Comparison

Sun Surveyor Lite vs Sun Tracker AR

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

Head to head
About

Sun Surveyor Lite

This app helps photographers, filmmakers, and professionals visualize and plan around the sun's path. It predicts sunrise, sunset, and twilight times, and offers tools to understand light and shadows for optimal planning.

Highlights
  • Predict sunrise and sunset times
  • Visualize sun's path
  • Golden hour and blue hour planning
  • Twilight time calculations
  • Sun shadow information
  • Visual time machine
Features
Read full description

Sun Surveyor Lite takes the mystery out of the sunrise, sunset and magic hours, helping photographers and filmmakers scout the best locations, plan effectively, and get the perfect shot. Solar Industry (PV) Professionals, architects, real estate agents, and gardeners will also find a wealth of empowering, interactive features. The 3D Compass and detailed Ephemeris provide a wealth of information about the largest natural light source in the galaxy: - Predict and plan for the golden hour, blue hour and every sunrise & sunset - Visualize the sun's path throughout the day or through the year Additional features: - Visual time machine - take a quick glance at the light for a day, or dial in desired compositions easily - Twilight times - civil, nautical, astronomical - Solstice and Equinox visualization - Sun shadow information - calculate the length of shadows cast by objects - Magnetic declination compensation Check out the Full Version of Sun Surveyor for more: - Live Camera View - augmented reality projections of the sun and moon paths, pinpoint the time the sun or moon will be at a particular location in the sky - Interactive Map View - plan a remote shot or PV array placement, interact with a top-down perspective of sun and moon paths and events - Street View Panoramas - 360 degree spherical panoramas with selected sun, moon and milky way events overlaid, where available - Moon Information: moon position, moonrise, moonset, moon phases, apogee, perigee, distance and a Super Moon finder - Show clients the quality and quantity of seasonal sunlight at a remote location - Understand potential shade of surroundings and discover any obstructions - Create images of the summer and winter Solstice & Equinox paths for a site - Prepare night photography shots with the Milky Way & star trail features - Offline usage (excludes Map View, Street View) - enter coordinates, save & load locations with no data connection or GPS available - Measure distance, and difference between elevations, and vertical angle differentials with the Map view - Import and export Google Earth .kmz/.kml locations

About

Sun Tracker AR

Visualize the sun's path and shadow effects in augmented reality. Get detailed solar data, including sunrise/sunset times and day/night lengths. Plan for optimal lighting conditions for photography, construction, and gardening.

Highlights
  • Augmented Reality solar path projection
  • 2D/3D solar path and shadow simulation
  • Detailed sun position data tables
  • Interactive 3D shadow simulator
  • Day & night map visualization
  • Calendar notifications for solar events
  • Widget for sunrise/sunset alerts
Features
Read full description

Know exactly where the sun will be — at any place, on any date. Sun Tracker AR projects the sun's path into the real world through your camera, maps it in 2D and 3D, and simulates the shadows it casts. Built for photographers, architects, house hunters, gardeners, surveyors and solar panel installers — and for anyone who wants to know when the light hits. SOLAR PATH IN AR
 Augmented reality projection of the sun's position and full daily arc at your location. Point your phone and see where the sun will rise, peak and set. SOLAR ECLIPSE
 Sun Tracker AR gets you ready:
 • Interactive eclipse map with the path of totality and obscuration bands
 • Exact contact times for your location — first contact, totality, maximum, last contact — in your local time zone
 • Duration of totality and maximum obscuration wherever you stand
 • Plus every solar eclipse through 2030, so you can plan the next trip MULTIFUNCTIONAL MAP
Detailed 2D and 3D visualisation of the solar path, compass mode and shadow simulator. See at a glance which side of a building gets the most sunlight hours per day. INTERACTIVE 3D SHADOW SIMULATOR
Place a customisable 3D object — a box or a tree — anywhere on the map and watch its shadow move through any day of the year. Add a target spot nearby and the app calculates exactly how long that spot stays in shade and how long it sits in direct sunlight. DATA TABLES
Complete overview of sun positions, day and night lengths, sunrise and sunset times, golden hour, and astronomical, nautical and civil twilight. Plus solstices, equinoxes and eclipses. DAY & NIGHT MAP
Live world map showing the terminator — the moving line between daylight and darkness. CALENDAR NOTIFICATIONS
Get notified for the solar events you care about: sunrise, sunset, eclipses. One-time or daily. WIDGET
Keep the next sunrise and sunset on your home screen. NO ADS. EVER. The free version covers your current location and time. Premium unlocks any location, any date, any year — the full planning toolkit.

