XScreenSaver vs Flowpotion
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
XScreenSaver
Explore a vast collection of historic and educational graphics demos originally designed for Linux and Unix systems. This application allows you to interact with hundreds of these visual demonstrations, ported from the classic screen saver collection.
- Historic graphics demos
- Educational visual content
- Interactive demo playback
- Large collection of visuals
- Cross-platform heritage
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The XScreenSaver application is a large collection of historic and educational graphics demos. XScreenSaver is the standard screen saver collection shipped on most Linux and Unix systems. I released the first version in 1992. In 2006, I ported it to MacOS, and in 2012 I ported it to iOS. This application is not a screen saver, of course, since iOS doesn't have those. But it does let you play with the hundreds of graphics demos that are a part of the XScreenSaver collection.
Flowpotion
An interactive toy that simulates a quantum fluid potion. It responds to touch, motion, and stillness, allowing users to customize colors and brilliance with detailed 3D physics and graphics. This meditative experience offers a glimpse into nature's complexity.
- Interactive fluid simulation
- Responds to touch, motion, and stillness
- Customizable colors, energy, and brilliance
- 3D physics and graphics
- Meditative and mesmerizing experience
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Flowpotion is an interactive toy inspired by the classic homemade creation: a magic potion glitter bottle–with a quantum twist. Flowpotion responds to motion, gravity, and touch, or to stillness. Choose and change colors, energy, and brilliance to match your mood and state of mind. Experience the deep-detail, three-dimensional physics and graphics, with fluid dynamics via its unique evolving quantum wave function. Flowpotion is meditative, mesmerizing, and enlightening. Open it anytime to grok the complexity and beauty of nature animated by mathematical poetry.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: XScreenSaver at Free against Flowpotion's $6.99. XScreenSaver also leads on update cadence (every 6 months vs every 25 months) and ratings volume (104 vs 4). On rating, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases 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
XScreenSaver is free to download; Flowpotion costs $6.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for XScreenSaver against 5.0 for Flowpotion. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: XScreenSaver has 104 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 93% of XScreenSaver's written reviews are positive against 100% of Flowpotion's.
XScreenSaver ships an update every 6 months, Flowpotion every 25 months. The most recent releases landed on September 28, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | XScreenSaver | Flowpotion |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $6.99 |
| Rating | 4.9 (104 ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 92.9% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 104 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months — better | Every 25 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 28 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Jamie Zawinski | grokware |
Customer experience
XScreenSaver
Flowpotion
Bugs and requests
XScreenSaver
Reported bugs
5 issues- Photo library screensaver crashes on iOS 13
- GLText reveals password when system info is selected
- Framebuffer loading failures requiring app restart
- Crashes on certain devices or configurations
- Difficult UI for exiting screensavers on larger phones
Requested features
11 requests- Favorites or bookmarking system to save preferred screensavers
- Hide or exclude unwanted screensavers from rotation
- Ability to select specific channels in XAnalogTV screensaver
- Widget support for iOS standby mode
- Prevent auto-lock feature to keep screen on
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- Apple TV version
- Windows port of the application
- Larger hit areas for corner icons
- Faster scrubbing through screensavers
- Donate button for supporting development
- Screensavers featuring pentagons
Flowpotion
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
XScreenSaver
No in-app purchases
Flowpotion
No in-app purchases
