodesic distances in kilometers or miles, check compass bearings, and draw custom shapes. • Edit any boundary shape Modify the vertices of countries, regions, and other map shapes directly on the map. Add, move, select, or delete points with Undo and Redo support. • Facts and geographic details View population, area, flags, and useful facts for regions you explore. • Historical and modern maps Explore historical territories and see how borders and regions have changed over time. • Import & edit GeoJSON / TopoJSON files Load your own map data, modify shapes, simplify or merge boundaries, and export your changes. Ideal for students, educators, and GIS enthusiasts. • Share your discoveries Create and share interactive map comparisons with others. Perfect For • Students learning geography and map accuracy • Teachers explaining map projection distortion • Travelers visualizing distances and regions • Geography enthusiasts exploring historical and modern borders • Anyone curious about the real scale of our world Why TrueSize? Traditional flat maps can significantly distort the apparent size of countries and regions, especially near the poles. TrueSize uses spherical geometry to provide more realistic size comparisons while letting you freely move and explore territories around the globe. From the creators of TrueSize.net, the official TrueSize app brings interactive geography tools, hundreds of thousands of regions, historical maps, games, measurements, and custom geographic data to your device. Rediscover the world as it truly appears - clearly, accurately, and interactively.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: TrueSize at none against Celestia's 4. TrueSize also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.4). Celestia's advantage is ads (none vs shown). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume and update cadence 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. Celestia sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per 7 days. TrueSize asks for nothing beyond the download.
TrueSize holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 337 and 225 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 79% of Celestia's written reviews are positive against 71% of TrueSize's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Celestia ships an update fortnightly, TrueSize every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Celestia | TrueSize |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (337 ratings) | 4.7 (225 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 78.9% of reviews — better | 71.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 337 — better | 225 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 10 days — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 15.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 550 MB | 165 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | 林峰 李 | BINARY BANANA LLC |
Customer experience
Celestia
TrueSize
Bugs and requests
Celestia
Reported bugs
3 issues- Milky Way and other galaxy textures not loading properly
- Crashes when using certain add-ons
- Issues with planet and moon orbits not being accurate
Requested features
5 requests- Add more exoplanets and distant star systems
- Implement terrain generation for planets
- Expand to include more galaxies and the overall universe structure
- Add support for black holes, pulsars, and other exotic objects
- Improve controls and camera movement
TrueSize
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Celestia
- Celestia PLUS (Weekly)7 Days trial$0.997 Days
- Celestia PLUS (Monthly)$1.991 Month
- Celestia PLUS (Yearly)$19.991 Year
- Celestia PLUS (Lifetime)$79.99
TrueSize
No in-app purchases









