Comparison

Prune vs Evergarden

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

Head to head
About

Prune

Cultivate a digital tree in a hostile world by guiding its growth towards sunlight. Uncover a hidden story and bring life to a forgotten landscape with this meditative and beautiful game.

Highlights
  • Grow and shape trees
  • Minimalist art and interface
  • Meditative music and sound
  • No in-app purchases or monetization
  • Share tree creations
  • iCloud progress synchronization
Features
Read full description

~ Apple Game of the Year 2015 ~ ~ TIME Magazine Game of the Year 2015 ~ Prune is a love letter to trees. A game about the beauty and joy of cultivation. With a swipe of a finger, grow and shape your tree into the sunlight while avoiding the dangers of a hostile world. Bring life to a forgotten landscape and uncover a story hidden deep beneath the soil. • A unique digital plant for your pocket • Beautiful, minimalist art and a super clean interface—it's just you and the trees • Meditative music and sound design for you to zen out to • No IAP, no monetization strategy, no currencies • Share screenshots of your unique tree creations with friends • Synchronize progress across all your devices using iCloud ----- RECEPTION ----- "Unlike anything I've played before... the kind of experience I want to pull out to show my friends." - The Verge "Wildly creative, totally addictive, and oddly soothing" - Entertainment Weekly "Prune is a gorgeous and unique experience." - 5/5 TouchArcade "Prune is an awe-inspiring work of digital poetry that transcends its initial subject material to explore a much larger, much more complex theme, in an articulate and powerfully moving manner" - 10/10 Pocket Gamer "A collaboration that feels more like a dance than puzzle-solving." - Kill Screen ----- AWARDS ----- • Winner - Best Upcoming Game - 11th International Mobile Gaming Awards • Finalist - IndieCade Festival 2015 • Official Selection - Brazil's FILE Festival • Runner-Up - IndiePlus "Make Something Great" Contest • Official Selection - Out of Index Experimental Games Festival

About

Evergarden

Lose yourself in a relaxing puzzle game set in a mysterious forest. Combine plants to create new forms, uncover secrets, and restore the forest with your creature guide. This game offers an endlessly satisfying puzzle experience with a narrative adventure.

Highlights
  • Plant merging puzzle mechanics
  • Mysterious forest exploration
  • Narrative adventure progression
  • Unlock new strategies with 'songs'
  • Daily procedural puzzles
  • Calming rhythm and atmosphere
Features
Read full description

“The game absolutely will feel familiar when you’re setting out, but as you progress through Evergarden you will experience something the likes of which I doubt you will have in your gaming life.” - Touch Arcade “Evergarden is a brilliant, relaxing, and utterly enthralling puzzle game that you should grab right now” - Pocket Gamer “Evergarden may look like a combination of puzzle games you’ve seen before, but it’s truly a game that’s more than the sum of its parts” - 148apps.com Lose yourself in an endlessly satisfying puzzle game set in the midst of a mysterious forest world. Transform your garden by combining plants into strange new forms, and unearth deeply hidden secrets as you become engrossed in the game’s calming rhythm. Wander into the forest and help bring it back to life with the help of Fen, your creature guide. Evergarden may feel familiar at first, but you will discover it is like no game you have played before. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Q: What type of game is this? A: Evergarden is an “evergreen” puzzle game merged with a narrative adventure. Q: What do you mean by “narrative adventure”? A: Beyond the garden puzzle board, there lies a mysterious forest environment to explore, with its own puzzles and progression. You’ll use the stones that you earn on the puzzle board to solve puzzles, and unlock new “songs” which add interesting new strategies to the puzzle board. Q: How long is the game? A: The core puzzle game is “evergreen”, which means you can play it repeatedly and keep mastering it forever. The narrative adventure portion will take most players 4-8 hours to explore, and there is a daily challenge with a new procedural puzzle to unlock every day.

Screenshots

Prune4 screens
Evergarden4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Evergarden at every 2 weeks against Prune's every 6 weeks. Prune's advantage is chart position (#76 vs unranked) and ratings volume (568 vs 76). On price, rating, review sentiment and ads 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

Prune costs $4.99 and Evergarden $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.3 for Prune against 4.3 for Evergarden. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Prune has 568 ratings behind it against 76, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 66% of Prune's written reviews are positive against 64% of Evergarden's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Prune ships an update every 6 weeks, Evergarden every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 8 level
Prune versus Evergarden: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPruneEvergarden
Price$4.99$4.99
Rating4.3 (568 ratings)4.3 (76 ratings)
Positive reviews66.1% of reviews — better64.1% of reviews
Number of ratings568 — better76
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
Best chart rank#76 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS11.011.0
Further details — not scored
Size123 MB171 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJoel McDonald LLCFlippfly, LLC

Customer experience

Prune

All ratings568 ratings
Positive78.7%
Neutral9.0%
Negative12.3%
Written reviews573 reviews
Positive66.1%
Neutral15.7%
Negative18.2%

Evergarden

All ratings76 ratings
Positive78.9%
Neutral9.2%
Negative11.8%
Written reviews64 reviews
Positive64.1%
Neutral21.9%
Negative14.1%

User reviews

Prune

From 568 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🌳 Beautiful, elegant design
  • 🕹️ Relaxing, meditative gameplay
  • 🎶 Calming, atmospheric soundtrack
  • 🌟 Unique, artistic experience
  • 👍 Simple and intuitive controls

Room to improve

  • ⏱️ Levels can feel too time-sensitive
  • 🤔 Unclear objectives and mechanics
  • 🕰️ Game is too short for the price
  • 🐛 Performance issues on older devices

Evergarden

From 76 App Store ratings

What we love

  • ✨ Beautiful graphics and visuals
  • 🎶 Fantastic and tranquil music
  • 🧠 Engaging and intelligent puzzles
  • 😌 Relaxing and absorbing gameplay
  • 💡 Innovative gameplay mechanics

Room to improve

  • 🔋 Drains battery very fast
  • 🔁 Repetitive gameplay for some
  • 🤔 Lack of instructions can be frustrating
  • 😕 Difficulty in understanding mechanics
  • 💸 Too expensive for limited playtime

Bugs and requests

Prune

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Progress reset after updates
  • Unresponsive controls at times

Requested features

4 requests
  • More levels and content updates
  • Zen mode with no time constraints
  • Level editor and sharing capabilities
  • Improved tutorials and explanations

Evergarden

Reported bugs

8 issues
  • Game glitches with special tokens
  • Back button disappears
  • Game doesn't recognize completed patterns
  • Game crashes or freezes
  • App shuts off phone screen randomly
Show 3 more
  • Cannot progress after tutorial/first level
  • Issue with loading new game boards
  • Forced quit when making certain moves

Requested features

8 requests
  • More levels or content
  • Hint system or tutorial
  • Undo button for moves
  • Fix for impossible challenges
  • Improved visual clarity for colorblind users
Show 3 more
  • Option to save and return to games
  • Optimization for battery usage
  • Fix for game board not changing shape

In-app purchases

None

Prune

No in-app purchases

None

Evergarden

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Prune free?
Prune costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Evergarden free?
Evergarden costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Prune or Evergarden?
Prune and Evergarden are both rated 4.3 out of 5 on the App Store, from 568 and 76 ratings respectively.
Do Prune or Evergarden have ads?
Neither Prune nor Evergarden shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Prune or Evergarden?
Prune ships an update every 6 weeks, and Evergarden every 2 weeks. Most recently, Prune was updated on September 29, 2026 and Evergarden on September 21, 2026.

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