Comparison

Plant Tycoon ® vs Tiny Shop

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

Head to head
About

Plant Tycoon ®

Nurture a virtual greenhouse, breeding and cross-breeding plants to discover rare species and solve a genetic puzzle. Manage your plants' health, sell creations to fund research, and customize your garden. This simulation game offers a persistent world and real-time gameplay.

Highlights
  • Breed and cross-breed plants
  • Discover rare and magic plant species
  • Manage plant health and growth
  • Sell plants to fund research
  • Customize virtual garden
  • Collectible insects
  • Genetic puzzle solving
Features
Read full description

Plant Tycoon® is a gardening sim game where you nurture plants and experiment with increasingly rare and valuable species. The object is to breed and cross breed plants until you find the 6 Magic Plants of Isola and solve the genetic puzzle. You start with limited cash, a handful of seeds, some soil and water. Grow plants, organize and harvest seeds, monitor your plants' health, age and maturity, and protect your plants from dehydration and infestations. Sell some of your creations to fund your research, buy better supplies to use in your Nursery, and purchase ornaments to customize your virtual garden. This is the same best-selling Mac and Windows game, now in a universal app for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, so you can take your greenhouse full of plants with you wherever you go! More about Plant Tycoon * There are many approaches to solving the game, with over 500 different species of plants to discover. * Inhabited by a wide variety of collectible insects to catch and display. * There are dozens of different seeds to experiment with. * Gorgeous artwork with detailed, dynamically-generated plants. * You can prune your plants to customize the look of your creations. * It's a genetic puzzle: discover which combinations will create the 6 Magic Plants. * It's a simulation game: grow virtual plants in a persistent world. * It’s a virtual pet: care for your plants in your own virtual greenhouse. * It’s a tycoon game: test your business skills and horticultural skills at the same time! * The built-in snapshot feature allows you to capture photos of your favorite plants in various display settings. * Experience real-time game play, with new surprises every time you turn on the game! Visit our Official Plant Tycoon site at www.PlantTycoon.com for instructions, strategy guides, and much more!

About

Tiny Shop

Design and manage your own fantasy shop in a charming RPG world. Research, craft, and sell magical goods, complete quests, and expand your business. An assistant helps sell items even when you're offline.

Highlights
  • Personalize and design your shop
  • Research, craft, and trade fantasy items
  • Complete quests and missions
  • Build and upgrade your city
  • Grow and harvest plants for crafting
  • Offline item sales with assistant
Read full description

YOU are a brand new member of the trading guild just stepping into this fantasy world. Personalize and design your own store, attract customers and sell magical and epic goods! Research, craft, trade, negotiate, buy and sell fantasy items and products from all over the world in this RPG simulation game and learn to manage your store to become the city’s best shop! Build, design and customize your very own cute fantasy shop with dozens of options! Making your store as outstanding as it can be will upgrade customers' satisfaction and boost your shop! Fortune awaits! With the help of your cute little assistant, discover a RPG world crafted with love. Meet mages and knights and send your heroes on epic adventures! Earn money and XP without doing anything as your assistant will sell your items for you while you are offline! Just fill your warehouse to the brim with goods and items and let the cash flow! Complete quests and missions for the trading guild and your customers and become the most beloved and reliable shopkeeper in town! Follow a cute and funny story, discover characters from your town and outside, build and upgrade your city to unlock more items and quests! Expand and upgrade your shop tile by tile. Buy beautiful and cute furniture and decoration to make your shop truly yours. Upgrade your shop’s statistics to boost your gold and xp! Plant and harvest exotic plants to craft powerful potions and other magic alchemy goods. From beautiful flowers to leafy vines you can become the best gardener around! Visit the botanist in the city center to buy new seeds and expand your garden. In this RPG fantasy shop adventure you will: RESEARCH, DISCOVER and CRAFT dozens of different items and goods to trade DESIGN and CUSTOMISE your tiny shop to improve your sales! COMPLETE STORY MISSIONS and QUESTS to help your city become prosperous EXPLORE and BUILD your city and world GROW and HARVEST cute plants and flowers ENJOY CUTE and CHARMING hand painted visuals HAVE A GOOD and RELAXING time Tiny Shop is a RPG store simulation game that will let you customize and design your own shop within a cute fantasy world. You can research, craft and sell: armor, potions, magic books, all kinds of gear and equipment as well as crafting materials such as plants, metals and gems. With your hard earned money you can expand and personalize your cute fantasy shop and explore the world to become the most prosperous shopkeeper in town! Install Tiny Shop for free NOW! Craft, trade, buy, sell, quest and customize in this fantasy RPG game! Music in our game is made by Kevin MacLeod at https://incompetech.com/ We're using the following tunes: * Carpe Diem * Porch Swing Days (slower) * Montauk Point Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Screenshots

