Looking for an Astro.com alternative?
Astro.com, run by Astrodienst, offers a wide range of free chart tools and publishes a 9000-year ephemeris. OrbHeaven does far less than that, and explains what it does do in plain language as it goes.
OrbHeaven vs Astro.com
Worth saying before the table rather than after it: Astrodienst’s free chart tools are far broader than OrbHeaven’s, and it has been publishing them for a long time. This comparison is only useful if what you want is something narrower.
| What is being compared | OrbHeaven | Astro.com |
|---|---|---|
| Breadth of chart tools | One natal chart, explained term by term, plus a dated timeline | Extended Chart Selection, Astrology Atlas, ephemeris generation, AstroClick Portrait and more |
| Published ephemeris | Not published separately; the engine and version are named on every chart | A 9000-year ephemeris, published |
| Account needed for a chart | No. /birth-chart needs no account and stores nothing | Their page says that on a first horoscope, "if you do not yet have a user profile, you will be asked to register" |
| Every term explained where it appears | Yes — 46 glossary entries, linked from the chart itself | Not published on their site |
| Dated periods ahead | A timeline of stretches with start, exact and ease dates | Daily, weekly and yearly horoscope formats |
| Paid offering | One subscription: Plus, $12 per month | Premium reports in the Astro Shop, by named astrologers including Liz Greene and Robert Hand, plus a subscription Extended Daily Horoscope |
Every Astro.com detail above comes from Astro.com’s own website or support pages, checked on 24 September 2026. Where a cell says “not published on their site”, we could not find the answer published by the company itself and chose to leave it blank rather than guess.
What Astro.com does well
The range of free chart tools is wide. It includes chart drawing with the Ascendant, the Extended Chart Selection, an astrology atlas for resolving birthplaces, ephemeris generation, a current-planets view and several horoscope formats. OrbHeaven offers one natal chart and a timeline, and nothing comparable to that list.
It also publishes a 9000-year ephemeris — a reference work rather than an app feature, and something OrbHeaven does not publish at all.
Its paid reports are written by named astrologers, including Liz Greene and Robert Hand. And registering, which we describe elsewhere as friction, is what lets it save your charts and come back to them — which OrbHeaven’s free chart deliberately cannot do.
How OrbHeaven approaches astrology
We do far less, and try to make what we do legible. One natal chart, computed locally by an open astronomical engine, with the engine name, its version, the house system, the node convention and the exact universal time printed on the chart. Birth times are converted with the historical time zone rules for that place, and a birth time the clocks repeated or skipped is asked about, not guessed. Clock times are converted using the international time zone database. Historical timezone records are strongest from 1970 onward; earlier records can be less certain, particularly where local clocks differed from a region’s recorded standard.
The thing we spend most effort on is the layer above the arithmetic. Every term is explained where it appears, so reading the chart does not require already knowing what an orb or a stellium is. That is a different job from casting the chart correctly.
Interpretation is written by a language model reading the engine’s output, never computing it, and is labelled as such. And the product keeps a record: when a period it flagged has passed it asks how it went, holds the answer, and reads the whole thing back to you later.
Where the birth time is unknown, it refuses to produce an Ascendant or houses at all. Without a birth time, the chart is worked out across the whole birth date: each planet shows the degrees it covered that day, or both signs if it changed sign.
The differences that actually matter
Depth against explanation
Astrodienst assumes you know what you are asking for and gives you a wide range of it. OrbHeaven assumes you might not, and explains as it goes. Those are different products for different people, and the second is worth less than the first the moment you do know what you are asking for.
A chart, or a calendar
Astro.com is organised around producing charts. OrbHeaven is organised around dated periods ahead — a transit window with a beginning, a peak and an end. The chart is the input rather than the output.
Saved, or kept nowhere
Registering with Astrodienst saves your charts, which is useful. Our free chart stores nothing at all — no account, no email, no record of the birth details — which is also useful, for a different reason and at the cost of the first one. Signing in to OrbHeaven is what turns it into something that remembers.
Where the writing comes from
Astrodienst’s premium reports are written by named human astrologers. Ours are written by a model reading computed numbers. If the provenance of the words is what you care about, that difference is real and it is not in our favour.
Who might prefer Astro.com
- You already read charts and want options, not explanations — house systems, chart types, an atlas.
- You need to generate ephemeris tables, or want its published 9000-year ephemeris.
- You want your charts saved and returned to over years.
- You would rather read a report by a named human astrologer.
Who might prefer OrbHeaven
- You can read a chart but were never taught what the conventions behind it mean.
- You want dated periods ahead rather than a chart to interpret yourself.
- You want a chart with nothing stored and no registration, even once.
- You want the thing to ask how a period went and keep your answer for later.
