"Hank Friedman is the only person on Earth who understands astrology software better than I do."
Mark McDonough, creator of AstroDatabank
Every astrologer and student of astrology wants to get exactly the right program for their needs. This page is devoted to helping you do that as effortlessly as possible.
Vedic Astrology (with interpretations) -- Comprehensive set of tables and charts, great relationship analysis, many delineations including 144 Bhava Yogas, Core Yogas, Dasas - Planets, Modern Delineations, and Nature of House Lords.
: Kala
Vedic Features (basic) in a Western Astrology Program: Janus and Sirius
The best implementation of the following astrological features:
Atlas -- Most professional programs have excellent time-change atlases, but programs that license the ACS atlas have the most current changes, and Sirius has the largest time-change atlas.
The only programs that have the latest ACS atlas are: Solar Fire, Shri Jyoti Star, Astro Gold, Solar Writer, Solar Spark, Nova Chartwheels, JigSaw, Astro Spark, Imperial Astrologer, and KPAstro.
Astrological Calendar -- Explore astro-calendar features here and here. Solar Fire has some capabilities that other programs lack, as do others, and most of the calendars are excellent.
Auto Jobs -- Creating sets of charts, tables, graphs to print out in a batch: Solar Fire
Chart Animation -- Animate multiple wheels and pages, incl. tables: Western: Solar Fire Jyotish: Shri Jyoti Star
Chart Database -- The latest version of Sirius has the largest database of charts, provided by AstroDatabank.
Ease of Use -- Brilliant design and great flexibility: Solar Fire
Interpretive reports built in -- Full Natal, Transits, Compatibility, Relocation -- (& licensed to sell): Janus
Interpretive reports, Add-ons or Standalone: To get links to samples and learn more about these, please email me.
LifeScan -- Lifetime of transits or progressions on 1 - 2 pages: Regulus Platinum
Multi-lingual User Interface -- (English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, or Italian): Regulus Platinum and Prometheus -- (English, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Italian, Greek, Russian, and Chinese (both Traditional and Simplified).
Page Designer -- Design your own pages with charts, tables, etc.: Western: Solar Fire Jyotish: Shri Jyoti Star
Planetarium -- Beautiful Celestial Spheres with aspects, and many choices: Prometheus
Points in Charts -- Maximum number and choices: A tie: Prometheus (by far the most points) and Solar Fire (ease and flexibility).
Points in Predictive Searches -- Most points in Transit and Progressed listings and graphs: Prometheus
Predictive Graphs: Most professional astrology programs have excellent predictive graphs, including: Solar Fire, Janus, Regulus Platinum, Prometheus, Win*Star, and Sirius.
Prometheus has many more options, including interpolated Planetary Stations,individual orbs for every planet, and many more points.
Millennium StarTrax has the best cumulative transit graph: adds all of the + and - events into one graph.
Prenatal Charts -- Solar Fire has the most types of Prenatal Charts.
Sky Search -- Find when planets make aspects, occupy houses or signs, form shapes, etc.: A tie: Solar Fire and SuperSearch
Theme Maps -- Create accurate theme maps -- where to find love, career, etc.: Janus
Wheel Designer -- Make your own custom chart wheels (Western, Traditional, and Vedic): Janus
Astrology programs and their unique capabilities
(In order of popularity of sales through my website)
It is beyond the scope of this article to list all of the techniques of all of the programs, but the following programs have many unusual features of interest:
Solar Fire -- World Class Power and Ease of Use Aspect Highlighting & Filtering, Phenomenal Page Designer, Multiwheel Superimpostion, Stellarium, Sabian Oracle, multiple Pop-up Charts, powerful Astrologer's Assistant task recorder, page animation, etc.
Janus -- The Best Program for a full set of Interpretations Duodecima wheel, Dasa Report, Electional Search, Diurnal Charts, Octoscope wheel, Midpoint Weighting Analysis, Arabic Lunar Mansions, Planet/Asteroid/Fixed Star catalog, best Eclipse map, Venus Phases, Collection of Light, etc.
Janus Light -- The Best Personal Astrology Program
Incredibly inexpensive, full atlas of over 250,000 places, astrology calendar, astromapping, chart animation, and full natal, transit, compatibility, and relocation reports.
Shri Jyoti Star -- The Best Program for Vedic Astrology Phenomenal Page and Screen designers, comprehensive research tools, huge number of tables and graphs, Vedic astromapping and relocation, teaching example charts, time search, and fine rectification tools.
Regulus Platinum -- The Best Program for Huber Astrology and the Romance Languages Life Scan, Atacirs, Persona Chart, Ascensional Astrology, extensive Hellenistic module, add-on Rectification methods (e.g. Marr), Harmograms and Harmonic flowers, etc. and interface in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Italian
Prometheus -- Huge number of points available for use in all modules, Best Predictive Graphs, can set aspect orbs for each point, 13 sign Zodiac, Void of Course Moon Report, Astrological Calendar with a huge number of points, Out of Bounds search, Extensive Primary Directions, etc.
AstrolDeluxe Platinum -- Unique sets of interpretations and Aspect Patterns analysis
Degree Strengths, Ebertin Life Diagram, Angles Graph, Vocational Ranking, Hermetic Minor Progressions, and many sets of interpretations, e.g. for the Black Moon Lilith.
Millennium StarTrax -- Great Astronomy Features and Fast Speed of Planets graph, Hoff's Tables, Occultations, Davidson charts for Groups, Planetary Phase aspects, Extensive Chart File Searches, etc.
Note: I do not distribute the following programs:
Sirius -- Advanced natal, synastric, and predictive modeling Compatibility Patterns, huge chart database, extensive Degree Meanings, extensive Asteroid and Fixed Star reports, Lifetime predictive listings, Electional Astrology graph, Music of the Spheres, etc.
Win*Star -- The Best Calendar and Ephemeris Pages Nicest looking Astromaps, Paran points, Stars on maps, A.T. Mann's Lifetime Arcs, Day*Scan, Phase Chart, excellent Day Watch astrology calendar, etc.
ZET -- Stunning Astromaps and Powerful Search language Septa-Wheels, Embolismic Lunations, Persian Directions, Condensations Rectification method, House Table for 28 house systems, Cosmos module, Beautiful Astromaps, etc.
Learn more about astrology programs
You can get free demo versions of many astrology programs here, and you can click on any of the names below to go to my websites or web pages devoted to each program:
There are only a couple of Western astrology programs written for the Mac, Astro Gold for the Mac (which can read Solar Fire files) and TimePassages.
However, I've had mixed feedback from astrologers about both, and so my current recommendation is to install Windows (and Parallels) on your Mac and then install Solar Fire on your Mac, as it's far superior to any Mac-native program for astrology.
At some point, Solar Fire should become available for the Mac as a Mac-native program. If you wish to be kept apprised of its development, email me.
Vedic astrologers, fortunately, have Parashara's Light available in a Mac-native version, and it's a powerful professional Jyotish program. Click on its underlined name to learn more about it.
In the meantime, if you are willing to install Parallels and Windows on your Mac, you can run Solar Fire or Regulus Platinum or Shri Jyoti Star. Note: Shri Jyoti Star runs well under Crossover on a Mac.
