Comparison

Night View vs Stellar Tour

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

Head to head
About

Night View

Features
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Have you ever looked up in the sky and wondered what was staring back at you? Have you ever wanted to identify the constellations and find our planets? Then Night View is for you. Night View's fast interface makes it easy for you to navigate the night sky. Just point your iPhone or iPad anywhere in the sky and Night View will display the constellations and planets you can see. If you'd like to navigate with your fingers instead, just drag the sky, and zoom in and out naturally. *** Note that Night View needs your current location to display the sky correctly *** Night View uses a true spherical projection that astronomers are familiar with which allows you to see a full 180° view of the sky. Turn on and off constellation names, planet names, and star names. If you don't want to view the current sky, you can pick any vantage point on earth and any point in time. Now you can see what the sky looked like the day and place you were born or when you met your first love. Night View also shows you what our planets look like up close and gives you some useful information. *** Note that this app has a banner ad which you can remove with an in-app purchase ***

About

Stellar Tour

Explore the cosmos with an augmented reality stargazing app guided by an astrophysicist. Discover exoplanets, solar system bodies, and deep-sky objects with scientifically accurate narratives and detailed visuals.

Highlights
  • Augmented reality stargazing
  • Astrophysicist-guided tours
  • Detailed exoplanet information
  • High-resolution solar system visuals
  • Exploration of galaxies and nebulae
  • Interactive 3D planet and moon models
Features
Read full description

Stellar Tour is the only AR stargazing app written by an astrophysicist. Point your phone at the night sky and get a guided tour of everything up there: 1.7 billion real stars, every planet and major moon, eclipses, meteor showers, 13,000 deep-sky objects, and a course in astronomy that starts with the sky over your head and ends at the edge of the universe. Astrophysicist Dr. Aaron Day wrote every word. Instead of the standard flood of random facts, Stellar Tour tells the scientifically accurate story of each world: what it is like on the ground, in the seas, or floating through the clouds. THE NIGHT SKY, FOR REAL • 1.7 billion stars from ESA's Gaia survey, each in its true position. Pinch to zoom from your backyard to the galactic core. • The Milky Way as it actually looks, drawn from every star Gaia measured, with constellations, planets, and satellites overlaid on your live sky. • A sky that looks like the time it is: dawn, daylight, twilight, and full dark, with a real atmosphere and hazy ridges on the horizon. The Moon shows its earthshine, and Earth's night side its city lights. • Night Vision mode keeps your eyes dark-adapted with a pure red display. LEARN THE SKY • Sixteen short lessons, from the sky over your head to the edge of the universe. Every stop is a live visit: the lesson flies you to the star, steps the clock, or opens the tool it is talking about. The first three lessons are free. • Three reference books inside the app, How We Know, The Sky, and The Whole Story, with a glossary and dozens of labeled diagrams. SEVEN SKIES • See the stars the way Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, India, and the Arabian desert saw them: their star figures and folk names drawn on your sky, their stories on each star's page, and their lunar festivals on the calendar. PLAN YOUR NIGHT • Sky Calendar: every eclipse, meteor shower, conjunction, and full moon, filtered by type. The week ahead is free; the full year comes with the expansion. • Night Planner: the best targets for your sky tonight, hour by hour. Sky Forecast: the cloud cover over your spot, hour by hour. • Reminders that fire only when something is worth stepping outside for, including ISS and Tiangong passes with a live countdown. • Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets for rise and set times and the next sky event. Ask Siri what is visible tonight. ECLIPSE EXPLORER Simulate any solar or lunar eclipse from any place on Earth: local timings, a disc animation of the Moon crossing the Sun, and a live countdown. The next solar eclipse at your own location is free: its times, what you will see there, and a reminder. GO DEEPER • Telescope Catalog: 13,000 NGC, IC, and Messier objects, searchable and shown on your sky. • Exoplanets: nearly every known world, in its actual position on the sky, with sizes, temperatures, and orbits. • The Solar System up close: planets and major moons in NASA probe imagery, in visible light, ultraviolet, infrared, and radar. Rotate them to any angle. • Hubble and James Webb Space Telescope pictures, on the pages of the objects they show. FOR EVERYONE • Kid Mode rewrites the whole tour for explorers aged five to seven. • Birthday Sky: a shareable card of the sky on the night you were born. • Smart search: ask for exactly what you want. • Fifteen languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Arabic, Hindi, Vietnamese, and Icelandic. Dates in your own calendar. • VoiceOver and Dynamic Type throughout. ONE PURCHASE, NO SUBSCRIPTION Cosmic Expansion adds the 1.7 billion stars, black holes up close, the exoplanets, the galaxies, the eclipses, the planner, the catalog, and the whole course in a single purchase that is yours forever. Take the Stellar Tour!

Screenshots

Night View3 screens
Stellar Tour4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Stellar Tour at every 3 weeks against Night View's every 33 months. Night View's advantage is iOS requirement (8.0 vs 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. Night View sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Stellar Tour sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Night View ships an update every 33 months, Stellar Tour every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 12, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Night View versus Stellar Tour: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNight ViewStellar Tour
PriceFreeFree
Rating—4.7 (1.7K ratings) — better
Positive reviews—83.5% of reviews
Number of ratings—1.7K — better
Update frequencyEvery 33 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
Monetization—Free with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS8.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size35 MB582 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSpherical Horizon, LLCAaron Day

Bugs and requests

Night View

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Stellar Tour

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Login screen freezes
  • Compatibility issues with newer iOS versions
  • Videos not playing offline as expected

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add support for viewing comets and other celestial events
  • Improve AR functionality and integration
  • Provide more detailed information on exoplanets
  • Introduce a dark mode option for better visibility at night

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Night View

One-time1
  • Remove Ads$0.99
5 purchases

Stellar Tour

One-time5
  • Remove Ads 1$2.99
  • Upgrade: Lessons & Sky Tools$3.99
  • Cosmic Expansion2 variants$9.99
Show 2 more
  • Remove Ads 2$9.99
  • Remove Ads 3$14.99

Questions

Is Night View free?
Night View is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Stellar Tour free?
Stellar Tour is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Night View or Stellar Tour have ads?
Neither Night View nor Stellar Tour shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Night View or Stellar Tour?
Night View ships an update every 33 months, and Stellar Tour every 3 weeks. Most recently, Night View was updated on September 12, 2026 and Stellar Tour on October 24, 2026.

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