Comparison

Plantera vs Swarm Simulator

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

Head to head
About

Plantera

Cultivate a vibrant garden, growing plants, trees, and raising animals. Automate your farm with helpful creatures that work even when you're offline. Defend your harvest from pests and expand your green paradise.

Highlights
  • Build and expand your garden
  • Grow plants, bushes, and trees
  • Raise various animals
  • Automated helpers for resource collection
  • Offline progress and gold accumulation
  • Defend garden from critters
  • Unlock new flora and fauna
Features
Read full description

In Plantera you build your own garden and watch it grow with new plants, bushes, trees and animals! As you play and expand your garden you will attract helpers, round blue creatures that will help you pick up things and harvest your plants. If you want you can pluck trees and harvest plants yourself, or let your helpers do the work for you while you watch or build and invest in new plants. The helpers will even continue to work while you are not playing the game, and some new gold should always be waiting for you on your return! It's good to keep your eyes open though, as sometimes mean critters may invade your garden. Hunt them out yourself or invest in a guard dog to keep the order. Go up in level to unlock new plants, bushes, trees and animals and continue to expand and improve your garden! FEATURES ● Plantera is a side-scrolling farm management simulator! Cultivate cute animals and crops for riches! ● Grow multiple varieties of trees, bushes, and other plants. Harvest them for gold so you can grow more and reach higher levels. ● Bring different types of animals to your garden and let them roam free. Hens and pigs are just some of the animals you can raise in the game. They also help in collecting more gold by giving you sellable items. ● Employ cute blue creatures called helpers to help you out in the collection of resources and raising gold from your garden, even when you’re not online. ● Unlock new varieties of flora and fauna as you reach higher levels in the game, and expand your garden. The more real estate you have, the more plants you can grow! ● Protect your garden from critters like birds, foxes, bunnies, and even wolves! Keep a guard dog or install a scarecrow to increase gold production even when not playing!

About

Swarm Simulator

Evolve your insect colony from simple larvae to powerful hive minds in this 3D incremental idle clicker game. Conquer territory, sacrifice units for growth, and ascend to unlock new mutations and expand your swarm across the universe.

Highlights
  • Incremental idle clicker gameplay
  • Endless progression and unit evolution
  • Idle mode for offline growth
  • Ascend system with new mutations
  • All-new 3D graphics and units
  • Elixir buffs and Golden Bug bonuses
Features
Read full description

Over 2 MILLION PLAYERS! Swarm Simulator: Evolution brings the strategic, incremental, idle, clicker gameplay of the wildly successful web game into a new 3D world with dozens of new systems and extra features! Evolve your way from lowly larvae and drones to all-powerful hive Overminds and beyond in this idle masterpiece! Conquer territory with fearsome Stingers and Locusts to become a tycoon of unit production. Sacrifice smaller units for the greater good of the colony and Ascend over and over as you build your Swarm toward its ultimate goal of universe spanning conquest! == Swarm Simulator Features == Idle Clicker Gameplay • Endless progression - start with a few lowly units, evolve and hatch your way to unimaginable numbers. • Idle mode - the game will keep progressing whether it's open or not, take a break for a few hours and your Swarm will grow and grow! • Ascend your Swarm to start over on a new world but with powerful new Mutations. Evolution Upgrades • All new 3D graphics and new units, dozens of 3D bugs in a fully 3D world. • Elixirs give short term buffs to your Swarm, use a Rage elixir to capture more territory ... or a Warper elixir to speed up time itself! • Golden Bugs can be captured to give long-term bonuses to your Swarm. • Swarm Lord Invasions, the HFL, Carapace Shards, unlockable skins for your bugs and more! The classic text-based incremental game has been reborn in vibrant 3D. Download Swarm Simulator now and conquer EVERYTHING!

