RA Tracker vs Visual Pinball
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
RA Tracker
This native iOS app allows users to view and track their RetroAchievements.org account. It provides detailed insights into game completion, earned awards, and recent achievements, enhancing the overall gaming experience.
- Track completion progress
- View game awards
- See recently earned achievements
- Discover users with specific achievements
- Get Achievement of the Week notifications
- View user leaderboards
- Manage game backlog
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RA Tracker for RetroAchievements.org is a native application for users to view and track their RetroAchievements account. RA Tracker has many capabilities, all designed around maximizing the RetroAchievements experience and feeling right at home on your iOS Device. - View your completion progress for all games you are earning achievements for - View awards for mastering a game - View all of your recently earned achievements - See users that have earned specific achievements - View the Achievement of the Week and get a notification when a new one is posted! - View the top ten user leaderboard - Add games to the Backlog to keep track of what you want to play - Search for games by console to see what games currently have Achievements to earn - Create a list of games to track completion progress - Follow other RetroAchievements.org users and track their progress and recently earned achievements - Read RANews As the RetroAchievements.org public API evolves, so will RA Tracker. Stay tuned for updates on what is to come next by following iOSLife on Mastodon.
Visual Pinball
Enjoy a realistic pinball simulation with hundreds of community-created tables. Experience immersive haptic feedback and customize your gameplay with intuitive settings and controller support. Advanced options are available for power users.
- Hundreds of community-developed tables
- Haptic feedback for immersive gameplay
- Customizable settings and POV adjustments
- Game controller support
- External DMD and AltColor/AltSound support
- Touch overlay and instructions
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The official Visual Pinball app. Built by volunteers since 2000 and open source since 2010, Visual Pinball is the simulator the virtual pinball community has been playing for over two decades. More than 70 people have contributed to it, and this app runs the same engine as the desktop version, so every table plays with the physics, lighting and sound its creator intended. No ads. No in-app purchases. No tracking. Made by volunteers. Two years of work from the Visual Pinball volunteers, in one update. Thank you for your patience, and for playing! A FRESH NEW LOOK • Redesigned for iOS 26 with Liquid Glass • Favorites and recently played tables at the top of your list • Search, sorting and three tile sizes • Light, Dark or System appearance • New loading screen that shows progress THE FULL DESKTOP EXPERIENCE • The complete Visual Pinball in-game menu for graphics, sound, controls and table options • Remap every button on keyboards and game controllers • Save settings for every table, or just the one you're playing MORE TABLES, LOOKING BETTER • Show the backglass and score display (DMD, alphanumeric or reels) on screen, right where you want them • Support for PUP packs, FlexDMD, B2S backglasses, video playback and VNI colorizations • All the latest physics and rendering improvements from the desktop version • Much lower memory use: textures are compressed on first load, then cached EASIER TABLE MANAGEMENT • Import .zip files, along with .vpx and .vpxz • Share any table as a single .vpxz file • The web file manager can now upload whole folders, extract archives, edit scripts and settings, and show the log live AND MORE • Many stability and memory fixes This version requires iOS 26.6 or later.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Visual Pinball at none against RA Tracker's 4. RA Tracker's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 12 months) and rating (4.5 vs 4.3). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume and ads 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. RA Tracker sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Visual Pinball asks for nothing beyond the download.
RA Tracker holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 53 and 74 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 85% of RA Tracker's written reviews are positive against 79% of Visual Pinball's.
RA Tracker ships an update every 2 weeks, Visual Pinball every 12 months. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | RA Tracker | Visual Pinball |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (53 ratings) — better | 4.3 (74 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 85.4% of reviews — better | 78.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 53 | 74 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 12 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 26.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 46 MB | 120 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 9+ |
| Developer | iOSLife | Jason Millard |
Customer experience
RA Tracker
Visual Pinball
User reviews
RA Tracker
From 53 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Best RA app found
- 👍 Nice UI and design
- 👍 Easy to use and navigate
- 👍 Great for tracking progress
- 👍 Good for finding new games
Room to improve
- 🐛 Missing achievement status flags
- 🐛 Inconsistent 'recently played' games
- 🐛 Ugly AI generated icons
- 🐛 Profile pictures don't update
- 🐛 Sorting options don't work
Visual Pinball
From 74 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Awesome way to play virtual pinball on the go
- 👍 Super easy to set up with minimal file prep time
- 👍 Insane that I can play favorite pins on just my phone
- 👍 Fantastic portable implementation of VPX
- 👍 Fun and exciting to archive the history of pinball
Room to improve
- 🔧 More ability to adjust table settings needed
- 🔧 Struggling to manage camera angle
- 🔧 No fullscreen on iPad, plunger and outlanes cropped
- 🔧 Some tables don't work or have issues
Bugs and requests
RA Tracker
Reported bugs
14 issues- Achievement status flags removed from list
- Profile pictures not updating
- Sorting options for achievements not working
- App hangs upon opening occasionally
- Games show as 'Mock Title'/'Mock Console'
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- Followed users list not showing
- Want to play list not showing
- App crashes upon opening on iPhone 12 (iOS 18.2 Beta)
- App crashes on launch with iOS 18
- No screenshot found at top of profile
- Comments button shows 'page not found'
- Wii icon not visible/in consoles section
- Shows games on profile not played, doesn't show played games
- Notifications for unlocking achievements not working/featured
Requested features
14 requests- Show missable/progression/win condition flags on list
- Show time played per game
- Show beaten/mastered status next to games
- Add iPad support
- Search for other games and add to watch/want to play lists
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- Native iPad app
- Landscape mode and controller support
- Universal game search
- View comments under games and achievements
- More widget options (profile, mastery badges, leaderboards, activity)
- Ability to get AotM (Achievement of the Month)
- Apple Watch version
- Notifications for new achievements
- Option to hide unlocked achievements
Visual Pinball
Reported bugs
2 issues- Tables don't load for some users
- Certain complex/intensive tables error out or run at low FPS
Requested features
6 requests- List of most played tables
- Ability to reposition DMD
- Option to skip startup checks for some tables
- Ability to edit table scripts on the app
- Direct link to table depository
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- iPad version with more screen space
In-app purchases
RA Tracker
- Small Tip$0.99
- Nice Tip$2.99
- Generous Tip$4.99
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- Out of this World Tip$9.99
Visual Pinball
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is RA Tracker free?
Is Visual Pinball free?
Which has better reviews, RA Tracker or Visual Pinball?
Do RA Tracker or Visual Pinball have ads?
Which is updated more often, RA Tracker or Visual Pinball?
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