Luwian vs Star Stacker
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Luwian
Transform your phone into a professional camera with full manual controls for photography and videography. Edit your shots with advanced tools, including RAW file editing and creative filters, to achieve a professional masterpiece.
- Full manual camera controls (ISO, Shutter Speed, Exposure)
- Precise focus and white balance adjustment
- Analog film and cinematic filters
- Professional video recording (Slow Motion, Time-lapse)
- RAW file editing and color correction
- Perspective correction and cropping
- Long exposure and HDRi modes
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Luwian & Raw Magic Pro: Capture, Control, and Create Your Masterpiece Transform your mobile device into a professional photography. Luwian delivers complete manual control to capture your vision with DSLR-level precision, while Raw Magic Pro provides the all-in-one editing suite to turn every shot into a professional masterpiece. Designed for enthusiasts and experts alike, this is the ultimate toolkit to unleash your creative power. Take command of your camera with a sophisticated, intuitive interface that gives you precise, real-time manual control over every photographic element.Core Manual Controls Exposure Triangle: Full manual control over ISO, Shutter Speed, and Exposure. Focus Mastery: Precise Focus Control and Focus Lock White Balance: Both preset and custom adjustment options Zoom Control: Fine-tune your framing with smooth zoom Modes & Features Full Mode Suite: Includes Manual, Auto, Portrait Mode, and a Shutter Timer (3 to 15 seconds setup). Creative Optics: Analog Film Mode, Cinetone Filter Mode, and a huge selection of 40 Filters, 29 Virtual FX, 17 Analog Films, and 36 Classic Movie Tones. Professional Video: Switch between Normal, Slow Motion, and Time-lapse video recording (with speed adjustable from 2x to 10x). Advanced: Mega-lapse: Capture stunning 8K time-lapse videos. Long Exposure: Dedicated modes for Day and Night long exposure photography and videography. HDRi: Classical High Dynamic Range Imaging photography. Cinematic Capture: Cinematic video capture and editing. Specialty Modes: Traditional Panoramic Capture (three photo sequence), Green Screen Video Recorder, and Camera Trap for animal and person detection. Workflow Tools: Frame Capture (with automatic perspective adjustment), Consistent Color Photography for low-light environments. Multi-Camera Recording: Multi camera recording mode using all three cameras at the same time. Depth & Backdrop: True Depth Backdrop Camera. Raw Magic Pro: The Ultimate Editing Suite Go beyond basic filters. Raw Magic Pro provides the professional tools you need to refine, restore, and transform your images with unparalleled fidelity and artistic freedom.Core Editing & Precision RAW & Color Control: Dive deep into your RAW files for advanced color, contrast, and exposure precision. Complete control over every color channel with RGB Color Adjustment. Structural Integrity: Effortlessly perfect your composition with Photo Crop & Perspective Correction. Detailed Adjustment: Utilize Advanced Detailed Photo Adjustment to manipulate specific areas of your image. Cinematic & Artistic Flair Authentic Film Looks: Apply the nostalgic aesthetic of classic film stocks with a diverse library of Analog Films and Filters. Hollywood Mood: Instantly add the drama and style of blockbusters with Cinematic Filter Effects inspired by iconic classic movies. Restoration & Enhancement Digital Darkroom: A dedicated space for film photographers, allowing you to easily convert negative film photos to positive photos digitally. Clarity: Restore detail in high-ISO shots with the Noise Reduction Tool and recover underexposed images with Low Light Enhancement. Seamless Fixes: The Image Healer Tool lets you flawlessly remove unwanted objects, blemishes, or distractions. Image Quality: Image Super Resolution upscales your photos with incredible fidelity. Dynamic Range: Create stunning images with enhanced highlights and shadows using HDRI Imaging Algorithms. Colorize History: Breathe new life into black-and-white photos by intelligently adding realistic color with the Image Colorizer. Modern Tools & Workflow Instant Bokeh: Effortlessly apply a professional depth of field (bokeh) effect to any photo, giving your images a stunning, portrait-quality look. Background Control: Instantly and accurately isolate your subject and Remove the Background with a single tap, or use the Green Screen Editor for precision chroma keying. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
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: Luwian at Free against Star Stacker's $3.99. Luwian also leads on update cadence (every 10 days vs every 2 months) and ratings volume (355 vs 99). Star Stacker's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and chart position (#160 vs unranked). On rating, ads and device support 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
Luwian is free to download; Star Stacker costs $3.99 up front. Luwian sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Star Stacker asks for nothing beyond the download.
Luwian holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 355 and 99 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 46% of Luwian's written reviews are positive against 57% of Star Stacker's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Luwian ships an update every 10 days, Star Stacker every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Luwian | Star Stacker |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $3.99 |
| Rating | 4.5 (355 ratings) — better | 4.3 (99 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 45.6% of reviews | 56.9% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 355 — better | 99 |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | — | #160 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 211 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Erkan SIRIN | michael webb |
Customer experience
Luwian
Star Stacker
User reviews
Luwian
From 355 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 📸 Excellent image quality and sharpness with ProRAW
- 🎯 Precise autofocus and tap-to-focus functionality
- ⚙️ Extensive manual controls and detailed adjustments
- 🎬 Professional-grade features rivaling DSLR cameras
- 🎨 Creative filters and film stock options
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and CTD (crash-to-desktop) issues
- 🐢 Very slow processing and performance
- 🎨 Cluttered menu interface and poor UI/UX
- 💳 Shift to subscription model in recent updates
- 📱 Inconsistent performance across devices
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
Luwian
Reported bugs
14 issues- App crashes immediately on startup, especially on iPad
- Memory issues preventing photo capture
- Panorama mode requests landscape when already in landscape
- Duplicate panorama files in camera roll
- Image preview turns dark brown when changing lenses
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- Film stock settings not persisting after photo capture
- Video files not saving properly
- High-resolution video cannot be saved
- App freezes and becomes unresponsive
- Orientation lock issues requiring phone restart
- Lens selection buttons not responding correctly
- HDR processing extremely slow with artificial shadows
- Portrait mode UI elements blocking display on front camera
- App doesn't open after recent updates
Requested features
7 requests- Better effects and filters library
- Improved focus peeking for manual focus
- Clearer user instructions and documentation
- Better panorama handling with single output
- Improved video editing and saving capabilities
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- Dark mode option
- Simplified UI with better organization
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
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- 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
Luwian
- Luwian Pro Monthly Membership$2.991 Month
- Luwian Pro Annual Membership7 Days trial$14.991 Year
Star Stacker
No in-app purchases









