Simple Refresh for Safari vs xEngine for Safari
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Simple Refresh for Safari
Automate webpage refreshing in Safari across iOS and macOS. Set custom intervals from 1 second to 10 minutes for individual tabs. Monitor live updates without manual intervention.
- Automatic page refresh
- Customizable refresh intervals
- Independent settings per tab
- Live countdown timer
- Efficient battery usage
- Persists settings across sessions
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Simple Refresh brings automatic webpage refresh functionality to Safari on iOS and macOS. Stop manually refreshing pages—let Simple Refresh do it for you. With an intuitive slider interface or direct input, set your preferred refresh interval from 1 second to 10 minutes and let the extension handle the rest. Each Safari tab maintains its own refresh settings, so you can monitor multiple pages simultaneously with different refresh rates. Key Features: - Automatic page refresh at customizable intervals (1s, 5s, 15s, 30s, 1m, 2m, 5m, 10m, or any custom interval between 1s and 10m) - Live countdown timer shows time remaining until next refresh - Slider control or click-to-edit display for flexible input - Independent refresh settings for each tab - Visual "On" badge shows active refresh status - Settings persist across browser sessions - Efficient battery usage with smart refresh engine - Available in 27 languages - Works on both iPhone, iPad, and Mac Perfect for: - Monitoring live scores, stock tickers, and weather updates - Watching for content changes without manual refreshing - Development and testing workflows - Any webpage that updates frequently Simple Refresh focuses on doing one thing well: refreshing webpages automatically. No complex setup, no unnecessary features—just reliable, automatic refresh when you need it.
xEngine for Safari
This utility app allows users to customize their default search engine within Safari. It supports a wide variety of popular and AI-powered search engines, and enables users to add their own custom options while prioritizing privacy through local processing.
- Customize Safari's default search engine
- Support for popular search engines
- Add custom AI search engines
- Local data processing for privacy
- Manage your own search engines
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xEngine — Customize Your Safari's Default Search Engine Tired of Safari's limited search options? xEngine gives you control. Switch between a wide range of search engines — or add your own, including AI engines like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity — all without sacrificing privacy. Key Features: - Choose from popular engines like Brave, Yandex, Startpage, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and more - Add and manage your own custom search engines - Local processing only — xEngine never collects your data Simple. Private. Yours. Download xEngine and search the web your way.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: Simple Refresh for Safari at free against xEngine for Safari's paid. Simple Refresh for Safari also leads on update cadence (every 6 weeks vs every 6 months) and rating (3.5 vs 3.3). On price, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Simple Refresh for Safari costs $1.99 and xEngine for Safari $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Simple Refresh for Safari holds the better App Store score, 3.5 against 3.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 24 and 6 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 52% of Simple Refresh for Safari's written reviews are positive against 50% of xEngine for Safari's.
Simple Refresh for Safari ships an update every 6 weeks, xEngine for Safari every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on September 20, 2026 and September 4, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Simple Refresh for Safari | xEngine for Safari |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 | $1.99 |
| Rating | 3.5 (24 ratings) — better | 3.3 (6 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 52.3% of reviews — better | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 24 — better | 6 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks — better | Every 6 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #123 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.6 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | +4 |
| Developer | William Walker | 磊 汪 |
Customer experience
Simple Refresh for Safari
xEngine for Safari
Bugs and requests
Simple Refresh for Safari
Reported bugs
17 issues- Latest update breaks functionality on iPad
- Start button unresponsive after update
- Extension stops working after a few hours
- Extension stops working on iOS 17
- Extension stops working after Safari updates
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- Extension turns itself off randomly
- Extension stops remembering scroll position
- Extension automatically disables after first refresh
- Extension resets to 60-second interval after disabling
- Extension not working on M1 Mac with Safari 15
- Extension disconnects when changing tabs
- Extension stops working after OS reinstall
- Extension not compatible with Safari 14 (initially)
- Auto-refresh sometimes stops working
- Extension disappears from Safari extension list
- Extension logs user out of OWA
- Extension not working on Big Sur
Requested features
15 requests- Add countdown timer display
- Allow typing custom interval
- Longer timer duration (up to 30 mins)
- Keyboard shortcut to start/stop
- Toggle to disable refresh when tab focused
Show 10 moreShow fewer
- Beep when change is noted
- Clear tab cache on reload
- Refresh by URL instead of tab
- Countdown tracker for next refresh
- Option for 3-second intervals
- Utilize on multiple windows simultaneously
- Remember settings after Safari restart
- Sound alert for page changes
- Ability to set different timers for different tabs
- Remember scroll position after refresh
xEngine for Safari
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Simple Refresh for Safari
No in-app purchases
xEngine for Safari
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Simple Refresh for Safari free?
Is xEngine for Safari free?
Which has better reviews, Simple Refresh for Safari or xEngine for Safari?
Do Simple Refresh for Safari or xEngine for Safari have ads?
Which is updated more often, Simple Refresh for Safari or xEngine for Safari?
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