Comparison

Sol vs Light Pollution Map

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

Head to head
About

Sol

Forecast sunrise, sunset, and twilight times for any location and date. Set smart alarms that adjust with the seasons and receive detailed solar almanac information. Plan your day around natural light, perfect for photography, outdoor activities, or maintaining sleep cycles.

Highlights
  • Sunrise and sunset time forecasting
  • Twilight period calculation (astronomical, nautical, civil)
  • Location-aware alarms that adjust seasonally
  • Global location search and GPS support
  • Detailed solar almanac information
  • Golden hour and magic hour identification
Currently charting
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What time is sunset today? Or sunrise tomorrow? When is the "magic hour" next March 20 in Paris? With Sol, you can check times and get reminders of solar events, at home or while traveling! Great for everyone looking to plan activities based on sunlight. Use it to remind you to walk the dog before dark, get up with the sun, or find golden hour time for that perfect photo. Sol: Sun Clock is the Swiss-army knife of sunlight tools with a design inspired by the simplicity of the sundial. Use it to plan your day, guide natural sleep cycles, get the best light for outdoor photography, make sure animals or kids are safe inside before dark, or to map out the best times to go running or fishing. * Be in tune: Sol will tell you when the golden hour is, how much sunlight you have left in the day or what time the next sunrise occurs. * Look to the future, travel around the world: Sol lets you find sunlight information for any date, anywhere on earth. * Find solar midnight and solar noon, and all three twilight (dawn and dusk) periods: astronomical twilight, nautical twilight, and civil twilight. Keep tabs on the next solstice and equinox. * Reminders and Alarms: Use Sol as a natural alarm clock that you can set to any event (like sunset, golden hour or solar noon), and the alarm or reminder time will adjust gradually as the days change with the seasons. * Automatic Location: Sol not only calculates the amount of daylight and sunrise and sunset times, but does so for any location in the world (both Northern and Southern hemispheres) by using your device's GPS... no network connection required. * Other locations: Optionally, use the built-in map to choose any location in the world by moving the pin, or search using the name of any city. * Optional location-aware alarms. Sol knows when you change with your location; and as you travel it will adjust any alarms you set relative to sunrise and sunset times. Create alarms for multiple locations around the world. * Detailed almanac information: Useful information about the day's length, sun's azimuth and elevation, equinoxes and solstices, and a friendly glossary that explains all the terms. Note: Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life. However, GPS runs in the background ONLY if you have set location-aware alarms.

About

Light Pollution Map

Discover optimal locations for stargazing and astrophotography with a detailed light pollution map. Get real-time alerts for celestial events like meteor showers and auroras, track the ISS, and access daily astronomy photos. Enhance your night sky observations with comprehensive tools and information.

Highlights
  • Interactive light pollution map
  • Aurora borealis live map and alerts
  • Meteor shower and super moon alerts
  • ISS tracker with live updates
  • Moon phases and information
  • Astronomy photo of the day
Features
Currently charting
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Light Pollution Map allows you to easily locate dark sky locations where the sky will not be affected by light pollution, allowing the best observance, star gazing, and photography of the night sky! But it's not just a light pollution map. There's so much more, such as aurora borealis live viewing map, meteor shower alerts, super moon alerts, lunar eclipse alerts, moon phases and info, aurora and magnetic field information, international space station tracker, and a lot more! Light Pollution Map will help you master the night sky.. List of all features: • Highly accurate, customizable and interactive light pollution map to find dark sky viewing locations near you. • See live aurora borealis information such as KP value, magnetic field information, and more for the hardcore aurora chaser. • Live aurora borealis visibility map for northern and southern hemisphere, with additional timelapse options. • Aurora information widgets (today widget). • ISS Tracker with live updates about the international space station including the location, visibility, velocity, altitude, and more. • Night sky event calendar allows you to find dates for lunar eclipses, super moons, and meteor showers. • Live images of the Sun via NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. • Darkness countdown timer until the darkest period of night so you know when the night sky will be the darkest. Also let you know when it starts getting light outside. • Astronomy photo of the day directly from NASA! A new one every day to look at! • Local temperature indicator to know if you need to bring a sweater before you even step outside. • Local cloud coverage indicator to know if you will be able to see anything before you step outside. • Cloud cover overlay on the main map to find clear sky locations at night. • Settings to customize the app. • Moon information such as moon phase, moon rise, and moon set times, days of next full moon and new moon, etc. • Moon direction tool which allows you to find where the moon will be, at any time, any date, for any location. • Enable a horizon safe radius circle to avoid light pollution from nearby cities on the map. • Local Aurora Borealis (Northern/Southern Lights) alerts and push notifications. • Global Aurora Borealis Activity alerts and push notifications. • Meteor shower alerts and push notifications. • Super moon alerts and push notifications. • Lunar eclipse alerts and push notifications. • Save and load your favorite dark sky locations. • Navigate to your saved locations using the Apple Maps app. Some features above require an optional in-app purchase to upgrade to the pro version. Every purchase helps us to continue running and developing the app and is much appreciated. Note: Light Pollution Map loads data online. Internet connection or wifi is required, and we are not responsible for any data usage chargers from your provider. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Sol4 screens
Light Pollution Map4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Sol at 93% against Light Pollution Map's 14%. Sol also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 6) and rating (4.8 vs 4.5). Light Pollution Map's advantage is price (Free vs $4.99) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 2 months). On ads, device support and iOS requirement 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

