MQTT vs Spacetrucker Galactic
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
MQTT
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The MQTT-IOT app is a powerful and user-friendly application that allows you to connect to MQTT brokers and seamlessly communicate with IoT devices and services. With its intuitive interface and robust functionality, this app is designed to meet the needs of both MQTT beginners and experienced developers. Publish and Subscribe: Publish messages on specific topics and subscribe to topics of interest to receive real-time updates from connected MQTT devices or services.
Spacetrucker Galactic
This app consolidates space weather, amateur radio, and astronomical data into a single, location-aware view. It provides HF propagation summaries, aurora likelihood, DX cluster information, and celestial event timings. Designed for field use, it operates entirely on-device with no backend services.
- HF propagation summary
- Aurora likelihood alerts
- DX cluster integration
- Parks On The Air/Summits On The Air spots
- Magnetic declination calculation
- APRS callsign tracking
- Sunrise/sunset and twilight times
- Planetary positions
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Galactic is a daily almanac for amateur radio operators, space-weather watchers, and anyone who keeps an antenna outside. It pulls the forecasts and ephemerides that normally live in eight separate browser tabs into one quiet view, tuned to your location. FOR RADIO OPERATORS • HF propagation summary. Live planetary Kp, A index, and 10.7 cm solar flux (SFI) from NOAA SWPC, plus a plain-English read on band conditions and noise floor. • Aurora-likelihood flag. Kp-driven heads-up when the auroral oval is pushing south and HF is about to get interesting. • DX cluster. Recent DX spots so you can see what's audible right now — without firing up a separate client. • Parks On The Air & Summits On The Air. Live spots sorted by distance, with a detail page for each — distance and bearing from your QTH, frequency, mode, comments, and a map pin where the spot carries coordinates. • Magnetic declination at your location, computed on-device against the World Magnetic Model — for beam headings and portable directional antennas. • APRS callsign tracking. Save your friends' callsigns; one tap pulls their last-known position from aprs.fi (your read key, your account), with APRS-symbol icons and path-derived DX stats. SPACE WEATHER, SUN, AND SKY • Sunrise, sunset, golden-hour windows, and the three twilight transitions (civil, nautical, astronomical) on a 24-hour color strip. • Moon phase, illumination, and procedural surface features rendered on a starfield — Mare Imbrium, Tranquillitatis, Tycho, the rest of the near-side face. • Ten planetary positions (Sun, Moon, Mercury through Pluto) in zodiac signs at their current degree, computed locally with Meeus's formulas. • Upcoming launches. Next five orbital launches from The Space Devs. WEATHER, FOR THE REST OF THE KIT • Earth weather. Six-period NWS forecast for your coordinates. • Marine forecasts. NWS coastal-zone bulletins (GMZ, AMZ, PZZ, AN, …) parsed as readable periods with seas, wind, and weather. WHERE THE BRIEF LIVES • Home-screen widget — small and medium sizes with current temperature, sun events, Kp, and moon phase at a glance. • Apple Watch app with five glance cards and four complication families (circular, corner, inline, rectangular). • Local notifications for golden hour and astronomical dusk, scheduled fourteen days ahead. BUILT FOR THE FIELD Galactic runs entirely on your device. No backend, no accounts, no analytics, no third-party SDKs. Outbound requests go only to NOAA, NWS, aprs.fi, The Space Devs, POTA, SOTA, and the DX cluster — the public services that produce the data. Your aprs.fi API key is yours, stored in iOS UserDefaults on this device only. 73 — de SpaceTrucker. What's New in This Version (4000 char max — 1,170 used) v0.2 — Standalone • Galactic now runs entirely on your device. Every data source is fetched directly from its public origin; nothing is routed through a Galactic server. • Brand-new RF tab leading with the radio-operator story: HF propagation, aurora flag, POTA, SOTA, DX cluster, magnetic declination, APRS callsign tracking and receive-only messaging. • POTA & SOTA detail pages — distance and bearing from your QTH, frequency, mode, comments, and a map pin where coordinates are available. • Moon surface features rendered on the moon hero — Mare Imbrium, Tranquillitatis, Procellarum, Tycho, and the rest of the near-side face. • Apple Watch app with five glance cards and four complication families. • Apple Maps deep linking from any callsign's last-known position. • Local notifications for golden hour and astronomical dusk, scheduled fourteen days ahead. • Accessibility: the Sun day strip reads sunrise, sunset, and the current twilight phase to VoiceOver. Every tab's interactive surface now has stable identifiers and labels. • Haptic feedback on refresh, success, and error.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Spacetrucker Galactic at none against MQTT's 2. Spacetrucker Galactic also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (monthly vs every 16 months). MQTT's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price 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. MQTT sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Spacetrucker Galactic asks for nothing beyond the download.
MQTT ships an update every 16 months, Spacetrucker Galactic monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | MQTT | Spacetrucker Galactic |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 1 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 16 months | Monthly — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | — | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 12 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 109700 | river.io llc |
In-app purchases
MQTT
- Upgrade to PLUS$9.99
- Upgrade to PRO$39.99
Spacetrucker Galactic
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is MQTT free?
Is Spacetrucker Galactic free?
Do MQTT or Spacetrucker Galactic have ads?
Which is updated more often, MQTT or Spacetrucker Galactic?
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