Pricing

Start free. The galaxies await.

TheGalaxyDB splits into two editions. Lite covers a hand picked set of well known galaxies. Full opens the complete live catalog behind it. Use the switch below to see what each includes and what it costs. See the GLEN Editions page for the full comparison.

GLEN is its own product.

Want galaxies? You pay for GLEN. Want stars? You pay for STEN. Want both? You pay for both. They are separate engines, separate catalogs, separate subscriptions.

The plans above are TheGalaxyDB subscription plans, access to this website, the galaxy explorer, and the catalog browser. If you want to embed GLEN in your own app, iOS, Android, or browser, that is a separate licensing arrangement. See the Licensing page.

Explore GLEN › GLEN Licensing ›

TheGalaxyDB pricing plans are for individuals, students, educators, and researchers who want ongoing access to TheGalaxyDB as a service, without building anything. These plans include the GLEN galaxy renderer running live in your browser, the galaxy catalog, and the full suite of study and management tools. You pick a plan, you use the site. No installation, no local setup. You just need it to work.

If you wish to instead, embed GLEN in your own software, deploy it inside your mission critical apps, integrate the catalog into a product you’re building, or secure an institutional arrangement with custom terms, those use cases are not covered with these plans. See the Licensing page for standalone software licenses and developer API tiers for data related deployments built around the flexibility to ship your own products.

Explorer
Free Forever
$0

Everything you need to start exploring the universe. No credit card required, ever.

  • Preview catalog: curated selection of notable galaxies
  • Full GLEN renderer (all 8 morphology classes)
  • Basic galactic data panels
  • GLEN Explorer full-screen viewer
Create Free Account
Student
GLEN Student Mode LITE
$4.99 / month Save 10%

Every study tool you need for a galaxy science course, without the price tag getting in the way.

  • Everything in Explorer
  • GLEN's full renderer across every morphology class
  • Curated catalog of iconic named galaxies
  • Hubble Sequence lessons and classification guides
  • Assignment packs by galaxy topic
  • Galaxy Diary log your observations & notes
Get Student Lite
GLEN Student Mode FULL
$16.99 / month Save 12%

Every coursework tool, plus the complete live catalog for research that goes beyond the basics.

  • Everything in Student Lite
  • Full deep galaxy catalog, all morphology classes
  • Real measured redshift and morphology, not estimates
  • SDSS velocity dispersion data across 1.1M+ galaxies
  • Built for thesis work, independent research, and papers that need to cite a specific real catalog entry, not just the famous examples
Get Student Full
Most Popular
Standard
Curated Catalog LITE
$9.99 / month Save 10%

See the galaxies everyone already recognizes: spirals, ellipticals, and the giants that anchor every astronomy course, all rendered in full detail.

  • Everything in Explorer
  • Curated catalog across all 8 GLEN morphology classes
  • Hand picked, iconic named galaxies
  • Advanced search and filters scoped to the curated collection
  • Bookmark & personal collection lists
  • Export galactic data (CSV)
  • Galaxy Diary log your observations & notes
  • 1 active session at a time
Get Standard Lite
Full Catalog FULL
$33.99 / month Save 12%

Unlock every galaxy, from the brightest spirals to the faintest photometric dwarfs, in the complete live catalog.

  • Everything in Explorer
  • Full deep galaxy catalog, all morphology classes
  • Real measured and derived redshift, morphology, and stellar mass
  • Advanced search & filters
  • Bookmark & personal collection lists
  • Export galactic data (CSV)
  • Galaxy Diary log your observations & notes
  • 1 active session at a time
Get Standard Full
Family
7 Devices LITE
$49.99 / month Save 10%

One login, seven devices. Whichever screen you're on, the same curated collection and the same Galaxy Diary follow you.

  • Curated catalog across all 8 GLEN morphology classes
  • Hand picked, iconic named galaxies
  • Advanced search and filters scoped to the curated collection
  • Bookmark & personal collection lists
  • Export galactic data (CSV)
  • Galaxy Diary synced across all devices
  • Up to 7 simultaneous devices on one account
  • Bookmarks & collections synced across devices
  • Same screen, any device pick up where you left off
Get Family Lite
7 Devices FULL
$169.99 / month Save 12%

One login, seven devices. Whichever screen you're on, the complete live catalog follows you: TV, laptop, tablet, phone.

  • Full deep galaxy catalog, all morphology classes
  • Real measured and derived redshift, morphology, and stellar mass
  • Advanced search & filters
  • Bookmark & personal collection lists
  • Export galactic data (CSV)
  • Galaxy Diary synced across all devices
  • Up to 7 simultaneous devices on one account
  • Bookmarks & collections synced across devices
  • Same screen, any device pick up where you left off
Get Family Full
Academic
Managed Accounts LITE
$999.99 LIMITED TIME$849.99 / mo from Save 12%

Built for departments and classrooms that want a curated catalog with up to 200 managed accounts under one shared dashboard.

  • Everything in Standard Lite
  • Up to 200 managed student & staff accounts
  • Admin dashboard seat management & usage stats
  • Class groupings & shared collections
  • Teacher assignment tools
  • Student Galaxy Diary teacher visible logs
  • GLEN embed course pages, LMS, portals
  • Custom institution logo on embeds
  • Priority email support (12h response)
  • Annual usage & engagement report
Get Academic Lite
Managed Accounts FULL
$2,399.99 LIMITED TIME$2,039.99 / mo from Save 12%

Built for departments and classrooms that need the complete live catalog with up to 200 managed accounts under one shared dashboard.

