Comparison

Deep Shaft vs Dev Idle

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

Head to head
About

Deep Shaft

Features
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Sink the shaft. Strike it rich. Deep Shaft is a satisfying idle mining tycoon. Work the rock face by hand, then hire Foremen to automate every level while you dig deeper and deeper โ€” from the dirt at 100m all the way down to the mythril at the Core. DIG, AUTOMATE, GET RICH - Tap to mine by hand, or buy a Foreman to run each level automatically - The elevator rides the shaft, collecting full ore carts and hauling them up to the Refinery to cash in - Level up each seam for faster mining, richer ore, and bigger loads GO DEEPER - Breach sealed bulkheads to open the next 100m: dirt, stone, iron, silver, gold, gems, diamond, mythril - Every layer has a rising chance of rare ore worth a fortune UPGRADE THE OPERATION - The Foundry: spend prestige Cores on permanent upgrades that boost every run - Boost the Hoist to carry more and the Refinery to sell for more - Crack open crates for permanent gear, and keep earning with offline income CLEAN, HANDCRAFTED PIXELS - Cohesive 16-bit pixel art, from the headframe to the deepest void rock - Plays fully offline โ€” no account, no sign-up How deep can you dig?

About

Dev Idle

Features
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You started by pasting an answer off Stack Overflow. Twelve tiers later you are running an autonomous agent fleet, a server farm and a quantum compiler, and the changelog has started calling the next one The Singularity. Dev Idle is an idle game about being an iOS developer, made by one. Tap to write code, hire the pipeline that writes it for you, then ship a version and do the whole thing again, faster. THE LOOP โ€ข BUILD โ€” Twelve generator tiers, from "Stack Overflow copy-paste" to "The Singularity". Every 10, 25, 50 and 100 you own doubles that tier's output. Forever. There is no last milestone. โ€ข SHIP โ€” Submit a version for App Review, wait out the thirty-minute queue like the rest of us, and bank Reputation for a permanent income multiplier. This wait is the game's clock, and yes, that is the joke. โ€ข LAB โ€” Every ship also pays Commits, which buy permanent upgrades that survive every reset. A bad run still pays. No run is wasted. โ€ข SHOP โ€” Conference Tickets buy time, never content: expedite a review, double an offline haul, or collect eight hours at once. โ€ข PASS โ€” A four-week Sprint Pass season, 50 tiers, earned entirely by playing. THE PART THAT MAKES IT LAST Get big enough and you can IPO. Trade your whole Reputation for Shares, raise the level cap on every permanent upgrade, and watch the forty hours of progress you just gave up come back in four. Then the horizon moves again. BALANCED BY SIMULATION, NOT BY VIBES The economy runs in a harness that plays thousands of prestige cycles before a number ships. Tier 4 inside two minutes. Your first version out the door in about an hour. The Singularity considerably later. THINGS WE CARED ABOUT โ€ข Offline earnings, with a proper "while you were away" report when you come back. โ€ข A Live Activity that counts your App Review down on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island. โ€ข Unlockable editor themes. All of them dark, because it is that kind of game. โ€ข Every number monospaced, so counters tick without jittering. โ€ข No ads. Not between screens, not for a bonus, not ever โ€” there is no ad code in the app at all. โ€ข Plays entirely offline. No account, no sign-up, nothing personal collected โ€” no name, no email, no advertising identifier, no tracking. Your save syncs through your own iCloud. FREE TO PLAY, AND MEANT IT Optional purchases shorten the road. Not one of them unlocks content you cannot reach by playing, because a wall you cannot climb is a game you stop opening. Dev Idle Pro โ€” $4.99 per month with a 7-day free trial: ร—2 income, offline earnings at full rate with double the cap, a bigger daily Ticket bonus, an exclusive editor theme, and every season's premium Sprint Pass track included. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. The subscription renews automatically unless it is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours of the end of that period. Manage or cancel it in Settings โ€บ Apple Account โ€บ Subscriptions. Any unused portion of the free trial is forfeited when you buy the subscription. Terms of Use: https://devidle.petrina.me/terms Privacy Policy: https://devidle.petrina.me/privacy-policy

Screenshots

Deep Shaft2 screens
Dev Idle4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Deep Shaft at none against Dev Idle's 10. Deep Shaft also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 26.0). Dev Idle's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (daily vs every 3 days). On price and device support there is nothing between them.

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

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Dev Idle sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Deep Shaft asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Deep Shaft ships an update every 3 days, Dev Idle daily. The most recent releases landed on September 20, 2026 and September 19, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences ยท 2 level
Deep Shaft versus Dev Idle: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDeep ShaftDev Idle
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 3 daysDaily โ€” better
AdsYesNo โ€” better
In-app purchasesNo โ€” betterYes
DevicesiPhone, iPod โ€” betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.1 โ€” better26.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size36 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLuke GarbettDavid Petrina

In-app purchases

None

Deep Shaft

No in-app purchases

10 purchases

Dev Idle

Subscriptions1
  • Dev Idle Pro7 Days trial$4.991 Month
One-time9
  • Hotfix โ€” 100 Tickets$0.99
  • Starter Pack$1.99
  • Sprint Pass Premium Track$2.99
Show 6 more
  • Monthly Card โ€” 40 a Day$3.99
  • Overtime$4.99
  • Sprint โ€” 600 Tickets$4.99
  • Release โ€” 1,400 Tickets$9.99
  • Major Version โ€” 3,200 Tickets$19.99
  • Enterprise โ€” 9,000 Tickets$49.99

Questions

Is Deep Shaft free?
Deep Shaft is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Dev Idle free?
Dev Idle is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Deep Shaft or Dev Idle have ads?
Deep Shaft shows ads; Dev Idle does not.
Which is updated more often, Deep Shaft or Dev Idle?
Deep Shaft ships an update every 3 days, and Dev Idle daily. Most recently, Deep Shaft was updated on September 20, 2026 and Dev Idle on September 19, 2026.

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