Comparison

Sky Tonight vs PhosphorSWL

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

Head to head
About

Sky Tonight

Explore the night sky with this astronomy app. Identify celestial objects, discover upcoming astronomical events, and track their positions. Customize your view, set reminders, and access detailed information for a personalized stargazing experience.

Highlights
  • Real-time interactive sky map
  • Augmented reality mode
  • Time Machine for past/future positions
  • Customizable object filters
  • Event reminders
  • Astronomy calendar with weather forecast
  • Flexible search for celestial objects
Features
Read full description

SKY TONIGHT is a brand-new astronomical app for exploring the sky. It helps stargazers answer the three most common questions: ⁕ What is that bright dot in the sky? ⁕ What astronomical events can I see tonight? ⁕ How can I find the object I'm interested in? Made by the developers of Star Walk apps, Sky Tonight is a customizable stargazing tool, that is designed for users with different needs and wants. You can adjust the constellation's appearance, set a reminder for any space body configuration, explore the unique relative to observer trajectory, set up a magnitude limit to filter out space objects, and much more. SKY TONIGHT FEATURES: ► Point your device at the sky to see the real-time positions of space objects on the interactive sky map. ► Activate the Time Machine and determine the position of celestial bodies at different time periods. ► Use the augmented reality mode and see the sky map overlaid on the image from your device's camera. ► Get extended information about any sky object by tapping on its name. ► Stay updated on the latest news from the world of astronomy with the What's new section. ► Turn on the night mode to make your sky observation in the nighttime more comfortable. ► Filter the objects that appear on the sky map according to their visual brightness. ► Regulate the brightness of objects on the sky map. ► Spot dozens of asterisms along with the official constellations. ► Adjust the visible constellations and customize their representation on the screen. UNIQUE FEATURES: ◆ INTERACTIVE TRAJECTORIES RELATIVE TO AN OBSERVER Instead of the classic trajectory that shows the object’s trajectory in the celestial sphere relative to the Earth’s center, the app presents the object’s trajectory in the sky relative to an observer. A long touch on the trajectories relative to the observer will move the sky object to the selected point. While holding the touch, move your finger along the trajectory to change the time. ◆ FLEXIBLE SEARCH Make use of the flexible search — quickly find space objects, easily navigate across different objects and events’ types. Look for "stars", "mars moons", "mars conjunctions", "solar eclipse", and the app will show you all related objects, events, and articles! There are also Trending and Recent categories in the search section. The first one presents the currently most popular objects, events, or news; the second category contains objects you recently selected. ◆ FULLY CUSTOMIZABLE EVENT REMINDERS Set event reminders on any time and date not to miss a solar eclipse, a Full Moon, or a star-planet configuration you're interested in. ◆ ASTRONOMY CALENDAR WITH A STARGAZING INDEX AND WEATHER FORECAST Check out the calendar of celestial events that includes lunar phases, meteor showers, eclipses, oppositions, conjunctions, and other exciting events. Learn what astronomy events will occur this month or see what happened in the sky a year ago! Verify the Stargazing Index calculated from a Moon phase, light pollution, cloudiness, and time when an object is visible. The higher this index is, the better the observation conditions are. You don’t need several apps for your stargazing planning anymore; Sky Tonight contains all the info you need. Premium Access: * The app includes paid Premium Access. Get Premium Access to use Sky Tonight with no limits! Without the subscription, you can’t see most of the interface items in various sections such as Visible Tonight, Calendar, and Search. Therefore, you’re limited in planning and improving your observations. Premium Access will allow you to unlock all the interface items in any view and make the most of all the app’s features. Advertisements will also be removed not to interrupt your stargazing experience. Privacy policy: https://vitotechnology.com/privacy-policy Terms of use: https://vitotechnology.com/terms-of-use

