Answers
Three questions decide it. Here they are, with five named tools, their prices, and where each one is the right answer.
There is no single best one. Pick on three things: the traditions you work in, the platform you work on, and whether you need the consultation itself kept. Depth favors Solar Fire, breadth of technique favors Astrolium, and kept consultations favor Steliara.
Every roundup that names one winner is either selling that winner or was written by someone who has never run a practice. The useful version of this answer is a set of questions you can answer about your own week.
If your work lives in horary, electional search, primary directions, Vedic dasas and nakshatras, or astrocartography, this question settles it before the others are asked. Solar Fire 9 listed 30 house systems, interpretation reports, full mapping and Vedic dasas, and Solar Fire X, its US$360 successor, covers astrocartography, Vedic, electional and traditional workflows as a licence rather than a subscription. Astrolium lists 23 house systems on its free tier, and its roadmap marks a horary workspace, electional search, primary directions, astrocartography and Jyotish with vargas and dashas as live today. TimePassages ships written interpretations built in.
Steliara is deliberately narrower here. Six house systems are selectable in its interface, there is no astrocartography, no Vedic dasas or nakshatras, and no written interpretation reports, because the assistant finds facts and does not interpret. If your technique needs any of that, buy for technique and stop reading.
This one is short. Solar Fire X runs on Windows 10 and 11 and as a native Mac app, with no iPad, iPhone or Android version, according to its maker; Solar Fire 9 is no longer sold. Astro Gold is the depth option that also reaches tablets and phones, with macOS, Windows, iPad, phone and Android versions on astrogold.io. TimePassages covers Windows, macOS, mobile and a browser version. Astrolium, Astrologer, Chronos and Steliara are browser tools and run anywhere.
The honest cost of a browser tool is the other side of the same coin: Steliara has no offline mode, because it is a cloud app. On a train with no signal, a desktop program wins.
This is the question most comparison pages skip, and for a practice it is the expensive one. A reading runs one to two hours. Months later the person books again, and the astrologer is the one reconstructing it: what did we cover, what did they tell me, which transit were we watching and did I say spring or autumn.
On 12 October 2026 none of the public pages read for this page described recording or transcribing a consultation: Solar Fire's feature page, astrogold.io, the TimePassages editions page, the Chronos home page, the Astrolium pricing page and the Astrologer home page. Astrolium's own roadmap is worth singling out, because it lists what is live and what is coming, and recording appears on it in no state at all. That is an absence on a page today, not a promise about what any of them will ship. Astrologer does lead with booking and Google Calendar sync, so if your painful part is scheduling rather than memory, it is the better pick. Chronos books consultations, but with its own astrologers.
Steliara runs the reading as a video call in the app, records the audio once both sides agree, transcribes it, and saves a short summary on that person's profile beside their charts and your notes. The audio is kept six months and then deleted automatically; the transcript and summary stay. That is the longer version of this page.
| Tool | Price, checked 12 October 2026 | Best for | Skip it if |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solar Fire X | US$360 new licence, US$99 from Solar Fire 9 (checked 28 October 2026) | The deepest desktop calculation on Windows or Mac, with Vedic, astrocartography and interpretation tools | You work on a tablet or phone, or you need the practice around the chart |
| Astro Gold | No price shown on astrogold.io today | Depth away from Windows: macOS, Windows, iPad, phone, Android | You want the people you read for and the sessions held in one place |
| TimePassages | $79, $179, $279, Complete Package $699 | Built-in written interpretations, on desktop, mobile and in a browser | You need client records; it saves charts, not consultations |
| Astrolium | Free, $11, $29, $79, plus $12 personal | The widest technique list in a browser, and a genuinely free tier | The consultation itself has to be captured |
| Steliara | $24 Practitioner, $39 Studio | Charts, a profile per person, and consultations recorded and summarized | You need many house systems, Vedic work, offline use or a free tier |
Sources, read on 12 October 2026 (the Solar Fire entries were re-read on 28 October 2026): alabe.com/solar-fire-x-buy.html, sfx.alabe.com/system-requirements, alabe.com/solarfireV9.html, astrogold.io, astrograph.com/timepassages/editions, astrolium.com/pricing, astrolium.com/roadmap, astrologerapp.org, chronos.mg. Prices move; check before you buy.
Worth having in one place, because a comparison that finds nothing wrong with itself is an advert. Steliara does not have: astrocartography, Vedic dasas or nakshatras, horary or electional search, primary directions, time lords, written interpretation reports, a chart-art designer, an offline mode, a self-serve data export, or a free tier. Six house systems are selectable, against 30 in Solar Fire and 23 in Astrolium. The export gap in particular is worth weighing before you move a practice: getting a copy of your data is a request under the privacy policy, not a button in the app.
And one more that is nobody's fault: session history does not migrate. Charts come across from ZET, Astro.com, Astrolog and the .SFcht files Solar Fire 9 and Astro Gold use, up to 2,000 records per file with duplicates flagged. Recordings and notes made in other tools do not.
AI will never read a chart for you. It just finds the facts faster: the aspects, the exact dates, where a planet sits. The summary captures what you said. You stay the astrologer.
For depth, Solar Fire X, a native Mac app for macOS 14 or newer at US$360, or Astro Gold, which astrogold.io sells for macOS alongside Windows, iPad, phone and Android. Any browser workspace for the rest, including Astrolium, Astrologer, Chronos and Steliara. Solar Fire 9 and earlier are the ones to avoid on a Mac: their maker does not officially support them there, and Solar Fire 9 is no longer sold.
No. Solar Fire X is US$360 for a new licence and TimePassages reaches $699 for its Complete Package, while Astrolium starts free and Steliara starts at $24 a month. Price tracks calculation depth and licence model, not how well a tool fits a practice. A $360 calculator that leaves your session history in three other places can cost more time than it saves.
Subscriptions run from free to about $79 a month. Astrolium publishes Free, $11, $29 and $79 plans plus a $12 personal plan. Steliara is $24 a month for Practitioner and $39 for Studio, or $20 and $32 billed annually, with a 14-day trial of every feature and no card. Desktop programs are one-time purchases instead: Solar Fire X at US$360, TimePassages from $79 to $699.
If you need many house systems, astrocartography, Vedic dasas and nakshatras, horary or electional search, written interpretation reports, an offline mode, a one-click data export or a free tier, Steliara does not have them today. Six house systems are selectable in its interface against Solar Fire's 30 and Astrolium's 23.
Steliara computes on the Swiss Ephemeris, the same engine most professional programs use, with an orb table tuned with a practising astrologer. Tropical and sidereal zodiacs are both available, with five ayanamshas.
Steliara gives every account a 14-day trial with every feature unlocked and no card, and a lapsed account turns read-only rather than locking you out of your own charts. Astrolium publishes a free tier. Chronos advertises a seven-day free trial. Desktop programs are generally bought outright, so look for the maker's demo version.
Everything about every person you read for, including the actual recorded consultations, in one place.
Start free, no card neededLast reviewed 12 October 2026.