ASIAIR app review: running the whole rig from your phone
Where does it rank on our leaderboard
| Rank | Software | Stars for Your Buck | Recorded UK price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stellarium | 100 out of 100 | Free |
| 2 | NINA | 98 out of 100 | Free |
| 4 | GraXpert | 96 out of 100 | Free |
| 6 | PHD2 | 94 out of 100 | Free |
| 9 | ASIAIR app | 89 out of 100 | Free |
| 10 | Siril | 88 out of 100 | Free |
| 13 | RegiStax | 77 out of 100 | Free |
| 15 | DeepSkyStacker | 71 out of 100 | Free |
| 16 | Adobe Photoshop | 67 out of 100 | £22 |
Contents
- 01 Where does it rank on our leaderboard
- 02 Specifications and features
- 03 A walk through ASIAIR app
- 04 Should you buy it?
- 05 Questions and more about this review
In 30 seconds
Stars for Your Buck 89/100
Written 2 Oct 2026 Updated 2 Oct 2026
- Rank
- #9 of 16 software
- Verdict
- Damon's pick
Written by Damon Scotting 4 min read
Buy it if
- You want to run your whole imaging rig from your phone.
- Your cameras, filter wheel and focuser are ZWO, or on its list of supported gear.
- You want imaging to feel simple and fun rather than a night at a laptop.
Skip it if
- Your cameras are not ZWO: ZWO is selective about the gear it supports, mostly its own.
- You would rather not buy the controller: NINA does the same job for free on a computer.
“I love the ASIAIR app. It is top tier, and seeing competitors arrive has only made me appreciate how slick and well designed it is. ZWO is selective about the gear it supports, mostly its own, but it makes astrophotography feel fun, interactive and simple. I have used ASIAIR units for around eight years, from the Mini to the Plus. At its core I believe it is essentially a Raspberry Pi in a very nice red case, but it has become a core part of every rig I own, not just for running the whole setup in one place but for powering the other devices on the rig as well. You can do everything it does with a free program like NINA, but controlling the lot from your phone is the real deal-maker. If it didn't cost close to $300, I would probably give it 100.”
Specifications and features
Against the software I have reviewed
Compare with
| ASIAIR app reviewed #9 of 16 | NINA #2 of 16 | SharpCap #3 of 16 | ASIStudio #12 of 16 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recorded UK price | Free | Free | £14 | Free |
| Stars for Your Buck | 89/100 | 98/100 | 97/100 | 82/100 |
| Made by | ZWO (Suzhou, China) | Stefan Berg and the N.I.N.A. contributors | Robin Glover (UK) | ZWO (Suzhou, China) |
| What it is for | Remote control of an ASIAIR controller and the whole imaging rig, from a phone or tablet | Equipment control and automated imaging sequences | Camera capture, live stacking and polar alignment | Planetary and deep-sky capture, live stacking and stacking |
| Licence | Free app; needs an ASIAIR controller (ASIAIR Plus 256G $399, ASIAIR Mini $249 on ZWO's store) | Free and open source (Mozilla Public License 2.0) | Free edition; SharpCap Pro £14 a year | Free download |
| Operating systems | iOS 13 or later (iPhone and iPad), Android, macOS 11 or later on Apple silicon | Windows 10 (64 bit) or later | Windows 11, 10, 8.1 and 7 SP1 | Windows (64 and 32 bit), macOS, Linux |
| Current version | 3.0 (29 Jul 2026) | 3.2 | 4.1.14310 (10 Jul 2026) | 1.22 |
| Live stacking | Yes | Through the Livestack plugin | Yes; advanced and planetary live stacking in Pro | Yes: ASILive |
| Polar alignment | Yes | Through the Three Point Polar Alignment plugin | Yes; adjustment guidance in Pro | not recorded |
| Plate solving | Yes | Through ASTAP (recommended) and other solvers | Built in near the pole; ASTAP and other solvers for the whole sky | not recorded |
| Autofocus | Yes, with a ZWO EAF focuser | Yes, after conditions you set | Focus measurement; automated focus scans in Pro | not recorded |
A walk through ASIAIR app
Preview and GoTo The main screen previews the Orion Nebula in quick binned frames, with the guiding readout above, a GoTo box and a direction pad for nudging the mount.
Polar alignment Three steps, prepare, calculate and align, with arrows showing which way to turn the mount. Here the total error is down to 47 arcseconds.
