Comparison

Taploom vs Noctagram

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

Head to head
About

Taploom

A minimalist puzzle game where you tap tiles to create color ripples that drain the board. Plan your moves to chain reactions and solve each level efficiently. Features hand-crafted levels, a daily puzzle, and an endless mode.

Highlights
  • Minimalist ripple puzzle gameplay
  • 55 hand-crafted levels
  • Daily and endless puzzle modes
  • Built-in level editor
  • Three-star scoring system
  • One-handed play
Features
Read full description

Tap a tile. Watch the color ripple outward. Drain every tile on the board. ColorDrain is a minimalist puzzle game built around one simple idea: every tap sends a wave through the grid. Plan your taps, chain the reactions, and clear each board in as few moves as possible. HOW IT PLAYS You have a board of empty tiles. Each tap fills the tapped tile and ripples outward through its neighbors. Tiles, walls, mirrors, and other obstacles shape where the color can go. Your goal is to fill the entire board, and your score depends on how cleanly you do it. WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT Most puzzle games ask you to match. ColorDrain asks you to plan. The same board can be solved in five taps or twenty, and finding the elegant solution feels like solving a tiny machine. FEATURES • 55 hand-crafted levels across 11 themed rows • A fresh daily puzzle, the same seed for every player worldwide • Endless mode with seeded levels you can replay • A built-in level editor for designing and saving your own puzzles • Three-star scoring rewards efficient solutions • Built one-handed for iPhone, fully portrait, no ads, no IAP A GROWING TOOLBOX Each row of levels introduces a new tile that changes how the ripple flows: • Amplifiers boost a tap into a long beam • Mirrors bend rays around corners • Bombs detonate when filled, taking neighbors with them • Teleporters warp the ripple to their partners on the same heading • Frozen barriers thaw under bomb blasts • Canals carry rays across long distances • Prisms burst light in all four directions • Locked tiles open only when surrounded • Infection tiles spread on their own once seeded • Heart tiles are the final puzzle: protect them, route around them, or finish them last BUILT FOR THE DEVICE Every action has a haptic. Every fill has a sound. Tap placement is precise enough to play with one thumb on the bus, and slow enough to think through on the couch. No accounts. No tracking. No internet required.

About

Noctagram

Features
Read full description

A quieter kind of nonogram — where every puzzle you solve becomes a constellation in a night sky that is entirely your own. Noctagram is a picture-logic puzzle game (nonogram / picross / griddler) wrapped in a calm, star-lit world. Read the number clues, fill the grid row by row — but here the finished picture doesn't just vanish. It ignites. A single line traces through your solved cells, a constellation takes shape, and you name it and seal it into your sky forever. Solve enough, and the darkness fills with stars only you have lit. — WHY NOCTAGRAM IS DIFFERENT — A sky you build, not a gallery you clear. Most nonogram games hand you a pixel picture and move on. Here, each solution is a named constellation added to one living, growing night sky. Your progress isn't a percentage — it's a map of light. 248 constellations, every one named by hand. No random shapes. Each puzzle was designed and christened in the style of a real star chart — unique, quietly poetic, waiting in the dark for you. Made to be calm. No timers. No lives. No pressure. Just clean logic, soft light, and a gentle soundscape. Play a single grid to unwind, or lose an hour among the stars. — HOW IT PLAYS — • Classic nonogram rules — deduce the picture from the number clues. • Puzzles from small and cozy to large and deep (5×5 up to 20×20). • A warm coral fill and a cool marking cross — easy on the eyes, clear at a glance. • A hand-crafted "sealing" ceremony every time you complete a puzzle. • Auto-save and one-tap continue — pick up exactly where you left off. Fill the grid. Light the stars. Name your sky. Noctagram — picross beneath the night.

Screenshots

Taploom4 screens
Noctagram4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Noctagram at every 3 days against Taploom's every 3 weeks. On price, ads, in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Taploom ships an update every 3 weeks, Noctagram every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 8 level
Taploom versus Noctagram: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTaploomNoctagram
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings3 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS16.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size6 MB86 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCylandea Systems LLCTuTu Fun Games Inc.

In-app purchases

None

Taploom

No in-app purchases

None

Noctagram

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Taploom free?
Taploom is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Noctagram free?
Noctagram is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Taploom or Noctagram have ads?
Neither Taploom nor Noctagram shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Taploom or Noctagram?
Taploom ships an update every 3 weeks, and Noctagram every 3 days. Most recently, Taploom was updated on October 16, 2026 and Noctagram on October 11, 2026.

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