Astrolium

Astro Gold vs Astrolium: 2026 comparison

Astro Gold vs Astrolium: $299 Cocoa Mac app vs $29 per month browser workspace. Same Swiss Ephemeris engine, plus CRM, live scrubber, and an AI assistant.

Quick verdict

Astro Gold is the best-loved Apple-native chart calculator. Astrolium is the practice workspace built around the client session — same Swiss Ephemeris engine, plus CRM, live scrubber, and AI.

Feature-by-feature comparison

Astrolium
Astro Gold

  • Platform

    Browser — Mac, Windows, iPad, Linux, Android
    macOS plus separate iOS app, Apple only

  • Pricing (5 year total)

    $348 per year Adept · annual saves 17%
    $449 to $549 (license plus iOS plus upgrades)

  • Calculation engine

    Swiss Ephemeris (DE431)
    Swiss Ephemeris (DE431)

  • Asteroid catalog

    20,000 plus named asteroids, every plan
    Major plus named asteroids

  • Bound or term tables

    Hand/Schmidt default, Egyptian, Ptolemaic
    Egyptian only

  • Quad-wheel

    No (tri-wheel max)

  • Davison relationship chart

  • Primary directions

    Not yet (roadmapped 2027)

  • Zodiacal Releasing (Spirit and Fortune)

    First-class with L1 and L2 calendar overlay
    No native ZR

  • Live predictive scrubber

    Drag to recompute profections, ZR, transits
    Static reports and dialogs

  • Client roster or CRM

    Built-in roster, notes, intake, tags
    Charts database with categories, no notes

  • Shareable client links

    Live URLs the client opens in any browser
    Print or email PDF

  • AI interpretation assistant

    In-context, trained on 4 schools
    None

  • Cloud sync across devices

    Across 3 devices on 1 account
    iCloud (limited, Apple only)

  • Offline write

    Read cached, write needs network
    Full offline read and write

Pricing comparison

Astrolium

From $0/mo

5 client profiles, then $11/mo for unlimited.

Astro Gold

$299

One-time license · macOS, iOS, iPadOS

Who should use Astrolium

  • You run a paid practice and need CRM, intake, session notes
  • Your team mixes Mac, Windows, iPad, Android in the same workflow
  • You want the live predictive scrubber for profections, ZR, transits
  • You want AI as a sanity-check across 9 languages
  • You deliver branded PDF reports with shareable client links
  • You use Zodiacal Releasing as a core technique

Who should use Astro Gold

  • You want a pure native Mac experience with Apple Pencil on iPad
  • You do deep traditional research that needs primary directions
  • You read charts for yourself or a few friends, not paying clients
  • You work without a network connection often
  • You prefer a one-time license over a subscription

How to migrate to Astrolium

Astro Gold versus Astrolium is the second-most-asked comparison. Astro Gold is the best-loved astrology app on macOS — same vendor lineage as Solar Fire (Esoteric Technologies), native Cocoa, lovely chart wheels. Astrolium is the practice workspace built around the client session, in any browser, with a built-in CRM and a live predictive scrubber.

Both use the same Swiss Ephemeris core. The differences live in the workspace around the chart. See features, pricing, predictive timing, and the synastry feature. Compare also with Solar Fire and TimePassages.

TL;DR — Mac calculator vs practice workspace

If Astro Gold is your daily Mac chart calculator, Astrolium adds the practice layer it does not have — CRM, predictive scrubber, AI assistant, sharable links — without giving up the calculation parity. Keep Astro Gold if you want a pure native-Mac experience and you do not run a paid practice. If you charge clients, Astro Gold is a calculator that leaves you to glue your own workspace together (Notes plus Calendar plus Canva plus email). Astrolium replaces all of that.

Calculation accuracy — same engine, here is where defaults differ

Astro Gold and Astrolium both use Swiss Ephemeris as the calculation core — the same library Solar Fire uses. Astro Gold is in fact made by Esoteric Technologies, the same vendor as Solar Fire, sharing Solar Fire's calculation lineage. Planetary positions, angles, midpoints, lots, and aspects match across all 3 programs to a precision tighter than any chart wheel can render.

