Honest comparisons — all of them.
Every page below says what the other tool does well before it says where we differ. The frame that matters: do you finish your images in Photoshop? If yes, everything below is either a round trip or a single tool. If no — several of these are excellent, and we say which.
The stackers
All capable. All outside Photoshop — which means an export, a re-import, and a color-management handoff for every image if Photoshop is where you finish.
| Tool | Price · platform | The short version | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starry Landscape Stacker | $39.99 · Mac | Mature one-click nightscape stacking; we tested it on the same frames — methods documented on the comparison page | Read |
| Sequator | Free · Windows | Solid untracked stacking, one-click leaning; output needs finishing elsewhere | Read |
| DeepSkyStacker | Free · Windows | Deep-sky/calibration-frames oriented; built for telescopes more than nightscapes | Read |
| Siril | Free · all | Powerful and scriptable, its own processing world; a real learning curve | Read |
| PixInsight | $300+ · all | The full scientific platform — everything, in its own universe, months to learn | Read |
The finishing plugins & single-purpose tools
Our Photoshop neighbors — good at their one job each. None of them stack; together they cost more than the whole Lab.
| Tool | Price | Does | |
|---|---|---|---|
| StarXTerminator | $59.95 | Star removal (PS/PixInsight plugin) — excellent, the reference point | Read |
| NoiseXTerminator | $59.95 | Astro denoise (plugin) | Read |
| GradientXTerminator | ~$40 | Gradient removal (plugin, luminance-only) | Read |
| StarShrink | $59.95 | Star reduction (plugin) | Read |
| GraXpert | Free | Gradient removal, standalone — one more round trip | Read |
| StarNet++ | Free | Star removal, standalone, command-line-grade | Read |
| Topaz | Paid + upgrades | General denoise — not astro-aware, treats faint stars as noise | Read |
| NightScape Lab | $99, once | Stacking + WB + light pollution + stars + defringe — two panels in Photoshop, one engine | — |
The new math: the plugin route is ~$220 of single-purpose tools and still can’t stack; the stacker route is free-to-$300+ and lives outside Photoshop. $99 buys both halves, docked next to your Layers panel.
Or skip the research.
The trial runs on your own frames — that’s the only comparison that matters.