ISS Tracker vs Ham Satting
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ISS Tracker
Monitor the International Space Station's live position and vital telemetry data in real-time. Track its orbit, altitude, velocity, and internal environmental systems. Ideal for space enthusiasts and students interested in space exploration.
- Real-time ISS position tracking
- Interactive world map
- Altitude and velocity data
- Comprehensive telemetry monitoring
- Environmental and power system data
- Dark mode support
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Find out when the International Space Station flies over you and exactly where to look. On a good night it’s brighter than any star. YOUR NEXT PASS, IN PLAIN WORDS “Tonight at 8:05 PM. Look west, low.” Each pass also says how long it’s visible and how bright it is, and has a round sky chart that shows its path, from where it appears to where it fades. See 14 days of passes, and the cloud forecast for the next ones. ALERTS FOR GOOD PASSES Get a heads-up a few hours before a good pass, and an alert 5 minutes before it starts. A good pass climbs at least 30° above the horizon, or is bright and long. If two weeks have none, you get alerts for the best low passes instead. You can turn on alerts for every visible pass in the app’s settings. A Live Activity counts down on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island. FIND IT IN THE SKY Hold your phone up and follow the pointer to the station. Saw a bright, moving light? Ask “Was that the ISS?” and get a straight answer. No telescope needed. WHERE IS THE ISS RIGHT NOW? See it on a 3D globe, with the day and night sides of Earth, or on a live map with the ground track of its orbit. You can add Tiangong, China’s space station, and get its passes too. WHO’S UP THERE See the crew on board, and the next launches, dockings and spacewalks. ALWAYS ONE GLANCE AWAY Widgets show your next pass on the Home Screen and Lock Screen. A Control Center button opens the sky pointer. PRIVATE AND SIMPLE No account needed. Every pass is worked out on your phone, and your exact location is never sent to us. Apple Weather and Apple Maps use it for the cloud forecast and the place name. For iPhone and iPad.
Ham Satting
Track amateur radio satellites in real-time, predict passes, and log QSOs. Features include live APRS mapping, AR tracking, and multi-satellite comparison. Offers a unique music broadcast service and SSTV decoding.
- Real-time satellite tracking
- Pass predictions with quality indicators
- Interactive footprint mapping
- AR Tracking with device sensors
- Multi-satellite tracking
- SSTV Decoder
- APRS Live Map Layer
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Track amateur radio satellites in real time, predict passes, log QSOs, hunt grid squares — with a live APRS map layer and the new Music Broadcast service. Built by a fellow ham (A41UX) — free of analytics, ads, and tracking. CORE FEATURES • Real-time tracking for FM/SSB linear birds (e.g. ISS, SO-50, etc.), digipeaters (e.g. GRBBeta, Foresail-1p, etc), SSTV + SSDV image birds (e.g. Lobachevsky, GEOSCAN 1-6 , etc.), Weather LRPT (Meteor-M N2-3 / N2-4), and Music Broadcast (e.g. BALKAN-1, Flamingo-1, etc) • Pass predictions with quality indicators (Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor), AOS / LOS, max elevation, duration, azimuth • Interactive footprint mapping with live position + great-circle bearing lines • Compass dialog with theme-aware export image and watermark • AR Tracking (iPhone / iPad) using device compass + accelerometer • Multi-satellite tracking and side-by-side pass comparison • Five-mode AR audio recording (iPhone / iPad): SSTV, SSDV, Digital, Weather, Music — Doppler-corrected RX labelling; consistent WAV naming NEW IN APRIL 2026 • Music Broadcast: 4 satellites transmit short music tones as an RF identifier instead of CW Morse — T.MicroSat-1 plays Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" on 401.025 MHz; BALKAN-1, Flamingo-1, OTP-2 use classical / video-game themes. RX-only on UHF 400-402 MHz; brown toggle on AR page records the pass. • Scheduled Service Events: register a temporary frequency override for SSTV, SSDV, Digital, or Weather (Meteor-M rotation, ARISS channel shifts, etc.) • APRS digipeater added on SONATE-2 (DP0SNX) and NO-44 (PCSAT, W3ADO-1) on 145.825 MHz simplex • IO-86 SSDV downlink added on 145.880 MHz • AMSAT Live Activity Indicator: every prediction card carries a 24-hour activity dot in AMSAT cell colors, sourced from the AMSAT Live OSCAR Satellite Status page. Tap for a 48-hour popup with individual reports per cell (callsign + grid + UTC slot), attribution, and a compact share-image. • 10 new satellites with permanent NORADs: TO-108, GRBBeta, Foresail-1p, Horizon, 239Alferov, Luca, BALKAN-1, Flamingo-1, OTP-2, T.MicroSat-1 • APRS Live Map Layer: read-only APRS-IS feed, age-fading trails, 40+ symbol mappings, SSID filters, heard-by via aprs.fi • SSTV Decoder: multi-mode (Robot 36, PD 120 / 180, Martin, Scottie, Wraase, AVT, etc.) • Q1 2026 batch: 8 new satellites added (HADES-SA, PARUS-T3, HYPERVIEW-1G, MAGNARO-II Piscis, ARICA-2, FSI-SAT2, ZERO-II, OrigamiSat-2) • UI: long sat names auto-fit at any Font Scale; filter pills always one row; (i) info icons; 125 in-app tips LOGGING + AWARDS + EXPORT • Full QSO logbook: callsign, grid, mode, freq (TX / RX), satellite, RST, distance, bearing • Grid Hunters VUCC tracking with worked-grids map + great-circle paths from QTH • Per-QSO QSL card export — themed PNG ready to share or print • Export to ADIF (LoTW / TQSL), JSON, or CSV • Maidenhead 4 / 6 / 8-character grids • DXCC + VUCC dashboards, distance + bearing stats, worked-by-band charts • Calendar integration; smart pass notifications with min-elevation filter TECHNICAL • Available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac (Apple Silicon + Intel). AR Tracking and live audio recording are iPhone / iPad features; pass prediction, logging, exports, mapping, and the AMSAT indicator run on every Apple device. • N2YO API for orbital data (free key required for non-ISS satellites) • Cached satellite catalogue works offline • Privacy-first: data stays on device, no analytics SDKs, no advertising IDs, no tracking. APRS-IS, N2YO, AMSAT Live OSCAR Status, and the optional aprs.fi REST are the only network calls PERFECT FOR • Amateur radio operators pursuing satellite communications • AMSAT members and CubeSat / PocketQube enthusiasts • Contest participants and award hunters (DXCC, VUCC, satellite awards) • SDR listeners curious about Music Broadcast on 400-402 MHz 73 — A41UX (Unixeer, Oman)
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: ISS Tracker at 100% against Ham Satting's 0%. ISS Tracker also leads on rating (4.7 vs 3.7) and ratings volume (19 vs 3). Ham Satting's advantage is device support (4 vs 2) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence, ads 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
ISS Tracker holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ISS Tracker has 19 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of ISS Tracker's written reviews are positive against 0% of Ham Satting's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly weekly. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.
| Parameter | ISS Tracker | Ham Satting |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (19 ratings) — better | 3.7 (3 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 19 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Weekly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 15.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 15 MB | 30 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Lucent Enterprises Ltd. | Yousif AL Balushi |
Customer experience
ISS Tracker
Ham Satting
In-app purchases
ISS Tracker
No in-app purchases
Ham Satting
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is ISS Tracker free?
Is Ham Satting free?
Which has better reviews, ISS Tracker or Ham Satting?
Do ISS Tracker or Ham Satting have ads?
Which is updated more often, ISS Tracker or Ham Satting?
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