Alchemist's Engine vs Quiet Lab
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Alchemist's Engine
Tend to a dormant engine in a ruined world by gathering fuel, crafting resources, and researching upgrades. Forge golems to assist in your tasks as you explore a labyrinthine mine and uncover a forgotten story.
- Feed and stoke the engine
- Merge sparks on an alchemical table
- Forge and upgrade golems
- Research forgotten techniques
- Explore a seeded labyrinth
- Unravel the story
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A sleeping engine. A blasted world. Tend to the fire, and uncover what was left behind. Alchemist's Engine is an incremental, idle crafting & adventure game. FEED THE FIRE - gather fuel, stoke the engine, and keep its heat rising. MERGE THE SPARKS - pluck sparks from the embers and merge them on the alchemical table to grow your power. RAISE YOUR WORKFORCE - forge golems of stone, quartz, and metal who gather, haul, and craft while you plan. Feed them back to the engine when you outgrow them. UPGRADE - smelt bronze and steel, research forgotten techniques, and upgrade the engine from a cold firebox into a towering machine. DESCEND - explore an ever-changing labyrinth of mines, crystal chambers, sunken temples, flooded galleries, and stranger rooms the deeper you go. UNRAVEL THE STORY - cold hearths, sibling machines, and a sealed gate that has waited a very long time for you.
Quiet Lab
Learn to create electronic music and DJ sets with interactive lessons and a virtual studio. Explore various genres, build your own tracks using custom sounds, and even play along with classic piano pieces.
- Interactive DJ lessons
- Virtual music studio
- Custom sound recording
- Multiple music genres
- Classic piano playback
- Simulations mode
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A cat in headphones builds a track in front of you, and teaches you to build your own. It starts with a hat. Then a kick, a snare, a bass line, a lead, one lane at a time, and it says what it just did as it goes. Techno starts on the kick instead, the way techno does. By the end the whole grid is lit and the cats are dancing, and it rides the finale until you pick another track. LEARN TO DJ Pixel Cat teaches Build mode one short lesson at a time, on the real grid: the kick on every beat, the snare on two and four, hats, sixteenths, the pushed kick, ghost notes, swing, bass, a lead, the mix, seven genres, a break, a song's shape, your own sound, the clip. Each lesson has a target on the grid, hints, SHOW ME, lamps for a clean pass, and ranks that change the cat's headphones. Twenty two lessons, a crown at the end. The first three are free. MAKE YOUR OWN Switch to Build and the screen becomes a small studio: the grid large, five strips with a level fader, mute and solo, swing and tempo. Tap the cells you want, tap one again for an accent, press play, and it plays exactly what you put there. YOUR OWN SOUNDS Any lane can play a sound you made. Record a short take with the microphone or bring an audio file in from Files; a bass or lead lane plays your one note at every pitch. Arrange sections over your beat, with risers and drops, and the clip opens on I MADE THIS BEAT. ELEVEN GENRES, EIGHTY FOUR TRACKS House, techno, dubstep, drum and bass, rock, trap, disco, lo-fi, deep house, hip hop and rap. Every track is its own pattern, and many bring their own key, tempo, kit and swing. NEW: HIP HOP AND RAP A laid-back West Coast piano loop and a muted guitar on a straight pulse. In RAP the words run under the grid, karaoke style, lit as they are said, so you can rap along. The first house, techno, lo-fi, hip hop and rap tracks are free to watch, so you hear what you would be paying for before you pay for it. Build mode, the lessons and the other eighty tracks come with the one payment. A PIANO THAT PLAYS ITSELF Twenty six classics fall onto the keys, most of them every note of the printed edition: Für Elise, Moonlight Sonata, Clair de Lune, Chopin's Nocturne, the Raindrop Prelude, Toccata in D minor, Rondo alla Turca and nineteen more. Slow any of them down or speed them up. Für Elise is free. NOTHING IN THE MUSIC IS A RECORDING Every kick, snare, hat, bass note, lead note and piano note is generated in code as it plays, unless it is one you recorded or brought in yourself. No samples, no music files, nothing licensed from anybody, and the tempo slider changes the music, not its pitch. TWENTY NINE MACHINES THAT RUN THEMSELVES The first tab is Simulations. Nobody aims, nobody scores, nothing to lose. You set a few numbers, press Play, and watch what the rules do. Merge Flask. A stream that falls, fuses and climbs. Crusher. Two arms press, and everything they squeeze makes more. Spike Ring. A ball grows a note at a time until a spike bursts it. Function Race. A crowd of ones against one that keeps multiplying. Derivative Duel. One operator against a function, every touch takes a power off. And twenty four more. The physics is a solver written for this app. MAKE A CLIP Any machine, track, beat, lesson or piece records a run at the settings on screen, with its sound. Save it to Photos or share it. No extra purchase. HOW IT IS PAID FOR Merge Flask is free forever. Any other simulation opens with a one time purchase, or open the other twenty eight at once. DJ Beat Maker, with Build mode and the lessons, and the piano are each sold on their own, one payment each. Everything in Quiet Lab is one payment for every simulation, every track, every lesson and every piece, including the ones added later. No account, no sign in. Sound plays even when your phone is on silent, because the sound is the point. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://synappsai-web.web.app/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Alchemist's Engine at 5.0 against Quiet Lab's 1.0. Alchemist's Engine also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 10) and ratings volume (17 vs 1). Quiet Lab's advantage is chart position (#49 vs unranked). On price, update cadence, ads 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. Quiet Lab sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per 7 days. Alchemist's Engine asks for nothing beyond the download.
Alchemist's Engine holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 1.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Alchemist's Engine has 17 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Alchemist's Engine ships an update every 4 days, Quiet Lab every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Alchemist's Engine | Quiet Lab |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (17 ratings) — better | 1.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 17 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 days | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Ad-supported — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | — | #49 — better |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.7 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 40 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Just Software LLC | SYNAPPS AI LTD |
Customer experience
Alchemist's Engine
Quiet Lab
In-app purchases
Alchemist's Engine
No in-app purchases
Quiet Lab
- Everything on Quiet Lab, weekly$4.997 Days
- 1 Credit to Purchase Games$0.99
- Unlock All Simulations Lifetime$9.99
- DJ Beat Maker$9.99
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- Piano Pro$9.99
- Everything in Quiet Lab$19.99
- Unlock All Simulations$19.99
- Piano Pro$19.99
- DJ Beat Maker$19.99
- Everything in Quiet Lab$29.99
Questions
Is Alchemist's Engine free?
Is Quiet Lab free?
Which has better reviews, Alchemist's Engine or Quiet Lab?
Do Alchemist's Engine or Quiet Lab have ads?
Which is updated more often, Alchemist's Engine or Quiet Lab?
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