Orbits Up vs Cell Zoo
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Orbits Up
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Pilot your spaceship through a galaxy of planets, stars, and danger! Use gravity to your advantage as you correct your course. Keep up on fuel by orbiting planets with fuel stations, and watch out for solar flares and enemy fire! The only goal is up!
Cell Zoo
Explore mesmerizing cellular automata simulations with alien organisms that evolve in real-time. Interact with living art, place it in your environment with AR, and fine-tune dozens of parameters to create unique patterns. Experience stunning visuals and emergent ecosystems.
- Real-time organism evolution
- Interactive touch controls
- Augmented Reality (AR) mode
- Multiple living systems (Physarum, Lenia, Gray-Scott, Particle Life)
- Extensive parameter tuning
- GPU-accelerated simulations
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The most beautiful cellular automata simulator on iOS. Watch alien organisms evolve in real time. Touch them, breed them, teach them to sing. Place them on your desk in AR. Cell Zoo is a pocket terrarium for mathematical life. ELEVEN LIVING WORLDS Slime molds that solve mazes. Continuous creatures that swim, split, and breathe. Chemistry that paints leopard spots and coral. Electromagnetic waves, self-assembling DNA, even your own words dissolving into life. New in 2.2: Chimera, where four rival physics share one map and fight over the borders. Every world runs real math at up to 120 frames per second, and none of them behaves the way you expect. IT GROWS INTO YOUR PHOTOS Hand the colony a picture and watch it grow into the bright shapes — your face, your handwriting, your dog. A living sketch, not a copy. IT LISTENS. IT SINGS. Turn on Hearing and the colony moves to your music: bass makes it surge, treble makes it shimmer. Turn on Voice and the simulation sings back — a generative soundtrack drawn from the colony's own rhythms, never the same twice. A NEW CREATURE EVERY DAY Hatch the Daily Specimen each morning. Creatures you keep sync across your devices with iCloud. SHARE WHAT YOU GROW Send any creature by link. It hatches on your friend's device exactly as you made it — same genes, same colors, same behavior. BREED THEM (Premium) Cross two creatures and hatch the offspring. Mutate genomes. Pit colonies against each other in the arena and carry the winner's line forward. 30+ RENDER MODES (Premium) Photoreal protoplasm, holographic diffraction, infrared, liquid metal, bioluminescent deep-sea glow, aurora, soap film. Every mode is a handcrafted Metal shader. AR MODE (Premium) Grow a colony on your table, floor, or wall. In 3D, a living structure floats in your room — walk around it. Walk through it. TUNE EVERYTHING Sensor angles, diffusion rates, decay, species counts — every slider changes behavior live, and all of them are free. Capture the results in photo mode with pro exposure and cinematic filters. Built native with Metal: 120Hz ProMotion, HDR bloom, MetalFX upscaling. No accounts, no ads, no analytics. Premium is a single one-time purchase. Terms: https://cellzoo.app/#terms
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Orbits Up at none against Cell Zoo's 1. Orbits Up also leads on iOS requirement (18.2 vs 26.0). On price, 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. Cell Zoo sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Orbits Up asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | Orbits Up | Cell Zoo |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 3.7 (3 ratings) — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 3 — better |
| Update frequency | — | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | — | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.2 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Bradley Barr | Aleksander Allen |
In-app purchases
Orbits Up
No in-app purchases
Cell Zoo
- Lifetime Premium$3.99








