Buy BiggSky
Try it first. The 30-day trial is the complete application — nothing disabled, nothing watermarked, and no card needed to start it.
Which one do you need?
Start from what you photograph. Solar system imagers want SSE; deep sky imagers want DSO; Universe is both.
SSE Lite
Stacking, sharpening, color balancing and post-processing for the Moon, Sun and planets.
CPU processing only — GPU acceleration and batch processing start at Pro.
SSE Pro
Everything in Lite, plus GPU acceleration and batch processing — the difference between one target an evening and a whole session unattended.
DSO
The deep-sky suite: nebulae, galaxies and clusters. Long-exposure calibration, registration and stacking.
Universe
Everything in Pro, plus early access to DSO while it is in alpha, and priority input on the roadmap.
Founders pricing
BiggSky is in beta. Founders accept some rough edges and tell us what is wrong; in exchange they pay below launch price — permanently, on either a perpetual license or an annual subscription.
List and founder prices are both in USD.
What founders get, beyond the price
- Annual founders keep their rate for the life of a continuous subscription — it does not revert to list at renewal
- Beta features before general release
- Direct input on the roadmap — founder requests are actioned first
- A founder discount on new BiggSky products as they are released
How to claim it
Founder codes are not posted here, so they reach the people actually trying the beta.
Download the trial and request a key. Your founder code arrives with it, and it is also shown in the News tab in the panel at the bottom of the BiggSky window. There is nothing else to do and nothing to pay — the code waits until you decide.
Each code can be used a limited number of times. If the one for your edition has run out by the time you buy, a smaller founder discount still applies — you will not be left paying full price.
The perpetual-versus-annual trade-off is the same at founder prices as at list — about three and a half years to break even.
Perpetual or annual
Buy once and keep it, or subscribe by the year. Both give you every premium feature — the difference is how you pay, not what you get.
All prices in USD. Payment is handled entirely by Stripe — your card details are entered on Stripe's own checkout and never touch biggsky.com.
California residents: from January 1, 2027, sales tax will be added to purchases and to subscription renewals. The prices above do not include it.
Perpetual — buy it once
- One-time purchase. Yours to keep, permanently.
- All updates within the major version you bought
- Major version upgrades offered at a discounted rate
- Price changes never affect a license you already hold
Annual — subscribe by the year
- Billed once a year. Cancel any time.
- Every premium feature for the duration
- Lower upfront cost, and a natural point each year to re-evaluate
- Access continues to the end of the billing period you have paid for
How the free trial works
Thirty days, complete
Full functionality. No watermarks, no feature restrictions, and no card details taken to begin.
The clock starts when you validate your key — not when you request it, and not when you download.
Then Free mode
Your work is never held hostage. You can still open, view and export projects you have already processed. The premium operations — stacking, deconvolution, sharpening — need a license to keep going.
No account, ever
There is no account, no password and nothing to log in to. Your license is your email address and a 16-character key that arrives by email.
License terms
| License type | Personal, non-commercial use |
|---|---|
| Computers | Active on up to 5 personally owned computers at a time (3 during the trial). The limit is concurrent — free a seat to move to another machine. |
| Transfer | Non-transferable. Tied to your registered email address. |
| Updates | Included within the major version you purchased |
| Major version upgrades | Available at discounted upgrade pricing |
| Changing edition | Upgrade to a higher tier at any time. You pay the difference between the two tiers at current pricing. |
| Subscription cancellation | Access continues until the end of the billing period |
| If a license lapses | You keep the ability to view and export projects you have already processed |
| Commercial use | Requires a separate commercial license — contact us |
Astronomy clubs, schools and non-profits
Clubs, schools and registered non-profit organizations are eligible for discounted licensing. Get in touch with your organization's details and we will put together a quote.
Commercial, government and institutional
Personal licenses cover non-commercial use only. Commercial, government and institutional licensing is available under a separate agreement — tell us what you need.
Common questions
Do I have to buy before I can try it?
No. Download the trial and use the complete application for 30 days. No card details are taken to start it, nothing is watermarked and no features are locked.
There are free tools that do this. Why pay?
Several of them are good, and BiggSky is built to sit alongside them rather than replace them — it reads their stacks and hands the results back, so you can add one step to a pipeline you already trust instead of abandoning it.
What you are paying for is the sharpening, and the thirty years behind it. BiggSky measures the blur in your own frames and reverses it, with no reference star to pick and no sliders to guess at; the acceleration that makes that practical is the same work that runs inside MATLAB's deconvlucy and deconvblind. You are also paying for the parts that outlast a release — a license that keeps working, a refund policy in writing, an upgrade path, and someone who answers the support address. Take the 30-day trial first; nothing is withheld and no card is taken.
What happens when the trial or a subscription ends?
BiggSky switches to Free mode. You can still open, view and export everything you have already processed — your work stays accessible. Premium operations such as stacking, deconvolution and sharpening need a current license to run.
How many computers can I use it on?
A paid license can be active on 5 personally owned computers at a time, and a trial on 3. The limit is concurrent rather than a lifetime cap, so you can move to a new machine whenever you like by freeing a seat first.
The license is tied to your registered email address and is non-transferable.
Is it a one-off purchase or a subscription?
Either — you choose. A perpetual license is a one-time purchase you keep permanently. An annual subscription is billed once a year and can be cancelled at any time. They cost the same in total at about three and a half years.
Do I get future versions?
Every update within the major version you bought is included. New major versions are offered to existing license holders at a discounted upgrade price, and founding members have that discount guaranteed.
Can I move up to a higher edition later?
Yes, at any time. You pay the difference between the two tiers at current pricing, so nothing you have already spent is wasted.
Will the price go up after I have bought?
Not for you. Existing perpetual license holders are unaffected by later price changes, and founding annual subscribers keep their founding rate for the life of a continuous subscription.
How is my payment handled?
Through Stripe. You are taken to Stripe's own checkout to enter your card details, and those details are never seen by or stored on biggsky.com.
My question isn't here
Email us before you buy rather than after. Questions about licensing get a direct answer.
What arrives after I pay?
Your license key, by email, automatically. Paste it into the License tab in BiggSky and press Validate — the same two steps as the trial. No account is created and there is nothing to log in to.
More detail on Support & licensing.
Can I sell prints of images I process with BiggSky?
Yes. Selling prints, taking commissions and being paid to process someone else's data are all covered by an ordinary paid license, for as long as what BiggSky earns you stays under US $50,000 in any twelve months.
That figure counts only revenue the software helped you make — print and image sales, paid processing, paid tuition in using it. Your salary and any unrelated business are not part of it. Above the threshold you need a commercial license; email us and we will sort one out. Nobody's license gets switched off while that is being arranged. Full wording in the EULA, section 1C.
What if I buy and it isn't right for me?
Email support@biggsky.com within 14 days of your purchase and we will refund you in full. No form, no reason required — though we would like to know what went wrong.
Use the 30-day trial first if you can. It is the same software with nothing withheld, so you can confirm BiggSky suits your data and your computer before spending anything. Full detail in the refund policy.
Not ready to buy?
That's the right instinct. Run it on your own data for 30 days first — it is the only test that means anything.
Not even that? Get the occasional email when there is a new release.