Comparison

Swipe the Flow vs Armor Sandbox

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

Head to head
About

Swipe the Flow

Explore fluid dynamics and wind simulation with interactive touch controls. Create mesmerizing visuals, solve physics-based challenges, and import images to shape the flow. Save and share your creations as photos or videos.

Highlights
  • Real-time fluid simulation
  • Interactive touch controls
  • Photo and logo import
  • Multiple simulation modes
  • Physics-based challenges
  • Photo and video export
  • Game Center leaderboards
Features
Read full description

Pour water, draw walls, and change the flow with your fingertips. Swipe the Flow is a hands-on playground for water, wind, and smoke. Enjoy the basic features of all five free-play modes and the first five stages of each of the five challenge games for free. Unlock more challenges and premium visuals with Pro—a one-time purchase, not a subscription. NEW CHALLENGE: WIND TARGET Draw walls, then rotate, move, and carve shapes. The arrow shows how hard the wind pushes—keep its tip inside the box to win. Kites, a sailboat, an umbrella, roof luggage, and a bike behind a truck all catch the wind. • Stages 1–5 are free; Pro includes stage 6 onward • Longer arrows mean a stronger push WATER PLAYGROUND Catch water from a faucet and guide it along walls. Add a drain, pour or erase water, and stir it with your finger to build your own waterway. • Move faucets and drains; adjust each one's size, direction, and speed • Build with cups, funnels, photos, and shapes • Tilt your device to move the water and adjust its thickness • Basic features are free, with up to 10 faucets and drains combined FIVE WAYS TO PLAY • Water Playground: Pour water and draw walls to shape its flow. • Smoke Lab: Follow smoke to see invisible air. Adjust each chimney's smoke output and add a Smoke Eraser. • Wind Tunnel: Watch wind split around walls, photos, and logos. Turn on flow lines and wind push indicators to explore what happens. • Liquid Art: Create, push, stretch, and merge liquid drops. Tilt your device to move them. • Swipe the Flow: Swipe across the screen to draw colorful currents and spirals. FIVE CHALLENGE GAMES • Wind Target: Change the shapes to get the tip of the wind's arrow into the box. • Make Waterways: Draw walls and erase holes to send water where you want it. • Wind Paths: Draw walls to guide wind into the target. • Wind Maze: Carve a route and get the wind out before time runs out. • Smoke Delivery: Move chimneys and draw walls to send smoke where you want it. Stages 1–5 are free in each game. Pro includes Wind Paths 6–15, Wind Maze 6–15, Smoke Delivery 6–16, Make Waterways 6–24, and Wind Target 6–18. Try Game Center leaderboards and achievements, then share a photo of your cleared stage and record. CREATE AND SHARE • Import photos and logos, with background removal on your device • Move, resize, and rotate photo and shape layers with editing handles • Choose flow strength, playback speed, colors, and detail • Pause, reset, save photos, record videos, and share • Photos and videos are processed on your device SWIPE THE FLOW PRO One purchase. No subscription. • Challenge stages beyond the free section • No watermarks • More detailed simulation and all premium visual styles • Up to eight photo or shape layers • Up to 20 chimneys and Smoke Erasers combined in Smoke Lab • Up to 20 faucets and drains combined in Water Playground The free version includes two photo or shape layers. Every day, one Pro stage is free at the top of Home in "Today's Picks." Create without a fixed answer, or take on a puzzle with a goal.

About

Armor Sandbox

Explore a 2D physics playground where every element, from projectiles to targets, is simulated with real material properties. Create and experiment with over 110 materials, 60 projectiles, and 90 targets, including detailed vehicle cutaways. Wire up circuits and analyze impacts in multiple views.

Highlights
  • Realistic 2D impact physics simulation
  • Over 110 simulated materials
  • Extensive projectile and target library
  • Detailed vehicle cutaways
  • Circuit building with electrical components
  • Multiple analysis views (heat, speed, damage)
Read full description

