Comparison

Exponential Idle vs Not Evil Sudoku

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Exponential Idle

Engage in a math-inspired incremental game where you strategically stack virtual money through exponential growth. Advance through time, make variable changes, and purchase upgrades to accelerate your earnings and unlock achievements.

Highlights
  • Exponential growth mechanics
  • Time progression
  • Change of variables
  • Buy upgrades
  • Earn virtual money
  • Unlock achievements
Features
Read full description

Play Exponential Idle, a math-inspired incremental game. Your goal is to stack up money by taking advantage of exponential growth. To do so, you have to step through time by tapping the equation or simply let the time follow its course. You can perform change of variables to accelerate the process, buy upgrades, get rewards, and unlock achievements while earning virtual money.

About

Not Evil Sudoku

Enjoy a distraction-free Sudoku experience with helpful features like hints and real-time validation. Track your progress, compete globally, and customize the app with themes. Play daily puzzles for free or upgrade for unlimited games and advanced statistics.

Highlights
  • Fully offline play
  • No ads or distractions
  • Real-time move validation
  • Shake for hints
  • Daily puzzles with leaderboards
  • Customizable themes and icons
  • Notes and auto-clear notes
Features
Read full description

A joyful sudoku-solving experience built natively for iPhone and iPad and optimized for a zen solving experience free from bloat and distraction. Designed to be easy to play and meet you where ever you are in your sudoku journey: a casual solver or a sudoku pro. Stuck on a puzzle? Shake your phone for hints and turn on move by move validation in settings to get immediate feedback on your solve. Tickle your brain as you learn new solving strategies and customize the app to your taste with themes and alternate app icons. Play a daily puzzle at a difficulty of your choice and see where you stack up with players across the globe. Or just turn off the stopwatch and relax. Key features: - Fully offline: no internet required - No ads or distractions - Real-time move validation to get immediate feedback - Shake for a hint on the next logical move - Leaderboards with assist tracking - Easy, Medium, and Hard difficulty levels - Light/Dark mode - Stopwatch and best time tracking - Notes: Keep track of candidates - Auto-clear Notes: removes candidate numbers automatically in row, column, and box when they become outdated - Speed demon: Lock numbers and place them in multiple tiles at once - Arithmophobia: Sudoku with letters instead of numbers - Daily streak tracking - Daily reminder notifications - Highlighter: tap a number to highlight all its instances on the board - Themes to customize the interface (some require Pro) - Alternate app icons (Pro) - Charts and statistics (Pro): track solve speed over time and puzzle count by difficulty Play the daily puzzle at your preferred difficulty for free without any limits on assists or game features. Upgrade to Pro with a one-time purchase to unlock unlimited games, detailed stats, more themes, and alternate app icons. Pro supports Family Sharing.

Screenshots

Exponential Idle4 screens
Not Evil Sudoku4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Not Evil Sudoku at none against Exponential Idle's shown. Not Evil Sudoku also leads on update cadence (every 9 days vs every 3 weeks). Exponential Idle's advantage is rating (4.9 vs 4.6) and review sentiment (92% vs 75%). On price, in-app purchases, monetization model and device support 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Exponential Idle sells 4 one-off in-app purchases and Not Evil Sudoku sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Exponential Idle holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4.1K and 1.1K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 92% of Exponential Idle's written reviews are positive against 75% of Not Evil Sudoku's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Exponential Idle ships an update every 3 weeks, Not Evil Sudoku every 9 days. Both last shipped on November 3, 2026.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Exponential Idle versus Not Evil Sudoku: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterExponential IdleNot Evil Sudoku
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (4.1K ratings) — better4.6 (1.1K ratings)
Positive reviews91.9% of reviews — better74.7% of reviews
Number of ratings4.1K — better1.1K
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 9 days — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS8.0 — better15
Further details — not scored
Size95 MB23 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGilles-Philippe PailleAshish Selvaraj

Customer experience

Exponential Idle

All ratings4,139 ratings
Positive98.2%
Neutral0.8%
Negative1.0%
Written reviews270 reviews
Positive91.9%
Neutral2.2%
Negative5.9%

Not Evil Sudoku

All ratings983 ratings
Positive88.6%
Neutral3.1%
Negative8.3%
Written reviews241 reviews
Positive74.7%
Neutral5.8%
Negative19.5%

User reviews

Exponential Idle

From 4.1K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Great and addicting game
  • 👍 Interesting story and educational
  • 👍 Numbers go big
  • 👍 User-friendly with good descriptions
  • 👍 Highly automated progression

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional bugs and glitches
  • ⏱️ Slow progression after initial stages
  • 🕹️ Difficult mini-games
  • 🔒 Harsh time-change penalty
  • 🔋 Potential performance issues on some devices

Not Evil Sudoku

From 1.1K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Clean, minimalistic design
  • 🔒 No ads or tracking
  • 👍 Customizable features
  • 👍 Good puzzle difficulty
  • 👍 Helpful community

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Disappearing numbers glitch
  • 🐛 App icon doesn't change for dark mode
  • ⏱️ Limit of one game per day on free version
  • 💰 Paid version considered expensive by some

Bugs and requests

Exponential Idle

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Puzzle mini-games not loading correctly
  • Offline progress issues after updates
  • Occasional app crashes

Requested features

5 requests
  • More mini-games and challenges
  • Better explanations for advanced mechanics
  • Adjustable color schemes and visual customization
  • Improved offline progress tracking
  • Smoother performance and optimization

Not Evil Sudoku

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Disappearing numbers when closing the app
  • Numbers swapping to incorrect spots

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add auto-clear notes option without move validation
  • Provide more theme color options
  • Implement a 'warm' mode similar to other sudoku apps
  • Add ability to remove notes after number is placed
  • Highlight all instances of a number in the puzzle
Show 1 more
  • Remove a number as a choice when it has been placed successfully

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Exponential Idle

One-time4
  • Donate$0.99
  • Permanent Ad Reward$1.99
  • Donate$1.99
Show 1 more
  • Donate$3.99
1 purchases

Not Evil Sudoku

One-time1
  • Pro$4.99

Questions

Is Exponential Idle free?
Exponential Idle is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Not Evil Sudoku free?
Not Evil Sudoku is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Exponential Idle or Not Evil Sudoku?
Exponential Idle is rated higher. Exponential Idle averages 4.9 out of 5 from 4.1K ratings, while Not Evil Sudoku averages 4.6 from 1.1K ratings.
Do Exponential Idle or Not Evil Sudoku have ads?
Exponential Idle shows ads; Not Evil Sudoku does not.
Which is updated more often, Exponential Idle or Not Evil Sudoku?
Exponential Idle ships an update every 3 weeks, and Not Evil Sudoku every 9 days. Most recently, Exponential Idle was updated on November 3, 2026 and Not Evil Sudoku on November 3, 2026.

Other comparisons