Head-to-head

Love & Pies vs Merge Cooking®

Love & Pies 4.7★ · Free + IAP 65

Winner Tie

Merge Cooking® 4.7★ · Free + IAP 65

Love & Pies offers a more engaging story and better graphics, but both games suffer from aggressive monetization tactics and energy limitations that frustrate players.

Full reviews: Love & Pies · Merge Cooking®

Both Love & Pies and Merge Cooking® are popular merge games with similar gameplay loops, but both are criticized for their energy systems, frequent pop-ups, and perceived 'pay-to-win' mechanics. Love & Pies stands out for its storyline and graphics, while Merge Cooking® is noted for its decorating aspect.

Head to head

Gameplay & Progression tie^R4^R6^R8^R19

Love & Pies Love & Pies players enjoy the core merge gameplay, storyline, and graphics ^R4^R8. However, many find progression slow, requiring significant time or money, especially at higher levels ^R6^R19^R21. Users also report issues with generator recharge times and the difficulty of completing challenges without paying ^R6.

Merge Cooking® Merge Cooking® is described as fun and addictive, with enjoyable merge mechanics and decorating options . However, players frequently complain about slow progression, especially at higher levels, due to limited energy and generators that run out quickly . Some also note that completing orders and challenges becomes very difficult without spending money .

Monetization & Ads tie^R1^R4^R7^R13

Love & Pies Love & Pies is heavily criticized for its aggressive monetization. Players report that spending money can lead to fewer opportunities for free energy from ads ^R1^R30 and increased difficulty in progression ^R4^R21. Many also complain about excessive pop-ups for events and purchases upon opening the app ^R13^R25. Some users claim the game charges them without authorization ^R7.

Merge Cooking® Merge Cooking® also faces strong criticism for its monetization. Users feel forced to spend money to progress due to rapid energy depletion and slow regeneration . Similar to App A, some players report that making purchases removes the option to watch ads for energy ^R90. There are also complaints about frequent pop-ups for purchases .

Reliability & Support tie^R7^R10^R14^R16

Love & Pies Love & Pies users report issues with the game crashing ^R10 and rewards not being delivered after completing events or watching ads ^R14^R16. Some also mention items disappearing from their board . Customer service is described as 'useless' regarding unauthorized purchases ^R7.

Merge Cooking® Merge Cooking® players also experience crashes and issues with rewards, particularly after making purchases ^R90. Some users report specific bugs, such as items not blending or generators not producing needed parts . Customer service is also noted as unhelpful ^R90.

User Experience & Features edge: Love & Pies^R2^R4^R8^R9

Love & Pies Love & Pies is praised for its engaging storyline, cute hand-drawn graphics, and inclusive characters ^R4^R8. However, the game is heavily criticized for an overwhelming number of pop-ups at startup ^R13^R25. Users also express frustration with sticker pack mechanics, where earned rewards expire quickly or disappear ^R2^R9. Some find the characters 'jerks' or the story too similar to other games .

Merge Cooking® Merge Cooking® offers various locations to decorate and some users appreciate the unique mechanic of making things with merged items . However, many users are frustrated by false advertising in the game's promotions, showing gameplay not present in the app . The game also has issues with long cool-down periods for cooking and generators .

Pick Love & Pies if

you prioritize a strong narrative, appealing hand-drawn graphics, and inclusive characters, and are willing to tolerate frequent pop-ups and potential monetization friction ^R4^R8.

Pick Merge Cooking® if

you enjoy decorating different locations and a more direct cooking-themed merge experience, but be aware of misleading ads and aggressive energy limitations .

Evidence note: Both apps have a significant number of reviews highlighting similar issues, particularly around energy systems, monetization, and pop-ups. The evidence is robust on these points for both. Love & Pies has slightly more detailed complaints about specific event mechanics and customer service.

Frequently asked

Do Love & Pies and Merge Cooking® have many ads?

Both Love & Pies and Merge Cooking® are criticized for frequent pop-ups and ads, especially upon opening the app, which many users find intrusive and disruptive to gameplay (^R13, ^R25, , for Love & Pies; , for Merge Cooking®). Some users also report that watching ads for energy or rewards can become unavailable, particularly after making in-app purchases (^R1, ^R30, for Love & Pies; , ^R90, for Merge Cooking®).

Is it hard to progress in Love & Pies and Merge Cooking® without paying?

Yes, many users for both Love & Pies and Merge Cooking® report that it becomes very difficult to progress without spending money, especially at higher levels (^R19, ^R21, , for Love & Pies; , , , for Merge Cooking®). Players frequently run out of energy quickly, and generators have long recharge times or yield too few items, forcing them to wait hours or make in-app purchases to continue playing (^R6, ^R12, for Love & Pies; , , for Merge Cooking®).

Do these games have good customer service?

Reviews indicate that customer service for both games is generally unhelpful. A Love & Pies user described CS as 'useless' when dealing with unauthorized purchases ^R7. Similarly, a Merge Cooking® player reported that customer service 'didn’t even provide help' after they made purchases and lost the option to watch ads for energy ^R90.

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.

[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
[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
[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!
[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
[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
[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
[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
[R10] Love & Pies 1/5 · US Crashing: Game keeps crashing. I’m about to delete for good.
[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!
[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😡
[R2] Love & Pies 4/5 · US Almost perfect: I truly enjoy this game, but I find the sticker packs frustrating. I didn’t realize you only had 24 hours to use the dream sticker reward after earning it. So I was extremely disappointed because I had planned on using the dream stickers toward the end of the sticker pack event to fill in spots I hadn’t managed to find. It was frustrating to realize I had wasted time and gems whi
[R9] Love & Pies 3/5 · US Disappointed: Love the game and have played for a long time . Worked hard to finally complete a challenge and get the choose a sticker reward. I purposefully didn’t open it because I know they disappear shortly after opening. BUT It still disappeared. Maybe a warning before it goes. I log on multiple times a day and never was there a heads up. I’m so disappointed because the challenges are al
[R25] Love & Pies 2/5 · US so many pop-ups!: I recently opened this game up again after a while of not playing, and I was wondering why I stopped at all, and then was quickly reminded: there are so. many. pop-ups. If you don’t open the game for a few days, you have to click through tens of pop-ups about events stopping and starting. I just want to get to the game! But the pop-up event notifications totally deter me from pla
[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.
[R12] Love & Pies 3/5 · US Ummmmm: Ok well this game is very fun and I think quite well organized, but there are definitely some problems. First one is the energy thing. Let me explain, when you’re doing the matching game thing every time you click on the regenerator it takes away one energy. One out of 100 by the way. Now that might sound like a lot, but it’s not. And then you have to wait a whole hour for it to restart. L
[R21] Love & Pies 3/5 · US So hard to progress: awesome but it takes so long to progress anywhere. it takes 600 coins just to buy one rug. I don’t like how you have to spend coins in order to just see the story and not even buy anything for your restaurant. I’ve been playing for a few months and have spent at least $25 and I’m still only on like the third room because it takes so many coins just to progress. And it’s pretty
[R90] Merge Cooking® 3/5 · US Do not make purchases.: Do not buy anything on this game. I bought some passes and got barely any energy from it. And now I no longer get the option to watch ads. I have to wait hours or pay more real money or my gems just to get energy. I even tried reaching out to customer service and it didn’t even provide help.

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