Comparison

AstroShort vs ORBITARIUM

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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.

About

ORBITARIUM

Features
Read full description

ORBITARIUM is a native astronomy app for iPhone and iPad that lets you explore the Solar System now through interactive 3D graphics and on-device astronomical calculations. Move through time and see planetary positions, day and night on Earth, axial-tilt seasons, and lunar phases update together in one coherent view. KEY FEATURES • The Sun, all eight planets, and the Moon in an interactive RealityKit scene • Drag, pinch, and tap to orbit, zoom, and focus on celestial bodies • Select a date, play or pause time, change speed, and move across a four-year range • Earth's day-night boundary, city lights, clouds, and atmosphere synchronized with sunlight • Northern and Southern Hemisphere seasons explained through axial tilt • Moon phase, illumination, age, and the next principal phase • Local time, solar altitude and azimuth, sunrise, and sunset for nine locations worldwide • Japanese and English localization • No account required; core features work completely offline Planet positions and astronomical events are calculated on device. Body sizes and distances are compressed or exaggerated for educational readability and are clearly identified in the app.

Screenshots

AstroShort4 screens
ORBITARIUM4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: AstroShort at 15.0 against ORBITARIUM's 26.0. 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Scorecard1 real difference · 8 level
AstroShort versus ORBITARIUM: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAstroShortORBITARIUM
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size117 MB24 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperEdon ZogajYuta OGIHARA

In-app purchases

None

AstroShort

No in-app purchases

None

ORBITARIUM

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is AstroShort free?
AstroShort is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is ORBITARIUM free?
ORBITARIUM is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do AstroShort or ORBITARIUM have ads?
Neither AstroShort nor ORBITARIUM shows ads.

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