Comparison

Visual Pinball vs Paper Kites

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

Paper Kites

Experience a serene, endless flight by folding paper kites and navigating them through dynamic landscapes. Gather stars to unlock new kites and enjoy a peaceful, ad-free journey with a day-night cycle and various flight modes.

Highlights
  • Fold and fly unique paper kites
  • Endless flight through dynamic landscapes
  • Day-night cycle with changing skies
  • Unlockable kites and star gathering
  • Multiple flight modes (Normal, Hard, Free Float)
  • Ad-free and no in-app purchases
Read full description

Fold a kite from paper and wind, and see how far the sky will carry you. Paper Kites is a quiet, endless flight. Thread the gaps between towers and windmills, ride the wind, and gather stars as day slides into dusk and the moon takes over the sky. Breathe in. Let go. Fly. FIVE KITES, FIVE WAYS TO FLY Every kite is folded from a different kind of wind and each one answers your touch in its own way. ◇ Zephyr - The one that teaches you the sky. ◇ Tailwind - The kite that rewards patience. Heavy and unhurried. ◇ Cirrus - Featherlight, carried by every current. ◇ Ember - Quick, restless, alive. ◇ Peregrine - The kite for the practiced hand. It answers mastery, and nothing less. Unlock each one with the stars you gather along the way. IN EVERY FLIGHT • A living day-night cycle — sunrises, golden hours, moonlit villages. • Five unique kite themes — every kite scores the sky with its own music • Five landscapes drifting past — villages, pine forests, city rooftops, autumn groves, birch stands • Watch out for birds — Robins, swifts, pigeons, crows, and hawks sharing your sky • Star trails and formations to gather — every kite unlocks through flight • Three ways to fly — Normal, Hard, and Free Float NOTHING IN YOUR WAY No ads. No accounts. No in-app purchases — nothing to buy, ever. Just you, the wind, and the horizon.

Screenshots

Visual Pinball3 screens
Paper Kites4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Visual Pinball at Free against Paper Kites's $2.99. Paper Kites's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 12 months) and review sentiment (100% vs 79%). On ads, in-app purchases 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

Visual Pinball is free to download; Paper Kites costs $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Visual Pinball ships an update every 12 months, Paper Kites weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Visual Pinball versus Paper Kites: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterVisual PinballPaper Kites
PriceFree — better$2.99
Rating4.3 (74 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews78.6% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings74 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 12 monthsWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS26.618.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size120 MB46 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperJason MillardTailwind Studio Inc

Customer experience

Visual Pinball

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

Paper Kites

Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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

Paper Kites

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Visual Pinball

No in-app purchases

None

Paper Kites

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Visual Pinball free?
Visual Pinball is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Paper Kites free?
Paper Kites costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Visual Pinball or Paper Kites have ads?
Neither Visual Pinball nor Paper Kites shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Visual Pinball or Paper Kites?
Visual Pinball ships an update every 12 months, and Paper Kites weekly. Most recently, Visual Pinball was updated on October 22, 2026 and Paper Kites on October 5, 2026.

Other comparisons