Comparison

DWARFLAB vs PlanetEdit

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

Head to head
About

DWARFLAB

This app connects wirelessly to a smart telescope, offering intuitive control for capturing stunning images of the night sky and dynamic terrestrial scenes. It features automatic tracking, in-app image processing, and panorama creation for both astrophotography and everyday use.

Highlights
  • Wireless telescope connection
  • In-built star atlas for astrophotography
  • Automatic celestial and motion tracking
  • In-app image stacking and post-processing
  • Gigapixel panorama creation
  • Time-lapse photography
Features
Read full description

DWARFLAB smart telescope, empowered by advanced technology, opens up a world of diverse perspectives for users, capturing the wonders of life. No guidance or experience needed, it's ready to use out of the box. Wireless Connection Use the App to connect wirelessly with DWARFLAB smart telescope, enabling not only precise control but also making the shooting process more flexible and efficient. Astrophotography The App features an in-built star atlas, allowing you to simply tap on the celestial you desire to proceed with automatic star tracking and enjoy real-time image stacking. You can also adjust the astro curves and personalize the color grading to create your own 4K astronomical images. In-App Post Processing Capture, select, stack, and enhance — all in one seamless workflow for astrophotography. Supports both onboard stacking and cloud-based processing, with multi-format export options to make every astro image crisp and brilliant. Motion Tracking You can freely select the target to track on the shooting interface, enjoying the flexibility of manual selection; or you can use the telescope's automatic recognition function, which intelligently identifies tracks, and starts recordings, easily capturing dynamic scenes such as bird predation, flights, and sports close-ups. Gigapixel Panorama Simply set the shooting range and tap to start — with one-click stitching, you can create extremely detailed and vast panoramic images, supporting deep zoom and experiencing an unprecedented level of detail richness. Time-Lapse Photography Capture the flow and changes of time, recording the hustle and bustle of traffic, the blooming and wilting of flowers. Combined with astronomical tracking functions, it can also record the trajectory of the sun, solar/lunar eclipses, and the star trails.

About

PlanetEdit

This app helps you process videos of planets, automatically cropping them to center the celestial body. It offers various image editing tools and advanced features like wavelet layers for detail extraction and denoising. You can also trim videos before stacking and save your edited images.

Highlights
  • Auto crop video to center planet
  • Basic image processing (stretch, saturation, brightness, contrast, hue)
  • Interactive stacking slider
  • Trim video before stacking
  • 5 wavelet layers for detail and denoising
  • Save edited images
Features
Read full description

AstroEdit Planet is a very simple 4in1 app to stack planetary video. It will automatically crop the video and center the planet. It works on video that has planet moving across the view or planet centred in the view. When you open the app, it auto loads a sample Saturn video. Tap Stack button to begin! PlanetEdit integrates the four legacy desktop software into a single delicate mobile app. Traditionally, astronomer has to install 4 different programs to process planetary video. They are (in process sequence): 1. PPIP for cropping video 2. AutoStakkert! for stacking frames 3. Registax for wavelet sharpening 4. Photoshop for RGB alignment and coloring Features: - Open video or image. Accept all format recognised by the Photo app. In addition, it open .ser and .avi files. First, copy them to the Files app. Then tap Open button in PlanetEdit app. Choose Open Files App. Note that to copy avi file to your device, you may have to rename the file extension to .ser. Once copied to device, rename it back to .avi. Tested for avi 3.5Gb and ser 3.5Gb. - Auto crop video and center frame. - Auto set alignment points for stacking. - Lucky stacking slider. - Real time update of stacking result. - Use 2 finger to pinch zoom, 1 finger to drag and 1 finger to long press to compare a frame(best quality). - RGB alignment. - Basic image processing like saturation, bright, contrast and hue. - 5 wavelet layers to extract detail and denoise. - Save edited image to photo. PlnetEdit has been tested for video capture in seestar S30, S50 smart telescope, ZWO camera, refractive telescope 80mm and Dobson 200mm telescope. Email me at ustransit74@gmail.com if you need any assistance. Attached a short planet video file if necessary. Privacy policy and term of use (EULA) is at https://deepskycolor.blogspot.com/2018/12/privacy-policy-for-deep-sky-color-app.html

Screenshots

DWARFLAB4 screens
PlanetEdit2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: PlanetEdit at every 2 days against DWARFLAB's every 5 weeks. DWARFLAB's advantage is review sentiment (36% vs 25%) and iOS requirement (15 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

DWARFLAB ships an update every 5 weeks, PlanetEdit every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on September 20, 2026 and September 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
DWARFLAB versus PlanetEdit: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDWARFLABPlanetEdit
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.5 (140 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews35.9% of reviews — better25.0% of reviews
Number of ratings140 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size205 MB4 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTinyphoton (Wuhan) Technology. Co., Ltd.yong chong loh

Customer experience

DWARFLAB

All ratings140 ratings
Positive60.0%
Neutral8.6%
Negative31.4%
Written reviews103 reviews
Positive35.9%
Neutral21.4%
Negative42.7%

PlanetEdit

Written reviews4 reviews
Positive25.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative75.0%

Bugs and requests

DWARFLAB

Reported bugs

21 issues
  • WiFi connection fails repeatedly or drops within seconds
  • App crashes on iOS 18 and older iOS versions
  • Account creation security verification fails
  • Full-screen mode freezes with no escape option
  • Autofocus produces inconsistent or blurry results
Show 16 more
  • Manual focus unresponsive
  • Tracking takes excessive time to initiate
  • Dark frame calibration lines appear and ruin images
  • Temperature-related calibration failures
  • Settings reset to defaults after stacking
  • IR Cut/Pass filter constantly resets to Pass mode
  • Photo saving to album is inconsistent (hit or miss)
  • App freezes when changing camera systems
  • Inverted controls and flipped image display
  • Battery icon obscures capacity readout on iPhone
  • STA mode connectivity broken
  • Firmware update errors prevent connection
  • Image preview not displaying in app
  • Joystick controls unresponsive intermittently
  • Wide and telephoto lens menu settings reversed
  • App incompatible with iOS versions below 15

Requested features

13 requests
  • One-tap return to home and power off function
  • Panorama/mosaic image merging capability
  • Comet-aligned tracking mode
  • Dew control for iOS (available on Android)
  • iPad-optimized app version
Show 8 more
  • Histogram display in app
  • Burst mode functionality
  • External Barlow lens support
  • Mac M-series silicon compatibility
  • Ability to skip firmware updates until convenient time
  • Milky Way capture documentation for Dwarf Mini
  • Photo album integration improvements
  • STA mode WiFi connectivity fix

PlanetEdit

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

DWARFLAB

No in-app purchases

None

PlanetEdit

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is DWARFLAB free?
DWARFLAB is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is PlanetEdit free?
PlanetEdit is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do DWARFLAB or PlanetEdit have ads?
Neither DWARFLAB nor PlanetEdit shows ads.
Which is updated more often, DWARFLAB or PlanetEdit?
DWARFLAB ships an update every 5 weeks, and PlanetEdit every 2 days. Most recently, DWARFLAB was updated on September 20, 2026 and PlanetEdit on September 10, 2026.

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