Circle vs ao
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Circle
Guide a jumping circle to avoid a dangerous line. Test your reflexes and see how far you can progress in this simple yet challenging arcade game. Compete for the highest score.
- Tap to jump
- Avoid the line
- Endless gameplay
- Score tracking
- Challenging reflexes
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Make the circle jump and avoid hitting the line! How far can you go?
ao
Engage in a puzzle game with expanding and contracting circles. Solve over 200 levels with unique challenges and surprises. Compete for medals and leaderboards, or skip tricky levels.
- Expanding and contracting circles
- 200 levels with unique challenges
- Leaderboard and medals
- Level skipping and unlocking
- Replay passed levels
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ao - 6th in "focus" (aa, uu, ff, au, rr, ao, rl, sp, th, ki, ci, sn, lo, ba, ov, sh, fi, do, ru & ti) Expanding and contracting circle. Different radiuses. Just like other apps in our series, the more you get into each level, the more it changes. There are theoretically infinite ways you can complete each, it makes for great fun. You can also top the leaderboard and earn medals! (bronze, silver and gold). There's 200 levels to solve right now, intertwined with all sorts of tweaks and surprises. You can also go back and replay any level you've already passed, at any time (Choose Level). If you're stuck on a really tricky level, skip it! (Tap Skip on the Fail Screen) If you can't wait, unlock all 200 levels and replay at your own pace! (Choose Level > Unlock All Levels) Thanks for all your support, I hope you're enjoying the "focus" series thus far. Handmade in Australia, General Adaptive
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Circle at 4.3 against ao's 3.3. Circle also leads on ratings volume (5.5K vs 153). ao's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 12.0). On price, review sentiment, update cadence and in-app purchases 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. Circle sells 5 one-off in-app purchases and ao sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Circle holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 3.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Circle has 5.5K ratings behind it against 153, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 43% of Circle's written reviews are positive against 47% of ao's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 2, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Circle | ao |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (5.5K ratings) — better | 3.3 (153 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 42.9% of reviews | 47.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 5.5K — better | 153 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 months |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 | 8.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 324 MB | 13 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ketchapp | General Adaptive Apps Pty Ltd |
Customer experience
Circle
ao
User reviews
Circle
From 5.5K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Addictive gameplay
- 👍 Simple and fun concept
- 🎨 Visually appealing circles
- 💎 Earning diamonds is rewarding
Room to improve
- 🔍 Challenges are inaccurate/glitchy
- 📢 Excessive and intrusive ads
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and glitches
- 🕹️ Unresponsive controls and lag
- 🔄 Repetitive gameplay with lack of updates
ao
From 153 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🤩 Fun and addictive gameplay
- 👍 Simple yet challenging
- 🎶 Good background music
- ✨ Minimalist design
- 💯 Highly recommended
Room to improve
- ❓ Confusing gameplay
- 😩 Frustrating difficulty
- 👎 Repetitive gameplay
- 💸 Unfair monetization
- 😵 Overwhelming ads
Bugs and requests
Circle
Reported bugs
3 issues- Diamonds not counting properly in challenges
- Game screen not fitting properly on newer devices
- Tapping not registering correctly
Requested features
4 requests- More race levels and challenges
- Ability to customize circles
- Option to play own music
- Pause button during gameplay
ao
Reported bugs
7 issues- Game doesn't work
- App freezes
- Level 1 fails
- Dots don't rotate
- Automatic fail
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- Glitching
- Coding error
Requested features
5 requests- Clearer instructions on how to play
- Make levels less impossible
- Fix the huge dot problem
- Add numbers on the balls
- More original game concepts
In-app purchases
Circle
- 400 Diamonds$0.99
- Remove Ads$1.99
- 1000 Diamonds$1.99
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- 3000 Diamonds$4.99
- 5000 Diamonds$6.99
ao
- Skip Level$0.99
- Remove All Ads$1.99
- Unlock All Levels$3.99
