Software Alternatives & Reviews

Stellarium VS KStars

Compare Stellarium VS KStars and see what are their differences

Stellarium logo Stellarium

Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer.

KStars logo KStars

KStars is a Desktop Planetarium for KDE.
  • Stellarium Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-18
  • KStars Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-11-23

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

KStars videos

Astrophotography: stellarmate kstars and Ekos review

More videos:

  • Review - Part 1: Introduction to KStars

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Stellarium and KStars)
Space Simulator
75 75%
25% 25
Virtual Universe
73 73%
27% 27
Universe Simulator
81 81%
19% 19
Education & Reference
64 64%
36% 36

User comments

Share your experience with using Stellarium and KStars. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Stellarium seems to be a lot more popular than KStars. While we know about 250 links to Stellarium, we've tracked only 3 mentions of KStars. 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.

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
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KStars mentions (3)

  • Is there a utility that will read my FITS files and map the image size and locations on a sky map?
    KStars can do this. It can either use the World Coordinate System data from the FITS file or plate-solve to derive the location from the image data. Source: about 1 year ago
  • Best FOSS Astronomy Software
    Kstars is a powerful, flexible astronomy application that you will find useful. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Maps of the stars
    Printed sky atlases are pretty obsolete, now that we have technology. https://edu.kde.org/kstars/. Source: over 1 year ago

What are some alternatives?

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

Celestia - Real-time 3D visualization of space

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

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

Sky Guide - A window to the stars has never been more beautiful and easy to use.

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

Solar System Scope - 3D model of the Solar System and night sky in real time