Comparison

IdleSpiral vs Ethos Idle

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

Head to head
About

IdleSpiral

An idle, incremental game where players aim to grow a spiral. It combines simple gameplay with mathematical beauty for long-term engagement.

Highlights
  • Idle gameplay
  • Incremental progression
  • Spiral mathematics
  • Long-term engagement
  • Simple mechanics
Features
Read full description

Idle Spiral is a beautiful idle and incremental game inspired by spirals and mathematics. Grow your spiral farther and farther from the origin. Improve its parameters, discover formulas, challenge enemies, collect rewards, and watch simple mathematical rules create increasingly complex patterns. The controls are simple, but the progression is deep and designed to be enjoyed over a long time. Play actively when you want to optimize your build, or return later and continue from your offline progress. Features: • Deep idle and incremental progression • Spiral growth based on mathematical formulas • Upgrades, battles, challenges, achievements, and daily rewards • Optional ads and in-app purchases • Account, shared Mileage, and cross-platform save foundations • Performance and battery-use options for mobile devices How far can you grow your spiral?

About

Ethos Idle

Guide humanity's progress from its earliest discoveries to the distant future. Manage your tribe's choices, develop over 200 unique ideas, and explore the world. Advance your civilization, unlock bonuses, and enjoy a single-player, offline experience with optional ads.

Highlights
  • Develop over 200 historic ideas
  • Explore and exploit the world
  • Manage tribe choices
  • Unlock exploration bonuses and synergies
  • Prestige mechanic upgrades
  • Customizable challenge scenarios
  • Offline single-player experience
Features
Read full description

Chart the progess of Humanity through the ages, and guide their every discovery from the moment they kindle the first fire to the far future. Develop over 200 unique ideas across three different flavours of thought. Help your people to conquer or make peace with their enemies, explore and exploit the world, and develop projects to meet their needs. Manage your tribe's choices to squeeze out more strength, or sit back and idle as your clan develop on their own. Advance as far as you can take your people, and then collect bonuses to improve future runs. Select varied challenges that change the way the game plays, and combine these challenges to create your own unique scenarios with big rewards. Features: - Over 200 historic ideas to develop, across 3 flavours of thought - Dozens of exploration bonuses and synergies to unlock and exploit - Permanently power up your civilisation with prestige mechanic upgrades - Combine varied challenge conditions to create your own scenarios with powerful rewards - Optional, out-of-the-way ads won't interrupt your experience - A completely offline, single player experience - All game content is accessible for free

Screenshots

IdleSpiral4 screens
Ethos Idle4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Ethos Idle at 4.8 against IdleSpiral's 4.2. Ethos Idle also leads on review sentiment (84% vs 54%) and ratings volume (241 vs 79). IdleSpiral's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs every 3 weeks). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. IdleSpiral sells 12 one-off in-app purchases and Ethos Idle sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Ethos Idle holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 79 and 241 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 54% of IdleSpiral's written reviews are positive against 84% of Ethos Idle's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

IdleSpiral ships an update every 2 days, Ethos Idle every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
IdleSpiral versus Ethos Idle: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterIdleSpiralEthos Idle
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (79 ratings)4.8 (241 ratings) — better
Positive reviews54.3% of reviews84.4% of reviews — better
Number of ratings79241 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 days — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsYesYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.015.0
Further details — not scored
Size235 MB101 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperIdle System, Inc.Graham Goldstein

Customer experience

IdleSpiral

All ratings79 ratings
Positive78.5%
Neutral7.6%
Negative13.9%
Written reviews46 reviews
Positive54.3%
Neutral10.9%
Negative34.8%

Ethos Idle

All ratings241 ratings
Positive93.8%
Neutral3.7%
Negative2.5%
Written reviews64 reviews
Positive84.4%
Neutral9.4%
Negative6.3%

User reviews

IdleSpiral

From 79 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Great game overall
  • 💡 Interesting idle/incremental mechanics
  • 🔢 Generates big numbers
  • ✨ Satisfying progression
  • 🎨 Can make cool patterns

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Game glitches and bugs
  • 🔋 Drains battery quickly
  • 📱 Phone gets very hot
  • 📉 Progress halts without active play
  • 💸 Premium currency hard to accumulate

Ethos Idle

From 241 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fast progression
  • 👍 Minimal ad interruption
  • 👍 Simple and enjoyable design
  • 👍 Great for relaxing and watching numbers go up
  • 👍 Excellent incremental game design

Room to improve

  • 🐢 Slower progression speed desired
  • 🛒 IAP for 2x production doesn't eliminate video ads

Bugs and requests

IdleSpiral

Reported bugs

28 issues
  • Game is unresponsive
  • Ads don't work or give rewards
  • Patterns are random
  • Bar at the bottom center not growable
  • Phone gets super hot and drains battery
Show 23 more
  • Translation is poor
  • Offline progress not accumulating
  • Game speed items cause overheating
  • Game becomes laggy
  • Last two Z Reactors missing
  • Last three challenges missing
  • Game not idle, requires active play
  • Rewards reset when app is closed
  • Memory of Formula system confusing
  • Battles no longer progress offline
  • Text is too small
  • Daily bonus not working
  • Offline gains broken
  • Achievements not unlocking
  • Offline battles don't increase difficulty
  • Stats not functioning
  • Social sharing (screenshot/tweet) broken
  • Daily rewards unclear
  • Challenges past first versions inaccessible
  • Save process wipes progress
  • Offline enemy kills not counting
  • Spiral Equations not working
  • Difficulty of fighting tab not increasing offline

Requested features

10 requests
  • Fix bugs and glitches
  • Improve ad rewards and length
  • Make the game truly idle again
  • Fix offline gains and progress
  • Improve translation and text display
Show 5 more
  • Bring PC version content to mobile
  • Fix social sharing features
  • Add dark mode
  • Fix challenges not appearing
  • Fix Z-Reactors not appearing

Ethos Idle

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • RNG for challenges is unfair and unfun
  • Unlocking buffs for inaccessible technologies

Requested features

2 requests
  • Option to remove ads entirely
  • Clarification on prestige warp gain multipliers

In-app purchases

12 purchases

IdleSpiral

One-time12
  • Spiral Point 500$1.99
  • Snake Spiral$4.99
  • Bubble Spiral$4.99
Show 9 more
  • Arrow Spiral$4.99
  • Water Spiral$9.99
  • Space Spiral$9.99
  • Bonfire Spiral$9.99
  • Permanent Bonus$9.99
  • Pixel Spiral$9.99
  • Railway Spiral$9.99
  • Spiral Point 3000$12.99
  • Spiral Point 10000$29.99
1 purchases

Ethos Idle

One-time1
  • x2 Speed$6.99

Questions

Is IdleSpiral free?
IdleSpiral is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Ethos Idle free?
Ethos Idle is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, IdleSpiral or Ethos Idle?
Ethos Idle is rated higher. IdleSpiral averages 4.2 out of 5 from 79 ratings, while Ethos Idle averages 4.8 from 241 ratings.
Do IdleSpiral or Ethos Idle have ads?
Both IdleSpiral and Ethos Idle show ads.
Which is updated more often, IdleSpiral or Ethos Idle?
IdleSpiral ships an update every 2 days, and Ethos Idle every 3 weeks. Most recently, IdleSpiral was updated on October 30, 2026 and Ethos Idle on October 25, 2026.

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