Orbitarium Solar System vs AstroShort
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Orbitarium Solar System
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Orbitarium is an interactive solar system app for families, learners, and anyone who wants to discover space in a playful way. Everything can be controlled with touch gestures on iPhone and iPad. On Mac, control works with the mouse or, if available, the trackpad. If you do not know all the planet names yet: no problem! Simply tap the buttons with the planet names, and they will move into the center. This makes it easy to discover the names of the celestial bodies. You can also tap directly on the Sun, Earth, Moon, and planets to select them and bring them into focus. With touch gestures, you can interact with the objects almost as if touching them with your hands, zoom in, zoom out, move the view, and explore the solar system freely. You can also speed up or slow down time and observe how the celestial bodies move faster or slower along their orbits. The change of perspective is especially fascinating: when you view the motion from the Sun, the Moon, or a planet, the visible paths of the celestial bodies change. This makes it easy to understand that motion in space always depends on the point of view. The app is intentionally calm and clear. Planets, distances, and motion can be discovered step by step while the solar system is explained in a visual and accessible way. Orbitarium is ideal for exploring together at home, for first conversations about space, and for anyone who wants to know how planets move around the Sun.
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.
- 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
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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
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: AstroShort at none against Orbitarium Solar System's 3. AstroShort also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 26.4). Orbitarium Solar System's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs every 3 weeks). On price, 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. Orbitarium Solar System sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. AstroShort asks for nothing beyond the download.
Orbitarium Solar System ships an update every 3 days, AstroShort every 3 weeks. Both last shipped on October 16, 2026.
| Parameter | Orbitarium Solar System | AstroShort |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 1 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | — | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.4 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 117 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Marcus Faas | Edon Zogaj |
In-app purchases
Orbitarium Solar System
- Small Coffee$1.99
- Big Coffee$3.99
- Lunch$8.99
AstroShort
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Orbitarium Solar System free?
Is AstroShort free?
Do Orbitarium Solar System or AstroShort have ads?
Which is updated more often, Orbitarium Solar System or AstroShort?
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