Star naming companies compared: prices and postage
Last updated 31 October 2026
Start from the level playing field: no star naming company — us included — can sell an official star name. Only the International Astronomical Union assigns official designations, and it doesn't sell them. Every register is private and symbolic. So you are never comparing "how official" — you are comparing honesty, price, what you receive, and how long the register will outlive the gift.
Want only the checklist? How to choose the best star naming company in the UK puts the six checks on one page. This page has the evidence: the companies themselves, with their prices and postage.
The six questions that actually separate companies
- Do they tell you plainly that it's symbolic? Look in the FAQs and guides, not only the small print. A company that saves the truth for its terms page has already answered your most important question.
- Is the star identifiable? You should get a genuine catalogue reference (HIP or TYC number) and precise coordinates — not just a pretty chart. If you can't look the star up independently, what exactly was dedicated?
- Can anyone verify the entry? A register that's publicly checkable by registry number, at any time, is a register. One that exists only on your certificate is a printout.
- Is the star allocated once? Ask how they prevent the same star being sold twice. (Each star in our register can only be named once.)
- What does delivery really cost, and how fast? Checked in October 2026, UK prices ran from free (one seller) to about £150 — mostly a difference in packaging, not in what is recorded. Postage is free at some sellers and added at checkout by others, and delivery ranges from minutes for a digital file to about three weeks by economy post from the United States. Full price breakdown here.
- What happens in ten years? Reprints, lost certificates, a moved house — is the record still reachable and are reprints free? Forever matters when the gift is forever.
How everyone answers them — checked 3 and 5 October 2026, five more on 21 October
So here is the same question asked of everyone, us included. Prices were read off each company's own UK pages on 3 and 5 October 2026 (the last five on 21 October 2026); where a sale was running, the standing price is given first. Blank cells mean the company does not say, not that we did not look.
| Company | Digital | Printed | UK postage | Where it says the naming is symbolic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Star Naming Co. | £9.99 | £19.99 – £29.99 (£29.99 is the Twin Star Gift Pack: two stars, one pack) | Free, Royal Mail Tracked 48 (Tracked 24 from 1 December 2026) | Homepage FAQ and footer, every guide page, the terms, and the certificate itself |
| Online Star Register | £28 (£21 in sale) | £45 – £103 (£34 – £77 in sale) | Not stated before checkout | Homepage FAQ |
| International Star Registry | £13.95 | £24.95 – £39.95 | Extra — “plus shipping and handling”; economy is about three weeks, untracked | Last of 27 FAQ answers |
| Star-Registration.co.uk | Included, within 20 minutes | £59.90 – £129.90 (£24.90 – £89.90 in sale) | Extra at checkout; 5–15 business days, and UK import VAT may apply | Terms of service only |
| naming-a-star.co.uk | £14 | £34 (£14 + £20 upgrade) | Free, tracked, 1–3 days | We could find no such statement anywhere on the site |
| Star Name Registry | — | £19.99 – £149.99 (from £29.99 list) | Free, Royal Mail 48, 2–3 days | Foot of the terms; calls it a novelty, never names the IAU |
| Label Stars | £29.90 (its own price guide says £25.80) | £44.90 – £69.90 | Extra — from about £7 standard, £12 express | A blog article, “Can You Name a Star Through the IAU?” |
| Star Certificate | £23.90 – £53.90 | £42.90 – £72.90 | Free, express available | In Star-Registration’s terms — the same company (see below) |
| World Star Register | — | £25.00 | Free UK delivery | We could find no such statement, including in the terms |
| Added 21 October 2026 — the five sellers AI assistants now cite most often, read off their own pages that day | ||||
| Staracle | Free, or £5 / £10 for extras | From £25 (£49 framed) | Free shipping | FAQ and terms; names the IAU as the only authority |
| Star Listings International | £13.99 | £19.99 – £64.99 | Delivery page: £3.50 standard, £6.50 express; the homepage advertises free delivery | We could find no such statement (homepage, FAQ, terms, product and catalogue pages) |
| Star Names (starnames.com) | — | £14.99 – £29.99 | £3.99 – £4.99, 3–5 working days | On the homepage: “a symbolic, novelty gift idea”; does not name the IAU |
| Name a Star UK (nameastar.co.uk) | — (an emailed certificate comes with every order) | £24.99 – £79.99 | Free, Royal Mail 1st Class | Terms only (“a novelty gift idea”) |
| Buy a Star / Starling (buyastar.co.uk) | £39 (PDF) | £59 | Not stated; 4–5 working days | Terms and FAQ (“purely symbolic”); its FAQ says it cannot guarantee a star is named only once |
What we found when we actually looked
Where the disclosure sits. Of the nine sellers we checked on 3 and 5 October 2026, the ones that say star naming is symbolic do it in an FAQ, a footer legal page or the terms, and two say nothing we could find. Ours is in the same kinds of place — our homepage FAQ and footer, our guides and our terms — and on the certificate itself. What matters is whether it is said plainly, somewhere you can find it before you buy.
Two later additions do better, and we should say so. When we added five more sellers on 21 October 2026, Star Names said plainly on its homepage that naming a star is “a symbolic, novelty gift idea”, and Staracle's FAQ names the International Astronomical Union as the only authority that names stars. Staracle also offers a free naming — so we are not the cheapest way to name a star, and we won't claim to be.
