AstroShort vs Cosmos
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
Cosmos
Explore the universe with interactive lessons and a multiplayer quiz game. Track spacecraft, discover constellations, and build rockets. Features adaptive difficulty and offline play for endless cosmic adventures.
- Illustrated space lessons
- Live spacecraft tracker
- Multiplayer quiz game
- Rocket building simulator
- Adaptive difficulty
- Offline functionality
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Blast off into a universe of learning! Cosmos turns a kid's curiosity about space into hours of fun for the whole family. Cosmos Pro is a subscription. New users start with a free trial; after the trial, a subscription is required to keep using the app and to unlock all features. A one-time Lifetime purchase is also available. Explore 38 illustrated lessons across the Solar System, space missions, space probes, satellites, and the deep cosmos. Then test what you've learned in a multiplayer quiz you can play together in the same room. WHAT'S INSIDE (unlocked with Cosmos Pro) • Explore tab: animated Solar System map, a live spacecraft tracker out to the Voyagers, Moon Tonight, constellations, meteor-shower countdowns, Scale of the Universe, and a build-and-fly Rocket Lab • Multiplayer quiz game — host on one device, friends join on others over local Wi-Fi • Daily Challenge, Space Picture of the Day, and Today in Space keep it fresh • Earn XP, ranks, streaks, Star Cards, and achievements • Adaptive difficulty that matches each learner's level • Works offline • no accounts • no ads • no data collected SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS • Cosmos Pro is offered as a monthly or yearly auto-renewable subscription, with a free trial for new subscribers. A one-time Lifetime purchase is also available. • A subscription unlocks every feature and can be shared with your family through Family Sharing. • Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. Your subscription renews automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your Apple Account settings. Perfect for curious kids, families, classrooms, and lifelong space fans. Privacy Policy: https://vertexlabsolutions.com/privacy Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: AstroShort at none against Cosmos's 3. AstroShort also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). Cosmos's advantage is update cadence (every 9 days vs every 3 weeks). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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. Cosmos sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. AstroShort asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for AstroShort against 5.0 for Cosmos. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 2 respectively.
AstroShort ships an update every 3 weeks, Cosmos every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | AstroShort | Cosmos |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 2 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 9 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 117 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Edon Zogaj | Md HASAN |
Customer experience
AstroShort
Cosmos
In-app purchases
AstroShort
No in-app purchases
Cosmos
- Cosmos Pro Monthly7 Days trial$3.991 Month
- Cosmos Pro Yearly7 Days trial$24.991 Year
- Cosmos Pro Lifetime$49.99









