Comparison

Dusty the Digger vs Backhoe!

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Dusty the Digger

Help a friendly construction vehicle navigate challenges, rescue friends, and build a new home. This interactive app features fun animations, sounds, and encourages curiosity and imagination in young children.

Highlights
  • Move, break, and build with Dusty
  • Rescue friends and build a new home
  • Hundreds of fun animations and sounds
  • Develop fine motor skills
  • Spark imagination
  • Collect and play with various animal friends
Features
Read full description

Meet Dusty the Digger! Dusty is on his way to the construction site when he sees that his friends need help. Help Dusty move, break and build as he works to rescue his friends and build them a new home. A FunLoop favourite, back for today's phones and tablets. Your child will enjoy exploring Dusty's world, filled with hundreds of fun and silly animations and sounds. The app is designed to engage your child's curiosity, help develop fine motor skills and spark imagination. What's in the app: **** ON THE ROAD: Dusty is travelling the road on the back of his friend Fred the Flatbed Truck. The adventure starts here! **** CROSS THE CANYON: Dusty has to free his trapped friends and get across the canyon! **** BREAK DOWN THE WALL: A wall is in the way! Can you and Dusty figure out how to get past it? **** BRIDGE THE WATERFALL: There's only one thing to do when a river blocks your path: it's time to build a bridge! **** HOME SWEET HOME: The meadow is beautiful, but there's nowhere for everyone to live. It's up to Dusty to build everyone a fun place to call home! Dusty has many fun friends to play with, each with their own silly personalities and animations to discover. Dusty's friends include: > Swarm of Bees > Colony of Bunnies > Coop of Chickens > Pack of Puppies > Troop of Monkeys > Flurry of Snowmen For Parents: This app is a great choice for kids 2-6 and construction equipment lovers of all ages! This app does not contain any third-party advertisements. Bee is free to play with for life. The other five friends come with a Friends Pass subscription. Every path to the pass sits behind a grown-ups-only gate, and you can switch off purchases entirely with the In-App Purchases restriction in Screen Time on your device. We take the privacy of your data seriously. Please review our privacy policy below; it's our promise to you on how we treat your data. About FunLoop We started FunLoop to make awesome digital toys and games for kids on phones and tablets. We have been amazed by watching our own children (and nieces and nephews) interact with these devices, and are inspired by all of the possibilities for fun and learning that now exist. Bee is free forever. A Friends Pass unlocks Chicken, Bunny, Puppy, Monkey and Snowman, each with their own story in every scene: $2.00 a month or $12.00 a year. Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. The subscription renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period; manage or cancel in your Apple ID settings. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://app.funloop.com/dusty/privacy/

About

Backhoe!

An interactive illustration game designed for young children, featuring a backhoe with simple touch controls. Kids can explore, dig, and drive without any pressure or complex mechanics.

Highlights
  • Interactive backhoe controls
  • Simple touch-to-play mechanics
  • Watercolor illustration style
  • No ads or in-app purchases
  • Score tracking
  • Kid-friendly design
Features
Read full description

Backhoe! is a game built specifically for the youngest gamers in our lives. I built this game for my son and daughter who are 4 and 3, respectively. They have a lot of fun playing it and helped shape the game with their extensive playtesting and feedback, and I hope that a young truck lover in your life gets as much enjoyment out of it as they do. The game is fashioned as a sort of "interactive illustration", emulating a look of detailed watercolor truck illustrations in books of the 80s. The idea is to let kids play, touch anywhere on the screen, and not be accidentally booted out away from the fun. It's as easy and fun to use as a playground digger toy (you know, the ones with the two levers kids are always arguing over.) How to play: Touch anywhere on the screen to affect the game; touch the body of the backhoe to change the color of it, or tap the wheels to start and stop driving. Tap the back arm of the backhoe to work the digger scoop; press and hold anywhere on the screen and the bucket will follow your finger. Tap the front of the backhoe to work the loader bucket; press and hold anywhere on the screen and the bucket will follow your finger. Raise it high enough and dump out dirt, and collect more dirt by driving and scooping up dirt piles. Dig and make piles to their maximum size to score points. There is no wrong way to play the game, no way to fail, or convoluted steps too hard for the youngest players to understand. Scores are saved automatically and frequently, so you'll always have a running tally of all the fires you've extinguished. And best of all there are not, and will never be, any ads, in-app purchases, links to other apps, data collected by me, or links to take the player outside of the game. Have fun playing Backhoe! and feel free to contact me with feedback!

Screenshots

Dusty the Digger4 screens
Backhoe!4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Dusty the Digger at Free against Backhoe!'s $1.99. Dusty the Digger also leads on ratings volume (17 vs 2). Backhoe!'s advantage is rating (4.5 vs 3.8) and in-app purchases (none vs 10). On update cadence, ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Dusty the Digger is free to download; Backhoe! costs $1.99 up front. Dusty the Digger sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $2.00 per month. Backhoe! asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Backhoe! holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Dusty the Digger has 17 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Dusty the Digger ships an update every 83 months, Backhoe! every 53 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Dusty the Digger versus Backhoe!: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDusty the DiggerBackhoe!
PriceFree — better$1.99
Rating3.8 (17 ratings)4.5 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews89.3% of reviews—
Number of ratings17 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 83 monthsEvery 53 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.610.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size103 MB64 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFunloopAustin Ivansmith

Customer experience

Dusty the Digger

All ratings16 ratings
Positive68.8%
Neutral6.3%
Negative25.0%
Written reviews28 reviews
Positive89.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative10.7%

Backhoe!

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

7 purchases

Dusty the Digger

Subscriptions2
  • Friends Pass Monthly$2.001 Month
  • Friends Pass Yearly$12.001 Year
One-time5
  • Troop of Monkeys$1.99
  • Colony of Bunnies$1.99
  • Pack of 2 Friends2 variants$2.99
Show 2 more
  • Pack of 3 Friends2 variants$3.99
  • Pack of 4 Friends2 variants$4.99
None

Backhoe!

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Dusty the Digger free?
Dusty the Digger is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Backhoe! free?
Backhoe! costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Dusty the Digger or Backhoe!?
Backhoe! is rated higher. Dusty the Digger averages 3.8 out of 5 from 17 ratings, while Backhoe! averages 4.5 from 2 ratings.
Do Dusty the Digger or Backhoe! have ads?
Neither Dusty the Digger nor Backhoe! shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Dusty the Digger or Backhoe!?
Dusty the Digger ships an update every 83 months, and Backhoe! every 53 months. Most recently, Dusty the Digger was updated on November 1, 2026 and Backhoe! on November 2, 2026.

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