Comparison

SimpleCities vs Pixelcity V2

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

Head to head
About

SimpleCities

Features
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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.

About

Pixelcity V2

Features
Read full description

Welcome to Pixel City! You move in with $250 in your pocket and a rusty old trailer – the rest is up to you. WORK YOUR WAY UP 14 different jobs, from the pizzeria and the burger bar to the airport, the health clinic and the auto shop. Get promoted to shift lead and boss – or start your own food truck. FIND A HOME Save up for an apartment, a townhouse, a villa or a farm in the countryside. Furnish room by room with over a hundred kinds of furniture, cook in the kitchen and grow vegetables in the garden. SHOP AND DRESS UP The clothes shop, the toy shop, the furniture giant and the hair salon with loads of hairstyles and colors – and the pet shop, where kittens, puppies and bunnies are waiting for a home. THINGS TO DO Invite friends to a party, go to the movies, ride a bike or a moped through town, become a farmer, and explore Southside, the park, Eastside, Linden Grove and downtown – day and night, in sun and rain. Eat fish and chips at The Boathouse out on the pier and keep an eye out for the dolphin! PLAY TOGETHER Everyone playing at the same time ends up in the same city. Visit each other's homes, work the same shift and talk in voice chat if you like. Bad words are filtered out, and anyone who is mean can be blocked and reported. Play in 8 languages: English, Spanish, German, French, Polish, Italian, Portuguese and Swedish. No accounts, no ads and no in-app purchases. The game saves on your phone and keeps getting new things.

Screenshots

SimpleCities4 screens
Pixelcity V24 screens

Verdict

The call

SimpleCities and Pixelcity V2 are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

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

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
SimpleCities versus Pixelcity V2: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSimpleCitiesPixelcity V2
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 3 daysEvery 3 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.015.0
Further details — not scored
Size31 MB17 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKtisis Web, LLCCarl Palsson

In-app purchases

None

SimpleCities

No in-app purchases

None

Pixelcity V2

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is SimpleCities free?
SimpleCities is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Pixelcity V2 free?
Pixelcity V2 is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do SimpleCities or Pixelcity V2 have ads?
Neither SimpleCities nor Pixelcity V2 shows ads.
Which is updated more often, SimpleCities or Pixelcity V2?
SimpleCities ships an update every 3 days, and Pixelcity V2 every 3 days. Most recently, SimpleCities was updated on October 14, 2026 and Pixelcity V2 on October 24, 2026.

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