About

PhosphorSWL

Features
Read full description

PhosphorSWL is a shortwave broadcast schedule browser and numbers station reference, rendered through the green phosphor glow of a Cold War signals intelligence console. Your phone becomes a monitoring station — a frequency dial, a schedule grid, a station database, and a curated dossier of every numbers station still whispering into the void. BROADCAST SCHEDULES Browse over 10,000 shortwave broadcast entries from the EiBi database — the most comprehensive freely-licensed shortwave schedule resource in existence. Filter by frequency band, time, language, and target area. See what's on air right now. Search for stations by name, country, or frequency. Every broadcast entry includes transmission times, languages, target areas, transmitter sites, and signal path maps showing the great circle route from transmitter to target. Schedule data refreshes automatically from EiBi, keeping your listings current through seasonal schedule changes. NUMBERS STATIONS The centrepiece. A personally curated database of known numbers stations — active, historic, and legendary. ENIGMA designators, frequencies, schedules, operators, signal characteristics, and full station profiles assembled from publicly observable facts. From E06 "Russian Man" still counting for the GRU, to the ghost of E03 "The Lincolnshire Poacher" — the most iconic numbers station ever recorded, silenced in 2008 after decades broadcasting from RAF Akrotiri. The Buzzer on 4625 kHz. The Pip. The Squeaky Wheel. Cuban DGI digital modes. Chinese military networks. Polish intelligence. Every station for which sufficient factual data exists. This is not a decoder. It is a field manual for the darkest inhabitants of the radio spectrum. SCANNER Scroll the entire shortwave spectrum from VLF submarine communications through every broadcasting band. Band headers mark the boundaries. Tap any entry for full details and signal path mapping. HF PROPAGATION Live HF propagation conditions from NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, derived from the planetary K-index. Band-aware — lower frequencies are more resilient to geomagnetic disturbance than upper HF. The status bar tells you whether the ionosphere is cooperating before you tune in. THE INTERFACE Three phosphor colour modes: green (default), amber, and red. Red mode preserves scotopic dark adaptation for night-time listening — the same principle used in military operations rooms, submarine control rooms, and observatory domes. CRT scanlines. Phosphor glow. A frequency readout rendered in segmented digits. Function key tabs. A UTC clock. No bright colours, no rounded corners, no friendly illustrations. This is a monitoring console, not a lifestyle app. FAVOURITES Bookmark any broadcast or numbers station for quick access. Your listening post, organised. DATA SOURCES Broadcast schedules: EiBi Shortwave Schedule Database (eibispace.de), freely licensed for third-party use. Numbers station data: curated from Priyom.org, ENIGMA 2000, Numbers & Oddities, and the Signal Identification Wiki. Propagation data: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (public domain). All station observations are factual records of publicly receivable radio transmissions. No subscriptions. No in-app purchases. No ads. No tracking. One price. The ether is full of ghosts. This is a ghost detector.

Screenshots

Sky Tonight4 screens
PhosphorSWL4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Sky Tonight at Free against PhosphorSWL's $0.99. Sky Tonight also leads on chart position (#113 vs unranked) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 26.4). PhosphorSWL's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 8) and ads (none vs shown). On update cadence 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

Sky Tonight is free to download; PhosphorSWL costs $0.99 up front. Sky Tonight sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. PhosphorSWL asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Sky Tonight ships an update every 2 months, PhosphorSWL every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Sky Tonight versus PhosphorSWL: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSky TonightPhosphorSWL
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating4.8 (76K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews80.6% of reviews—
Number of ratings76K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 3 months
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
Best chart rank#113 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better26.4
Further details — not scored
Size518 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperVito Technology Inc.Stuart Woolley

Bugs and requests

Sky Tonight

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • App crashes or freezes frequently
  • Menus and options not working properly
  • Location tracking and sky view not updating correctly

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add more free content and features
  • Improve calibration and compass accuracy
  • Provide better onboarding and instructions
  • Reduce ads or offer ad-free version
  • Allow filtering by visible objects only

PhosphorSWL

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

8 purchases

Sky Tonight

Subscriptions6
  • 1-month Premium Access7 Days trial$0.991 Month
  • 1-month Premium Access$2.991 Month
  • 1-month Premium Access3 Days trial$2.991 Month
Show 3 more
  • 1-year Premium Access7 Days trial$4.991 Year
  • 1-year Premium Access$5.991 Year
  • 1-year Premium Access3 Days trial$5.991 Year
One-time2
  • Lifetime Premium Access Sale$7.99
  • Lifetime Premium Access$12.99
None

PhosphorSWL

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Sky Tonight free?
Sky Tonight is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PhosphorSWL free?
PhosphorSWL costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Sky Tonight or PhosphorSWL have ads?
Sky Tonight shows ads; PhosphorSWL does not.
Which is updated more often, Sky Tonight or PhosphorSWL?
Sky Tonight ships an update every 2 months, and PhosphorSWL every 3 months. Most recently, Sky Tonight was updated on November 1, 2026 and PhosphorSWL on October 31, 2026.

Other comparisons