Verithiathe honest score on any app
Updated July 2026 · real, multi-region App Store reviews
Head-to-head

Love & Pies vs Gossip Harbor®

Love & Pies 4.7★ · Free + IAP 65
Winner Love & Pies
Gossip Harbor® 4.6★ · Free + IAP 60

Love & Pies has a slight edge due to its more consistent gameplay experience and less severe issues with monetization, despite both games struggling with energy limitations and misleading ads.

Full reviews: Love & Pies · Gossip Harbor®

Both Love & Pies and Gossip Harbor are merge games with similar core mechanics and monetization strategies. While Gossip Harbor suffers from widespread complaints about false advertising, Love & Pies faces criticism for aggressive in-game pop-ups and a perceived penalty for paying users.

Head to head

Gameplay & Features edge: Love & PiesR4R6R8R19
Love & Pies Love & Pies is praised for its engaging storyline, cute artwork, and well-made quests, with some users calling it the 'best merge game out there' R8. However, players frequently complain about slow progression, high coin costs for story advancement, and generators that take too long to recharge R4R6R19. Some users also wish for more customization options and an undo button .
Gossip Harbor® Gossip Harbor offers a typical merge game experience with special events and mini-games that some find fun and addictive R69. However, many users find the core matching gameplay boring and repetitive R67. There are also complaints about items taking too long to make and the game intentionally not providing needed items, leading to frustration and wasted space .
Monetization & Value tieR1R19R31R34
Love & Pies Love & Pies is criticized for its aggressive monetization, with many users feeling that progress is intentionally slowed to encourage purchases R19R45. Some paying users report a 'penalty' where they receive fewer opportunities for free energy or ads after spending money R1R31R34. Challenges are often described as impossible to complete without paying .
Gossip Harbor® Gossip Harbor also faces significant criticism for its monetization, with users stating it's 'impossible to finish any without making a few purchases a day' R78. Players report that the game becomes 'greedy' and makes it impossible to complete orders without purchases after playing for a while . Similar to Love & Pies, some users note that opportunities for free energy via ads disappear after spending money R69.
User Experience & Reliability edge: Love & PiesR10R13R14R18
Love & Pies Love & Pies is frequently criticized for an excessive number of pop-ups upon opening the app, which deters users from playing R13R18. The game also experiences crashing and freezing issues, especially after updates R10. Some users report problems with ads not giving rewards or not allowing exit back to the game R14.
Gossip Harbor® Gossip Harbor users also experience numerous pop-ups, particularly for long-time players, which are described as annoying . A major and widespread issue for Gossip Harbor is that its advertisements are misleading and do not represent the actual gameplay R61R63R64R67. Some users also report bugs with inventory storage .
Customer Support & Trust edge: Love & PiesR7R16R40R43
Love & Pies Love & Pies users report issues with unauthorized purchases and useless customer service, with support directing them to Apple instead of resolving the problem directly R7R43. There are also complaints about rewards not being granted after completing events or challenges R16R40.
Gossip Harbor® Gossip Harbor does not have specific widespread complaints about customer service, but the pervasive issue of false advertising in its ads undermines user trust significantly R61R63R64R67. One user reported that VIP passes are only valid for a season (30 days) and not a permanent upgrade, leading to disappointment .
Pick Love & Pies if

You prefer a merge game with a well-developed storyline and engaging artwork, and you are willing to tolerate frequent pop-ups and slower progression unless you make in-app purchases R8R13R18.

Pick Gossip Harbor® if

You enjoy the core merge game mechanic and don't mind a less compelling storyline, but be aware that the game's advertising is highly misleading R69R61R63.

Evidence note: Evidence for Gossip Harbor is heavily skewed by complaints about false advertising, which impacts overall user satisfaction despite some positive comments on the actual gameplay. Both apps have significant complaints regarding energy limitations and aggressive monetization tactics.

Frequently asked

Are Love & Pies and Gossip Harbor free to play?
Both Love & Pies and Gossip Harbor are free to download and play, but they include in-app purchases (IAP) and use energy systems that often require waiting or spending money to progress R19R45R67R78.
Do these games have ads?
Love & Pies has ads, but some users report that paying for IAP reduces or removes opportunities to earn rewards from ads R1R30R31. Gossip Harbor generally claims to have no ads, but some users report that free energy options via ads disappear after making purchases R69.
Is Gossip Harbor's advertising accurate?
No, Gossip Harbor's advertising is widely criticized by users for being highly misleading and not representative of the actual game's content or puzzles R61R63R64R67.

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 120 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

