Comparison

ISS Tracker vs Orbit Map

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

Head to head
About

ISS Tracker

Features
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ISS Tracker is a beautifully designed way to follow the International Space Station (ISS) in real time. Built for space enthusiasts, sky watchers, students, and anyone curious about what is passing overhead, ISS Tracker brings live orbital tracking, visible pass predictions, live camera feeds, and real-time telemetry into a clean, futuristic experience. Follow the ISS on a live map, see where it is above Earth right now, and explore its orbit with a cyber-inspired interface designed for clarity. From glowing orbit paths to live space views and precise telemetry, ISS Tracker makes complex orbital data feel simple, visual, and easy to understand at a glance. Key Features • Live ISS Tracking See the real-time position of the International Space Station on a map and follow its orbital path around Earth. • Visible Pass Predictions Check when the ISS may be visible from your location, including pass time, duration, and viewing elevation. • Live Space Camera Feeds Watch live video streams from cameras aboard the ISS when feeds are available, including breathtaking views of Earth and sunrise from orbit. • Real-Time Telemetry View current altitude, speed, latitude, and longitude in a simple, readable format. • Futuristic Space-Focused Design ISS Tracker is designed with a clean sci-fi dashboard style, making orbital data feel focused, immersive, and easy to explore. Whether you want to catch the ISS passing overhead, watch Earth from orbit, or simply know where the station is right now, ISS Tracker makes space feel closer.

About

Orbit Map

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Orbit Map is a working atlas of everything humanity has left in orbit. Around 31,900 tracked objects, propagated on your device with the same SGP4/SDP4 model the industry uses, drawn on a real 3D Earth you can turn in your hands. Point it at tonight and it tells you when the Space Station crosses your roof. Search a name or a NORAD number and the orbit appears. Tap one group and ten thousand Starlink satellites light up at once. WHAT YOU CAN SEE • Every catalogued object: payloads, spent rocket stages and debris • Live positions from public orbital elements, computed offline on your device • Orbit paths, ground tracks and the horizon footprint of any spacecraft • Starlink, GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, OneWeb, weather satellites, debris shells • Altitude, speed, period, inclination, apogee, perigee, country, launch year • Filter and colour the field by object type, altitude, country or status • Detailed 3D models of real spacecraft families • Run time forward and back, or freeze the atlas and read it PASSES OVER YOUR HEAD • When the Station, Tiangong or Hubble crosses your sky • Rise, peak and set with azimuth and elevation for each pass • Sunlight and darkness checked, because a pass you cannot see is not a pass • Any place on Earth as your observing point, with its own time zone • Notifications before something flies over THE ACADEMY 54 lessons, more than eight hours, written for this atlas rather than borrowed from a textbook. Every lesson carries measured numbers you can verify in the inspector, the misconception it exists to correct, two things to do on the globe, a comprehension check and the vocabulary it introduces. Nine modules, from the first question to responsible interpretation: orbital mechanics. Reading element sets. Orbit families. Real missions. Observing the sky. The space environment. Debris and safety. Signals and navigation. Data literacy. Sourced from NASA, ESA, CelesTrak and Space-Track. ON EVERY SCREEN YOU OWN iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV and Apple Vision Pro. Lesson progress, observing places and display settings stay together through iCloud. HONEST ABOUT WHAT IT IS Orbit Map propagates public General Perturbations elements. Accuracy degrades as elements age and can differ by kilometres. Pass timing uses geometric sunlight and a 10° horizon; weather and apparent brightness are not modelled, so a sunlit pass is an opportunity rather than a promise. This is an educational atlas. It is not a conjunction assessment tool, not a navigation aid, and not for antenna pointing. Every screen states which snapshot it is using and how old the elements behind it are, because knowing the age of your data is part of reading it. WHERE THE DATA COMES FROM Public GP elements from Space-Track.org and USSPACECOM, cross-checked against an independent CelesTrak set before any release ships. Positions come from a Vallado-compatible SGP4/SDP4 implementation verified against the published reference vectors. Catalogue updates are signed and every byte is checked before it replaces what you already have. PREMIUM The free atlas is complete and accurate: the whole globe, the entire catalogue, search, orbit paths, and passes for the Station, Tiangong and Hubble. Premium opens all 54 lessons, every constellation, the full Orbital Lens, seven-day forecasts from up to ten saved places, pass notifications, every spacecraft model, the time machine and iCloud sync. Subscription Terms: Payment charged to iTunes Account. Auto-renews unless disabled 24 hours before period ends. Manage in Account Settings. https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Data provided by Space-Track.org and USSPACECOM. Validation data provided by CelesTrak, Dr. T.S. Kelso. Earth imagery courtesy of NASA.

Screenshots

ISS Tracker4 screens
Orbit Map4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: ISS Tracker at none against Orbit Map's 3. ISS Tracker also leads on iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.0). Orbit Map's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and device support (5 vs 1). On price there is nothing between them.

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

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. Orbit Map sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. ISS Tracker asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard4 real differences Ā· 1 level
ISS Tracker versus Orbit Map: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterISS TrackerOrbit Map
PriceFreeFree
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Vision Pro — better
Requires iOS16.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size14 MB90 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBeijing Zhongmeng Intelligent Technology Co., LtdIgor Bidenko

In-app purchases

None

ISS Tracker

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Orbit Map

Subscriptions2
  • Orbit Map - Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Orbit Map - Annual7 Days trial$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • Orbit Map - Lifetime$39.99

Questions

Is ISS Tracker free?
ISS Tracker is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Orbit Map free?
Orbit Map is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do ISS Tracker or Orbit Map have ads?
ISS Tracker shows ads; Orbit Map does not.

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