SimpleCities vs CodeBastion
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
SimpleCities
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Build a city. Keep it running. SimpleCities brings classic city simulation to iPhone with a native, touch-first interface. Start with open land, build roads and power, zone new neighborhoods, balance the budget, and watch your city grow one decision at a time. Every city develops differently. Residents need homes, businesses need customers, industry needs workers, and everything depends on power and transportation. As the population grows, you will face traffic, pollution, crime, fires, blackouts, and increasing demand for public services. Features: • Build residential, commercial, and industrial districts • Draw roads, rails, and power lines directly with your finger • Manage taxes and funding for roads, police, and fire protection • Track traffic, pollution, crime, land value, growth, and city services • Respond to fires, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, monsters, and other disasters • Play eight classic city emergency scenarios • Inspect your city with detailed data maps and reports • Pause or adjust the simulation speed at any time • Save multiple versions of your city and restore earlier progress • Import and export compatible classic city files • Choose from several visual themes, including the original classic style • Learn the game with a complete Field Guide for new mayors SimpleCities is easy to start and difficult to master. A healthy city needs more than roads and buildings. It needs planning, patience, and a mayor who can survive the annual budget.
CodeBastion
Forge a city from a humble camp into a lasting bastion through strategic idle clicker and incremental city-building mechanics. Manage resources, assign citizens to jobs, research new technologies, and embark on expeditions to expand your legacy.
- Idle clicker and incremental progression
- Resource and citizen management
- Deep skill tree with research
- Expeditions and exploration
- Timed defense challenges
- Offline progress
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Build a city from its first camp into a lasting bastion in Code Bastion, a strategic idle clicker and incremental city-builder. Begin in Summary, where every tap matters. Gather wood, stone, food, and science through quick actions, manage your energy, watch your population, and keep your city moving even while you are away. Your resources continue to grow through citizen jobs and buildings, while seasons, incidents, and storage limits keep every plan under pressure. Move to Development to unlock a large skill tree across economy, construction, society, and expeditions. Each research choice opens new buildings, improves production, increases storage, strengthens manual gathering, expands your population, and prepares your city for the frontier. Turn a fragile settlement into a reliable system of farms, sawmills, quarries, mines, warehouses, markets, universities, barracks, walls, and more. Use the Resources screen to assign citizens to the jobs that matter most. Balance food, wood, stone, iron, coal, steel, gold, science, and influence. Build capacity before production overflows, keep enough workers in essential buildings, and adapt to changing seasons. Missions give every stage of the city a direction. Complete daily tasks, pursue a weekly campaign, and progress through a five-chapter city legacy: found the settlement, grow it into a city, open the frontier, endure its threats, and build a lasting legacy. When the city is ready, enter Expeditions. Train citizens, assign roles, craft preparation items, reveal a procedural map tile by tile, recruit from camps, discover points of interest, and research a catalogue of hidden treasures. Beyond the walls, every expedition can bring resources, experience, discoveries, and risks. Prepare for incursions with passive defenders and a timed defense challenge. Gather temporary materials, build defenses, create weapons, and decide how to hold the line when the frontier strikes back. CODE BASTION FEATURES Idle clicker and strategic incremental progression Quick actions, energy management, and offline progress Deep skill tree with research, upgrades, and unlocks Resources, citizen jobs, buildings, storage, and seasons Daily tasks, weekly campaigns, and city-wide goals Procedural exploration map, expeditions, equipment, and loot Treasure research, defense roles, incursions, and timed battles Five supported languages: English, Spanish, German, French, and Italian Build deliberately, explore carefully, and defend what you have created.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: SimpleCities at every 3 days against CodeBastion's every 10 days. 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
SimpleCities ships an update every 3 days, CodeBastion every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on September 28, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SimpleCities | CodeBastion |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 4 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days — better | Every 10 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | — | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 31 MB | 40 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ktisis Web, LLC | Gines Ortiz |
In-app purchases
SimpleCities
No in-app purchases
CodeBastion
No in-app purchases









