Comparison

The Orrery vs N

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

Head to head
About

The Orrery

Features
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A living orrery for Apple Watch. All eight planets orbit in real time โ€” no internet, no iPhone required. Open the app and every planet snaps to its actual position for today, calculated entirely on-device using Keplerian orbital mechanics. Time flows forward automatically, one month per second, so you can watch the solar system breathe without touching a thing. **Explore in any direction** Turn the Digital Crown to travel through time โ€” forward or backward, to any moment in history or the future. Drag anywhere on the screen to tilt your view into 3D and rotate freely. Release and the camera keeps spinning with natural inertia, gliding to a stop like floating in space. Double-tap to return to the default top-down view. **Zoom in** Long-press the screen to glide the camera toward the sun. The longer you hold, the faster it moves. Release to hold your position, then drag to look around from there. **Planetary textures and a star-filled sky** Each planet is rendered with NASA-based imagery โ€” Jupiter's bands, Mars's rust, Earth's continents โ€” against a backdrop of the Milky Way. Fading orbital trails trace each planet's recent path. **Fully offline, always** No network connection. No iPhone. No account. Just open it and it works. Planet and sky textures provided by Solar System Scope (solarsystemscope.com), licensed under CC BY 4.0.

About

N

Features
Read full description

Train working memory with fast arithmetic n-back rounds. N-Back Math shows a stream of arithmetic problems and asks you to answer the result from N steps back. Each run is short, focused, and saved locally so you can track accuracy over time.

Screenshots

N1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: The Orrery at every 4 days against N's fortnightly. The Orrery also leads on iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

The Orrery ships an update every 4 days, N fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and October 4, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
The Orrery versus N: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThe OrreryN
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 4 days โ€” betterFortnightly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPod, Apple Watch โ€” betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS13.0 โ€” better17.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size2 MB1 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperShota HoriZeul Mordasiewicz

In-app purchases

None

The Orrery

No in-app purchases

None

N

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is The Orrery free?
The Orrery is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is N free?
N is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do The Orrery or N have ads?
Neither The Orrery nor N shows ads.
Which is updated more often, The Orrery or N?
The Orrery ships an update every 4 days, and N fortnightly. Most recently, The Orrery was updated on October 10, 2026 and N on October 4, 2026.

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