TrackISS vs Joe's Scanner
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
TrackISS
Follow the International Space Station's journey across the globe in real-time. Explore its projected orbit, view live telemetry data, and browse a gallery of NASA images. Discover who is currently in space and learn about their missions.
- Real-time ISS movement tracking
- Projected orbit path display
- Live telemetry data (velocity, lat, long, altitude)
- NASA image gallery with zoom
- View current astronauts and biographies
- Customizable interface settings
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Welcome to TrackISS, a beautiful native experience that tracks the International Space Station in real-time. Main features include: - See the real-time movement of the ISS. - Track with two different map types. - View the projected orbit path of the ISS. - View live data from the ISS, such as velocity, latitude, longitude, and altitude. - Search for ISS images from NASA's public image database. - View search results in a beautiful gallery-like view, that supports zooming in/out. - View images and their descriptions in an efficient image viewer. - Export any image with ease. - View all current humans in space, along with their nationality, mission role, and a link to their biography (in-app). - Adjust defaults such as map annotations size, toggle haptics, reduce animations, etc. - Select alternate app icons. This app was designed with a hybrid of custom and native iOS components, to provide a space-themed experience while still maintaining the iOS feel we all know and love. Enjoy! New features and improvements coming soon. Feel free to reach out on Twitter with feature requests or feedback :)
Joe's Scanner
Listen to live radio call audio and review recent activity with fast playback and clear call details. Continuously updating transcriptions provide context to follow events without switching between tools.
- Live call streaming
- Rapid playback controls
- Organized call lists
- Updating transcriptions
- Call history browsing
- Filtering tools
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Joe’s Scanner is a focused, high performance client for listening to live radio call audio and reviewing recent activity. It is designed for fast playback, clear call details, and continuously updating transcriptions so you can follow what is happening without jumping between tools. Connection options -Sign in with your JoesScanner.com web account to connect to the Joe’s Scanner service feed. -Or connect to your own compatible server if you or a friend already run a backend. Key capabilities -Live call streaming and rapid playback controls -Organized call lists with time, duration, talkgroup, and labels provided by the backend -Transcriptions that update as they become available to add context to the audio -Call history browsing for quick review of earlier traffic -Filtering tools to reduce noise and focus on the traffic you care about Compatibility Joe’s Scanner can connect to the Joe’s Scanner service, or to self hosted Trunking Recorder servers that expose the standard API endpoints. Note: Audio and metadata are provided by the connected service or your server. Availability of specific features can vary by backend configuration.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: TrackISS at 5.0 against Joe's Scanner's 2.0. TrackISS also leads on ratings volume (11 vs 3). Joe's Scanner's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1). On price, ads, 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
Both are free to download. TrackISS sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Joe's Scanner asks for nothing beyond the download.
TrackISS holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 11 and 3 respectively.
| Parameter | TrackISS | Joe's Scanner |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (11 ratings) — better | 2.0 (3 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 11 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | — | Every 3 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 90 MB | 70 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Samuel McGarry | LINDSAY KAY WILLIAMS |
Customer experience
TrackISS
Joe's Scanner
In-app purchases
TrackISS
- Launchpad Tip$1.99
Joe's Scanner
No in-app purchases









