Comparison

Star Fort Builder vs FrankenSim

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

Head to head
About

Star Fort Builder

Explore a comprehensive reference and design system for historical star forts. Browse detailed information on 104 documented fortifications and design your own using classic military engineering principles.

Highlights
  • 104 historical star fort profiles
  • GPS coordinates and measurements
  • Aerial photography
  • Design your own star forts
  • Mathematical design systems (Vauban, Coehoorn)
Features
Read full description

Assuming you mean the **last App Store version users received**, the app has changed substantially. Here’s a release-ready summary: ## Major additions - Added **“What Are Star Forts?”**, an illustrated historical introduction with links into related forts, books, and features. - Added a full **Discover** section with curated books, documentaries, museums, tours, maps, artwork, and articles. - Added a **Science** section, including an interactive cannon-trajectory simulator. - Added **Plan Your Visit** information to fort pages: - Official websites - Hotels and nearby stays - Tours and restaurants - Car-rental options for remote forts - Clear affiliate-link disclosures - Added verified **Wikipedia links for 104 of 107 forts**. ## Library and historical documents - Expanded the offline historical Library with more fortification and scientific works. - Added **Galileo’s _Two New Sciences_** and **Newton’s _Principia_**, with title-page cover images. - Added the public-domain **1638 English translation of Marolois’s _Art of Fortification_** to the project, pending its final Library wiring. - Compressed several large built-in books while preserving readability: - Earlier compression saved approximately **82 MB** - Coehoorn’s book was reduced from **18.6 MB to 5.8 MB** - Verified that every currently registered offline book opens and reports the correct page count. ## Fort information improvements - Added visible **condition badges** to fort detail pages. - Added **design traditions** to Browse cards. - Added historical photographs and related content improvements. - Added clearer notices when no reliable historical measurements have been published. - Improved the display of alternate and historical fort names. - Added museum locations to the Google Earth export. ## Fort Builder improvements - Added shared **wall-profile controls** and cross-section visualizations. - Added wall cross-sections to exported Builder PDFs. - Added an **Export Options** sheet so users can choose whether to include: - Fort diagram - Measurements - Wall profile - Improved fort geometry, measurements, and proportional rendering. - Added or improved wilderness-fort building features and walkthrough content. ## Navigation and appearance - Reorganized the home screen into the requested order: 1. What Are Star Forts? / Discover 2. Browse Forts / Fort Builder 3. Library / Science 4. Google Earth View / Settings 5. About - Updated the hamburger menu to follow the same structure. - Added optional image tiles to the home screen. - Added subtle visual polish to buttons. - Replaced the iOS/App Store icon with the aerial photograph of **Fort Bourtange**. ## iPhone reliability - Audited every custom menu, modal, drawer, and bottom sheet. - Fixed Browse and Library filter sheets so their contents cannot collapse on a real iPhone. - Previously fixed the same native-layout issue in the unit selector. - Verified all pop-ups in Expo Go on a physical iPhone. - Confirmed the photo lightbox, comparison picker, Builder export options, PDF page-jump dialog, menus, filters, and native photo action sheets work correctly. ## Release information - Visible app version is now **1.0.1**. - The new Fort Bourtange icon is configured specifically as the iOS icon used on the phone and in App Store Connect. ### Short “What’s New” version > Explore a new illustrated introduction to star forts, discover curated books, museums, tours, and documentaries, and experiment with fortification science. Fort pages now include richer historical information, travel resources, official links, and improved measurements. This release also expands the offline document library, improves PDF exports, introduces a new Fort Bourtange app icon, reorganizes navigation, and fixes menus and filter sheets on iPhone.

About

FrankenSim

Features
Read full description

Carry a working numerical laboratory on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. FrankenSim contains forty-three native experiments drawn from the FrankenSim Rust workspace. Each one runs a real local kernel and pairs the result with an interactive visualization and a concise account of what was computed. Explore heat diffusion, spectral waves, Lorenz dynamics, Gray-Scott reaction diffusion, fluid flow, smoke, topology optimization, signed-distance geometry, isosurfaces, Gaussian-process optimization, randomized linear algebra, symplectic orbits, computational geometry, interval-certified fractals, and more. The library is organized from foundations through deep experiments, end-to-end campaigns, and three larger flagships. Evidence labels distinguish a computed result from an illustration, approximation, bound, or certified conclusion. The theory atlas explains the equations and numerical ideas behind the displays. Every experiment runs on the device. FrankenSim has no account, advertising, tracking, cloud compute, or required network connection.

Screenshots

Star Fort Builder4 screens
FrankenSim3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Star Fort Builder at 15.1 against FrankenSim's 17.0. 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.

Scorecard1 real difference · 8 level
Star Fort Builder versus FrankenSim: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStar Fort BuilderFrankenSim
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 9 days—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS15.1 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size381 MB11 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFelicity Enterprises LLCJeffrey Emanuel

In-app purchases

None

Star Fort Builder

No in-app purchases

None

FrankenSim

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Star Fort Builder free?
Star Fort Builder is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is FrankenSim free?
FrankenSim is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Star Fort Builder or FrankenSim have ads?
Neither Star Fort Builder nor FrankenSim shows ads.

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