Dots N Bars vs Shift
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Dots N Bars
A simple, casual game where players match falling colored dots with a corresponding colored bar at the bottom. Enjoy a relaxing and engaging experience with this easy-to-learn puzzle game.
- Match colored dots
- Colored bar at the bottom
- Casual gameplay
- Easy to learn
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A fast, focused arcade game: match the falling colored drop with the right segment of the bar below before it slips past. One mistake ends the run. Every drop and plank segment also carries a distinct shape marker, so matching never depends on color vision alone.
Shift
A relaxing block puzzle game where you group blocks by color and adapt to shifting mechanics. Plan your moves to clear groups and earn points, with increasing speed and arrow effects adding challenge. Enjoy casual play or aim for high scores in multiple game modes.
- Block grouping by color
- Shifting block mechanics
- Increasing game speed
- Arrow effect challenges
- Original soundtrack
- Unlockable achievements
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Drop blocks. Shift colors. Speed up. This new block-based puzzle game challenges you to group blocks together, while planning ahead to shift and adapt your stack to upcoming blocks and arrows. Create a group of five or more blocks and the group will clear and you'll earn points. Arrows attached to blocks will cause nearby blocks to change. Adapt your strategy to the constantly changing arrow effects, and the increasing speed of the game. Enjoy casually playing Shift while zoning out and enjoying its original sounds and soundtrack, or try to get a new high score in regular play or time trial modes. With beautiful animations and a relaxing pace, this is the perfect game for a long plane ride or an afternoon on the couch. It's free to play, and has plenty of unlockable achievements. Check back for more updates in the future!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Dots N Bars at none against Shift's 1. Dots N Bars also leads on ads (none vs shown). Shift's advantage is ratings volume (16 vs 3). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence 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
Both are free to download. Shift sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Dots N Bars asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Dots N Bars against 5.0 for Shift. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Shift has 16 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
Dots N Bars ships an update fortnightly, Shift every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Dots N Bars | Shift |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (3 ratings) | 5.0 (16 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3 | 16 — better |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1 MB | 20 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Apurva Mehta | Travis Bogosian |
Customer experience
Dots N Bars
Shift
In-app purchases
Dots N Bars
No in-app purchases
Shift
- Remove Ads$2.99