Light Pollution Map is free to download; Sol costs $4.99 up front. Light Pollution Map sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per year. Sol asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Sol holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 898 and 239 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 93% of Sol's written reviews are positive against 14% of Light Pollution Map's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Sol ships an update every 2 months, Light Pollution Map every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Sol versus Light Pollution Map: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSolLight Pollution Map
Price$4.99Free — better
Rating4.8 (898 ratings) — better4.5 (239 ratings)
Positive reviews93.2% of reviews — better14.1% of reviews
Number of ratings898 — better239
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#22 — better#208
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size16 MB93 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJuggleware, LLCDunbar Technology, LLC

Customer experience

Sol

All ratings898 ratings
Positive96.8%
Neutral1.7%
Negative1.6%
Written reviews221 reviews
Positive93.2%
Neutral2.3%
Negative4.5%

Light Pollution Map

All ratings239 ratings
Positive88.3%
Neutral1.7%
Negative10.0%
Written reviews425 reviews
Positive14.1%
Neutral7.5%
Negative78.4%

User reviews

Sol

From 898 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Simple and intuitive interface
  • 🚀 Accurate and reliable information
  • 💡 Useful for photographers, hikers, and outdoor enthusiasts
  • 🌅 Helps users stay in tune with natural light cycles
  • ⏰ Customizable alarms and alerts

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes or bugs
  • 🔋 Alarms don't work when device is muted
  • 🌙 Lack of moon phase information

Light Pollution Map

From 239 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Clear detailed satellite views
  • 🚀 Works with barely any signal
  • 📊 Useful map with latest data
  • 🌌 Helps with astrophotography

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes on opening the map
  • 🐛 Crashes after locating user's position
  • 🔍 No legend for map colors
  • 💰 Tries to get users to upgrade to premium

Bugs and requests

Sol

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Date selection issue where it shows a month ahead
  • Notifications stop working after a few days

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add moon phase information
  • Allow alarms to work even when device is muted
  • Expand alert options beyond sunrise/sunset (e.g. solar noon, golden hour)
  • Provide more customization options for alerts and alarms

Light Pollution Map

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • App crashes when opening light pollution map
  • App crashes after locating user's position
  • Cloud coverage feature not working as expected

Requested features

3 requests
  • Add Bortle rating information
  • Improve cloud coverage feature
  • Fix crashing issues

In-app purchases

None

Sol

No in-app purchases

6 purchases

Light Pollution Map

Subscriptions4
  • Pro Version$9.991 Year
  • Pro Version$14.991 Year
  • Pro Version$19.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Pro Version$29.991 Year
One-time2
  • Pro Version Upgrade Discounted$8.99
  • Pro Version Upgrade$9.99

Questions

Is Sol free?
Sol costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Light Pollution Map free?
Light Pollution Map is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Sol or Light Pollution Map?
Sol is rated higher. Sol averages 4.8 out of 5 from 898 ratings, while Light Pollution Map averages 4.5 from 239 ratings.
Do Sol or Light Pollution Map have ads?
Neither Sol nor Light Pollution Map shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Sol or Light Pollution Map?
Sol ships an update every 2 months, and Light Pollution Map every 3 weeks. Most recently, Sol was updated on October 15, 2026 and Light Pollution Map on October 16, 2026.
Which is more popular, Sol or Light Pollution Map?
Sol currently peaks at #22 in the App Store charts, and Light Pollution Map at #208. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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