The short version
Lunar is a moon tracker built around realism - 3D-lit renderings of the Moon, and it reaches further across Apple's devices with Apple Watch, Mac, and Vision apps. aluni is a clock: a dial where the sun and moon move in real time above and below a flat horizon line, and where the hours themselves stretch and compress with the true length of day and night. If you want a beautiful rendering of the Moon, Lunar. If you want to glance at your Home Screen and know where the Moon is right now, aluni.
Side by side
Lunar's column reflects what its App Store listing states. "Not stated" means the listing doesn't mention it - not that the app can't do it. Check their listing for anything that matters to you.
| Feature | aluni | Lunar |
|---|---|---|
| Price to download | Free | Free |
| Paid tier | aluni+, $8.95/year | Pro, $14.99/year or $2.99/month |
| App Store rating | 4.7 (67 ratings) | 4.7 (6.3K ratings) |
| Languages | 23 | 1 (English) |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple Vision |
| Minimum iOS | iOS 17 | iOS 16.4 |
| Home Screen widgets | Yes | Yes |
| Lock Screen widgets | Yes | Yes |
| Moon phase and illumination | Yes | Yes |
| Moonrise and moonset times | Yes | Yes |
| Sunrise, sunset, and sun position | Yes | Not stated |
| Real-time dial with a horizon line | Yes - the core of the app | Not stated |
| Hours that resize with day and night length | Yes | Not stated |
| Event notifications | Yes - moonrise and moonset alerts | Yes - full moon, new moon, eclipses |
| Works offline | Yes | Not stated |
Where Lunar is the better choice
Lunar has an Apple Watch app, a Mac app, and a Vision app - aluni is iPhone and iPad only, so if you want the Moon on your wrist, Lunar wins outright. It also has roughly 6,300 ratings to aluni's 67, which is a real signal: far more people have used it and found it worth rating. And its 3D-lit Moon renderings are genuinely lovely if a realistic Moon is what you're after. aluni's dial is deliberately abstract instead.
What aluni actually looks like
"Beautiful" is easy to claim and hard to prove in a table. Here's the dial on a real Home Screen - decide for yourself.
Which should you choose?
Choose aluni if you want a clock rather than a tracker: one glance tells you whether the Moon is up, where to look, and how much daylight is left - without opening anything. It's the moon app built to get you off your phone and outside. It's also $8.95 a year against Lunar's $14.99, and ships in 23 languages where Lunar's listing states one. Choose Lunar instead if you want a photoreal 3D Moon, an Apple Watch complication, or a Mac app - those are real things aluni doesn't have.
Lunar details taken from its Apple App Store listing (Lunar - Moon Phase & Widgets, by Bjorn Jenssen), checked 14 August 2026. App Store listings change; verify anything decision-critical before relying on it.