Software Alternatives & Reviews

Celestia VS Stellarium

Compare Celestia VS Stellarium and see what are their differences

Celestia logo Celestia

Real-time 3D visualization of space

Stellarium logo Stellarium

Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer.
  • Celestia Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-19

The expandable free and open-source real-time space simulator that lets you explore our universe in three dimensions.

  • Stellarium Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-18

Celestia videos

Celestia Review - with Tom Vasel

More videos:

  • Review - Celestia - Shut Up & Sit Down Review
  • Review - Celestia Review with the Game Boy Geek

Stellarium videos

Stellarium - App REVIEW - Games in Education (Astronomy)

More videos:

  • Review - Intro to Stellarium 2019
  • Review - Apple's Iphone planetarium free app: Stellarium review and comments, perfect stargazing companion

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Celestia and Stellarium)
Universe Simulator
62 62%
38% 38
Space Simulator
43 43%
57% 57
Virtual Universe
51 51%
49% 49
Education & Reference
29 29%
71% 71

User comments

Share your experience with using Celestia and Stellarium. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Stellarium should be more popular than Celestia. It has been mentiond 250 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Celestia mentions (26)

  • My 9 year old nephews drawing of stars
    I think Celestia could be a good one. I also thought about SpaceEngine, but AFAIK it was kind of terrible at generating realistic planetary systems, among other things (pricey, huge, etc.). Source: about 1 year ago
  • What are the best resources to explore space from my computer?
    Celestia was something I played with before. Pretty interesting. Source: about 1 year ago
  • Lunar Occultation of Mars
    Celestia looks as though it would do it. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Tips to visualize Apollo 17 trajectory
    I'm looking for data and software to visualize the Apollo 17 trajectory (especially the "powered descent", lunar rendezvous and entry). I'm thinking of using celestia. I'm look for a data tables as well (time stamp, position for each part of the stack). Any tips are appreciated. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Help rediscovering a certain night sky exploration program?
    Yes, that's Celestia most likely. I'm not sure it is still maintained though. Source: over 1 year ago
View more

Stellarium mentions (250)

  • Stellarium is a free GPL software which renders realistic skies in real time
    The project website is at http://stellarium.org/. There is no need to have images inside a project repository. Every maintainer already knows what it looks like. What next? Marketing materials? - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Stellarium is a free GPL software which renders realistic skies in real time
    There's even a web version linked at https://stellarium.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Constellations are younger than continents
    There’s also the FLOSS Stellarium: http://stellarium.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Not sure what this would be. Ive seen it for years and thought it was just a weirdly rectangular cluster of stars. What do you guys think?
    They're the Plieades. For future reference you can check on what's in the sky with software like Stellarium. Source: 7 months ago
  • ‘Limited' UFO disclosure believed to be used soon as a strategy of deception as end times Bible prophecy being fulfilled indicates. The truth about the future and how to be prepared.
    We have been experiencing distress and perplexity of nations upon the earth unlike anything in modern history. There have been record hurricanes, cyclones, typhoons, and flooding globally which appears to relate to “the sea and the waves roaring” and according to research using the Stellarium Astronomy Software, this was a one time alignment on September 23, 2017 involving the sun, moon, and stars that accurately... Source: 8 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Celestia and Stellarium, you can also consider the following products

Space Engine - Space Engine is a realistic virtual Universe you can explore on your computer.

KStars - KStars is a Desktop Planetarium for KDE.

Universe Sandbox - Universe Sandbox ² is a physics-based space simulator where you can simulate Events and even break physics and friction with certain features.

Sky Map - Sky Map (formerly the Google Sky Map) turns your Android-powered mobile phone into a window on the...

Satscape - A satellite tracking program for Windows, Mac OS and Linux.

SkyView - SkyView is powerful, easy-to-use app that answers questions about stars, constellations, and more.