Comparison

Fractal Catalog vs NearLight

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

Head to head
About

Fractal Catalog

Features
Read full description

In the “Fractal Catalog” iPhone/iPad app, you can see various fractal figures while moving them. ** Fractals handled in “Fractal Catalog” ** C Curve Sierpinski Gasket Sierpinski Carpet Pentaflake Hexaflake Sierpinski Curve Hilbert Curve Peano Curve Moore Curve Koch Curve Koch Snow Flake Gumowski Mira Attractor Julia Set Mandelbrot Set Cellular Automaton Pascal’s Triangle Barnsley Fern Dragon Curve Modified Koch Curve Tree Curve Z Order Curve Minkowski Sausage Vicsek Snow Flake Saltire Vicsek Snow Flake Cross Torn Square Fractal Cantor Set Cantor Dust Gosper Curve Gosper Curve N13 Affine Transformation IFS Ammonite Affine Transformation IFS Tree Affine Transformation IFS Twin Dragon Affine Transformation IFS Branch Affine Transformation IFS Fern 2 Chaos Game Random Walk & Levy Flight Diffusion Limited Aggregation Diffusion Limited Deposition Invasion Percolation Ballistic Aggregation Devil’s Staircase Eden Model Scheidagger River Net

About

NearLight

Explore nearby star systems and visualize interstellar distances with realistic physics. Calculate travel times using classic and relativistic models, and witness the effects of time dilation and black holes firsthand. This interactive space simulator is perfect for astronomy and sci-fi enthusiasts.

Highlights
  • 3D space exploration
  • Relativistic physics calculations
  • Time dilation visualization
  • Black hole exploration
  • Star system inspection
  • Interstellar travel planning
  • Multiple camera views
Features
Read full description

NearLight is a 3D space simulator that spans the whole journey of an astronomy fan: from a real telescope under tonight's sky to a relativistic starship and the edge of a black hole. Explore the Solar System on exact orbits, fly through 1,000 light-years of real stars, and see with your own eyes what the Lorentz factor does to time. Is your favorite sci-fi movie physically right? Check it. YOUR NIGHT SKY, TONIGHT Step onto a field on Earth and look up: the real sky for your location and moment: by GPS or from an offline catalog of 34,000 cities. Six telescopes stand ready, from a 70 mm beginner refractor to a 12-inch truss Dobsonian, with eight eyepieces, a Barlow, Moon and nebula filters (UHC, OIII), every instrument with its true magnification, field of view, image orientation and brightness. The full Messier catalog is in the sky: over 40 objects as real as astrophotographs at their exact positions and sizes, every object rebuilt from reference photos, 341,000 Tycho-2 stars deep in the field. Light pollution (Bortle scale), atmospheric seeing, twinkling, horizon extinction, even moonlight washing the galaxies out of the eyepiece, this sky behaves like the real one. A Redlight mode protects your dark adaptation. Wind the clock to August 12, 2026 and stand in Iceland or Spain: the total solar eclipse happens with true geometry, corona included. "Tonight's Sky" builds your observing plan, the "Top Objects now" wheel rolls absolute beginners to the ten best sights of the moment and all the Messier objects wait to be discovered, for good. THE SOLAR SYSTEM The Sun, all 8 planets and their major moons on ephemeris-true orbits, validated against JPL data: moon transits and shadow events at the correct times, Saturn's ring shadow, true axial tilts. Classical Spaceflight flies real missions: departure burn, coast, flip, capture burn into orbit, including Voyager-class gravity assists past Jupiter. INTERSTELLAR Search and inspect 8,000+ real stars with names, distances, stellar data, exoplanet hosts and their neighbors within 10 light-years. Plan relativistic journeys in Constant-c or Constant-g mode with acceleration, coast and braking phases. Compare Onboard Travel Time (OTT) with Earth Travel Time (ETT), read the length-contracted distance, peak speed and the energy bill (Joule, TWh, PWh or "Sun-output time"). Ride along in three cameras and near light speed the cockpit shows real relativistic optics: star aberration, Doppler colour shift and beaming. THE WHOLE MILKY WAY Pull back until the galaxy fits on screen: 100,000 light-years across, four spiral arms, the barred core: shaped from the NASA/JPL photograph down to the dust lanes and the red glow of its star-forming regions, with up to 450,000 stars drawn at once. Sol sits where it really does, 27,000 light-years out on its thin local arm. Pick any point and a route runs there from home, telling you the distance, the region you are aiming at: bulge, inner disk, rim and whether you are heading coreward or out. Then fly it, with the same relativistic clocks: a trip to the galactic centre costs a few decades on board and 27,000 years on Earth. BLACK HOLES 70+ known black holes from TON 618 to fictional Gargantua, rendered with a scientific Kerr ray tracer. Change mass and spin, sink toward the event horizon or the innermost orbit, and watch two clocks drift apart: one hour here, seven years on Earth, the Interstellar scenario, on your own screen. 6-DoF navigation: rotate, pinch-zoom, pan on every axis Auto rotation, labels, chase and cockpit cams, one-tap Reset View Ambient space music and living nightscape sounds. Native on Mac, iPad and iPhone. English and German, fully localized including VoiceOver Fully offline: no account, no tracking, and your location never leaves your device.

Screenshots

Fractal Catalog4 screens
NearLight4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: NearLight at every 3 days against Fractal Catalog's every 10 months. Fractal Catalog's advantage is price ($2.99 vs $3.99) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17). On ads, in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Fractal Catalog costs $2.99 and NearLight $3.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Fractal Catalog ships an update every 10 months, NearLight every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Fractal Catalog versus NearLight: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFractal CatalogNearLight
Price$2.99 — better$3.99
Rating—4.5 (4 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—4 — better
Update frequencyEvery 10 monthsEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Paid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS15.6 — better17
Further details — not scored
Size4 MB241 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperYasuyoshi OtaMarc Bachmann

In-app purchases

None

Fractal Catalog

No in-app purchases

None

NearLight

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Fractal Catalog free?
Fractal Catalog costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is NearLight free?
NearLight costs $3.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Fractal Catalog or NearLight have ads?
Neither Fractal Catalog nor NearLight shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Fractal Catalog or NearLight?
Fractal Catalog ships an update every 10 months, and NearLight every 3 days. Most recently, Fractal Catalog was updated on October 25, 2026 and NearLight on October 28, 2026.

Other comparisons