Astro.com alternatives.

Astro.com is the long-running web chart service from Astrodienst, the people behind the Swiss Ephemeris. It is a serious calculator. People still look for alternatives because they want a one-screen intake, a tool they can keep on a laptop, beginner prose, or a no-account preview. Those are different jobs. This note does not rank a winner.

The options, with tradeoffs

1. Astro.com (Astrodienst) — The original web chart service: Swiss Ephemeris positions, many house systems, many chart types, and optional human-written reports.
   Good for: Students who already know which house system they want and need a technical wheel they can print.
   Tradeoff: The form is dense and the interface is older than a phone natal app. It will not send a social daily, and the deeper reports are paid.
2. Charting Stars — A browser observatory: enter birth date, time, and place and get a free Big 3 — Sun, Moon, and Rising — with no account required.
   Good for: A timezone-correct natal from VSOP87 positions and IANA historical zones, then an optional paid Hellenistic reading from that same birth moment.
   Tradeoff: Whole-sign is the house system, and the free preview is the Big 3, not the full planet/house/aspect tables. If you need Placidus for a client file, stay on Astro.com or TimePassages.
3. TimePassages — AstroGraph’s desktop and mobile software: natal, transits, synastry, and click-to-read interpretations by Henry Seltzer.
   Good for: Practitioners who want a local or cloud app they can keep, with house-system switches and a glossary.
   Tradeoff: It is software you install or subscribe to, not a no-account web preview. The free mobile slice is a dashboard; the professional editions are paid.
4. Cafe Astrology — A natal calculator paired with a large library of beginner articles for each planet-in-sign and house.
   Good for: A gentle first reading of placements, one paragraph at a time, without a Swiss Ephemeris options form.
   Tradeoff: The text describes placements individually. It does not synthesize a whole chart the way a written reading or a student wheel does.
5. Astro-Seek — A large free suite of calculators: natal, synastry, composite, transits, progressions, and more.
   Good for: Enthusiasts who already know which chart they want and need the math, not a guided essay.
   Tradeoff: The interface is a workshop, not a first lesson, and the interpretations are thinner than the calculator catalog.

How to choose

Pick Astro.com if the job is a Swiss Ephemeris wheel and a house-system menu. Pick TimePassages if the job is software you keep. Pick Cafe Astrology if the job is beginner placement copy. Pick Astro-Seek if the job is a calculator workshop.

Pick Charting Stars if the job is a self-serve natal in the browser — VSOP87 positions, IANA timezones, no account to generate the Big 3 — and you may later want a written reading from that same birth moment.

These tools can sit next to each other. An Astro.com alternative is not a claim that Astrodienst failed; it is a different instrument for a different job. CHANI and Co-Star live in a further neighborhood: daily-ritual phone apps, not student calculators.