These two overlap less than the others in this set. Using Astrodienst for chart work and OrbHeaven for the calendar and the record is a perfectly sensible arrangement, and not one we would argue you out of.
What are the alternatives to Astro.com?
Someone looking beyond Astro.com usually still wants chart tools, just shaped differently. These products offer different things, so they are listed by what you might want rather than ranked. We make the last one, so weigh that entry accordingly.
Astro-Seek
If you want many specialised calculators in one free place. Astro-Seek describes itself as free astrological tools and calculators for both beginner and advanced astrologers. Its tools menu lists fourteen entries, among them ephemeris tables covering 1800 to 2100, aspect and ephemeris search engines, electional calculators and AstroCartography, and its front page shows its zodiac setting and both node conventions.
Cafe Astrology
If you want a free chart report with written interpretations. Cafe Astrology’s free birth chart tool lists planet signs, house positions and aspects, lets you compare several house systems, and says its default house system is Placidus. Its interpretations of many of the major factors, such as the Sun, Moon, Ascendant, Mercury and Venus in signs and houses, are written by the site’s author.
TimePassages
If you want chart software on your own computer or phone. TimePassages, from AstroGraph Software, is available for Windows, macOS, Android and iPhone. Its maker describes it as covering the birth chart, daily transits, progressions and chart comparison, with interpretations of each chart feature.
OrbHeaven
If you want each part of a chart explained as you read it. OrbHeaven is ours, and it does far less than Astro.com. Its free chart needs no account and stores nothing, and every term on it links to a plain-language definition. Signed in, it sets out dated stretches ahead, each with a beginning, a peak and an end, and when one has passed it asks how it went and keeps your answer.
If you would rather have an app than chart tools, there are comparisons with Co–Star and The Pattern. For the wider field, organised by what you want, there is a round-up of astrology apps and platforms, and every comparison we have written is collected in one place.
Sources for this section
What this section says about each product comes from that company’s own website, read on 6 October 2026. Astro-Seek is the exception: its site refuses automated requests, so its details were read in a browser on 24 September 2026. Nothing here is taken from a review site.
- Astro-Seek’s website — how it describes itself, its tools menu, zodiac selector and node conventions (read in a browser, 24 September 2026)
- Cafe Astrology’s free natal chart report — what the report lists, the house systems, the Placidus default and who writes the interpretations
- AstroGraph Software’s website — the platforms TimePassages runs on and what it covers
Questions people ask
Is OrbHeaven an Astro.com alternative?
For casting a chart and understanding it, yes. For the full range of what Astrodienst offers — the extended chart selection, the atlas, generating ephemeris tables — no, and we are not trying to be. Astro.com is a reference library. OrbHeaven is one chart explained in plain language, plus a calendar of dated periods ahead and a record of how they went.
Which one is more accurate?
Neither claim would be worth much without evidence, and we have not run a comparison, so we are not going to assert one. What we can tell you is what OrbHeaven does: positions come from an open astronomical engine and the chart states the engine, version, house system, node convention and exact universal time, so anyone can check it against another tool and see precisely where a difference comes from. Astrodienst publishes a 9000-year ephemeris and has been running since its founding in 1980.
Do I need an account for a chart?
Not on OrbHeaven — the chart at /birth-chart needs no account, no email address, and stores nothing you type. Astro.com's own page says that when you create a horoscope for the first time, "if you do not yet have a user profile, you will be asked to register". Registering there has a real benefit though: your charts are saved, and ours deliberately are not.
Does OrbHeaven explain the terms?
That is most of the point. Every term on the chart links to a plain-language definition — there are 41 of them — and where astrologers genuinely disagree, the definition says so rather than picking a side quietly. It is written for somebody who can read a chart but has never had the conventions behind it explained.
What about transits and timing?
Astro.com offers daily, weekly and yearly horoscope formats. OrbHeaven presents timing as a list of dated stretches: when each one starts building, the day it is exact, and when it eases, with the ones relevant to your own chart rather than to a sign.
What does each cost?
OrbHeaven is free for the chart and for a permanent free tier; Plus is $12 a month or $99 a year. Astrodienst offers a large amount free and sells premium reports through its Astro Shop, written by named astrologers including Liz Greene and Robert Hand, plus a subscription Extended Daily Horoscope. We have not recorded their exact prices, so we are not quoting any.
Sources checked
Everything this page says about Astro.com comes from Astro.com’s own pages, read on 6 October 2026. Nothing here is taken from a review site.
- Astrodienst’s free horoscopes page — the free tool list, the registration wording, the ephemeris and the paid offerings
- Astrodienst’s atlas query page — the founding of Astrodienst in 1980
See your own chart, free
Every placement, house and aspect, with each term explained where it appears and the engine, house system and exact universal time printed underneath. No account, and nothing you type is kept.
No account, no email address, and nothing you type is kept.