PharoSmalltalk vs Ruckus
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PharoSmalltalk
Experience the full Pharo Smalltalk programming environment on your Apple devices. Write, debug, and inspect code with native performance and touch-optimized gestures. Access your projects anywhere with this universal app.
- Full Pharo desktop environment
- Touch-optimized gestures
- Native performance with Metal rendering
- Image library for managing projects
- Universal app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac
- Privacy-focused, no data collection
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Pharo on iOS brings the complete Pharo 13 Smalltalk programming environment to your Apple devices. Browse classes, write code, inspect objects, and debug — all running natively with Metal-accelerated graphics. FULL PHARO DESKTOP Run unmodified official Pharo 13 images. The System Browser, Playground, Inspector, Debugger, and every tool you know from desktop Pharo works here. No special images required. BUILT FOR TOUCH Intuitive gesture mapping makes Pharo comfortable on a touchscreen. Tap for left-click, long-press for right-click, two-finger tap for middle-click. Pinch to zoom. Full hardware keyboard support with modifier keys on iPad. NATIVE PERFORMANCE A clean-room interpreter written in C++ with Metal GPU rendering. Smooth 30fps display, efficient memory management, and full foreign function interface support. IMAGE LIBRARY Download official Pharo 13 images directly from the app. Import your own .image files from the Files app. Keep multiple images organized and switch between projects easily. WORKS EVERYWHERE Universal app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac (via Mac Catalyst). Your Pharo environment goes wherever you do. PRIVACY FIRST No accounts, no telemetry, no data collection. Your code stays on your device. Period. OPEN SOURCE The VM is MIT-licensed and open source. Contributions welcome.
Ruckus
This application serves as an integrated development environment for the Racket programming language. It allows users to write and execute Racket code directly on their mobile devices.
- Racket IDE
- Write Racket code
- Execute Racket code
- Mobile code execution
- Racket programming language support
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An IDE for the Racket programming language. Write and execute Racket code right on your device.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Ruckus at every 3 days against PharoSmalltalk's weekly. PharoSmalltalk's advantage is device support (4 vs 2) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 26.0). On price, rating, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for PharoSmalltalk against 5.0 for Ruckus. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 2 respectively.
PharoSmalltalk ships an update weekly, Ruckus every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PharoSmalltalk | Ruckus |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 2 — better |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 413 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Aaron Wohl | CLEARTYPE SOCIETATE CU RASPUNDERE LIMITATA |
Customer experience
PharoSmalltalk
Ruckus
In-app purchases
PharoSmalltalk
No in-app purchases
Ruckus
No in-app purchases
