BugSim vs TimeTree HD
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
BugSim
Explore Darwinian evolution through a simulation game where virtual bugs learn to survive and hunt bacteria. This educational app is based on a concept from a 1989 Scientific American article.
- Darwinian evolution simulation
- Survival of the fittest mechanics
- Bugs hunt bacteria
- Educational gameplay
- Based on Scientific American concept
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Bugs is a simulation game for Darwinian evolution, specifically through survival of the fittest. This program based on an idea presented in the May 1989 issue of Scientific American in an article titled Simulated Evolution: wherein bugs learn to hunt bacteria, by A. K. Dewdney.
TimeTree HD
Explore the evolutionary timescale of life with this app. It provides a public knowledge base of divergence times among thousands of organisms, drawing from scientific literature. Easily search for comparisons between species and view summary statistics.
- Explore evolutionary timescale
- Thousands of divergence times
- Tree-based hierarchical system
- Search for organism comparisons
- Compute summary statistics
- Data from 2,274 studies
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TimeTree 4 is a public knowledge-base for information on the evolutionary timescale of life. This application allows easy exploration of the thousands of divergence times among organisms in the scientific literature. A tree-based (hierarchical) system is used to identify all published molecular time estimates bearing on the divergence of two chosen organisms, such as species, compute summary statistics, and present the results. Names of two taxa to be compared are entered in the search window and the results are presented on a set of self-explanatory tabs. TimeTree 4 contains data from 2,274 studies including 50,632 species. We will be adding more data in the future as it comes in from researchers. TimeTree 4 requires iOS 8.0 or newer. The TimeTree project is jointly directed by Blair Hedges (Center for Biodiversity, Temple University) and Sudhir Kumar (Institute for Genomics and Evolutionary Medicine, Temple University). This project has been supported, in part, by grants from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, NASA Astrobiology Institute, and Science Foundation of Arizona.
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: BugSim at 4.0 against TimeTree HD's 1.0. BugSim also leads on review sentiment (80% vs 63%). TimeTree HD's advantage is iOS requirement (8.0 vs 12.0). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
BugSim holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 1.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 80% of BugSim's written reviews are positive against 63% of TimeTree HD's.
BugSim ships an update every 33 months, TimeTree HD every 23 months. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | BugSim | TimeTree HD |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (1 ratings) — better | 1.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 80.0% of reviews — better | 62.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 33 months | Every 23 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPad | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 | 8.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1 MB | 66 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Mike Wesemann | Arizona and Penn State Universities |
Customer experience
BugSim
TimeTree HD
In-app purchases
BugSim
No in-app purchases
TimeTree HD
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is BugSim free?
Is TimeTree HD free?
Which has better reviews, BugSim or TimeTree HD?
Do BugSim or TimeTree HD have ads?
Which is updated more often, BugSim or TimeTree HD?
Other comparisons
