Comparison

Visual Pinball vs Astro Pinball

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

Head to head
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.

About

Astro Pinball

Embark on a galactic mission to conquer the pinball galaxy. Enjoy authentic classic pinball machine sounds and animations. Compete globally and climb the leaderboards to prove your skills.

Highlights
  • Galactic exploration mission
  • Classic pinball sounds and animations
  • Global leaderboard competition
  • Head-to-head player challenges
Features
Read full description

Report to duty! Your mission: explore the galaxy and rise to the top! Experience the classic sounds and animations of a real pinball machine. Go head to head against other players in the global leaderboard!

Screenshots

Visual Pinball3 screens
Astro Pinball1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Astro Pinball at 4.7 against Visual Pinball's 4.3. Astro Pinball also leads on iOS requirement (15 vs 26.6). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Astro Pinball holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 74 and 122 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 79% of Visual Pinball's written reviews are positive against 83% of Astro Pinball's.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Visual Pinball versus Astro Pinball: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterVisual PinballAstro Pinball
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (74 ratings)4.7 (122 ratings) — better
Positive reviews78.6% of reviews82.9% of reviews — better
Number of ratings74122 — better
Update frequencyEvery 12 months—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS26.615 — better
Further details — not scored
Size120 MB6 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperJason MillardKyle Sylvestre

Customer experience

Visual Pinball

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

Astro Pinball

All ratings110 ratings
Positive90.9%
Neutral4.5%
Negative4.5%
Written reviews76 reviews
Positive82.9%
Neutral7.9%
Negative9.2%

Bugs and 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
Show 1 more
  • iPad version with more screen space

Astro Pinball

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Visual Pinball

No in-app purchases

None

Astro Pinball

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Visual Pinball free?
Visual Pinball is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Astro Pinball free?
Astro Pinball is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Visual Pinball or Astro Pinball?
Astro Pinball is rated higher. Visual Pinball averages 4.3 out of 5 from 74 ratings, while Astro Pinball averages 4.7 from 122 ratings.
Do Visual Pinball or Astro Pinball have ads?
Neither Visual Pinball nor Astro Pinball shows ads.

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