Comparison

Verdant vs Squirrel City

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Verdant

Experience a full life from birth to death in this text-based simulation. Make choices that shape your career, relationships, and legacy across different eras. Build an empire, start a family, and leave your mark on the world.

Highlights
  • Text-based life simulation
  • Randomly generated worlds and eras
  • Deep career paths
  • Complex relationship system
  • Property and business building
  • Multi-generational family trees
Features
Read full description

Live an entire life. Every year, every choice, every consequence. Verdant is a deep text-based life simulation where you're born into a randomly generated world and live from cradle to grave. Your choices shape everything. LIVE YOUR STORY • Born into a random family, country, and era (1960s–2000s) • Navigate childhood, school, careers, love, and legacy • 20+ deep career paths including law, medicine, military, music, and more • Build a property empire, start a business, or go underground RELATIONSHIPS MATTER • Date, fall in love, marry, have children • Multi-date talking stage before commitment • Love languages, arguments, therapy, divorce • Every relationship has real depth and consequences YOUR HOME, YOUR LIFE • Buy or rent homes that affect your mood and relationships • Interact with neighbors, decorate rooms, host parties • Garden, cook, and build the life you want • Survive homelessness or thrive in a mansion BUILD YOUR EMPIRE • 50+ career hustles from YouTuber to manga artist to cult leader • Invest in stocks, property, and businesses • Run a law firm, open a restaurant, become a fighter • Social media fame with real platform mechanics MAKE YOUR MARK • Write your will, plan your legacy, mentor the next generation • Bucket list system for your final years • Family tree spanning multiple generations • Every playthrough is completely different Optional crime paths for adult characters (18+): drug growing and dealing, weapons, and prison, with real consequences.

About

Squirrel City

Build a charming treetop town for a community of squirrels. Manage their unique personalities, jobs, and relationships while navigating seasonal changes and gentle politics. Visit friends' towns and leave gifts.

Highlights
  • Build treetop structures
  • Manage squirrel personalities and relationships
  • Engage in seasonal activities and festivals
  • Participate in gentle town politics and elections
  • Visit and gift friends' towns
  • Experience dynamic weather and day/night cycles
Features
Read full description

A cozy game about a small town in the trees and the squirrels who live there. Build a treetop town. Place burrows, leaf tents, lanterns, benches, twig bridges, and a growing list of community structures — apothecaries, hot springs, meeting trees, trading posts, watchtowers, storm cellars, acorn libraries, memorial groves. Three structures bring your first squirrel. After that, more arrive when there is room. Meet the squirrels. Each one has a unique personality drawn from eighteen traits — Romantic, Industrious, Forgetful, Brave, Loud, Anxious, Loyal, Storyteller, Hoarder, Generous, Lookout, and more. They form friendships, develop rivalries, fall for each other, and sometimes cannot stand each other. They want things from you. They have jobs that matter. The journal keeps you posted on the small dramas: "Hazel and Pip have started exploring together most days." "Mochi and Sorrel sit near each other quietly. Neither of them has to say much." "Pip wants more storage. They've outgrown their burrow." Gather. Take walks to meadows, creeks, the old oak. Try the Acorn Toss for rhythm catches. Run a Bird Heist for premium materials. Each style favors different traits — Athletic squirrels excel at the Toss, Brave squirrels at the Heist, Sleepy ones still love a long walk. Weather. Storms roll in occasionally. You have a minute to reinforce, then the storm hits. Buildings can be damaged. The city repairs them. Late summer brings a drought. Winter brings stillness. The light changes through the day — dawn warm, midday bright, dusk amber, night cool. Politics, gently. As your city grows, squirrels with shared traits coalesce into Coalitions: Pip's Saving Society, Hazel's Open Hand, Bramble's Wandering Order. They form positions, deliver respectful petitions, and have quiet words at the Meeting Tree. Every fourteen days, an election. Squirrels declare. Coalitions endorse. You vote alongside the city. The winning Mayor proposes decrees — rationing, repair days, festivals, night watches. You accept or veto. The city remembers both ways. Visiting strangers pass through. Welcome them. Help them along with a small donation. Or let them quietly move on. Festivals. Bloom in late spring. The Long Day in midsummer, when the sun never quite sets. Harvest in autumn — the gathering games yield more, and the city celebrates. The Lantern Vigil in winter, when the memorials glow and the city remembers each squirrel who came before, by name. Visit your friends. Trade your invite code with a real friend. Visit their city in 3D. Leave a bench, a lantern, or a small note as a gift. They get notified. Your contributions live in their world. Your name stays attached. Remember. Squirrels age. When one passes, a small wooden marker stays where they were last seen, glowing softly in the city forever. On the anniversary of their passing, the Memorial Grove glows. The journal honors who they were. If they were Mayor, the city invokes their decrees specifically. Their causes can outlive them — when a Coalition's anchor passes, sometimes a successor emerges and the cause continues, just quieter now. The tone, always. Earnest, never cynical. Personal, never abstract. Tender, never aggressive. Squirrels disagree; they don't fight. They have "words." They go home sad or lighter or thoughtful. Even rivalries are loving — they care enough to disagree. Squirrel City is free. No ads. No in-app purchases. No tracking. No data sold. Designed for daily check-ins, not all-day playing. Your city syncs across your devices. Made by one person who cares about cozy games.

Screenshots

Verdant4 screens
Squirrel City4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Verdant at 4.8 against Squirrel City's 4.0. Verdant also leads on ratings volume (375 vs 1) and device support (3 vs 1). Squirrel City's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 9). On price, update cadence, ads and monetization model 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

Both are free to download. Verdant sells 9 one-off in-app purchases. Squirrel City asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Verdant holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Verdant has 375 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Verdant ships an update every 5 days, Squirrel City weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Verdant versus Squirrel City: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterVerdantSquirrel City
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (375 ratings) — better4.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews90.5% of reviews—
Number of ratings375 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS14.0 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size157 MB5 MB
Age rating17+12+
DeveloperShane vincentKevin Stewart

In-app purchases

9 purchases

Verdant

One-time9
  • Inheritance £250k$1.99
  • Inheritance £500k$3.99
  • Inheritance £1M$5.99
Show 6 more
  • Fame Pack$9.99
  • Inheritance £5M$9.99
  • God Mode$12.99
  • Inheritance £10M$14.99
  • Verdant Premium$17.99
  • Verdant Life VIP$29.99
None

Squirrel City

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Verdant free?
Verdant is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Squirrel City free?
Squirrel City is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Verdant or Squirrel City?
Verdant is rated higher. Verdant averages 4.8 out of 5 from 375 ratings, while Squirrel City averages 4.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Verdant or Squirrel City have ads?
Neither Verdant nor Squirrel City shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Verdant or Squirrel City?
Verdant ships an update every 5 days, and Squirrel City weekly. Most recently, Verdant was updated on October 31, 2026 and Squirrel City on October 28, 2026.

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