Celestial Dances vs Celestia
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Celestial Dances
Explore the orbital mechanics of planets, moons, and exoplanets. This app visualizes celestial movements based on concepts from "A Little Book of Coincidence." Discover intriguing patterns and relationships within our solar system and beyond.
- Explore solar system planet motions
- Visualize moon orbits
- Discover exoplanet systems
- Based on 'A Little Book of Coincidence'
- Highlights Earth-Venus relationship
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This app invites you to explore the relative motions of our solar system's planets, their moons, and several exoplanet systems. It is based on ideas presented in "A Little Book of Coincidence" by John Martineau. Are the amazing patterns created by these orbiting bodies just a coincidence, or is something more than that going on? Take a look and see what you think. Be sure to check out the special relationship between the Earth and Venus.
Celestia
Explore the universe in real-time 3D. Visit planets, moons, star clusters, and galaxies, viewing them from any point in space and time. Customize your experience with expandable content and detailed simulations.
- Real-time 3D space visualization
- Explore planets, moons, stars, galaxies
- Accurate solar system object positions
- Interactive planetarium mode
- Expandable content with add-ons
- Customizable celestial databases
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Celestia — real-time 3D visualization of space 3D Space Simulator | Celestia lets you explore our universe in three dimensions. Celestia simulates many different types of celestial objects. From planets and moons to star clusters and galaxies, you can visit every object in the expandable database and view it from any point in space and time. The position and movement of solar system objects is calculated accurately in real time at any rate desired. Interactive Planetarium | Celestia serves as a planetarium – for an observer on any celestial object. You can easily navigate to any world and land on its surface. When used as a planetarium, Celestia shows accurate positions of solar system objects in the sky. You can switch labels and other supporting features on and off with hotkeys, or zoom in and out on an object of interest, for example Jupiter’s system of moons. Expandable Content | Customize Celestia according to your needs. Celestia’s catalogues can be easily expanded. There are many different add-ons available containing new objects like comets or stars, high-resolution textures of Earth and other well mapped solar system bodies, as well as 3D models for asteroids and spacecraft on precise trajectories. Even fictional objects from well-known sci-fi franchises can be found. EULA(End User License Agreement): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Celestia at 4.4 against Celestial Dances's 3.0. Celestia also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 30 months) and ratings volume (331 vs 2). Celestial Dances's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 4) and review sentiment (100% vs 79%). On price and ads 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. Celestia sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per 7 days. Celestial Dances asks for nothing beyond the download.
Celestia holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Celestia has 331 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 100% of Celestial Dances's written reviews are positive against 79% of Celestia's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Celestial Dances ships an update every 30 months, Celestia every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 3, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Celestial Dances | Celestia |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.0 (2 ratings) | 4.4 (331 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 79.2% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 331 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 30 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 9.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 16 MB | 545 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Thomas Bretl | 林峰 李 |
Customer experience
Celestial Dances
Celestia
Bugs and requests
Celestial Dances
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Celestia
Reported bugs
3 issues- Milky Way and other galaxy textures not loading properly
- Crashes when using certain add-ons
- Issues with planet and moon orbits not being accurate
Requested features
5 requests- Add more exoplanets and distant star systems
- Implement terrain generation for planets
- Expand to include more galaxies and the overall universe structure
- Add support for black holes, pulsars, and other exotic objects
- Improve controls and camera movement
In-app purchases
Celestial Dances
No in-app purchases
Celestia
- Celestia PLUS (Weekly)7 Days trial$0.997 Days
- Celestia PLUS (Monthly)$1.991 Month
- Celestia PLUS (Yearly)$19.991 Year
- Celestia PLUS (Lifetime)$79.99
Questions
Is Celestial Dances free?
Is Celestia free?
Which has better reviews, Celestial Dances or Celestia?
Do Celestial Dances or Celestia have ads?
Which is updated more often, Celestial Dances or Celestia?
Other comparisons
