Comparison

EarthPhase vs AstroShort

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

EarthPhase

Explore a beautifully designed, interactive solar system with real-time celestial data. Track moon and Earth phases, view planet positions, and travel through time to discover cosmic events and facts.

Highlights
  • Interactive solar system map
  • Real-time moon and Earth phases
  • Home and lock screen widgets
  • Time travel slider for past/future events
  • Discover cosmic facts and mechanics
  • Accurate planet positions and orbits
Features
Read full description

EarthPhase is your personal, beautifully designed pocket solar system, with all features completely free. Built with a stunning matte, low-key aesthetic, it brings the exact state of the solar system directly to your device. Whether you are an astronomy enthusiast or simply love a clean, minimalist Home Screen, EarthPhase tracks the cosmos in real-time. WIDGET SUITE Never miss a cosmic event. EarthPhase offers a variety of widgets designed to blend seamlessly with your custom setups: Home Screen Trackers: Keep an eye on the current Moon and Earth phases with perfectly rendered, dynamic icons. Lock Screen Data: Add circular planet icons or detailed rectangular widgets that display the exact live illumination percentage of the Moon or Earth right below your clock. Live Solar System: Place a dynamic map of the inner and outer planets on your Home Screen, available in multiple sizes. INTERACTIVE SOLAR SYSTEM Dive into the app to explore a highly accurate, interactive schematic of our solar system. Tap any planet to zoom in on its specific orbit, view its position relative to the Sun, and explore its major moons. TIME TRAVEL SLIDER Wondering what the moon phase was on the day you were born? Or when the next supermoon will happen? Use the precision control panel to scrub backward and forward through time. The entire solar system and moon phase engine will smoothly animate to reflect the exact celestial state of any date and time you choose. DISCOVER THE COSMOS Expand your knowledge with a massive library of scientifically accurate, lesser-known facts. Learn about the bizarre orbital mechanics of Jupiter's outer moons, the metal snow on Venus, or the true scale of the Martian canyons.

About

AstroShort

Explore the entire universe from your fingertips, flying between planets, moons, and even black holes. Dive deep into factual information sourced from NASA, with interactive real-world locations and animated scenes. Offers both an explorer and a kid-friendly mode for all ages.

Highlights
  • Interactive solar system exploration
  • Detailed planet and moon information
  • Real-world location exploration
  • Animated scenes and landmarks
  • Explorer and Kid modes
  • Offline functionality
  • User-submitted feature ideas
Features
Read full description

Astro Explorer was built together — with curiosity, a sense of social connection, learning and education at its heart. It began as a gift from a dad to his kid, and grew into a hand-built universe for curious minds of every age. THE WHOLE UNIVERSE, BY TOUCH Fly between the Sun, all eight planets and the Moon. Zoom from a planet up close all the way out to the Milky Way — and the real black hole at its heart, Sagittarius A*, shown as the 2022 Event Horizon Telescope image. Nothing here needs reading to explore — a child who can't read yet can pilot the entire universe with a fingertip. DEEP FACTS ON EVERY PLANET Tap any planet — all eight, plus Pluto — to open its observation plate: its moons, its weather, the missions we've sent, and how it truly sizes up. The facts go deep, in plain language, and every one is sourced straight from NASA fact sheets and JPL. GO INSIDE REAL WORLDS Earth, Mars and the Moon aren't just spheres. Drill down to real places — the Grand Canyon, Olympus Mons, the Sea of Tranquility — meet animals, visit landmarks, and watch each place come alive with its own animated scene. Every fact carries its source, straight from NASA planetary fact sheets and the International Astronomical Union. TWO WAYS TO EXPLORE - Explorer mode (the default): a clean, premium look where grown-up facts, side-by-side planet comparisons and a daily discovery feed are one tap away. - Kid mode: a playful skin made for little hands — bigger buttons, a gentler pace, and deeper content tucked safely behind a parent hold-gesture. BUILT BY ITS EXPLORERS Here's the part we love most. Have an idea for the app? A child can simply say it out loud. Their words are turned into text right on your device, a grown-up reads it and decides whether to send it — anonymously, never any audio, never any account. On the Builders Board inside the app you can watch ideas from explorers around the world come together: what's being considered, what's being built, and what just shipped. Great ideas can become real features in days. This app is built by its explorers. HONEST BY DESIGN - Works fully offline — every planet, place and fact, with zero connection. - No accounts. No ads. No analytics. No tracking. Ever. - The only thing that ever touches the internet is the daily discovery feed: a single anonymous download of the same public file everyone gets, with no identifiers and no cookies. Offline, it shows the last feed with a visible date. - Facts are sourced and scale is honest: planets are stylized so small worlds stay visible, but the truths always hold — Jupiter is always the biggest, Mercury always closest to the Sun. Made for families. A friendly narrator reads names and facts aloud, so a pre-reader can explore and learn by ear. Safe for the youngest explorer to use alone, deep enough for the most curious adult.

Screenshots

EarthPhase4 screens
AstroShort4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: AstroShort at none against EarthPhase's 2. AstroShort also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.6). EarthPhase's advantage is ratings volume (3 vs 1). On price, rating, ads and monetization model 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. EarthPhase sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. AstroShort asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for EarthPhase against 5.0 for AstroShort. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 1 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 5 level
EarthPhase versus AstroShort: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterEarthPhaseAstroShort
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Number of ratings3 — better1
Update frequency—Every 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS18.615.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size40 MB117 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNathan ColemanEdon Zogaj

Customer experience

EarthPhase

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

AstroShort

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

EarthPhase

One-time2
  • Tip$0.99
  • Tip$4.99
None

AstroShort

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is EarthPhase free?
EarthPhase is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is AstroShort free?
AstroShort is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, EarthPhase or AstroShort?
EarthPhase and AstroShort are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 3 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do EarthPhase or AstroShort have ads?
Neither EarthPhase nor AstroShort shows ads.

Other comparisons