Comparison

Pinball FX GO vs Visual Pinball

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

Head to head
About

Pinball FX GO

Experience the thrill of classic pinball on your mobile device. This app offers a pocket-sized arcade with tables inspired by popular entertainment brands and legendary designs. Compete on global leaderboards and master challenging gameplay with cutting-edge physics and visuals.

Highlights
  • Playable on mobile devices
  • Tables based on entertainment brands
  • Legendary Williams™ pinball tables
  • Realistic pinball physics
  • Global leaderboards
  • Regularly updated tables
Features
Read full description

Master the art of pinball in Pinball FX GO! Download now for FREE and dive into the next evolution of pinball mastery from Zen Studios, inspired by the biggest entertainment brands. Play for Free Enjoy Pinball FX GO while you play and advance through every table without spending a dime. Pinball On-The-Go Keep your very own pinball arcade in your pocket! Experience the thrill of classic pinball, anytime, anywhere — right at your fingertips. Biggest Brands in Entertainment The game features the best pinball tables based on some of the biggest hits in entertainment, like South Park™ Pinball, Knight Rider Pinball, Battlestar Galactica Pinball, and many more. Find your favorites and conquer the leaderboards! Legendary Williams™ Pinball Tables Play on the best Williams™ pinball tables - some of the most iconic and beloved pinball designs in the game's history. Join The Addams Family™, or experience an out-of-this-galaxy pinball adventure on Star Trek™: The Next Generation! Cutting-Edge Physics and Visuals Level up your pinball game with Zen Studios’ renowned pinball physics, carefully developed and calibrated by our experts over the years. Witness the greatness of the hobby with detailed 3D models and stunning visuals while feeling every nudge, tilt, and flip as you dive into thrilling pinball adventures like never before! Conquer the World Compete on over 150 global leaderboards and prove your pinball prowess. Immersive Challenges We bring you the best challenges so you can explore your pinball talent in numerous ways. Showcase your Mastery Earn unique mastery rewards for each table and showcase them to the world. New Tables Arrive Regularly Stay tuned for regular updates with new pinball tables from Zen Studios! Are you ready to become a pinball wizard? Download Pinball FX GO now and enjoy the thrill of mastering every table, one perfect shot at a time!

About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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

Pinball FX GO4 screens
Visual Pinball3 screens

Verdict

The call

Pinball FX GO and Visual Pinball both sit at 4.4 stars, but that hides the real split: 79% of Visual Pinball's written reviews are positive against 42% of Pinball FX GO's. Visual Pinball also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 40) and ads (none vs shown). Pinball FX GO's advantage is update cadence (every 6 weeks vs every 12 months) and ratings volume (1.3K vs 74). On price, rating 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

Both are free to download. Pinball FX GO sells 40 one-off in-app purchases. Visual Pinball asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Pinball FX GO holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Pinball FX GO has 1.3K ratings behind it against 74, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 42% of Pinball FX GO's written reviews are positive against 79% of Visual Pinball's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pinball FX GO ships an update every 6 weeks, Visual Pinball every 12 months. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Pinball FX GO versus Visual Pinball: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPinball FX GOVisual Pinball
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (1.3K ratings) — better4.3 (74 ratings)
Positive reviews41.5% of reviews78.6% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1.3K — better74
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeks — betterEvery 12 months
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.0 — better26.6
Further details — not scored
Size1.1 GB120 MB
Age rating12+9+
DeveloperZEN StudiosJason Millard

Customer experience

Pinball FX GO

All ratings1,189 ratings
Positive85.6%
Neutral5.0%
Negative9.4%
Written reviews371 reviews
Positive41.5%
Neutral15.4%
Negative43.1%

Visual Pinball

All ratings73 ratings
Positive80.8%
Neutral6.8%
Negative12.3%
Written reviews56 reviews
Positive78.6%
Neutral12.5%
Negative8.9%

User reviews

Pinball FX GO

From 1.3K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Smooth gameplay
  • 👍 Faithful recreation of classic tables
  • 🎮 Great variety of tables
  • 🎉 Exciting new tables

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Buggy and crashes frequently
  • 🔍 Blurry graphics and poor visuals
  • 📺 Awkward camera angles and UI
  • 💰 Expensive table purchases
  • 🔁 Redownloading of tables after each restart

Visual Pinball

From 74 App Store ratings

What 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

Pinball FX GO

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Frequent crashes and freezes
  • Laggy performance on tablets
  • Phantom balls and flipper issues
  • Inconsistent table downloads

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add nudge/shake feature
  • Implement rewind/wizard powers
  • Offer more camera angle options
  • Reduce size of top display
  • Add daily challenges and multiplayer
Show 1 more
  • Integrate Williams Pinball tables

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
Show 1 more
  • iPad version with more screen space

In-app purchases

40 purchases

Pinball FX GO

One-time40
  • Butters' Very Own Pinball Game$2.99
  • Medieval Madness™$3.99
  • Attack from Mars™$3.99
Show 37 more
  • The Getaway: High Speed II™$3.99
  • Camp Bloodbrook$4.99
  • A Charlie Brown Christmas™$4.99
  • Pacific Rim Pinball$4.99
  • Black Knight™ 2000$4.99
  • Terraforming Mars Pinball$4.99
  • Crypt of the NecroDancer$4.99
  • Knight Rider Pinball$4.99
  • Sky Pirates Pinball$4.99
  • Goat Simulator Pinball$4.99
  • The Princess Bride Pinball$4.99
  • Honor and Legacy Pack$6.99
  • South Park™ Pinball$6.99
  • Universal Monsters Pack$6.99
  • Tomb Raider Pinball$6.99
  • Elvira and The Party Monsters$9.99
  • Williams™ Pinball: Scared Stiff$9.99
  • Universal Classics Pinball$9.99
  • Williams™ Pinball Volume 4$9.99
  • Williams™ Pinball Volume 6$9.99
  • Williams™ Pinball Volume 5$9.99
  • Williams™ Pinball Volume 1$9.99
  • Williams™ Pinball Volume 2$9.99
  • Williams™ Pinball Volume 3$9.99
  • Star Trek™ The Next Generation$9.99
  • World Cup Soccer$9.99
  • Twilight Zone$9.99
  • The Addams Family™$9.99
  • Game Night Pinball Volume 1$9.99
  • Willliams™ Pinball Volume 8$12.99
  • Bethesda® Pinball$12.99
  • Williams™ Pinball Volume 7$12.99
  • Williams™ Pinball Volume 9$12.99
  • Godzilla vs. Kong Pinball Pack$12.99
  • Universal Pinball: TV Classics$12.99
  • Gearbox® Pinball$12.99
  • WMS Pinball Premium Bundle$29.99
None

Visual Pinball

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pinball FX GO free?
Pinball FX GO is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Visual Pinball free?
Visual Pinball is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Pinball FX GO or Visual Pinball?
Pinball FX GO is rated higher. Pinball FX GO averages 4.4 out of 5 from 1.3K ratings, while Visual Pinball averages 4.3 from 74 ratings.
Do Pinball FX GO or Visual Pinball have ads?
Pinball FX GO shows ads; Visual Pinball does not.
Which is updated more often, Pinball FX GO or Visual Pinball?
Pinball FX GO ships an update every 6 weeks, and Visual Pinball every 12 months. Most recently, Pinball FX GO was updated on October 30, 2026 and Visual Pinball on October 22, 2026.

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