  1. [R4] Love & Pies 2/5 · US Not a fan of the latest update: I really love this game. I love the graphics, storyline and how inclusive the characters are. I’ve paid out of pocket for the picnic pass and a few other things. I don’t mind supporting creators when I can. However, the latest up date (9.23.22) drastically changed the number of coins needed to advance the story. Before the update, things cost 36-90 coins to advanc
  2. [R6] Love & Pies 3/5 · US Great but annoying: I've been playing this game for several months now and I can confidently confirm that improvements are needed in order to compete with other popular merge games. Firstly, less time needed for recharging generators - I should not have to play hourly in order to progress (this is a game after all) Secondly, and not so importantly, the amount of notifications is excessive. I just
  3. [R8] Love & Pies 5/5 · US best merge game out there: i LOVE merge games and this one definitely takes the cake. most merge games use ai to create stories and imagery but it is such a relief that this game is drawn and made by man. such cute stories and quests!
  4. [R19] Love & Pies 2/5 · US has potential: app has potential to be a fun merge game, but makes you wait extremely long to play the game so you can buy energy or coins. never understood the whole "you have to wait to play" thing till i realized it was just a money grab
  5. [R1] Love & Pies 2/5 · US Didn’t pay, Paid and now no commercial for things I need: I was on this app before for years and was at a way advanced level than I was before and didn’t pay. Had commercials for energy and items in shadows that were big. Decide to pay and get less commercials for opportunities to earn energy and blinking items. I’m not donating another penny. Smh
  6. [R31] Love & Pies 2/5 · US don't spend money on this game, you'll just be penalized for it.: i enjoy this game, but i want to say it's absolutely ridiculous how when you spend money on anything, you're basically "punished" for weeks for spending money. once you send the game any money, expect to only get about up to fifty free energy through ads as opposed to the normal daily three hundred energy you can get through ads wit
  7. [R34] Love & Pies 2/5 · US Fun game and good storyline BUT don’t make any purchases: I’ve been playing Love & Pies for a few years now and enjoy the storyline and seeing what’s going to happen next. I don’t like to spend money playing games but once in a while I will when I want to keep playing and am out of energy or other ways to earn energy to keep playing. I’ve done it a few times playing this game always hoping they ch
  8. [R10] Love & Pies 1/5 · US Crashing: Game keeps crashing. I’m about to delete for good.
  9. [R13] Love & Pies 1/5 · US Still so many pop ups: I haven’t played in over a year. I tried to come back but there are still so many things you have to clock through to get to the game play. This was supposedly being addressed over 2 years ago. I know how the season pass works. It annoyed me so much having to click through the “activate” tutorial that I just closed and left the app again. Such a shame as this is a wonderful
  10. [R14] Love & Pies 4/5 · US AD issues: I love this game - I’ve had it for years and love the simple gameplay and decoration aspect. My only issue is that sometimes when I watch ads in the game, they don’t give me the reward afterwards or they simply don’t allow me to exit out of the ad back into the game and I have to close the entire app. Not sure if this is a game issue or whoever is running the ads but it’s very annoying!
  11. [R18] Love & Pies 3/5 · US Enjoy but too many pop ups: I enjoy playing this game but the pop ups in the beginning drive me insane, I just want to play the game like normal I dont care about the new events. If you want to advertise new events put it on the side or something where you click on it to see it instead of the tons of pop ups.
  12. [R7] Love & Pies 1/5 · US Steals money, useless customer service.: I like this game a lot. It’s fun and easy to play. But at some point an update has it occasionally charging me when I don’t authorize a purchase. I have changed my password, required a PW for every purchase, turned ability to make purchases off, deleted and redownloaded the game. It still happens. CS is totally useless and tells me to talk to Apple, which h
  13. [R16] Love & Pies 1/5 · US Angry: I would’ve given it 5 stars any other time but I didn’t get my rewards for completing the rocket event. I needed the mystery cloud to complete all my albums😡
  14. [R40] Love & Pies 2/5 · US Dude.: The daily quest won’t give me my final amount after I completed them all. Find it annoying as I could have used them, but instead it tells me the next day that I “forgot to grab them” but it doesn’t have a button to collect them. Also, the stickers are too hard to get. What was the point of getting rid of the albums because “we are listening and see y’all are complaining about how hard it i
  15. [R43] Love & Pies 1/5 · US Won’t refund unapproved purchases: They refused to refund money, that I hadn’t approved for purchases made for in game content.
  16. [R45] Love & Pies 3/5 · US Awesome Game butt…: This is a really good game game but the big dent in this game is the energy bar. You join and play maybe 5 minutes and then ur energy is just gone!! Its a pay to play game. :( Unless you want to wait a week for good progress you’re done!! That really made me delete it the first time and now im considering it again.
  17. [R67] Gossip Harbor® 1/5 · US Not the game Ads promised: Nothing that special. Alot of other games like it. Sure no ads but its literally an endless merge game with that depends on you being too impatient on time locked progress so you feel inclined to pay for unlocks/coins/gems whatever. Not the game the ads promised. Like at all. Will be deleting.
  18. [R78] Gossip Harbor® 3/5 · US Love it but hate the $$: I absolutely would buy this game IF I could, but only if they stopped trying to get you to spend every dollar you have buying energy. Like why can’t you accumulate more than 100 energy??? You use 100 energy in literally 40 seconds 😩. You can’t finish ANY OF THE CHALLENGES! Unless YOU BUY EVERYTHING. IT IS LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO FINISH ANY WITHOUT MAKING A FEW PURCHASES A
  19. [R30] Love & Pies 3/5 · US Somehow Got Worse: I used to ADORE this game because there was a lot you could do without being a PTW. I’m not sure what happened, but as of a week ago, you can’t skip anything or get any more energy with ads like you used to. I can watch maybe one or two ads before I’m paywalled.
  20. [R69] Gossip Harbor® 3/5 · US Don't ever spend money on this game: I downloaded this game out of curiosity and it was not at all what was advertised. However I really enjoyed the matching aspect of the game so I had been playing for months really enjoying it. There's a ton of mini games in it which makes it interesting. They give you options for free energy and boosters by watching ads but the second you spend money on the ga
  21. [R61] Gossip Harbor® 1/5 · US Lies: Not at all like the add!!!!!
  22. [R63] Gossip Harbor® 3/5 · US Real/honest review: I rarely leave reviews, but I felt this one was worth writing. First, the game is nothing like the ads. To be fair, the game itself is enjoyable, but the marketing is misleading. The ads portray gameplay that simply doesn’t exist. If anything, the mechanics shown in the ads would make excellent optional side activities or mini games, and I would genuinely enjoy seeing them add
  23. [R64] Gossip Harbor® 1/5 · US Not the ad: It’s not the same game in the ad

Synthesized from 120 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store