Comparison

Acrobots vs Vortis

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

Head to head
About

Acrobots

A physics-based toy for iPhone and iPad. Drag and toss living bots, watch them interact, and stack them to create structures. Customize their behavior and environment for endless playful experimentation.

Highlights
  • Drag and toss bots
  • Physics-based interactions
  • Stack bots to form structures
  • Shake to scatter bots
  • Customize scale, gravity, balance, speed, and legs
Features
Read full description

Acrobots is a mesmerizing, physics-based toy for your iPhone and iPad. - Drag and toss these living bots across the screen. - Watch them tumble and push off each other. - Stack them together to form living structures. - Shake your iPhone to watch the bots scatter. - Customize scale, gravity, balance, stickiness, speed, and number of legs.

About

Vortis

Experience a dynamic fluid art simulation that responds to your touch with vibrant colors and mesmerizing patterns. Explore various visual styles and adjust simulation parameters in real-time for a unique, stress-relieving visual experience.

Highlights
  • Interactive fluid simulation
  • Real-time GPU computation
  • Multiple visual styles (looks)
  • Adjustable simulation parameters
  • Music and camera integration
  • Record and save creations
Features
Read full description

A relaxing fluid simulation you play with your fingers: a pool of color that answers every touch. Draw across it and you pull a band of color through the flow. Tap and a drop bursts open. Rest a finger and a glowing plume rises. Behind it runs a real fluid solver on the GPU, up to a hundred and twenty times a second. No video, no loop: what you see was computed a moment ago and will never come back quite the same. TWENTY LOOKS Ink on water, northern lights, marbled paper, smoke, neon, deep sea. One for every mood — and if you would rather not choose, the dice hands you one. EVERYTHING IS A SLIDER Vorticity, color decay, resolution, pressure: the knobs of the method itself, not a few filters laid over it. The pool keeps painting while you drag them, so you see what you are doing straight away. MORE THAN FINGERS Let the music in the room drive the flow. Use your own photo or the camera as a color source. Paint walls the color has to flow around. And record what came out of it. No goal, no score, no progress. A pool that answers back. Every third roll of the dice plays a short video ad. Vortis Pro is a one-time purchase that unlocks the effects, your own image sources and the solver's own controls — and removes the ads.

Screenshots

Acrobots4 screens
Vortis4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Vortis at Free against Acrobots's $0.99. Vortis also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.4) and update cadence (every 5 days vs every 5 weeks). Acrobots's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ads (none vs shown). On 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

Vortis is free to download; Acrobots costs $0.99 up front. Vortis sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Acrobots asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Vortis holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Acrobots has 25 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Acrobots ships an update every 5 weeks, Vortis every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard9 real differences · 2 level
Acrobots versus Vortis: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAcrobotsVortis
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating4.4 (25 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews86.7% of reviews—
Number of ratings25 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksEvery 5 days — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#172 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS8.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size2 MB58 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperVectorparkInes Golub

Bugs and requests

Acrobots

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Acrobots disappearing when device is leveled
  • Buttons/controls not always responsive
  • Performance issues with many acrobots on screen

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to customize individual acrobots (color, size, etc.)
  • More interactive elements (explosives, trampolines, etc.)
  • Ability to pause/freeze the simulation
  • Additional background options
  • Sound effects

Vortis

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Acrobots

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Vortis

One-time1
  • Vortis Pro$2.99

Questions

Is Acrobots free?
Acrobots costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Vortis free?
Vortis is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Acrobots or Vortis?
Vortis is rated higher. Acrobots averages 4.4 out of 5 from 25 ratings, while Vortis averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Acrobots or Vortis have ads?
Vortis shows ads; Acrobots does not.
Which is updated more often, Acrobots or Vortis?
Acrobots ships an update every 5 weeks, and Vortis every 5 days. Most recently, Acrobots was updated on November 6, 2026 and Vortis on October 31, 2026.

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