Sky Guide vs Sky Tonight
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Sky Guide
Identify stars, constellations, planets, and satellites in real-time by holding your device overhead. Explore celestial bodies with AR overlays, track satellites like the ISS, and travel through time to view past and future astronomical events. Perfect for both novice and experienced stargazers.
- Automatic celestial object identification
- Augmented reality sky overlay
- Satellite tracking and notifications
- Time travel for past/future viewing
- Personalized astronomical event calendar
- Offline functionality
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Bring the beauty of the stars down to Earth. Hold Sky Guide® overhead to automatically identify any star, constellation, planet or satellite! Easy to use and powerful, it’s epic stargazing for any experience level. Is it a star or the planet Mars? Knowing what’s up in your night sky is easier than ever. Sky Guide’s AR mode superimposes figures onto your real sky so visualizing the heavens becomes effortless. Have you ever wished you could recognize constellations but didn’t want to fumble around with paper star charts? Now you can. A speck of light crosses the night sky, growing brighter. What could it be? You don’t have to wonder anymore. Track a bright satellite and receive perfectly-timed notifications whenever the International Space Station is about to fly over your location. With Sky Guide, you’ll be saying ‘Goodbye, aliens’ and ‘Hellooooo, astronauts!’ Voyage to the past or future with cinematic time controls. Know where the Moon will be later in the evening so you can capture that perfect photo or be an eyewitness to history’s greatest comets. Whether you’re searching for Sagittarius, Saturn, or the next big meteor shower, Sky Guide is jam-packed with information and rich graphics that will satisfy the most curious minds. Plus, stay current with location-filtered events like solar and lunar eclipses with Sky Guide’s personalized Calendar. Camping in the backcountry? Sky Guide can function with or without Wi-Fi, cellular service or GPS, so everything is at your fingertips no matter where you go. Join the millions who have discovered a more personal connection to the stars with Sky Guide. It might forever change the way you look up. Terms of Use: https://www.fifthstarlabs.com/terms-of-use
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.
- 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
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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
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Sky Guide at none against Sky Tonight's shown. Sky Guide also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 2 months) and ratings volume (379K vs 76K). Sky Tonight's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.0). On price, rating, review sentiment and in-app purchases 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. Sky Guide sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Sky Tonight sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Sky Guide against 4.8 for Sky Tonight. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 379K and 76K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 86% of Sky Guide's written reviews are positive against 81% of Sky Tonight's.
Sky Guide ships an update every 2 weeks, Sky Tonight every 2 months. Both last shipped on November 1, 2026.
| Parameter | Sky Guide | Sky Tonight |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (379K ratings) — better | 4.8 (76K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 86.0% of reviews — better | 80.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 379K — better | 76K |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #30 — better | #113 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 380 MB | 518 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Fifth Star Labs LLC | Vito Technology Inc. |
Customer experience
Sky Guide
Sky Tonight
User reviews
Sky Guide
From 379K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🌟 Stunning visuals and graphics
- 📚 Wealth of information on celestial objects
- 🧭 Accurate and responsive compass/AR features
- 🌌 Immersive stargazing experience
- 🔍 Ability to identify stars, planets, and satellites
Room to improve
- 🧭 Occasional compass/location calibration issues
- 💰 Subscription model limits access to some features
- 🌍 Lack of support for certain regions/locations
- 🕰️ Outdated information on some celestial objects
Sky Tonight
From 76K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Great app for finding new things
- 🌟 Amazing and accurate
- 🔭 Helpful for learning about the night sky
- 🗓️ Provides calendar of sky events
- 🌍 Shows satellites and planets
Room to improve
- 🔍 Difficult to calibrate and use
- 📢 Too many intrusive ads
- 💰 Paywall for many features
- 🔔 Confusing/unnecessary notifications
- 🧭 Compass/location issues
Bugs and requests
Sky Guide
Reported bugs
2 issues- App freezes when near polar regions
- Occasional crashes or performance issues
Requested features
5 requests- Add more detailed information on moons of planets
- Implement mosaic planning tools for astrophotography
- Provide earlier notifications for satellite/ISS passes
- Allow users to share their observations and photos
- Improve integration with telescope/camera equipment
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
In-app purchases
Sky Guide
- PLUS$4.991 Month
- PRO$8.991 Month
- PLUS7 Days trial$39.991 Year
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- PRO7 Days trial$59.991 Year
- All Constellations$1.99
- PRO Lifetime$249.99
Sky Tonight
- 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 moreShow fewer
- 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
- Lifetime Premium Access Sale$7.99
- Lifetime Premium Access$12.99