Differences live in defaults and edge cases:

Where Astro Gold ships more

  • Primary directions. Astro Gold ships them. Astrolium does not yet (roadmapped 2027).
  • Tertiary and minor progressions. Available in Astro Gold; not in Astrolium.
  • Chart wheel rendering. Astro Gold's chart-wheel rendering is, frankly, the best in the industry. Astrolium has worked hard to match the typographic care, but Astro Gold's wheels are a pleasure to look at.

Where Astrolium ships more

  • Bound or term tables. Astro Gold ships Egyptian. Astrolium ships Hand/Schmidt by default with Egyptian and Ptolemaic toggleable in 1 click.
  • Zodiacal Releasing for Spirit and Fortune. Native in Astrolium with sub-period calendar overlay. Astro Gold has no native ZR.
  • Asteroid catalog. Astro Gold ships major plus named. Astrolium ships all 20,000 plus named asteroids in every plan, queryable.
  • Hellenistic time-lord stack. Live overlay of profections plus ZR plus transits. Astro Gold has no equivalent.

Cross-check a chart between Astro Gold and Astrolium and the planetary positions are identical. Only differences: bound rulers (different default table), and a few asteroid name-spelling normalizations.

Workflow — Astro Gold session vs Astrolium session

The same 60 minute predictive consultation modeled in both tools.

Astro Gold 4.x prep — about 5 minutes, 4 apps open

  1. Open app. Astro Gold launches in 2 seconds. Lovely.
  2. Find chart. Charts → search "Anna". Open. About 10 seconds.
  3. Build tri-wheel. Wheel → triwheel. Pick "today's transits" for ring 3. About 20 seconds.
  4. Find session notes. Switch to Notes.app or wherever you keep them. Find the row for Anna. Re-read. About 1 minute.
  5. Run predictive report. Reports → Transit progression report → today. New window opens. About 20 seconds.
  6. Profections. No native overlay. Compute by hand or skip. About 30 seconds.
  7. Print or screenshot. File → Print to PDF for the chart. Window 2 for the report. Compose in Pages or Canva to make it presentable. About 2 minutes.
  8. Session. Screen-share Astro Gold's wheel plus your PDF plus your notes app.
  9. After. Type session summary into Notes.app. Save.

Astrolium prep — about 30 seconds, 1 tab open

  1. Open browser tab. Click Anna's name in the roster. About 3 seconds.
  2. Anna's panel opens. Last session notes, intake, every chart you have built for her.
  3. Tri-wheel auto-rendered. Natal plus progressed plus today's transits.
  4. Profection year highlighted on the natal.
  5. ZR period visible in the right rail.
  6. Drag the timeline scrubber to her birthday this year. Watch Jupiter cross her natal Jupiter live. About 5 seconds.
  7. Click "share with client" — Anna gets a live link before the call.
  8. Session. One tab. Notes are in the same panel.
  9. After. Click "send PDF summary" — auto-generated, branded, in her inbox.

The honest version: Astro Gold is much faster than Solar Fire here. The 5 minute number is a real, well-designed Mac workflow. Astrolium is faster still because it is designed around the unit "client session," not "chart calculation" — but the gap is smaller against Astro Gold than against Solar Fire.

The thing Astro Gold users notice on the demo: the scrubber. Watching profections, ZR sub-periods, and transits all recompute as you drag a single control — that interaction does not exist in Astro Gold. Several migrating users have called it the moment they stopped browser-shopping.

Pricing — what you pay over 5 years

Astro Gold — $299 plus $50 iOS

  • Mac app: $299 (Mac App Store)
  • iOS or iPadOS app: $50 (separate purchase)
  • Major upgrade roughly every 3 years: about $100
  • Estimated 5 year total: $449 to $549

No subscription. Owns your data forever (locally plus iCloud). Apple ecosystem only.

Astrolium Adept — $29 per month

  • $348 per year, all features included, ever

  • 14 day free trial, no card required

  • Estimated 5 year total: $1,740 over 5 years (or $1,450 annual)

Cloud sync. Continuous updates. Cancel anytime — data exports as JSON, .AG, .SFCHT, and PDF.

On pure 5 year cost, Astro Gold is cheaper for hobbyists. For paid practitioners, the moment Astrolium replaces one workflow tool you currently glue together (Calendly, Notion CRM, Canva, Pages), it pays for itself.

Migration — moving from Astro Gold

Astro Gold's data is portable: charts live in iCloud or in your Mac's ~/Library as .AG files. Astrolium imports them directly.