Screenshots

Sun Surveyor Lite4 screens
Sun Tracker AR4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Sun Tracker AR at 4.8 against Sun Surveyor Lite's 4.1. Sun Tracker AR also leads on update cadence (every 10 days vs every 2 months) and ratings volume (1.1K vs 37). Sun Surveyor Lite's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and iOS requirement (16 vs 26.0). On price, review sentiment, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Sun Tracker AR sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Sun Surveyor Lite asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Sun Tracker AR holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Sun Tracker AR has 1.1K ratings behind it against 37, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 79% of Sun Surveyor Lite's written reviews are positive against 77% of Sun Tracker AR's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Sun Surveyor Lite ships an update every 2 months, Sun Tracker AR every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on August 16, 2026 and September 26, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Sun Surveyor Lite versus Sun Tracker AR: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSun Surveyor LiteSun Tracker AR
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.1 (37 ratings)4.8 (1.1K ratings) — better
Positive reviews78.8% of reviews — better77.0% of reviews
Number of ratings371.1K — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 10 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size57 MB31 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAdam RatanaZuzana Eskinasi

Customer experience

Sun Surveyor Lite

All ratings37 ratings
Positive75.7%
Neutral5.4%
Negative18.9%
Written reviews184 reviews
Positive78.8%
Neutral4.3%
Negative16.8%

Sun Tracker AR

All ratings1,065 ratings
Positive95.9%
Neutral1.6%
Negative2.5%
Written reviews191 reviews
Positive77.0%
Neutral6.3%
Negative16.8%

User reviews

Sun Surveyor Lite

From 37 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use UI
  • 📸 Great for photography planning
  • 🌳 Useful for planting/landscaping
  • ☀️ Accurate sun tracking
  • 📱 Responsive 3D projection

Room to improve

  • 💰 Expensive pro version
  • 📉 Lite version is very limited
  • 🧭 Compass calibration issues
  • ⚠️ Sun position inaccuracies
  • 📱 Incompatible with some devices

Sun Tracker AR

From 1.1K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Tracking the sun's position
  • 🌞 Helpful for solar power and gardening
  • 👍 Useful for photographers and filmmakers
  • 🗺️ Detailed sun path information

Room to improve

  • 🐛 AR mode issues and inaccuracies
  • 🔒 Privacy concerns with camera access
  • 💰 Paid features required for some functionality

Bugs and requests

Sun Surveyor Lite

Reported bugs

11 issues
  • Sun no longer appears where it should
  • Sun direction is wrong indoors without GPS
  • Sun is off by more than 10 degrees
  • Sunrise time not working
  • App crashes when selecting location
Show 6 more
  • Latest update stopped working
  • Compass is always off
  • Compass is reversed
  • Lite version has an obscuring dialog box
  • Map view is not working correctly
  • App crashes on iPhone 5 iOS 7

Requested features

9 requests
  • Make the version free
  • Move UI options
  • Add dark mode
  • Add day-length feature
  • Add UV index
Show 4 more
  • Add sunrise alarm
  • Fix time zone for Russia
  • Allow user to move UI elements
  • Offer a trial for the full version

Sun Tracker AR

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • App freezing and crashing
  • Outdated imagery not matching reality
  • Inconsistent performance across devices

Requested features

3 requests
  • More intuitive UI and onboarding
  • Offline mode support
  • Ability to manually adjust location

In-app purchases

None

Sun Surveyor Lite

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Sun Tracker AR

One-time1
  • Premium$11.99

Questions

Is Sun Surveyor Lite free?
Sun Surveyor Lite is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Sun Tracker AR free?
Sun Tracker AR is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Sun Surveyor Lite or Sun Tracker AR?
Sun Tracker AR is rated higher. Sun Surveyor Lite averages 4.1 out of 5 from 37 ratings, while Sun Tracker AR averages 4.8 from 1.1K ratings.
Do Sun Surveyor Lite or Sun Tracker AR have ads?
Neither Sun Surveyor Lite nor Sun Tracker AR shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Sun Surveyor Lite or Sun Tracker AR?
Sun Surveyor Lite ships an update every 2 months, and Sun Tracker AR every 10 days. Most recently, Sun Surveyor Lite was updated on August 16, 2026 and Sun Tracker AR on September 26, 2026.

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