Armor Sandbox is a 2D impact physics playground. Pick something to shoot, pick something to shoot at, and watch what actually happens. Nothing here is a canned animation. Every plate, every projectile and every fragment is made of particles that carry real material properties: density, strength, melting point, heat capacity. Deformation, fracture, spalling, heat, fire and detonation all follow from those numbers. Swap the steel for glass and it shatters instead of denting, because glass is brittle, not because somebody drew a shatter effect. WHAT IS IN IT • More than 110 materials: steels, aluminium alloys, tungsten, tantalum, ceramics and glass, concrete and stone, wood, rubber, water, fuel, explosives and working electrical parts • More than 60 projectiles, from pistol rounds to APFSDS long rods, shaped charges and hypervelocity rods • More than 90 targets: plates, layered armour packages, deep blocks, circuits • More than 35 vehicles in cutaway: T-34-85, Tiger I, Panther, Sherman, IS-2, T-55, M103, T-72 with and without reactive armour, M1A2 Abrams, Leopard 2A6, Challenger 2, BMP-1 and M113, plus cars, trucks, a school bus, a farm tractor and aircraft, each with its armour, ammunition, fuel and engine where they really sit • More than 60 ready-made experiments to start from MAKE YOUR OWN Paint projectiles and targets cell by cell, choosing the material of every cell. Mirror, outline, replace, snap to a grid. Save them to your library, and send a design to a friend as a single small file. WIRE IT UP Batteries, capacitors, switches, sensors and delay lines. Current only goes where you drew a path: an insulated wire running along steel leaves the steel dead, bare copper makes the whole plate live. Lamps, heaters, electromagnets and high-voltage sparks that jump the air. SEE WHAT THE EYE CAN'T Watch the same impact in four views: normal, heat, speed and damage. Time slows down by itself around the impact, and you can pause, step through it frame by frame and fire again. NO ACCOUNT, NO ADS, NO TRACKING The app makes no network requests of its own. Nothing you build leaves your iPhone unless you share it yourself. FREE TO WATCH, ONE PURCHASE TO CREATE Watching is free. Every built-in experiment runs in full, explosives, nuclear devices and circuits included, and so does every vehicle and every material a preset uses. Opening a design someone sent you is free too. The full version is for making things: painting with energetic, nuclear and electrical materials, a library without the five-per-kind limit, exporting your designs, and the Extreme and Maximum quality levels. One payment, no subscription, no ads either way. Armor Sandbox is a physics simulation made for curiosity. Everything happens to particles in a 2D cross-section, and nothing in it is a guide to building anything real.

Screenshots

Swipe the Flow4 screens
Armor Sandbox4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Armor Sandbox at 90% against Swipe the Flow's 50%. Armor Sandbox also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.3) and update cadence (daily vs every 3 days). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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. Swipe the Flow sells 4 one-off in-app purchases and Armor Sandbox sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Armor Sandbox holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Armor Sandbox has 63 ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 50% of Swipe the Flow's written reviews are positive against 90% of Armor Sandbox's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Swipe the Flow ships an update every 3 days, Armor Sandbox daily. Both last shipped on October 29, 2026.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Swipe the Flow versus Armor Sandbox: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSwipe the FlowArmor Sandbox
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (6 ratings)4.8 (63 ratings) — better
Positive reviews50.0% of reviews89.8% of reviews — better
Number of ratings663 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 daysDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank—#62 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS18.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size17 MB6 MB
Age rating4+9+
Developerjunho kimVitor Japiassu

Customer experience

Swipe the Flow

All ratings6 ratings
Positive83.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative16.7%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

Armor Sandbox

All ratings63 ratings
Positive93.7%
Neutral3.2%
Negative3.2%
Written reviews59 reviews
Positive89.8%
Neutral3.4%
Negative6.8%

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Swipe the Flow

One-time4
  • Droplet Tip$1.99
  • Swipe the Flow Pro$4.99
  • Splash Tip$4.99
Show 1 more
  • Wave Tip$9.99
1 purchases

Armor Sandbox

One-time1
  • Armor Sandbox Complete$7.99

Questions

Is Swipe the Flow free?
Swipe the Flow is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Armor Sandbox free?
Armor Sandbox is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Swipe the Flow or Armor Sandbox?
Armor Sandbox is rated higher. Swipe the Flow averages 4.3 out of 5 from 6 ratings, while Armor Sandbox averages 4.8 from 63 ratings.
Do Swipe the Flow or Armor Sandbox have ads?
Neither Swipe the Flow nor Armor Sandbox shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Swipe the Flow or Armor Sandbox?
Swipe the Flow ships an update every 3 days, and Armor Sandbox daily. Most recently, Swipe the Flow was updated on October 29, 2026 and Armor Sandbox on October 29, 2026.

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