Golly vs Exponential Idle
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Golly
Explore Conway's Game of Life and various cellular automata with this open-source application. It supports diverse universe types, multiple algorithms, and a wide array of cellular automata rules. Users can import patterns, download from online archives, and utilize unlimited undo/redo functionality.
- Supports bounded and unbounded universes
- Multiple algorithms including hashlife
- Variety of cellular automata types included
- Reads multiple file formats (RLE, macrocell, etc.)
- Extracts patterns and rules from zip files
- Downloads patterns and rules from online archives
- Unlimited undo/redo
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Golly is an open source, cross-platform application for exploring Conway's Game of Life and many other types of cellular automata. Key features: Supports bounded and unbounded universes, with cells of up to 256 states. Supports multiple algorithms, including Bill Gosper's super fast hashlife algorithm. Many different types of CA are included: John von Neumann's 29-state CA, Wolfram's 1D rules, WireWorld, Generations, Langton's Loops, Larger than Life, etc. Reads RLE, macrocell, Life 1.05/1.06, dblife, and MCell files. Can extract patterns and rules from zip files. Can download patterns and rules from online archives. Includes a state-of-the-art pattern collection. Unlimited undo/redo. Extensive help, with an integrated Life Lexicon.
Exponential Idle
Engage in a math-inspired incremental game where you strategically stack virtual money through exponential growth. Advance through time, make variable changes, and purchase upgrades to accelerate your earnings and unlock achievements.
- Exponential growth mechanics
- Time progression
- Change of variables
- Buy upgrades
- Earn virtual money
- Unlock achievements
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Play Exponential Idle, a math-inspired incremental game. Your goal is to stack up money by taking advantage of exponential growth. To do so, you have to step through time by tapping the equation or simply let the time follow its course. You can perform change of variables to accelerate the process, buy upgrades, get rewards, and unlock achievements while earning virtual money.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Golly at none against Exponential Idle's 4. Golly also leads on ads (none vs shown). Exponential Idle's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 39 months) and ratings volume (4.1K vs 45). On price, rating and review sentiment 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. Exponential Idle sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Golly asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Golly against 4.9 for Exponential Idle. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Exponential Idle has 4.1K ratings behind it against 45, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 97% of Golly's written reviews are positive against 92% of Exponential Idle's.
Golly ships an update every 39 months, Exponential Idle every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 16, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Golly | Exponential Idle |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (45 ratings) | 4.9 (4.1K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 96.6% of reviews — better | 91.8% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 45 | 4.1K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 39 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 | 8.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 14 MB | 95 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Andrew Trevorrow | Gilles-Philippe Paille |
Customer experience
Golly
Exponential Idle
Bugs and requests
Golly
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Exponential Idle
Reported bugs
3 issues- Puzzle mini-games not loading correctly
- Offline progress issues after updates
- Occasional app crashes
Requested features
5 requests- More mini-games and challenges
- Better explanations for advanced mechanics
- Adjustable color schemes and visual customization
- Improved offline progress tracking
- Smoother performance and optimization
In-app purchases
Golly
No in-app purchases
Exponential Idle
- Donate$0.99
- Permanent Ad Reward$1.99
- Donate$1.99
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- Donate$3.99