Screenshots

Plantera4 screens
Swarm Simulator4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Plantera at none against Swarm Simulator's shown. Plantera also leads on review sentiment (94% vs 78%) and iOS requirement (7.0 vs 12.0). Swarm Simulator's advantage is update cadence (every 9 days vs every 2 months) and ratings volume (2.7K vs 654). On price, rating, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Plantera sells 10 one-off in-app purchases and Swarm Simulator sells 11 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Plantera against 4.7 for Swarm Simulator. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 654 and 2.7K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 94% of Plantera's written reviews are positive against 78% of Swarm Simulator's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Plantera ships an update every 2 months, Swarm Simulator every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on September 19, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Plantera versus Swarm Simulator: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPlanteraSwarm Simulator
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (654 ratings) — better4.7 (2.7K ratings)
Positive reviews93.6% of reviews — better78.3% of reviews
Number of ratings6542.7K — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 9 days — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS7.0 — better12.0
Further details — not scored
Size94 MB158 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperVaragtP Studios ABIron Horse Games LLC

Customer experience

Plantera

All ratings654 ratings
Positive96.5%
Neutral2.4%
Negative1.1%
Written reviews172 reviews
Positive93.6%
Neutral4.1%
Negative2.3%

Swarm Simulator

All ratings2,719 ratings
Positive93.3%
Neutral3.0%
Negative3.7%
Written reviews175 reviews
Positive78.3%
Neutral5.1%
Negative16.6%

User reviews

Plantera

From 654 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Cute and fun
  • 👍 Addictive gameplay
  • 👍 Relaxing experience
  • 👍 Great for passing time
  • 👍 Polished and well-made

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Repetitive after a while
  • 🐛 Lack of content/updates
  • 🐛 Compatibility issues on larger screens
  • 💰 In-app purchases are required for some features

Swarm Simulator

From 2.7K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Fun and addictive gameplay
  • 🚀 Smooth and responsive
  • 💡 Unique incremental mechanics
  • 🔒 Minimal ads, not intrusive

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Bugs and glitches in recent updates
  • 🔋 High battery consumption
  • 💰 Expensive in-app purchases

Bugs and requests

Plantera

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Progress loss/reset issues
  • Crashes or freezes on certain devices

Requested features

4 requests
  • More plants, animals, and content to unlock
  • Ability to customize/personalize the farm
  • Offline progress/earnings improvements
  • Expanded gameplay beyond just tapping

Swarm Simulator

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Crashes on launch
  • Stuck on loading screen
  • Incorrect display of resources and upgrades
  • Issues with cloud save functionality

Requested features

4 requests
  • More content and updates
  • Offline mode
  • Customization options
  • Improved progression and endgame

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Plantera

One-time10
  • Guard Dog$0.99
  • Alarm Clock$0.99
  • Alarm Clock$1.99
Show 7 more
  • Manure$1.99
  • Manure$2.99
  • Manure$3.99
  • Manure$4.99
  • Manure$5.99
  • Manure$6.99
  • Manure$8.99
11 purchases

Swarm Simulator

One-time11
  • Pouch of Crystals$4.99
  • Elixir Mega Pack$4.99
  • Swarm Supporter Pack$9.99
Show 8 more
  • Bag of Crystals$9.99
  • Crystalline King Pack$9.99
  • Arcane Amplifier Pack$9.99
  • Super Shards Pack$9.99
  • Challenge Crusher Pack$9.99
  • Barrel of Crystals$19.99
  • Elixir Ultra Pack$24.99
  • Storehouse of Crystals$49.99

Questions

Is Plantera free?
Plantera is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Swarm Simulator free?
Swarm Simulator is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Plantera or Swarm Simulator?
Plantera is rated higher. Plantera averages 4.8 out of 5 from 654 ratings, while Swarm Simulator averages 4.7 from 2.7K ratings.
Do Plantera or Swarm Simulator have ads?
Swarm Simulator shows ads; Plantera does not.
Which is updated more often, Plantera or Swarm Simulator?
Plantera ships an update every 2 months, and Swarm Simulator every 9 days. Most recently, Plantera was updated on September 19, 2026 and Swarm Simulator on September 22, 2026.

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