Zaparoo vs Visual Pinball
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Zaparoo
Enhance your collection experience by connecting to compatible devices. Search for games, organize with tags, and adjust settings. Unlock advanced features to use your phone as a reader for tokens, no extra hardware needed.
- Connect to Zaparoo devices
- Search for games
- Create and manage tags
- Adjust device settings
- Use phone as Zap reader
- Launch Zap tokens via NFC/camera
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Take your Zaparoo experience to the next level with the official Zaparoo app! Connect to the Zaparoo devices on your network to search for games, create new tags, and adjust settings. Take things further by unlocking the ability to use your phone as a Zap reader! Now you can launch your Zap tokens using the NFC reader or camera in your device. No external hardware required. It's everything you love about Zaparoo, now in the convenience of an app.
Visual Pinball
Experience the full virtual pinball simulator with realistic physics, lighting, and sound. This open-source app offers a redesigned interface, enhanced table management, and the complete desktop experience for mobile devices. Enjoy a vast library of tables without ads or in-app purchases.
- Realistic physics, lighting, and sound
- Redesigned interface with Liquid Glass
- Full in-game menu for graphics and controls
- Support for various backglass and display types
- Easy table import and management
- Optimized memory usage
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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 rating: Zaparoo at 5.0 against Visual Pinball's 4.3. Zaparoo also leads on iOS requirement (15.5 vs 26.6). Visual Pinball's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months). On price, review sentiment, 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
Both are free to download. Zaparoo sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Visual Pinball asks for nothing beyond the download.
Zaparoo holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Visual Pinball has 74 ratings behind it against 10, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 86% of Zaparoo's written reviews are positive against 79% of Visual Pinball's.
Zaparoo ships an update every 2 months, Visual Pinball fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 27, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Zaparoo | Visual Pinball |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (10 ratings) — better | 4.3 (74 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 85.7% of reviews — better | 78.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 10 | 74 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.5 — better | 26.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 53 MB | 134 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Wizzo Pty Ltd | Jason Millard |
Customer experience
Zaparoo
Visual Pinball
Bugs and requests
Zaparoo
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
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
Zaparoo
- Zaparoo Launcher$6.99
Visual Pinball
No in-app purchases
