Vertical Speed vs Vesper Drift
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Vertical Speed
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Get ready for the ultimate highway challenge! Race through busy public roads and compete for the best time. Show off your skills with risky stunts and stylish riding to earn adrenaline points and coins. Unlock and collect legendary motorcycles, each with its own unique character. Need more speed? Activate powerful boosters to blast through the tracks even faster. Push the limits, break the rules, and prove you’re the king of the road!
Vesper Drift
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For space shooter players who want a campaign offline, Vesper Drift puts dodging and weapon choices in one thumb’s reach, with 4 ships earned through play rather than a collection of hundreds. Your ship fires while you steer through enemy formations. Pick a weapon upgrade mid-flight, cut a path through the next wave and face the sector’s boss. The Alloy you earn stays with your fleet between missions. Your next flight - 18 missions across 3 orbital gardens, with survival, interception and combat objectives. - 3 bosses: the Sentinel, the Weaver and the Leviathan. - 4 ships with focused, piercing, fan or converging fire. Earn them through campaign progress. - Starting modules and permanent ship upgrades bought with earned Alloy. - Weapon choices during flights, 3-star mission goals and retries without an energy meter. Change the rules One contract is available each week on a repeating 12-week rotation. The complete archive holds 36 mission-and-rule combinations. This is a finite collection, not unlimited new weekly content. Ranked Arcade, Daily Drift and Expeditions use their own rules. Campaign upgrades and paid PvE advantages do not affect ranked Arcade scores. Optional purchases Aegis is a permanent purchase for immediate access to the ship. Starts at level 3; higher upgrades are preserved. Its converging twin cannon, reinforced hull and repair after 18 seconds without taking damage help in PvE. You can also earn the ship by completing campaign mission 12. Vesper Contracts Archive is a one-time purchase. It permanently unlocks all 36 contracts. It does not grant ranked advantages. The full campaign and all four ships can be played and earned without it. Vesper Mastery remains a separate one-time purchase for its existing Arcade features. Previous purchases and eligible historical rights are preserved. Play offline Gameplay and local progress work offline. Purchases, restoration and online Game Center features require a connection. Progress is saved on this device, with no cloud synchronization. Restoring purchases restores verified purchase rights, not a deleted local save. The App Store displays your local price before purchase. Privacy: https://bnjdpn.com/VesperDrift/privacy.html Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Vertical Speed at none against Vesper Drift's 3. Vertical Speed also leads on iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.0). Vesper Drift's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 5 days vs every 2 weeks). On price 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. Vesper Drift sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Vertical Speed asks for nothing beyond the download.
Vertical Speed ships an update every 2 weeks, Vesper Drift every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 8, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Vertical Speed | Vesper Drift |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 220 MB | 28 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Cortex (Apps) | Benjamin Dupin |
In-app purchases
Vertical Speed
No in-app purchases
Vesper Drift
- Vesper Mastery$3.99
- Aegis Ship Pack$3.99
- Vesper Contracts Archive$3.99
Questions
Is Vertical Speed free?
Is Vesper Drift free?
Do Vertical Speed or Vesper Drift have ads?
Which is updated more often, Vertical Speed or Vesper Drift?
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