MacroShader vs Add Astra
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
MacroShader
Capture stunning close-up images with advanced manual camera controls and specialized processing. Features include focus peaking, RAW saving, and a unique focus shutter for precise macro shots.
- Focus shutter
- Focus peaking
- Manual camera controls
- Save in RAW
- Customized image processing
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A macro photography app for iPhone. Features include: - Focus shutter: Tap, hold, focus and release to shoot a photo. Also just tap to shoot - Focus peaking - Manual camera controls - Save in RAW - Customised image processing for macro photography to preserve details Future releases will add more camera controls, editing tools and more
Add Astra
Overlay accurate star positions onto your photos using image metadata and machine learning. The app intelligently identifies the sky to ensure stars are placed realistically, avoiding unwanted artifacts.
- Accurate star positioning
- Uses Yale Bright Star Catalog
- Extracts image metadata
- Machine learning sky detection
- Realistic star overlays
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Add Astra was our first app. It uses the Yale Bright Star Catalog with extracted image metadata (date, time, location, orientation, and direction) to find star positions accurate to your uploaded image. Add Astra also uses the DETRResnet50SemanticSegmentationF16 Machine Learning Model to find the sky in your image, and only overlay the stars there, so you don’t have weird white dots all over your picture!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: MacroShader at none against Add Astra's 5. Add Astra's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs every 4 months) and ratings volume (3 vs 1). On price, rating, review sentiment 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. Add Astra sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $10.99 per month. MacroShader asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for MacroShader against 5.0 for Add Astra. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 3 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
MacroShader ships an update every 4 months, Add Astra every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and October 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | MacroShader | Add Astra |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 3 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 120 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | AstroShader Limited | APParent LLC |
Customer experience
MacroShader
Add Astra
In-app purchases
MacroShader
No in-app purchases
Add Astra
- 100 Credits a Month + No Ads$10.991 Month
- One Credit$0.29
- Five Credits$0.99
- Ten Credits$1.99
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- 50 Credits$7.49