Guiding The guide camera locks onto a star, its profile at the top right and the RA and DEC corrections plotted below. This run reads 1.34 arcseconds total.
Focuser A ZWO EAF electronic focuser driven from the phone: its current position, a position to go to, the step sizes and the backlash.
Plans A plan for IC 434: six light-frame entries, each three 180 s frames through its own filter, set up before the night begins.
A plan running A plan running on NGC 6960: the frame counter, the guiding graph, the camera held at -10 C and the time left to the meridian.
Should you buy it?
89/100 Stars for Your Buck
Pros
- It makes astrophotography feel fun, interactive and simple.
- Slick and well designed: the arrival of competitors has only made that clearer.
- Controlling the whole rig from your phone is the real deal-maker.
- It runs the whole setup in one place, and the controller powers the other devices on the rig as well.
- The app itself is a free download.
Cons
- ZWO is selective about the gear it supports, mostly its own.
- It only works with an ASIAIR controller, which you buy separately and which costs far more than the app.
- A free program like NINA can do everything it does, from a computer instead of your phone.
I love the ASIAIR app.
Three alternatives I have reviewed
- NINA Free, and runs a whole night of imaging from a Windows PC 98/100 Free Read the review
- SharpCap Capture, live stacking and polar alignment on a Windows PC; free, or Pro at £14 a year 97/100 £14 Read the review
- ASIStudio ZWO's free desktop suite for capture, live stacking and processing 82/100 Free Read the review
Questions and more about this review
Reviewed by
Damon Scotting
The Telescope Man Verified
BSc (Hons) Physics with Astrophysics and Cosmology, Loughborough University PGCE / QTS, University of Nottingham
About Damon About Damon Damon Scotting is The Telescope Man. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Physics with Astrophysics and Cosmology from Loughborough University and a PGCE with QTS from the University of Nottingham, and taught physics in secondary schools before becoming an astronomy creator. He is a contributing writer for BBC Sky at Night Magazine and the author of 42 Wonders of Our Night Sky, and his photograph of the galaxy M100 with the dwarf planet Ceres was Highly Commended in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2024 competition run by Royal Observatory Greenwich. He has appeared on the BBC's Blue Peter. More than 750,000 people follow his astronomy channels on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, and he has reviewed more than 140 telescopes, mounts, cameras, filters and accessories hands-on for this site. More about Damon · How I test · Damon's book
I review all kinds of gear: most of it I buy, some is gifted and some is loaned, and all of it is reviewed the same way. How this site is funded
Seven questions, answered
Questions about the ASIAIR app
Written 2 October 2026 ·Updated 2 October 2026
I review all kinds of gear. Most of it I buy, some is gifted and some is loaned, and all of it is reviewed the same way: no company sees or approves a review before it is published. Shop links marked Ad are affiliate links: I earn a commission when you buy through them, at no extra cost to you. How this site is funded
- Is the ASIAIR app free? Yes. The app is a free download for iPhone, iPad and Android, but it only works with an ASIAIR controller, which ZWO sells separately: its store lists the ASIAIR Plus 256G at $399 and the ASIAIR Mini at $249. The specifications and the comparison table ↓
- What gear can it control? ZWO's ASI USB 3.0 and Mini cameras, selected DSLR and mirrorless cameras, popular equatorial mounts, and ZWO's filter wheels and focusers (EFW and EAF). The specifications and the comparison table ↓
- What can it do? Plate solving, autofocus, polar alignment, guiding, plans with several targets, mosaics, live stacking and stacking afterwards, plus a sky atlas for framing. A walk through ASIAIR app ↓
- Which phones and tablets does it run on? iPhone and iPad with iOS 13 or later, Android phones and tablets, and Macs with Apple silicon on macOS 11 or later. The specifications and the comparison table ↓
- Which version is current? Version 3.0, released on 29 July 2026. The first ASIAIR (Edition 1) stays on version 2.1. The specifications and the comparison table ↓
- Is there a free alternative? Yes: NINA can do everything the ASIAIR does, for free, on a Windows computer. What the ASIAIR adds is control of the whole rig from your phone. The specifications and the comparison table ↓
- What have I not tested on the ASIAIR app? These screens come from my own imaging nights on earlier versions of the app, so they are not a test of every feature in version 3.0.