Real prices, delivery times and star counts — checked June 2026
A custom star map costs anywhere from €3.99 to over $250 depending on where you order. We checked the public prices, delivery times and astronomical data of 7 popular star map websites in June 2026. Here is the honest comparison no vendor wants to publish.
The custom star map market runs on opacity: permanent fake discounts, hidden shipping costs, and \"digital\" files that take days to arrive. Here are the real numbers, checked site by site in June 2026.
| Service | Digital price | Delivery | Documented stars |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starry Memory | €3.99 | 30 seconds | 119,614 |
| Etsy digital sellers | €4–10 | 1–3 days | not disclosed |
| Positive Prints | ≈ €28 | minutes | not disclosed |
| GreaterSkies | ≈ €49 | digital | 7,000–8,000 |
| The Night Sky | from $39 (print) | — | not disclosed |
| Twinkle In Time | from $55 (print) | — | not disclosed |
| Under Lucky Stars | $29 (3 PDFs) · $130–250 poster | 7–10 days | not disclosed |
Starry Memory: €3.99, HD file in 30 seconds. Etsy digital sellers: €3.84-16.20, typically delivered in 1-3 days (median around €6.50-9.80). Positive Prints: from ~$29.95/€28, digital JPEG or print, premium formats up to $345. The Night Sky: prints from $39 (12×12\"), jewelry $79-300, no standard digital option. GreaterSkies: digital download around €49, prints from £59.95. Twinkle In Time: from $55, print only, no digital option at all. Under Lucky Stars: digital $29 (3 static PDFs), unframed posters $130-250, frames +$45-70.
Star maps are gifts, and gifts have deadlines. Under Lucky Stars: 3 business days production + 7-10 days shipping (14-31 days to Latin America). Etsy digital sellers: mostly 1-3 business days because each file is manually generated. Positive Prints delivers digital files \"within minutes\" — the only fast competitor. Starry Memory generates and emails the HD file in 30 seconds, 24/7, including on December 24th at 11pm. For last-minute gifts, that difference is the whole purchase decision.
Most vendors never disclose how many stars are on their maps. The verifiable numbers: GreaterSkies plots 7,000-8,000 stars to magnitude 7 from the Yale Bright Star Catalog — genuinely accurate, and they deserve credit for transparency. Starry Memory computes the complete HYG v3 catalog: 119,614 stars (Hipparcos + Yale + Gliese merged), each positioned to the arcsecond for your exact date, time and place, plus the Moon and visible planets from NASA/JPL DE405 ephemerides. Both can be verified against Stellarium; we actively encourage it.
The 2026 money-smart route: download the €3.99 HD file from Starry Memory, send it to any online or local print shop (a 50×70 cm museum-quality print costs €5-15 at Cheerz, Photobox or a local printer), add a standard frame (€10-20). Total: €19-39 for a result equivalent to the $130-250 shipped posters — with more stars on the map and the file yours to reprint forever.
Starry Memory at €3.99 for the HD digital file (4960×7016 px, 300 DPI, delivered by email in 30 seconds). The next cheapest serious options are Etsy digital sellers (typically €4-10, delivered in 1-3 days) and Positive Prints (~€28 digital). Print-first brands start much higher: The Night Sky from $39, Twinkle In Time from $55, Under Lucky Stars from $130 unframed.
Prices checked in June 2026 on their official support pages: $130 for a 12×16\" unframed poster, $195 for 18×24\", $250 for 24×36\"; frames add $45-70. Their digital option costs $29 and contains 3 static PDF files. Production takes 3 business days plus 7-10 days shipping to the US and Europe.
Accuracy depends on the star catalog and ephemerides used. GreaterSkies publishes 7,000-8,000 stars from the Yale Bright Star Catalog. Starry Memory computes 119,614 stars from the complete HYG v3 catalog (Hipparcos + Yale + Gliese) and planetary positions from NASA/JPL DE405 — and every map can be cross-checked against Stellarium, the free open-source planetarium.
If you can print locally, yes: you pay €3.99 for the file, then €5-15 for a 50×70 cm professional print — under €40 framed, versus $130-250+ for shipped posters. You also keep the file forever, can reprint at any size up to A1, and receive it in 30 seconds instead of 10 days.