PlanetBuilder vs Advanced Space Flight
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PlanetBuilder
Shape cosmic debris into a living planet, bending gravity to your will. Defend your creation from deadly debris and hostile alien forces as life evolves and civilization rises.
- Shape cosmic debris into a planet
- Bend gravity to manipulate your world
- Defend against cosmic debris and alien forces
- Witness life evolve and civilization rise
- Adapt to challenges as your world grows
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Bend gravity. Build a world. Protect life. You are a chosen member of an ancient race that has mastered the fabric of space itself. In these proving grounds, you must gather cosmic debris and shape it into a living planet, and then defend it as life emerges and evolves. BUT... the universe is not empty. Deadly cosmic debris is everywhere. Hostile alien forces will test your creation at every stage. Your planet’s survival depends on your mastery of gravity, your reflexes and your ability to adapt. As life evolves, your world grows stronger. Civilization rises. Defenses awaken. And if life endures long enough… …it will ascend.
Advanced Space Flight
Explore the cosmos with a realistic space simulator for interplanetary and interstellar travel. Experience relativistic effects, view planets in real scale, and chart star systems with confirmed exoplanets. Discover the true scale of the universe, from nearby moons to the observable universe.
- Realistic space flight simulation
- Relativistic effects for interstellar travel
- Planetarium with real-scale planets and orbits
- Star chart and exoplanet explorer
- Full-scale universe exploration
- Multiple spacecraft and flight modes
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Advanced Space Flight is a realistic space simulator for interplanetary and interstellar travel. It is the only space simulator available that takes into account relativistic effects during interstellar flight. Besides simulating space flight this app can also be used as a planetarium, with all known planets shown in real scale with their accurate keplerian orbits. It can also be used as a star chart and exoplanet explorer, showing all solar systems with confirmed exoplanets within 50 light years from the Sun. This is the only app where you can get a sense of the true scale of the Universe, zooming out throught thousands of galaxies and galaxy clusters until you see the entire observable universe in your screen. Locations: - All Solar System planets plus 5 dwarf planets and 27 moons - All confirmed exoplanetary solar systems within 50 light years from the Sun, making a total of over 100+ exoplanets. - Over 50+ stars, including main sequence stars like the Sun, red dwarfs like TRAPPIST-1, white dwarfs like Sirius B, brown dwarfs like 54 Piscium B, etc. - Experience the full scale of the Universe: you can zoom out from a few meters to billions of light years, until you see the entire observable universe in your screen. Flight Modes: - Realistic Flight: Travel using optimized trajectories, calculated based on the orbital parameters of the origin and destination planets to minimize fuel usage. These are the kind of trajectories that would be used in a real space mission. - Free Flight: Take manual control of a spaceship in space, activating the engines as you see fit to achieve your goals. Spaceships: Advanced Space Flight features several spacecraft, based on present and future technology: - Space Shuttle (Chemical Rocket): Designed in 1968-1972 by NASA and North American Rockwell. It has been in service from 1981 to 2011, making it the most successful reusable spacecraft ever built. - Falcon Heavy (Chemical Rocket): Designed and manufactured by SpaceX, made its first flight in 2018. - Nuclear Ferry (Nuclear Thermal Rocket): Designed in 1964 by Ling-Temco-Vought Inc. - Lewis Ion Rocket (Ion Drive): Designed in a 1965 study by the Lewis Research Center. - Project Orion (Nuclear Pulse Propulsion): Designed in 1957-1961 by General Atomics. Some early prototypes were built before the project was abandoned after 1963. - Project Daedalus (Fusion Rocket): Designed in 1973-1978 by the British Interplanetary Society. - Antimatter Startship (Antimatter Rocket): First proposed in the early 1950s, the concept was further studied after advances in antimatter physics in the 80s and 90s. - Bussard Ramjet (Fusion Ramjet): First proposed in 1960 by Robert W. Bussard, design was improved in 1989 by Robert Zubrin and Dana Andrews. - IXS Enterprise (Alcubierre Warp Drive): Based on a concept design fom NASA designed in 2008 and popularized in 2015, it was the first serious attempt to design a superluminal spacecraft. Artificial Satellites: Several human-made satellites are present in the app: - Sputnik 1 - Hubble Space Telecope - Internation Space Station - Kepler Space Observatory - Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) - James Webb Space Telescope Effects: - Atmospheric light scattering effects, making atmospheres look realistic both from space and from the surface of planets. - Planetary clouds that move at different speed than the surface. - Clouds in tidal-locked planets form giant hurricanes, caused by the Coriolis force. - Stars with volumetric corona and lens flares. Star color determined by surface temperature. - Planetary rings with realistic light scattering and real-time shadows from the planet. - Realtivistic effects when travelling close to the speed of light: time dilation, length contraction and relativistic doppler effect. Join our discord community for discussions or suggestions about the app: https://discord.gg/guHq8gAjpu You can also contact me by email if you have any complaint or suggestion: gpawlowsky@gmail.com
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Advanced Space Flight at every 4 months against PlanetBuilder's every 26 months. Advanced Space Flight also leads on rating (4.3 vs 4.1) and review sentiment (84% vs 71%). PlanetBuilder's advantage is price ($0.99 vs $4.99). On ads, 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
PlanetBuilder costs $0.99 and Advanced Space Flight $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Advanced Space Flight holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Advanced Space Flight has 39 ratings behind it against 7, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 71% of PlanetBuilder's written reviews are positive against 84% of Advanced Space Flight's.
PlanetBuilder ships an update every 26 months, Advanced Space Flight every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 11, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PlanetBuilder | Advanced Space Flight |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 — better | $4.99 |
| Rating | 4.1 (7 ratings) | 4.3 (39 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 71.4% of reviews | 84.4% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 7 | 39 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 26 months | Every 4 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 90 MB | 180 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Strange Labs LLC | Guillermo Pawlowsky |
Customer experience
PlanetBuilder
Advanced Space Flight
In-app purchases
PlanetBuilder
No in-app purchases
Advanced Space Flight
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is PlanetBuilder free?
Is Advanced Space Flight free?
Which has better reviews, PlanetBuilder or Advanced Space Flight?
Do PlanetBuilder or Advanced Space Flight have ads?
Which is updated more often, PlanetBuilder or Advanced Space Flight?
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