AstroStacker vs AstroFinish
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
AstroStacker
Enhance your night sky photos by stacking multiple exposures into a single, detailed image. This app automatically aligns stars, reduces noise, and offers tools to refine your astrophotography results directly on your iPhone or iPad.
- Stack multiple night sky photos
- Automatic star alignment
- Noise reduction for clearer images
- Advanced editing tools
- Support for calibration frames (Pro)
- On-device processing
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Stack your night-sky photos into one cleaner, more detailed image, right on your iPhone or iPad. Astrophotography stacking combines many exposures of the same sky. Astro Stacker finds the stars in every frame, lines them up and combines them, so random noise falls away and faint stars, the Milky Way and deep-sky targets come through. HOW IT WORKS 1. Take several separate photos of the same patch of sky from a tripod or stable surface. 2. Import them from Photos or Files into a Deep Sky Studio project. 3. Pick a stack mode and tap Stack. 4. Finish the result with Auto Stretch, styles and colour tools, then save or export. THREE SIMPLE STACK MODES - Quick: averages every frame for a fast first look. - Quality (default): rejects outliers such as plane and satellite trails, and leaves out the weakest frames. - Max Detail: the slowest and most selective mode, with finer alignment. AUTOMATIC STAR ALIGNMENT Stars are detected and matched in every frame, with sub-pixel alignment and a quality check for each frame. Stacking needs clear stars in your photos to line them up. CALIBRATION FRAMES (PRO) Add darks, flats, dark-flats and bias frames to correct hot pixels, thermal noise, vignetting and dust. Astro Stacker sorts frames by file name and exposure, so files named "dark" or "flat" are picked up for you. FINISH IN THE SAME APP - Auto Stretch to bring faint signal into view - Gradient removal for light pollution and uneven skies - Local contrast, vibrance, levels and per-channel colour balance - Styles: Natural, Nebula Pop, Cosmic Drama and Scientific, each with a strength slider - Before-and-after comparison - Quick Enhance for a single photo you've already taken FILES IN AND OUT - Import: photos from your library on Free; camera RAW, Apple ProRAW and FITS on Pro - Export: JPG, PNG, TIFF and FITS, with 16-bit export on Pro ON-DEVICE Stacking and editing run on your iPhone or iPad. You don't need a computer, and your source frames are not uploaded to stack them. An optional account backs up finished results. FREE AND PRO Free: 1 free stack with up to 10 light frames, and 3 saved results. Pro: unlimited frames and stacks, RAW, ProRAW and FITS import, calibration frames, 16-bit export and unlimited history. Choose monthly, annual or a one-time lifetime purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the period, and you can manage them in your App Store account settings. GOOD TO KNOW - Moon, planet and solar stacking (Planet Lab) is coming soon. Today's stacking needs stars to align on. - Colour FITS files from one-shot-colour cameras are not debayered yet. - Star-trail stacking isn't supported, because every stack is aligned on the stars. Guides to capturing and stacking: https://astrostacker.co/guides Privacy Policy: https://astrostacker.co/privacy Terms of Use: https://astrostacker.co/terms Apple Standard EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
AstroFinish
Enhance your astrophotography with powerful editing tools designed for space images. Apply quick presets or fine-tune details like stars, nebulae, and moon sharpness. Process images locally on your iPhone without needing an account or cloud uploads.
- Auto Astro Polish presets
- Manual editing controls
- Nebula and galaxy detail enhancement
- Denoise and star reduction
- Batch processing
- Local image processing
- Before/after comparison cards
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AstroFinish is a darkroom for astrophotography on iPhone. It is built for the shots that come off smart telescopes, backyard rigs, and late-night moon sessions: the ones that are almost there, but need a cleaner sky and a better finish. Start fast with Auto Astro Polish, Deep Sky, Moon Sharp, and other built-in looks. Or dial it in by hand with controls made for space photos, including black point, glow cleanup, nebula reveal, galaxy detail, denoise, star reduction, and moon sharpening. Import from Photos or Files, work with JPEG, PNG, HEIC, TIFF, RAW-style images, and FITS sessions, then export finished images or shareable before/after cards. Batch Finish helps run one look across a queue when you came home with more than one keeper. AstroFinish stays local. No account. No cloud upload. No tracking SDKs. Your captures stay on your iPhone unless you choose to share or save them. Built for: Smart telescope captures Deep-sky photos, nebulae, galaxies, star fields, and moon shots Quick fixes when the sky glow gets rude Manual finishing when you want the last word FITS reveal and stack workflows Local exports, share sheets, and before/after cards AstroFinish is for people who would rather be outside collecting photons than fighting a desktop editor at 1 a.m.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: AstroFinish at 100% against AstroStacker's 0%. AstroFinish also leads on rating (4.9 vs 1.1) and in-app purchases (none vs 3). On price, ratings volume, ads 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. AstroStacker sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $12.99 per month. AstroFinish asks for nothing beyond the download.
AstroFinish holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 1.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 7 and 8 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 0% of AstroStacker's written reviews are positive against 100% of AstroFinish's.
AstroStacker ships an update every 2 weeks, AstroFinish every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 14, 2026 and November 13, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | AstroStacker | AstroFinish |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.1 (7 ratings) | 4.9 (8 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 7 | 8 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 17 MB | 9 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ahmed Al-Mahmud | Cody Adams |
Customer experience
AstroStacker
AstroFinish
In-app purchases
AstroStacker
- AstroStacker app3 Days trial$12.991 Month
- AstroStacker app3 Days trial$99.991 Year
- AstroStacker app$219.00
AstroFinish
No in-app purchases