Plant Tycoon ®4 screens
Tiny Shop4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Tiny Shop at 4.7 against Plant Tycoon ®'s 3.1. Tiny Shop also leads on review sentiment (79% vs 39%) and update cadence (fortnightly vs every 19 months). Plant Tycoon ®'s advantage is ads (none vs shown) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 15.0). 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. Plant Tycoon ® sells 3 one-off in-app purchases and Tiny Shop sells 18 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Tiny Shop holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 293 and 1.3K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 39% of Plant Tycoon ®'s written reviews are positive against 79% of Tiny Shop's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Plant Tycoon ® ships an update every 19 months, Tiny Shop fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and October 18, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Plant Tycoon ® versus Tiny Shop: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPlant Tycoon ®Tiny Shop
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.1 (293 ratings)4.7 (1.3K ratings) — better
Positive reviews38.7% of reviews78.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings2931.3K — better
Update frequencyEvery 19 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS8.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size47 MB270 MB
Age rating4+9+
DeveloperLDW Software, LLCMateusz Lesinski

Customer experience

Plant Tycoon ®

All ratings292 ratings
Positive47.9%
Neutral9.9%
Negative42.1%
Written reviews305 reviews
Positive38.7%
Neutral18.0%
Negative43.3%

Tiny Shop

All ratings1,292 ratings
Positive95.2%
Neutral2.6%
Negative2.2%
Written reviews267 reviews
Positive78.7%
Neutral6.0%
Negative15.4%

User reviews

Plant Tycoon ®

From 293 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🌱 Relaxing and calming gameplay
  • 🔍 Interesting plant breeding mechanics
  • 🕰️ Ability to adjust game speed
  • 🤖 Nostalgic for fans of the original PC version

Room to improve

  • 💰 Excessive reliance on in-app purchases (plant bucks)
  • 🔒 Inability to earn plant bucks through gameplay
  • 🌱 Slow progression without purchasing plant bucks
  • 🐛 Buggy and unresponsive controls (clipping, etc.)
  • 🌱 Plants die too quickly without premium soil

Tiny Shop

From 1.3K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Engaging gameplay
  • 🚀 Generous with free rewards
  • 🎨 Charming art style
  • 💰 No pay-to-win mechanics
  • 📺 Optional, non-intrusive ads

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional bugs and glitches
  • ⏱️ Slow progression at times
  • 🔋 Battery-intensive
  • 🔍 Lack of customization options

Bugs and requests

Plant Tycoon ®

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Game resets progress after in-app purchases
  • Crashes and freezes, especially when handling magic plants
  • Nursery sales not registering correctly

Requested features

6 requests
  • Ability to earn plant bucks through gameplay (e.g. watching ads, completing challenges)
  • Option to purchase the full game upfront without in-app purchases
  • Plant catalog/encyclopedia to track discovered species
  • Increased seed storage capacity
  • Faster growth rates for plants
Show 1 more
  • More frequent updates and new content

Tiny Shop

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Game freezes or gets stuck during loading
  • Disappearing or malfunctioning shop displays
  • Recipes or licenses getting reset unexpectedly

Requested features

4 requests
  • Ability to customize character/avatar
  • More furniture and shop decorations
  • Daily customer requests or challenges
  • Improved balance for crafting materials

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Plant Tycoon ®

One-time3
  • 10 Plant Bucks$0.99
  • 60 Plant Bucks$4.99
  • 150 Plant Bucks$9.99
18 purchases

Tiny Shop

One-time18
  • Small Gem pack$1.99
  • Birthday bundle$1.99
  • Adventurer bundle$1.99
Show 15 more
  • Croissant Bundle$1.99
  • Coral Crab Bundle$1.99
  • Starting Pack$2.99
  • Winter hat bundle$3.99
  • Big Gem pack$4.99
  • Bundle$4.99
  • Botanist Furniture Bundle$4.99
  • Blacksmith Furniture Bundle$4.99
  • Home Furniture Bundle$4.99
  • Kitchen Furniture Bundle$4.99
  • Ad Tickets bundle$4.99
  • Sunny festival$4.99
  • Flooded Bundle$4.99
  • Large Gem pack$9.99
  • Enormous Gem pack$19.99

Questions

Is Plant Tycoon ® free?
Plant Tycoon ® is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Tiny Shop free?
Tiny Shop is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Plant Tycoon ® or Tiny Shop?
Tiny Shop is rated higher. Plant Tycoon ® averages 3.1 out of 5 from 293 ratings, while Tiny Shop averages 4.7 from 1.3K ratings.
Do Plant Tycoon ® or Tiny Shop have ads?
Tiny Shop shows ads; Plant Tycoon ® does not.
Which is updated more often, Plant Tycoon ® or Tiny Shop?
Plant Tycoon ® ships an update every 19 months, and Tiny Shop fortnightly. Most recently, Plant Tycoon ® was updated on October 20, 2026 and Tiny Shop on October 18, 2026.

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