  • Everything in Standard Full
  • Up to 200 managed student & staff accounts
  • Admin dashboard seat management & usage stats
  • Class groupings & shared collections
  • Teacher assignment tools
  • Student Galaxy Diary teacher visible logs
  • GLEN embed course pages, LMS, portals
  • Custom institution logo on embeds
  • Priority email support (12h response)
  • Annual usage & engagement report
Get Academic Full
Institution
Observatory / Planetarium LITE
Contact Us For Pricing

For museum floors, classroom kiosks, and visitor exhibits, where a fast, curated collection is the better fit than open search across millions of galaxies.

  • Everything in Academic Lite
  • Unlimited managed accounts
  • Individual logins for every visitor, staff, and researcher
  • Full white label & custom domain
  • Kiosk mode large format display & touch panel ready
  • GLEN embed lobby displays, planetarium domes, visitor kiosks
  • Branded public galaxy pages
  • Dedicated account manager
  • On site setup & staff training included
  • 99.9% uptime SLA with incident reporting
  • Custom contract & invoice billing
Inquire About Lite Pricing
Observatory / Planetarium FULL
Contact Us For Pricing

We work closely with observatories, planetariums, science museums, and large research institutions to put together a package built around the complete live catalog that fits your space, your audience, and your budget.

  • Everything in Academic Full
  • Unlimited managed accounts
  • Individual logins for every visitor, staff, and researcher
  • Full white label & custom domain
  • Kiosk mode large format display & touch panel ready
  • GLEN embed lobby displays, planetarium domes, visitor kiosks
  • Raw data pipeline access (CSV/JSON export at scale)
  • Branded public galaxy pages
  • Dedicated account manager
  • On site setup & staff training included
  • 99.9% uptime SLA with incident reporting
  • Custom contract & invoice billing
  • Early access to new features & instruments
Inquire About Full Pricing

All prices in USD. Annual billing saves up to 12%. Observatory, planetarium, and museum pricing is custom, submit an inquiry.

Common questions
What is GLEN actually rendering, a simulation or a photograph? ▾
A real time renderer, not a photograph or pre rendered video. GLEN uses custom GLSL shaders for every Hubble morphology class, each driven by the galaxy's own measured parameters. A spiral galaxy renders logarithmic arms with pitch angle set by its Hubble subtype and a blue young star population in the arms against a warm bulge color. An elliptical renders a Sersic radial profile with axis ratio from its E type index. Every frame is computed fresh on your hardware, on demand.
What's the difference between GLEN Lite and GLEN Full? ▾
Lite and Full are about how much of the catalog you can search. Lite covers a curated collection of the universe's most iconic galaxies. Full opens up the complete live catalog, millions of real cataloged galaxies. Every tier above, Student, Standard, Family, Academic, Institution, is about which tools and features you get, and that choice is independent of which edition you pick. See the GLEN Editions page for the full breakdown.
What does Student Mode include, and how is it different from Standard? ▾
Student Mode is built around coursework tools: Hubble Sequence lessons, classification guides, and assignment packs by topic. Standard is built around search and data management: advanced filters, bookmarks, and CSV exports. Both are available in Lite or Full, so a student doing a class project can stay on Student Lite, while a student writing a thesis that needs a specific real catalog entry can move up to Student Full.
Does this run on a Raspberry Pi or a classroom tablet? ▾
Yes. A Raspberry Pi 5 with a browser open to thegalaxydb.org handles GLEN at reasonable frame rates. The entire renderer is WebGL2 shader code delivered as a single file, no installed software, no cloud GPU, no IT department required. Schools build kiosks for under $100 in total hardware. A tablet or Chromebook works just as well. Rendering quality adjusts automatically to available GPU performance.
Is Family for one person or multiple people? ▾
Family is one account and one login, meant to be shared. Create an account and share your credentials with your family, and up to 7 devices can be active at the same time with no limit on what each person can do on their device. Your son can render on his PC while your daughter views a spiral galaxy on her phone. Your spouse can examine an elliptical while you look at a barred spiral, all simultaneously. Render on devices owned by different people, or log in on all of your own devices at once. You have the flexibility to choose. If you need each person to have their own separate profile, Galaxy Diary, and history, you can purchase additional individual accounts or a second Family account. Academic provides fully managed individual accounts for teams and institutions of up to 200 users.
Can I cancel my subscription at any time? ▾
Yes. Monthly plans cancel at the end of the current billing period with no further charges. Annual plans are non refundable for the current year but can be cancelled to prevent renewal. Your bookmarks and saved data remain accessible through the end of your paid period.
Can GLEN be embedded in a website, planetarium, or kiosk display? ▾
Yes, via iframe on Professional plans and above. The URL parameter system (/explorer.html?obj=NAME) makes deep linking to any specific galaxy straightforward for course pages, museum exhibits, or research portals. For institutional installations needing custom branding, event hooks, or kiosk mode for public displays, Institution licensing covers all of that. Contact us with your setup requirements.
How often is the catalog updated with new data? ▾
Our core catalogs are re synced on major astronomical release cycles as new data becomes available. New morphology classifications and redshift measurements are added on a rolling basis. GLEN shader updates, new render improvements, and classification refinements ship more frequently and take effect immediately with no action required on your end.
Do I need an astronomy background to use TheGalaxyDB? ▾
Not at all. TheGalaxyDB was built for students, educators, science enthusiasts, and professionals alike. Each galaxy page includes a plain language description alongside the full technical catalog data. The filter system uses real Hubble morphology types but explains them in accessible terms. The deeper you want to go, the data is there, but you do not need to go deep to enjoy it.

Millions of Galaxies, Waiting to Be Found.

Create your free account and start looking.

Create Free Account Browse the Catalog