Comparison

Orbit vs Life

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

Head to head
About

Orbit

This app is a meditative physics puzzler where you launch planets to create stable orbits around black holes. Explore a variety of levels, create your own challenges in a sandbox mode, and enjoy a visually artistic and relaxing experience.

Highlights
  • Gravity simulation puzzles
  • Create stable orbits
  • Sandbox mode for level creation
  • Community-created levels
  • Visual orbital mechanics
  • Minimalist graphics and relaxing music
Features
Read full description

ORBIT is a gravity simulator at the heart of a puzzle game. Launch planets with a flick of your finger, and try to get them into stable orbits around black holes. Can you make enough orbits to progress to the next level? New: ORBIT now features a Sandbox (paid) where you can create your own levels! Control time, disable collisions, and paint with gravity. Publish your creations to the world for everyone to play. • 45 free levels, with new mechanics are introduced over time — like repulsive black holes and planets with their own gravity that attract each other • Play community-created levels — virtually limitless content made by other players, all completely free • Launch as many planets as you like, and watch the mesmerizing orbital mechanics unfold • Planets leave colored traces, so that at the end of a level you will have created a beautiful piece of art • See the future trajectory of a planet before you launch it • Play in an environment of smooth, minimalist graphics while listening to relaxing classical piano Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/highkeygames Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/highkeygames

About

Life

Create and explore Conway's Game of Life simulations. Save and reuse your custom patterns, with the ability to pause, play, and clear the simulation board. Future updates will bring even more features.

Highlights
  • Conway's Game of Life simulation
  • Create reusable patterns
  • Pause and play simulations
  • Clear simulation board
  • Persistent patterns
  • User feedback for features
Read full description

Explore and create Game of Life simulations. This app follows the laws of Conway's Game of Life, while allowing you to create reusable patterns, pause and play, clear the board, and more coming soon. Patterns are persistent even if you remove the app from background, to keep you from having to re-input them. Please send me feedback for features!

Screenshots

Orbit4 screens
Life4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Orbit at 94% against Life's 33%. Orbit also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.0) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 39 months). Life's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 7) and ads (none vs shown). On price, device support and iOS requirement 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. Orbit sells 7 one-off in-app purchases. Life asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Orbit holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Orbit has 7.6K ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 94% of Orbit's written reviews are positive against 33% of Life's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Orbit ships an update every 2 months, Life every 39 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Orbit versus Life: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOrbitLife
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (7.6K ratings) — better4.0 (2 ratings)
Positive reviews94.4% of reviews — better33.3% of reviews
Number of ratings7.6K — better2
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 39 months
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS15.015.0
Further details — not scored
Size139 MB1 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHIGHKEY GamesJo Albright

Customer experience

Orbit

All ratings7,627 ratings
Positive97.0%
Neutral1.0%
Negative2.0%
Written reviews628 reviews
Positive94.4%
Neutral2.5%
Negative3.0%

Life

All ratings2 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral50.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive33.3%
Neutral66.7%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Orbit

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • In app purchase not received
  • Sandbox mode not working
  • Game crashing and unable to open

Requested features

6 requests
  • Dark mode option
  • Ability to zoom in and out
  • Ability to rotate the game to landscape on iPad
  • Ability to edit and move existing objects in sandbox mode
  • Ability to name planets and add moons
Show 1 more
  • More levels and game modes

Life

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

7 purchases

Orbit

One-time7
  • $1 contribution$0.99
  • Remove ads$0.99
  • $2 contribution$1.99
Show 4 more
  • $3 contribution$2.99
  • Orbit Pro$2.99
  • $5 contribution$4.99
  • $10 contribution$9.99
None

Life

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Orbit free?
Orbit is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Life free?
Life is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Orbit or Life?
Orbit is rated higher. Orbit averages 4.8 out of 5 from 7.6K ratings, while Life averages 4.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Orbit or Life have ads?
Orbit shows ads; Life does not.
Which is updated more often, Orbit or Life?
Orbit ships an update every 2 months, and Life every 39 months. Most recently, Orbit was updated on November 1, 2026 and Life on October 24, 2026.

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