Silicon vs Startup Dev Story
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Silicon
Build a tech empire from a garage to a global scale by designing, manufacturing, and selling innovative devices. Compete with rivals, manage your factory, and research new technologies to dominate the market. This premium simulation game offers deep customization and strategic gameplay.
- Design custom tech products
- Build and manage a 3D factory
- Time market launches and trends
- Compete with AI rivals
- Play the stock market
- Research new technologies
- Build and manage a team
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Build a tech company from a one-room garage to a global empire — one device at a time. Silicon is a premium business simulation and tycoon game. You don't just watch numbers tick — you DESIGN the products, BUILD the factory that makes them, and RUN the company that sells them. Found a startup, ship something great, crush your rivals, take it public, and rule the industry. DESIGN EVERY DEVICE Customize phones, tablets, laptops, consoles, monitors and AR glasses from the inside out — chip, display, battery, materials, camera array, finish and color — and watch each one render live in a crisp vector preview. Every choice moves your cost, your margin, and how the market reacts. Form matters too: a striking design sells. BUILD A REAL FACTORY Factory Mode is a living 3D production line you build yourself. Lay conveyor belts, place and upgrade machines, and wire the floor so it builds faster — each device needs the right machines (a phone wants a screen bonder, a laptop a chassis mill). Decorate with props and painted walls, expand the building, and take Side Order commissions to keep the line busy between launches. TIME THE MARKET Consumer taste shifts week by week. Read the trend, price it right, pick the campaign that fits your budget, and find your launch window. The game always tells you WHY a product won or flopped — so every launch teaches you something. MAKE ENEMIES Race a dozen fictional rivals up the live industry leaderboard. One becomes your arch-rival — a living nemesis you clash with again and again. When a rival strikes your category, duel their device head-to-head and answer back. Every year the Silicon Awards judge every launch across Device of the Year, Design and Value — sweep the ceremony or build a grudge. PLAY THE MARKET Trade rival shares, buy a board seat for insider intel, take a controlling stake for a discounted hostile takeover, or acquire a rival outright to absorb its brand, fans and patents. Then take your own company public and beat Wall Street's quarterly earnings expectations. GO GLOBAL License new regions — each with its own taste and market size — then weather regional events: booms to ride, tariffs to answer, and rival surges to defend your standing. RESEARCH THE FRONTIER Develop a deep tech tree over time on a live progress ring — queue your next breakthroughs, commit to research doctrines that give your products identity, and chase Eureka flashes of insight for a jackpot. BUILD A TEAM AND HQ Hire engineers, designers and marketers — each with a specialty, a trait and a mood that moves their output. Senior staff grow into mentors and masters. Watch your real-time 3D headquarters fill with life from garage to campus. FREE TO PLAY. NO DARK PATTERNS. No ads. No timers. No energy. No currencies. No loot boxes. Design devices, read the market and grow your company through the Garage and Growth eras for free, with a fresh seeded challenge every day, fully offline. SILICON PRO An optional subscription opens the rest of the industry: the Platform and AI eras, every scenario, New Game+ and Ascension, the Platform Division, Creative Mode, the Vault and the Device Museum, and the Time Machine that rewinds your company to any of the last five quarters. Monthly or yearly with a free trial, or buy it once with Pro Lifetime. Nothing you can buy changes the simulation in your favour. Found your company. Ship something great. Run the industry. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://wrexist.github.io/Silicon-Tech-Tycoon/privacy/
Startup Dev Story
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Found your own software startup and grow it from a one-person garage hustle into a world-changing tech giant, one pixel at a time. Startup Dev Story is a cozy, fast-paced business simulation inspired by the management-sim classics. Hire developers, designers, and marketers, organize them into teams, and cook up products in the Lab by mixing a type, an audience, and secret ingredients. Discover powerful combos, ship them, and watch the subscribers (and the cash) roll in. But the tech world never sits still. Survive and thrive across shifting eras, the SaaS & Mobile Boom, Crypto Winter, the AI Revolution and beyond, each one reshaping what sells and who your rivals are. FEATURES • Hire & grow a team, level up staff, manage energy, loyalty and burnout, and promote your stars. • The Product Lab, combine type + audience + ingredients to discover hidden synergy recipes. • Ride the eras, adapt as the market transforms decade after decade. • Rivals & market, competitors ship their own products; trends rise and fall. • Research & perks, unlock new product types and kit out your office. • Three difficulties, from a gentle Learn-the-Ropes run to a brutal lean-runway challenge. • New Game+, bank a veteran co-founder and a cash head start for your next venture. • Multiple save slots, run parallel companies. • Handcrafted pixel art and a chiptune soundtrack, all generated with love. Free to play, supported by ads. No account required, your progress is saved on your device. Can you survive the burn, out-ship your rivals, and IPO your way to the singularity? Your startup story starts now.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Startup Dev Story at none against Silicon's 4. Silicon's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 8 days vs every 4 months). 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. Silicon sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Startup Dev Story asks for nothing beyond the download.
Silicon ships an update every 8 days, Startup Dev Story every 4 months. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.
| Parameter | Silicon | Startup Dev Story |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.0 (2 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 8 days — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 19 MB | 72 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Isac Molin | JAIME RICHARD DAZA GUZMAN |
In-app purchases
Silicon
- Silicon Pro Monthly7 Days trial$3.991 Month
- Silicon Pro Yearly7 Days trial$19.991 Year
- Creative Mode$2.99
- Silicon Pro Lifetime$29.99
Startup Dev Story
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Silicon free?
Is Startup Dev Story free?
Do Silicon or Startup Dev Story have ads?
Which is updated more often, Silicon or Startup Dev Story?
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