Comparison

Solar System Scope vs Conway's Life Lab

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

Head to head
About

Solar System Scope

Explore and discover the solar system and outer space with realistic 3D visualizations and detailed celestial simulations. This app offers an educational and engaging experience for all ages, featuring a comprehensive encyclopedia and a night sky observatory.

Highlights
  • 3D Encyclopedia of celestial bodies
  • Realistic 3D visualizations
  • Night sky observatory with time simulation
  • Accurate orbital parameter calculations
  • High-quality planetary and moon maps
  • Multilingual support
Features
Read full description

Solar System Scope is a fun way of Exploring, Discovering and Playing with the Solar System and Outer Space. Solar System Scope (or just Solar) contains many views and celestial simulations, but most of all - it brings you closer to the furthest reaches of our world and lets you experience lots of fantastic space sceneries. It aspires to be the most illustrative, easy to understand and simple to use space model. - 3D Encyclopedia In Solar’s unique encyclopedia you will find the most interesting facts about every planet, dwarf planet, every major moon and more – and everything is accompanied by realistic 3D visualizations. Solar’s encyclopedia is available in 10 languages: English, Spanish, German, Russian, Italian, Korean and Slovak. More languages are coming soon! - Nightsky Observatory Enjoy Stars and constellation of the night sky as viewed from any given location on Earth. You can point your device at the sky to see all objects in their proper place, but you can also simulate Night sky in the past or in the future. Now with advanced options that let you simulate ecliptic, equatorial and azimuthal line, or grid (among other things). - Scientific Instrument Solar System Scope calculations are based on up-to-date orbital parameters published by NASA and let you simulate celestial positions at any given time. - For Everyone Solar System Scope is well suited for all audiences and ages: It is enjoyed by space enthusiasts, teachers, scientists, but Solar is successfully used even by children of 4+ years of age! - Unique Maps We are proud to present a very unique set of planetary and moon maps, that let you experience a true-color space as never before. These accurate maps are based on NASA elevation and imagery data. Colors and shades of the textures are tuned according to true-color photos made by Messenger, Viking, Cassini and New Horizon spacecrafts, and the Hubble Space Telescope. Basic resolution of these maps is for free – but if you would like the best experience, you can check out the highest quality, which is available with In-App purchase. - Join our vision Our vision is to build the ultimate space model and bring you the deepest space experience. And you can help - try Solar System Scope and if you like it, spread the word! And don’t forget to join the community and vote for new features on our homepage.

About

Conway's Life Lab

Features
Read full description

Conway's Life Lab turns the classic Game of Life into a hands-on playground for curiosity. Draw on a large zoomable board, load famous patterns, and watch simple local rules create surprising behavior. Standard Conway Life—B3/S23 with wrapping toroidal boundaries—is ready the moment you open the app. When you want to look closer, open the optional Lab: • Inspect any cell and count its eight neighbors • Predict birth, survival, or death before stepping • See transitions highlighted directly on the board • Rewind recent generations without changing the latest state • Compare wrapping and finite boundaries • Explore eight named binary Life-like B/S rule presets • Try six illustrated demos of self-copying patterns, geometry, and motion • Follow guided experiments built around classic patterns • Track population changes over time In Lab > Explore Rules, discover Replicator, Persian Rug, Maze, and 2×2 alongside familiar Life-like rules. Apply a rule to keep your current cells, or confirm Try demo to load a centered starting pattern. Each demo starts paused and includes a short guide to what to watch for. This collection is free and runs entirely on your device. Free play stays simple: navigate, draw, inspect, play, pause, step, randomize, adjust speed, and browse a thumbnail library of gliders, oscillators, spaceships, methuselahs, and more. Save discoveries from your board, import standard RLE patterns from the wider Life community, and share any board or gallery pattern as a portable .rle file. Imported patterns keep compatible B/S rules; saved patterns can be renamed, reloaded, or deleted whenever you like. Make the laboratory your own with six built-in looks: Neon, Synthwave, Terminal, Blueprint, Paper, and Retro LCD. Choose square, rounded, or circular cells. Your appearance is saved on your device, and changing it preserves your board, rules, and progress. Where available, describe a visual idea in AI Pattern Studio. It creates a best-effort binary Life-like rule and starting pattern that you can keep, rename, export, delete, and evolve on the board. Each generated pattern is a separate consumable In-App Purchase; all core Play, Lab, pattern, and RLE features remain available without purchase. No account. No ads. No analytics. No tracking. Core features run on your device; where AI Create is available, it sends only the description you choose through Sub Rosa's service to a third-party generation provider. See the privacy policy for details.

Screenshots

Solar System Scope4 screens
Conway's Life Lab4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Conway's Life Lab at every 10 days against Solar System Scope's every 4 months. Solar System Scope's advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 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. Solar System Scope sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Conway's Life Lab sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Solar System Scope ships an update every 4 months, Conway's Life Lab every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Solar System Scope versus Conway's Life Lab: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSolar System ScopeConway's Life Lab
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (882 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews76.5% of reviews—
Number of ratings882 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 10 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS13.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size154 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperINOVE, s.r.o.Sub Rosa Industries

Bugs and requests

Solar System Scope

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Crashes when dragging Jupiter
  • Upside-down orientation on tablets
  • Unable to restore purchases
  • Freezes and crashes on launch

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add more celestial bodies (Messier objects, Planet 9/10, black holes, etc.)
  • Enable exploration of other galaxies and deep space objects
  • Improve telescope/zoom functionality
  • Add more moons and irregular satellites
  • Implement continental drift and solar system evolution

Conway's Life Lab

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Solar System Scope

One-time1
  • HQ Textures / No Ads$5.99
1 purchases

Conway's Life Lab

One-time1
  • AI Pattern Generation$0.99

Questions

Is Solar System Scope free?
Solar System Scope is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Conway's Life Lab free?
Conway's Life Lab is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Solar System Scope or Conway's Life Lab have ads?
Neither Solar System Scope nor Conway's Life Lab shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Solar System Scope or Conway's Life Lab?
Solar System Scope ships an update every 4 months, and Conway's Life Lab every 10 days. Most recently, Solar System Scope was updated on October 12, 2026 and Conway's Life Lab on October 7, 2026.

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