CommStudy vs SatNOGS
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
CommStudy
Prepare for your FCC Commercial License exam with this comprehensive study tool. Practice with sample questions and full elements, review figures, and track your proficiency across all topics. Take realistic practice exams and get immediate feedback to identify areas needing more study.
- Practice with sample and full FCC license exam elements
- Review associated figures for questions
- Track proficiency by subelement/topic
- Realistic practice exams
- Immediate feedback option
- Resume in-progress tests
- Configurable test settings
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CommStudy is THE app for studying for the written portion of your FCC Commercial License exam! Download this FREE app and try out the sample Elements! Each sample contains only 20% of the questions contained in the full Element. If you decide you want to purchase the full Element, this is done via an in-app purchase. All seven elements are included: 1, 3, 6, 7, 7R, 8, and 9. FCC Commercial License exams are composed of questions from a pool. Use this application prior to taking your exam to review and practice all possible questions. Then, test your knowledge with practice exams! Some questions require you to review associated Figures. On the iPad, the figures appear below the question. These figures may be zoomed and panned on the iPhone/iPod touch. After completing your first practice exam, the question pool screen will display your proficiency in each question subelement/topic for all practice exams you have completed. This will help you determine what areas need further study! You may choose to receive immediate feedback on right and wrong answers when taking a practice test or you can wait until the test is completed and review the questions in the Test History section. On practice tests, no question will be repeated until all of the questions have been used in a particular subelement/topic. The practice tests do adhere to the requirements of the actual tests. They are each composed of the proper number of questions from each section of the corresponding question pool. An in-progress practice test can be resumed if you exit the test or the application. This app has these additional features: • Portrait and Landscape support on iPad • Swipe gestures to navigate between questions • Tap on answer to select it • Buttons to skip to next/previous wrong answer in test history • Configurable Test Settings • Optional randomizing of test answers • Optional auto-advance during test
SatNOGS
Access a global network of satellite ground stations to communicate with satellites and observe their data. The platform is open to all, with public observation results freely distributed. Resources are available for building your own ground station.
- Global ground station network access
- Remote ground station operation
- Satellite communication
- Public observation data access
- Ground station building resources
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SatNOGS Network is a global management interface to facilitate multiple ground station operations remotely. An observer is able to take advantage of the full network of SatNOGS ground stations around the world. The network is open to anyone. Any observer is able to utilize all available Ground Stations and communicate with Satellites. All observations results are public and all data are distributed freely under the Creative Commons Atribution-Share Alike license. Whether you own satellite ground station equipment or you want to build one you can head to SatNOGS Project site to get up to date documentation and info on how to build a SatNOGS ground station. App functionality is currently limited by SatNOGS API and will be significantly improved in next major release.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: SatNOGS at 5.0 against CommStudy's 4.5. SatNOGS also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 7) and update cadence (every 5 months vs every 20 months). CommStudy's advantage is ratings volume (49 vs 4) and iOS requirement (9.3 vs 15.0). On price, ads 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. CommStudy sells 7 one-off in-app purchases. SatNOGS asks for nothing beyond the download.
SatNOGS holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: CommStudy has 49 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two.
CommStudy ships an update every 20 months, SatNOGS every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on September 30, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | CommStudy | SatNOGS |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (49 ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 91.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 49 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 20 months | Every 5 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 9.3 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 42 MB | 48 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Patrick J Maloney LLC | Victor Belov |
Customer experience
CommStudy
SatNOGS
In-app purchases
CommStudy
- Element 1$2.99
- Element 8$3.99
- Element 7R$3.99
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- Element 9$3.99
- Element 3$4.99
- Element 6$4.99
- Element 7$4.99
SatNOGS
No in-app purchases








