Back in Time for iPhone vs Alien Planets
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Back in Time for iPhone
Explore the history of the universe, Earth, life, and civilization through interactive timelines, stunning visuals, and custom animations. This app offers an immersive learning experience with social and historical context for key events.
- Interactive timelines
- Over 350 images
- 60+ animations and videos
- 200+ interesting facts
- Offline access
- Multilingual support
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• "...a beautifully executed lesson on the history of the universe" - The New York Times • Winner of the WSA Mobile Award • Top1 iPhone Book App in 10 Countries • Featured by The New York Times (Top10 iPad Apps of the year) • Featured by the American Photo Magazine (Top 10 Photo eBooks of the year) For iPad download - Back in Time Back in Time will take you on a stunning exploration of the history of our Universe, Earth, Life and Civilization. A journey through time where each event is documented with social and historical context, several images, an illustrative timeline and little-known interesting facts. Custom made animations bring those events to life, creating an interesting, immersive learning experience. An imaginary clock will guide you through this quest, proposing a simple analogy: the entire Universe started 24 hours ago. The Big Bang, the source of time and space, is the first event in our journey – the clock reads 0:00 hours. Today, 13.7 billion years later, the clock reads midnight. In between is a sequence of key events that has brought us to where we are today. Explore them, place them in perspective, see how they relate and understand the connections. We invite you to take a step back and see the whole picture. :::: REVIEWS - iPad version :::: "The coolest history textbook you’ll find on the iPad" - Bob Tedeschi, The New York Times “The iPad could use more apps like this one.” - The Daily “...a beautifully executed lesson on the history of the universe and the evolution of life on earth. Great for high school students or parents who’d like to tutor younger children and enjoy a first-rate experience of their own...” - Bob Tedeschi, The New York Times “...the best iPad apps are those that combine coffee table-styled books with the fluid nature of the iPad’s interface. Back in Time is just that, it’s the story of the entire history of our universe made interactive on the iPad.” - Casey Chan, Gizmodo (App of the Day) “Back in Time is utterly gorgeous in its presentation. (...) The app is so easy to navigate that it is a delight to explore. Landka could scarcely have done a better job in putting everything together.” - Gwen Phua, Appmodo :::: FEATURES :::: Designed for iPhone; 47 chapters; Over 350 remarkable images; 60+ amazing animations and videos; 40+ illustrated timelines; More than 200 little-known interesting facts; Music by the compositor Rodrigo Leão; Developed in 7 different languages (English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Japanese and Chinese); No internet connection required.
Alien Planets
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Alien Planets is a field guide to worlds that do not orbit our Sun. Somewhere out there, a year can last a few days, a sky can hold two suns, and a planet can be so close to its star that its surface is a permanent storm. This app turns those distant discoveries into something you can actually browse. Open it and move through confirmed exoplanets and the stars they circle. Each world comes with the details that make it real: how large it is, how massive, how long it takes to orbit, how far away it sits, and how it was found. Set a planet next to Earth or Jupiter and the scale snaps into place. A “super-Earth” stops being a label and starts looking like a place. The catalog keeps growing. New observations revise old numbers, and planets once listed as candidates become confirmed. Alien Planets stays with that living record, written in plain language, so you can follow the nearest known worlds, the strangest orbits, and the thin band astronomers call the habitable zone without getting lost in a research paper. Save the planets you want to come back to. Then keep going. The galaxy is full of new worlds, and most of them still have a story waiting.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Back in Time for iPhone at $4.99 against Alien Planets's $9.99. Back in Time for iPhone also leads on update cadence (every 8 months vs every 24 months) and iOS requirement (16.0 vs 27.0). On ads, 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
Back in Time for iPhone costs $4.99 and Alien Planets $9.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Back in Time for iPhone ships an update every 8 months, Alien Planets every 24 months. The most recent releases landed on September 28, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Back in Time for iPhone | Alien Planets |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 — better | $9.99 |
| Rating | 3.8 (15 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 71.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 15 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 8 months — better | Every 24 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 27.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 625 MB | 51 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Landka | Jose Leal |
In-app purchases
Back in Time for iPhone
No in-app purchases
Alien Planets
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Back in Time for iPhone free?
Is Alien Planets free?
Do Back in Time for iPhone or Alien Planets have ads?
Which is updated more often, Back in Time for iPhone or Alien Planets?
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