Comparison

Pinball Defense Force vs Visual Pinball

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

Head to head
About

Pinball Defense Force

Defend space in this classic 2D pinball game inspired by arcade classics. Face endless waves of randomized enemies, defeat bosses, and utilize power-ups to achieve high scores. Enjoy offline single-player gameplay with realistic physics and an arcade aesthetic.

Highlights
  • Endless randomized enemy formations
  • Boss waves
  • Power-ups
  • Realistic physics
  • Score multipliers
  • Offline single player
Features
Read full description

Defend space with a pinball. Endless waves of aliens are coming down the table, and your flippers are the only thing standing between them and the bottom. Pinball Defense Force mixes classic 2D pinball with a retro space shooter. Enemy formations are randomized every run, so no two games are the same. Knock out waves, survive the boss fights, grab power-ups and stack score multipliers to push your high score higher than last time. Quick to learn, hard to put down, and it plays anywhere: no connection required. FEATURES • Classic pinball flippers versus endless alien invaders • Randomized enemy formations: every run is new • Boss waves that test your aim and your nerve • Power-ups and score multipliers for huge combos • Realistic 2D pinball physics tuned for touch • Game Center leaderboards: compare your score with players worldwide • Retro arcade art and sound • Offline single player, saved high score, no account needed REMOVE ADS Free to play with a small banner ad. An optional one-time Remove Ads purchase turns off all ads forever, including ad-free continues. Restore Purchases is built in. Made by a one-person studio. Support: mitchell525.github.io/support/pinballdefenseforce_support.html

About

Visual Pinball

Experience the full virtual pinball simulator with realistic physics, lighting, and sound. This open-source app offers a redesigned interface, enhanced table management, and the complete desktop experience for mobile devices. Enjoy a vast library of tables without ads or in-app purchases.

Highlights
  • Realistic physics, lighting, and sound
  • Redesigned interface with Liquid Glass
  • Full in-game menu for graphics and controls
  • Support for various backglass and display types
  • Easy table import and management
  • Optimized memory usage
Features
Read full description

The official Visual Pinball app. Built by volunteers since 2000 and open source since 2010, Visual Pinball is the simulator the virtual pinball community has been playing for over two decades. More than 70 people have contributed to it, and this app runs the same engine as the desktop version, so every table plays with the physics, lighting and sound its creator intended. No ads. No in-app purchases. No tracking. Made by volunteers. Two years of work from the Visual Pinball volunteers, in one update. Thank you for your patience, and for playing! A FRESH NEW LOOK • Redesigned for iOS 26 with Liquid Glass • Favorites and recently played tables at the top of your list • Search, sorting and three tile sizes • Light, Dark or System appearance • New loading screen that shows progress THE FULL DESKTOP EXPERIENCE • The complete Visual Pinball in-game menu for graphics, sound, controls and table options • Remap every button on keyboards and game controllers • Save settings for every table, or just the one you're playing MORE TABLES, LOOKING BETTER • Show the backglass and score display (DMD, alphanumeric or reels) on screen, right where you want them • Support for PUP packs, FlexDMD, B2S backglasses, video playback and VNI colorizations • All the latest physics and rendering improvements from the desktop version • Much lower memory use: textures are compressed on first load, then cached EASIER TABLE MANAGEMENT • Import .zip files, along with .vpx and .vpxz • Share any table as a single .vpxz file • The web file manager can now upload whole folders, extract archives, edit scripts and settings, and show the log live AND MORE • Many stability and memory fixes This version requires iOS 26.6 or later.

Screenshots

Pinball Defense Force4 screens
Visual Pinball3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Visual Pinball at none against Pinball Defense Force's shown. Visual Pinball also leads on monetization model (free vs ad-supported) and ratings volume (74 vs 13). Pinball Defense Force's advantage is rating (4.8 vs 4.3) and review sentiment (100% vs 79%). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Pinball Defense Force holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Visual Pinball has 74 ratings behind it against 13, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Pinball Defense Force's written reviews are positive against 79% of Visual Pinball's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pinball Defense Force ships an update every 10 days, Visual Pinball fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Pinball Defense Force versus Visual Pinball: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPinball Defense ForceVisual Pinball
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (13 ratings) — better4.3 (74 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better78.6% of reviews
Number of ratings1374 — better
Update frequencyEvery 10 days — betterFortnightly
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationAd-supportedFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better26.6
Further details — not scored
Size84 MB134 MB
Age rating4+9+
DeveloperMitchell SmithJason Millard

Customer experience

Pinball Defense Force

All ratings13 ratings
Positive92.3%
Neutral7.7%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Visual Pinball

All ratings74 ratings
Positive81.1%
Neutral6.8%
Negative12.2%
Written reviews56 reviews
Positive78.6%
Neutral12.5%
Negative8.9%

Bugs and requests

Pinball Defense Force

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Visual Pinball

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Tables don't load for some users
  • Certain complex/intensive tables error out or run at low FPS

Requested features

6 requests
  • List of most played tables
  • Ability to reposition DMD
  • Option to skip startup checks for some tables
  • Ability to edit table scripts on the app
  • Direct link to table depository
Show 1 more
  • iPad version with more screen space

In-app purchases

None

Pinball Defense Force

No in-app purchases

None

Visual Pinball

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pinball Defense Force free?
Pinball Defense Force is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Visual Pinball free?
Visual Pinball is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Pinball Defense Force or Visual Pinball?
Pinball Defense Force is rated higher. Pinball Defense Force averages 4.8 out of 5 from 13 ratings, while Visual Pinball averages 4.3 from 74 ratings.
Do Pinball Defense Force or Visual Pinball have ads?
Pinball Defense Force shows ads; Visual Pinball does not.
Which is updated more often, Pinball Defense Force or Visual Pinball?
Pinball Defense Force ships an update every 10 days, and Visual Pinball fortnightly. Most recently, Pinball Defense Force was updated on October 24, 2026 and Visual Pinball on October 30, 2026.

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