Comparison

SatRadar vs Satellite Tracker|ISS & Maps

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

Head to head
About

SatRadar

Track thousands of satellites in real-time, from the ISS to Starlink constellations. Explore orbital paths, view satellite details, and even travel back in time to witness the history of space exploration. The app offers a detailed view of human activity in low Earth orbit.

Highlights
  • Real-time satellite tracking
  • View ISS and Tiangong
  • Global navigation satellite systems
  • Weather satellite tracking
  • Detailed satellite information
  • Time travel visualization
  • GPU-accelerated performance
Features
Read full description

Free. No account, no subscription, no ads. The free version tracks everything, not just the ISS. Ten thousand satellites are flying over your head right now. SatRadar shows you every one of them, where they actually are, doing what they actually do — drawn from the same orbital telemetry that mission controllers and ground stations use every day. Open the app and the sky is already alive. Accurate to the second: real orbital telemetry, the same TLE data NORAD publishes, checked against ground truth. NEW: MANEUVER INTEL Satellites move on purpose, and now you can see it. Tap one to see its recent engine burns, how big they were against its usual range, and anything out of pattern. Tap a burn on the strip above the time bar and the clock jumps back to replay it. Unusual activity collects this week's surprises, close approaches between two satellites name the partner, and optional notifications tell you when the ones you follow move. Estimated from public orbit data (U.S. Space Command via Space-Track.org): SatRadar's estimates, not official determinations. This is the sky we built. The Space Age started as one beep from Sputnik in 1957; today more than ten thousand active spacecraft fly above us — Starlink and OneWeb meshing the planet in broadband, GPS / GLONASS / Galileo / BeiDou holding civilisation's clocks, weather sentinels watching whole oceans, the ISS and Tiangong with humans aboard. Free to use, with no account required: • The International Space Station and Tiangong, traced across the sky in real time • The complete global navigation networks: GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou • Weather sentinels watching from geostationary perches: GOES, NOAA, METEOSAT • Full orbital trails on the GNSS fleet, so you can see the mathematical poetry of a 12-hour orbit at a glance • Tap any satellite to see what it is, where it is going, and how high above you it sits right now • Follow the Roman and James Webb space telescopes 1.5 million km out, with Earth beside them A one-time Starlink unlock opens the full mesh — nearly ten thousand satellites appearing as a living lattice around the planet, every laser cross-link drawn between its real endpoints. The same unlock brings the rest of low Earth orbit with it: OneWeb, Iridium NEXT, the Earth-observation fleets from Planet, Spire, and IceEye, and the communications constellations of Astranis, O3B, Orbcomm, and Globalstar in their actual orbital planes. A second one-time unlock — Time Travel — turns the whole thing into a time machine. Go back to October 1957 and the sky empties to a single object: Sputnik 1. Move forward and watch it fill in: GPS through the 80s and 90s, the ISS assembling itself from 1998, the low-Earth shell suddenly igniting as Starlink starts launching in 2019 — sixty birds at a time. Every satellite appears on its real birthday and moves on its real orbit. The smoothness is the point. SatRadar runs a custom GPU-side SGP4 propagator that holds every satellite at sixty frames a second, on a phone, while you rotate the globe and zoom from city to constellation in one continuous gesture. A few more touches that took a while: • Day and night terminator drawn live across the Earth, with atmospheric scattering at the edge • A stylised, richly textured globe — 8K Earth with live map tiles at close zoom • A star-accurate sky: the Sun, Moon, and the brightest stars in their true positions, every frame • Follow any satellite: lock the camera to it and ride along as it crosses the planet Both unlocks are optional one-time purchases — the app is complete without them. Never a subscription. Family Sharing supported, restored automatically across your iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. Look up. Then look here. We are absolutely a spacefaring species — finally, suddenly, ridiculously — and you are walking around under the proof of it.

About

Satellite Tracker|ISS & Maps

Features
Read full description

Explore the sky with a satellite tracker designed to make live satellite activity easier to follow and understand. Track satellites in real time, check when they will be visible from your location, and browse detailed info for everything from space stations to communications and weather satellites. Key Features: - Track live satellites with orbit views for LEO, MEO, GEO, and HEO - Search satellites by name or NORAD ID for faster access - Check visible passes and see when a satellite will appear in your sky - View detailed satellite info including speed, altitude, position, launch data, and orbit type - Use the map view to follow paths and current satellite location more easily - Browse categories like favorites, space stations, communications, navigation, weather, science, and Starlink - Get notifications before visible passes so you do not miss key sightings Follow satellites with more clarity and confidence using tools built for live tracking, visibility planning, and everyday space discovery. Payment will be charged to the credit card connected to your iTunes Account when you confirm the initial subscription purchase. Subscriptions automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current subscription period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period, and the cost of the renewal will be identified. You may manage your subscription and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to your Account Settings after the purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when you purchase a subscription, where applicable. Terms of Use & Privacy Policy: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IEbylqTq-TYXz8bLmiw6DutzyxaxCSJXVqOPWZsuvy4/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gwjI0XhA0IOtNuuhbdw5ZTEXepVxgWGCC8hNMD3smQg/edit?usp=sharing

Screenshots

SatRadar4 screens
Satellite Tracker|ISS & Maps4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: SatRadar at every 2 days against Satellite Tracker|ISS & Maps's every 2 months. SatRadar also leads on iOS requirement (16.4 vs 18.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. SatRadar sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and Satellite Tracker|ISS & Maps sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

SatRadar ships an update every 2 days, Satellite Tracker|ISS & Maps every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 9, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
SatRadar versus Satellite Tracker|ISS & Maps: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSatRadarSatellite Tracker|ISS & Maps
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (6 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings6 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 days — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS16.4 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size68 MB37 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDavid HodgeNIK INTERIJERI j.d.o.o.

In-app purchases

2 purchases

SatRadar

One-time2
  • Time Travel$4.99
  • Unlock Starlink$9.99
2 purchases

Satellite Tracker|ISS & Maps

Subscriptions2
  • Satellite Tracker|ISS & Maps$5.997 Days
  • Satellite Tracker|ISS & Maps3 Days trial$5.997 Days

Questions

Is SatRadar free?
SatRadar is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Satellite Tracker|ISS & Maps free?
Satellite Tracker|ISS & Maps is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do SatRadar or Satellite Tracker|ISS & Maps have ads?
Neither SatRadar nor Satellite Tracker|ISS & Maps shows ads.
Which is updated more often, SatRadar or Satellite Tracker|ISS & Maps?
SatRadar ships an update every 2 days, and Satellite Tracker|ISS & Maps every 2 months. Most recently, SatRadar was updated on November 9, 2026 and Satellite Tracker|ISS & Maps on November 10, 2026.

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