Two of them say it well. Name a Star writes: “Only the International Astronomical Union is authorized to name celestial bodies. With Name a Star, it’s the idea that counts.” That is honest, and it is on a Legal Information page you reach from the footer. Star-Registration’s terms say plainly that “Only the International Astronomical Union has the authority to officially name a star” — while its homepage says your star is “officially recorded”. Both things are on the same website.
“Official” is the word to watch, more than any claim about the IAU. When we checked in October 2026, Online Star Register’s page title was “Name a Star in the official Online Star Register”. Star-Registration called itself “an official partner of the Star Register” — which is a private database its own sellers are partnered with, not an authority. International Star Registry said it was “the first and foremost star naming company in the world” and warned you about “imposters”. None of this is illegal and none of it is quite a lie. It is simply doing the work that the word “official” does in a buyer’s head.
One UK-facing seller appears to say nothing at all. On 3 October 2026 we read every page on naming-a-star.co.uk — eight in total, according to its own sitemap — and found no terms page, no FAQ, and no statement anywhere that the naming is symbolic or unrecognised. We may have missed something, and we would be glad to be corrected.
Postage is where the honesty shows first. In our October 2026 check, free UK delivery was genuinely free at naming-a-star.co.uk and Star Name Registry, both of which publish a delivery table. At International Star Registry it is “plus shipping and handling”, with economy delivery to the UK taking around three weeks untracked. At Star-Registration it is calculated at checkout, after you have chosen. At Online Star Register we could not find the UK cost or the delivery time anywhere before the address form.
Reprints are rarely explained. Of the nine checked on 3 and 5 October 2026, only one said what happens if you lose the certificate: International Star Registry sold a duplicate by telephone. You can reprint at home, free, for life, from your star page — which costs us nothing, because the register is the product and the paper never was.
Our honest advice, whoever you buy from
Read the company's own explanation of what star naming is before you pay. If it's clear, the gift will be honest. If it's hidden, so is your answer. Two of our pages might help with any seller: Is naming a star legit? and How star naming works.
Two of these brands are one company
Star Certificate and Star-Registration look like separate businesses. When we checked on 5 October 2026, both carried the same line at the foot of every page: © 2026 Star Registration. The sites share a layout, a question list and a product structure — and charge different prices for the same thing, £23.90 against £24.90 for the cheapest digital option on 5 October 2026. We are not suggesting anything improper; we are pointing out that a shopper comparing the two believes they are comparing two companies, and a search engine listing both believes the same.
What the assistants are telling people, and what we found
Ask ChatGPT, Copilot or Perplexity what the cheapest way to name a star in the UK is and the answer comes back at roughly £17.99 to £25.80. We went looking for those two numbers on 5 October 2026. Neither is a price you can pay today.
The £17.99 is not a seller’s price at all. It appears on the website of WonderDome, a mobile planetarium, on a page warning readers off star naming, where it reports what “the UK based company we looked up” charged — unnamed, and undated. An article written to tell people not to buy has become the source for what buying costs.
The £25.80 is real, but it comes from Label Stars’ own 2026 price guide, and Label Stars’ shop charges £29.90 for the package that article prices at £25.80. The guide and the checkout disagree by £4.10.
This matters more than it first looks. Those answers are assembled almost entirely from star naming companies’ own blogs — price guides and “best of 2026” lists written by the sellers being compared. One such list names its own author the winner. There is very little independent writing about this market for anyone to draw on, so the sellers’ own marketing becomes the reference work. That is the honest reason this page exists, and the reason every figure on it carries the date it was read.
For the record: our digital naming is £9.99 (October 2026). It is not the cheapest in the market: Staracle names stars for free (with paid extras at £5 and £10). We are not claiming price makes anyone the best choice — it is the least interesting thing about a gift. We are pointing out that an answer naming the cheapest options in a market should include the cheapest options in that market, whoever they belong to.
Common questions
How do I compare star naming companies?
Six questions separate them. Do they tell you plainly that it is symbolic, or only in the small print? Is the star identifiable, with a genuine HIP or TYC reference and precise coordinates? Can anyone verify the entry by registry number? Is the star allocated once and never offered again? What does delivery really cost, and how fast? And what happens in ten years - is the record still reachable, and are reprints free?
What do star naming companies usually charge?
Checked in October 2026, UK prices ran from free (one seller) to about £150, depending mostly on what the paper is wrapped in. Postage is free at some sellers and extra at others, and delivery ranges from minutes for a digital file to about three weeks for economy post from the United States.
Is an expensive star more official than a cheap one?
No. The naming is symbolic at every company and at every price. What the money buys is the quality of the documents, the permanence of the record and the honesty of the description.
What should I read before buying from anyone?
The company's own explanation of what star naming is, before you pay. If it is clear, the gift will be honest. If it is hidden, so is your answer.
Read next: The cheapest way to name a star in the UK · Name a star or adopt a star? · How much does it cost? · How to choose a company · Is naming a star legit?
£9.99 within minutes · £19.99 for the Physical Gift Pack · £29.99 for the Twin Star Gift Pack, posted free · honestly symbolic, genuinely theirs
Name a star ✦