Life & fun · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to Skymap – a 3D galaxy catalog explorer in the browser via WebGPU
Fly through millions of galaxies in your browser. Interactive WebGPU 3D explorer for the SDSS, GLADE, and 2MRS catalogs with cosmic-web filaments.
Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Prices are shown for the 1 we have checked on their own sites, 1 of them free or with a free tier.
- 1
AstroGrid▲113Explore the entire universe in your browser, in real 3D
Apr 2026 · velonspace.com · its alternatives →
- 2
Hello, I am the creator and maintainer of Stellarium Mobile. I have been working in my free time for about a year on this new project Galaxium, that is more about traveling in the universe rather than looking at the sky from Earth. It is still experimental, and at the moment I am not sure what it will become. Feedback is welcome.
Aug 2026 · galaxium.app · its alternatives →
- 3G3
I made a web app to generate 3D models of real places on earth from land cover and elevation data. Click anywhere on the map to get a polygon, and then click "generate". It should work at most scales, but if your watershed or region selection is too large, the result can be less exciting because it's so flat. As a warning, the 3D models can sometimes be too much for my phone. It's nicer on desktop. I'm still working better on mobile support. The land cover data I'm using gives a cool effect, but at some point I'd like to add in global imagery and clouds. The backend is a Python thread…
2025 · topography.jessekv.com · its alternatives →
- 4
- 5IM
I made this site using R3F (https://github.com/pmndrs/react-three-fiber), a React renderer for 3JS (https://threejs.org/). The celestial bodies are Three.JS meshes. I used loaders (namely 'useLoader' from R3F and 'GLTFLoader' from 3JS) to import 3D models, such as International Space Station. More on loading models in R3F: https://docs.pmnd.rs/react-three-fiber/tutorials/loading-mod... I've future plans for this side project. It would be great to hear from the HN community before diving into them. Enjoy! P.S: Getting an empty…
2022 · spaceinbrowser.com · its alternatives →
- 6
Creator here. I built ChartGPU because I kept hitting the same wall: charting libraries that claim to be "fast" but choke past 100K data points. The core insight: Canvas2D is fundamentally CPU-bound. Even WebGL chart libraries still do most computation on the CPU. So I moved everything to the GPU via WebGPU: - LTTB downsampling runs as a compute shader - Hit-testing for tooltips/hover is GPU-accelerated - Rendering uses instanced draws (one draw call per series) The result: 1M points at 60fps with smooth zoom/pan. Live demo:…
Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 7
I've been iterating on a small galaxy visualization project that originally started as a university course assignment, using only provided sample data (no real astronomical distances). Recently, I updated it to include redshift-based distance data, which makes the 3D structure more meaningful and closer to real large-scale galaxy distributions. Repo: https://github.com/Avicted/galaxy_visualization_raylib Demo video (3D navigation + galaxy structures): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC83RDWuPvw Current state: - Written in C (C99 standard) using Raylib -…
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 8
- 9
Flexible tool to build planet-scale vector tilesets from OpenStreetMap data fast - onthegomap/planetiler
2021 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 10AAAstro App▲291
I really like Stellarium and SkySafari but I felt like these are primarily geared towards exploring the sky but not so much "here are the long list of things I want to see, when can I see them tonight and where". There's also not really a great option I've found that combines sky object planning + location weather details while still being free so I built this. The UI's heavily inspired by NINAs sky atlas + Robinhood. Right now you can: View the altitude chart of objects and 3D view Create lists of objects of interest View the annual max/min daily altitude of an object to find the best…
2024 · astro.sshh.io · its alternatives →
- 11
24d ago · space.bl2.net · its alternatives →
- 12
Use the tool below to explore the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, with images taken by the new James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Telescope.
2022 · academo.org · its alternatives →
- 13
AstraPixelsfree tier, from $5/mo▲267A pixel-art solar system at its real current positions.
Aug 2026 · astrapixels.com · its alternatives →
- 14
Explore the Star Citizen universe in this 3D in-browser environment.
2015 · robertsspaceindustries.com · its alternatives →
- 15
Spatium▲182Hi there, humans! I'm excited to announce Spatium! I'm a big fan of any topic related to our universe. I'm also a developer, so I've put these things together and I built this new tab Chrome Extension for space lovers, astronomy fans, and science geeks like me. If you enjoyed it, please spread some love <3 FEATURES • Space images • Every day, get a fascinating image of our universe. Enjoy pictures of stars, planets, moons, galaxies, nebulae, comets and more right on your browser tab. • Sun Widget • Find out when the sunrise, sunset, first and last light times will be precisely at your…
2021 · spatium.earth · its alternatives →
- 16
Travel through galaxies into deep space
2016 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →
- 17
Explore the universe directly in your browser
2025 · universesim.vercel.app · its alternatives →
- 18
Sky Guide▲88Incredibly beautiful AR augmented map of the stars
2018 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →
- 19
- 20AR
Hi HN, I've always been interested in fractals, especially the Mandelbrot and Julia sets. A few years ago I created a 2d viewer of this inherently 4d space. But the other day I decided to ask Claude and GPT how to make this a full RT 3d explorer. A few hours later and this was vibe coded. To use it you can use the mouse to rotate the fractal the the mouse wheel to zoom in and out. to map from 4d to 3d, one of the dims is mapped to an adjustable slider. the there is also a clipping plane slider to help visualize the internal structures of the fractal. I have mixed feelings about vibe coding.…
Dec 2025 · bryanjj.github.io · its alternatives →
- 21EI
2024 · medium.com · its alternatives →
- 22
Cosmic characters for digital products
2022 · spacers.wannathis.one · its alternatives →
- 23
This is a GPU "software" raytracer (i.e. using manual ray-scene intersections and not RTX) written using the WebGPU API that renders glTF scenes. It supports many materials, textures, material & normal mapping, and heavily relies on multiple importance sampling to speed up convergence.
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 24
Renders black hole gravitational lensing effects in an image canvas using WebGL, glfx.js, and numeric.js - cliffcrosland/black-hole.js
2015 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →