Stellarium vs. Star Walk 2: Which Sky App Should You Install?

You hold your phone up at a bright point low in the east, and the screen tells you it’s Jupiter. Most people who get into the night sky start with exactly that moment, and most of them get there with one of two free apps: Stellarium or Star Walk 2. They look alike in the store, both are free to install, and both will name Jupiter for you. They are built for different people, though, and the paid upgrades buy completely different things.

Where I land: install Stellarium first if you want to learn the sky, and Star Walk 2 if you want to show someone the sky. Stellarium is the deeper tool, free everywhere, including on a laptop. Star Walk 2 is the better five-minute demo and the one that tells you when a meteor shower is coming. Both are free, so plenty of people keep both.

Prices and features below were read from both apps’ US App Store listings and the makers’ own pages on September 25, 2026. App prices change and vary by country; the store shows yours. Neither maker pays us, and there are no affiliate links on this page. How we choose.

If you just want the answer

• Install Stellarium if you want to understand what you’re seeing: scrub time forward to see what rises at midnight, check where the Moon will be on a date, plan a night at a desk. The free phone app, the free desktop program and the free browser version cover all of that.
• Install Star Walk 2 if you want the quickest “what is that?” with the best-looking overlay, plus notifications for events like meteor showers and eclipses without setting anything up.
• Pay for Stellarium Plus only once you own a telescope. Its upgrade is about faint objects and driving a scope, not about the basics.
• Pay for Star Walk 2 only if the ads bother you. The $2.99 Pro edition is the same app without them.

Stellarium and Star Walk 2 compared

	Stellarium	Star Walk 2
Made by	Noctua Software (mobile); open-source project (desktop)	Vito Technology
Where it runs	iOS, Android, desktop, browser	iOS, Android
Free version	Yes, no ads	Yes (Star Walk 2 Plus), with ads
Paid option	Stellarium Plus: one-time unlock or subscription	Star Walk 2 Pro: $2.99, no ads
Point-at-sky camera view	Yes, free	Yes, free
Works offline	Yes, about 2 million stars built in	Not stated in its listing
Faintest stars shown	Magnitude 8 free, 22 with Plus	Not published
Scroll through time	Yes	Yes (“time machine”)
Event notifications	Events calendar with Plus	Yes, free
Satellite tracking	Satellites shown free; pass calendar with Plus	$0.99 add-on
Telescope control	With Plus, over Wi-Fi	No

Where Stellarium wins

Depth, and it goes wherever you do. Stellarium started as free, open-source planetarium software for computers and has been a desktop standard for more than 20 years. It is still free at stellarium.org, and there is a browser version at stellarium-web.org that needs no install at all. The phone app comes from Noctua Software, and the free version already has the two things people assume they’ll pay for. It has the camera view that overlays labels on the real sky, and it works offline from a built-in catalog of about 2 million stars and 2 million deep-sky objects. That matters at a dark site, which is usually where the signal isn’t.

What makes it the learning pick is how it handles time. Drag the clock and the whole sky wheels overhead, so you can see what will be up at 2 a.m., where the Moon sits next week, or how the sky looked the night you were born. For planning a session, or just understanding why Orion is a winter constellation, nothing on a phone does it better.

The free app shows stars down to about magnitude 8, a little fainter than the eye can see from a dark site, so it covers everything you can see without optics. The Stellarium Plus upgrade goes to magnitude 22 on a catalog of more than a billion stars, and adds telescope control over Wi-Fi, an eyepiece view that shows how a target will look in your own scope, observability predictions and a calendar of events and satellite passes. Stellarium’s listing says Plus is sold “using either a one time payment or a subscription”; the US App Store lists it at $18.99 and $1.99. You only need it once you own a telescope worth pointing.

Where Star Walk 2 wins

First impressions, and it taps you on the shoulder. Star Walk 2 has the best-looking overlay of any sky app: point the phone and it draws the constellation figures over the real sky, labels the planets, and animates it all smoothly enough that someone who has never cared about astronomy says “wait, what’s that one?” For showing a kid or a friend the sky, it is the one to hand over.

It also comes to you. The free edition sends notifications about events like meteor showers and eclipses, while Stellarium’s events calendar is part of its paid tier. If the realistic plan is that you’ll look up when your phone reminds you to, that is a real advantage.

The catch is the naming. Star Walk 2 is two separate apps with the same features: Star Walk 2 Plus is free with ads, and Star Walk 2 Pro is $2.99 with none. Vito Technology’s own help page says purchases don’t carry over between them, so decide which edition you want before you buy anything inside it. Extras like the satellite tracker, deep-sky objects and 3D planets are $0.99 add-ons in either one. The free edition also sells ad removal ($8.99) and a subscription ($0.99 a month or from $5.99 a year, with a one-week trial). For most people, the free edition with ads or the $2.99 Pro edition is the whole purchase.

Which to install, by what you actually want

1. “What is that bright thing?” Either one, in seconds. Star Walk 2 looks nicer doing it.
2. “What will be up tonight, and when?” Stellarium. Scrub the clock forward and watch it happen.
3. “Remind me when something is worth going outside for.” Star Walk 2, free.
4. “I’m planning on a laptop.” Stellarium, whose desktop program and browser version are both free.
5. “I just bought a telescope.” Stellarium, and this is when Plus earns its price.
6. “I’m showing my kid.” Star Walk 2.

Neither app locks the basics behind a payment, so the cheapest answer is to install both, use each for what it’s good at, and pay for nothing until one of them has earned it.

What about Sky Tonight?

Sky Tonight comes from the same studio as Star Walk 2, and it answers a narrower question: what is visible from where you’re standing tonight, and when. If Star Walk 2 is the demo and Stellarium is the planetarium, Sky Tonight is the planner. If that’s the split you’re weighing, we put the two head to head in Stellarium vs. Sky Tonight, and all three sit side by side in the full astronomy-apps guide, which also has our overall pick, SkySafari Basic.

Keep your night vision

A bright phone screen undoes the 20 minutes your eyes spent adjusting to the dark. Stellarium has a red night mode; switch it on before you step outside, not after. Whichever app you use, turn the phone’s brightness to the bottom. For finding your way around the site, a red flashlight keeps your night vision where the phone can’t. And once an app has shown you where things are, a pair of binoculars is the cheapest way to see much more of them.