Arcbound vs Colony Zero
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Arcbound
Read full descriptionHide full description
Arcbound is a colony simulation game set entirely on a single evolving starship. Everything is connected. And everything can fail at any moment. Design and expand your ship room by room, manage oxygen, power, and crew survival, and guide a fragile civilisation from Earth’s final evacuation into deep space. WHAT YOU DO Design and expand your Arcship room by room Manage oxygen, power, water, and food to keep your crew alive Send missions to Earth to recover resources and survivors Grow your ship into a self-sustaining spacefaring civilisation Every system connects. Every decision has consequences. Inspired by classic colony sims, Arcbound takes the genre into a single fully interconnected starship, where layout, systems, and social dynamics are tightly linked. FROM ESCAPE SHIP TO STAR-BOUND SOCIETY Early Access includes both phases of Arcbound’s journey: Phase 1: The Exodus Stabilise your ship before Earth collapses and prepare for launch. Phase 2: The Voyage Guide a growing civilian population during multi-year transit as your Arcship becomes a living society facing internal pressure, scarcity, and unknown signals from deep space. BUILD YOUR ARCSHIP Start with a small emergency platform and grow it into a fully functioning star-faring vessel. Design living quarters, engineering bays, hydroponics, research facilities, and life-support systems while managing power, water, atmosphere, and maintenance across a fully simulated ship. A well-designed ship creates stability. A poorly planned one barely survives. MANAGE YOUR CREW Your crew are more than workers. They form friendships and rivalries, develop beliefs, suffer stress, and react to the decisions you make as commander. Social relationships and ideology evolve over time, influencing morale, productivity, and the long-term identity of your Arcship. Rescue new survivors, but every arrival may change the culture of your ship. SURVIVE THROUGH MISSIONS Send crews beyond your vessel on dangerous expeditions to secure vital resources. Recover technology, extract survivors, or raid for fuel, missions always return something… but consequences follow. Injuries, conflict, and unexpected events can reshape life aboard your ship long after the mission ends. Missions can trigger injuries, political tension, or unexpected consequences that ripple through life aboard the ship. KEY FEATURES Grid-based ship construction and expansion Fully simulated oxygen, power, water, and resource networks Crew needs, skills, relationships, and ideology systems Consequence-driven mission system Research unlocking new technologies and discoveries Civilian population and societal stability management Emergent storytelling driven by player decisions Pause and time controls for relaxed strategic play Designed for long-form sandbox progression In Arcbound, your entire civilisation exists within a single evolving Arcship. Every decision shapes not just your ship, but the society living inside it. Stabilise your ship before Earth collapses… or carry your failures with you into the void. A CALM SURVIVAL EXPERIENCE Arcbound is designed as a chilled but thoughtful space management experience. Most of the time you’ll be carefully expanding and optimising your ship, until emergencies, social tension, or difficult choices introduce moments of drama. There is no single correct way to survive. Only the ship you build… and the future you create. Join the community on Discord
Colony Zero
Read full descriptionHide full description
Colony Zero is a colony simulation where you never issue direct orders. You set priorities, policies, and conditions — then ten colonists decide who mines, builds, farms, and explores. You land on an unknown world with a landing module, a generator, and a thirty-day survival goal. Keep food, water, energy, metal, minerals, electronics, plastic, and medicine in balance while health, happiness, and loyalty shift with every cycle. Propose buildings — mines, greenhouses, solar panels, storage, and quarters for workers, engineers, and scientists — then assign work on the colony map. Scan, repair, and trade from the action wheel as Outpost Alpha grows. People carry professions, traits, values, and ambitions. Friendships and rivalries form, factions appear, and autonomy requests can split districts from your control. Choose a governance model: Colony Council, Administrator, Corporate Colony, Military Command, or Free Settlement. Research new projects, manage the economy, and push into new biomes as days pass: Red Desert, Alien Forest, Frozen Zone, Volcanic Region, Ocean, and Crystal Caves. Daily events force hard choices. Survive the first thirty days, or watch the colony fail.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Colony Zero at none against Arcbound's 1. Arcbound's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 2 days vs every 3 weeks). On price, device support and iOS requirement 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. Arcbound sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Colony Zero asks for nothing beyond the download.
Arcbound ships an update every 2 days, Colony Zero every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Arcbound | Colony Zero |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 336 MB | 123 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Dean Lennard | Benjamin Foster |
In-app purchases
Arcbound
- Arcbound - Early Access$9.99
Colony Zero
No in-app purchases









