Golly vs Life II
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.
Life II
Explore John Horton Conway's Game of Life with customizable resolutions and speeds. Features a built-in editor with copy-paste functionality for running patterns from online libraries.
- Conway's Game of Life simulation
- Adjustable resolutions and speeds
- Built-in pattern editor
- Copy-paste pattern functionality
- Supports online pattern libraries
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John Horton Conway's Game of Life. Supports different resolutions and speeds, and has a built-in editor. The editor supports copy & paste, so you can run stock patterns from pattern libraries found on the Internet.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Golly at 97% against Life II's 67%. Golly also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.5) and ratings volume (45 vs 2). Life II's advantage is update cadence (every 5 months vs every 39 months) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Golly holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Golly has 45 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 97% of Golly's written reviews are positive against 67% of Life II's.
Golly ships an update every 39 months, Life II every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on September 16, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Golly | Life II |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (45 ratings) — better | 4.5 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 96.6% of reviews — better | 66.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 45 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 39 months | Every 5 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 | 11.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 14 MB | 0 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Andrew Trevorrow | Thomas Okken |
Customer experience
Golly
Life II
In-app purchases
Golly
No in-app purchases
Life II
No in-app purchases