  1. Locate your charts. Astro Gold → File → Show charts folder in Finder. Or, if you sync via iCloud, look in iCloud Drive → AstroGold → Charts. The default folder is ~/Library/Containers/au.com.esotechnologies.AstroGold/Data/Documents/Charts.
  2. Drop the folder onto Astrolium import zone. Settings → Import → drag-drop. Astrolium parses .AG, .SFcht, .AAF, and CSV in one pass.
  3. Match charts to clients. If your chart names follow a pattern, Astrolium auto-groups them into client profiles. You confirm or override.
  4. Verify a sample. Astrolium renders 3 random charts from your import in both programs and shows you a side-by-side. Reach out if anything looks off (it has not yet across thousands of charts).
  5. Recreate your default wheel. Astro Gold users tend to have a few favorite wheel layouts. Astrolium has presets that approximate the common ones plus a layout editor. Bring a screenshot of your typical wheel — the team matches it on a 30 minute screen-share, free.
  6. Keep Astro Gold installed for 30 days. Cross-reference your daily reading work for a month. No user has uninstalled, but the option exists during the transition.

Every new Pro subscription includes a 45 minute migration session.

Where Astro Gold still wins

1. Pure native-Mac experience

Astro Gold is a beautiful Mac app. If your workflow is "Mac at desk, iPad on the couch, Apple Pencil for handwritten notes" — that is the home Astro Gold was built for. Astrolium is excellent in a browser, but it is a browser.

2. You work without a network connection, often

Astrolium has full offline read but writes need network. If you teach in places without reliable internet, Astro Gold's pure-native model is more reliable.

3. You do not run a paid practice

If you are a serious hobbyist or a researcher, you do not need a CRM, intake forms, or shareable client links. Astro Gold gives you a calculator and a chart database. Astrolium's workspace surface would be overhead, not value, in that case.

Continue exploring

Frequently asked questions

Will my Astro Gold .AG chart files import cleanly?
Yes. Astrolium tests against the .AG format on every release. Positions match Astro Gold's output to the arc second — house cusps, angles, nodes, Lilith all match. The only deliberate divergences are bound tables (Hand/Schmidt default versus Egyptian) and a few asteroid spelling normalizations. Both are toggleable per chart.
Do I have to give up Astro Gold to use Astrolium?
No. Many practitioners keep Astro Gold installed for primary directions, the chart-wheel exports, and pure offline iPad use. Astro Gold and Astrolium coexist cleanly — your .AG files re-export back if you ever change your mind. The free 45 minute migration session covers running both in parallel for 30 days.
Does Astrolium work on iPad and iPhone?
Yes — through Safari. Astrolium is responsive and renders the biwheel and tri-wheel cleanly on iPad. A native iOS app is roadmapped but not shipped. If you need full offline iPad use with Apple Pencil annotations, Astro Gold for iOS at $50 is still the better fit for that specific workflow.
Can I import my Astro Gold notes and categories?
Yes. Astro Gold categories become Astrolium tags 1-to-1 during import. Any per-chart notes you made in Astro Gold come over as session notes attached to the right chart in the Astrolium CRM. A 200 client migration completes in under 5 minutes including notes and categories.
Why does Astrolium not ship primary directions?
Because doing them right is a multi-month project that is not yet finished. Roadmapped for 2027. If primary directions are core to your method, keep Astro Gold alongside Astrolium for now — the team explicitly recommends that combo for traditional researchers. All other techniques (profections, ZR, returns, transits) are first-class in Astrolium.
What happens to my data if Astrolium goes out of business?
You export everything as the original .AG and .SFCHT files at any time. Plus JSON, plus PDF. Astrolium publishes a monthly automated bundle of your data to your email. Even if Astrolium ever sunsets, you walk out with your library intact and importable back into Astro Gold.
How does the price actually compare over 5 years?
Astro Gold base license is $299 (Mac App Store) plus $50 for iOS plus major upgrades roughly every 3 years at $100. Estimated 5 year total: $449 to $549. Astrolium Adept is $348 per year. For paid practitioners, Astrolium's CRM replaces $50 per month of glued-together tools.

Pick the tool that matches the work you actually do.

If your practice lives in the techniques the other tool ships and Astrolium does not, stay there. If it lives in transits, synastry, CRM, and AI-assisted prep, run the free tier for a week against a real client. Decide on the work, not the spec sheet.

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