Comparison

Star Stacker vs AstroFileViewer

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Create star trail images
  • Generate time-lapse videos
  • Full trails effect
  • Faded trails effect
  • Shooting star effect
  • Warp mode effect
  • Import photos from gallery
Features
Read full description

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

About

AstroFileViewer

View astronomical image files like FITS and XISF on your iPhone or iPad. Get an early impression of your data with PixInsight-compatible auto-stretching, gradient control, and noise reduction. Fun and useful for astrophotographers.

Highlights
  • Open FITS and XISF files from various sources
  • PixInsight-compatible STF auto-stretch
  • Mono and RGB image support with OSC debayer
  • Dark point and contrast sliders
  • Color saturation adjustment
  • GPU bilateral denoise
  • Gradient correction
Features
Read full description

AstroFileViewer lets you open and view astronomical image files (FITS and XISF) directly on your iPhone or iPad. Whether you receive a sub-exposure via AirDrop, download one from Safari, or browse your imaging files in the Files app — AstroFileViewer displays them with a proper PixInsight-compatible STF auto-stretch so you can actually see what's in your data. Why stretching, gradient control and denoising on an iPhone? Simple. You get an early impression of how your data could look after post-processing. And it's simply fun too. Features: - Open FITS and XISF files from Files, Safari, AirDrop, email, Google Drive, or any share sheet - PixInsight-compatible Screen Transfer Function (STF) auto-stretch for proper visualization of linear astronomical data - Supports mono and RGB images from all major astro cameras, including OSC debayer (RGGB, GRBG, GBRG, BGGR) - Dark point slider — clip noisy backgrounds, just like AstroBlink on macOS - Contrast slider — S-curve with logarithmic response for fine control - Color saturation slider — boost Ha reds and OIII blues in your OSC data - GPU bilateral denoise — edge-preserving noise reduction, up to 300% strength - Gradient correction — auto-detects and removes linear light pollution gradients - Auto-rotate — landscape images automatically fill your screen in portrait mode - File history with swipe navigation — swipe left/right to flip through recently opened files, even after restarting the app - Recent files on start screen — thumbnail grid of your last 6 images for quick access - Tap-to-fullscreen — single tap hides all UI for distraction-free viewing - Pinch-to-zoom up to 10x with smooth panning - SNR and star count shown in the status bar - FITS/XISF header inspector — view all keywords with important ones highlighted - Save to Photos as a stretched JPEG with all adjustments baked in - Full compression support: LZ4, LZ4HC, zlib, zstd, fpack (Rice, GZIP), ByteShuffle - Persistent settings — all sliders and toggles remembered between sessions - Built-in help section — tap the ? icon anytime - All processing happens on the GPU. All sliders respond in real-time. AstroFileViewer registers as a handler for .xisf, .fits, .fit, and .fts files on your device. No account required. No internet connection needed. Your files stay on your device. Built by an astrophotographer, for astrophotographers.

Screenshots

Star Stacker4 screens
AstroFileViewer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: AstroFileViewer at Free against Star Stacker's $3.99. AstroFileViewer also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 57%) and rating (5.0 vs 4.3). Star Stacker's advantage is ratings volume (99 vs 1) and chart position (#148 vs unranked). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model 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

AstroFileViewer is free to download; Star Stacker costs $3.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

AstroFileViewer holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Star Stacker has 99 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 57% of Star Stacker's written reviews are positive against 100% of AstroFileViewer's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Star Stacker ships an update every 2 months, AstroFileViewer every 11 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Star Stacker versus AstroFileViewer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStar StackerAstroFileViewer
Price$3.99Free — better
Rating4.3 (99 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews56.9% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings99 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 11 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
Best chart rank#148 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.016.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size4 MB1 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developermichael webbJoerg Klaas

Customer experience

Star Stacker

All ratings99 ratings
Positive82.8%
Neutral2.0%
Negative15.2%
Written reviews65 reviews
Positive56.9%
Neutral6.2%
Negative36.9%

AstroFileViewer

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

Bugs and requests

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 more
  • 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 more
  • 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

AstroFileViewer

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Star Stacker

No in-app purchases

None

AstroFileViewer

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Star Stacker free?
Star Stacker costs $3.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is AstroFileViewer free?
AstroFileViewer is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Star Stacker or AstroFileViewer?
AstroFileViewer is rated higher. Star Stacker averages 4.3 out of 5 from 99 ratings, while AstroFileViewer averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Star Stacker or AstroFileViewer have ads?
Neither Star Stacker nor AstroFileViewer shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Star Stacker or AstroFileViewer?
Star Stacker ships an update every 2 months, and AstroFileViewer every 11 days. Most recently, Star Stacker was updated on October 24, 2026 and AstroFileViewer on October 6, 2026.

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