on the face of it

Adverb

• from appearances alone
  • irrigation often produces bumper crops from apparently desert land
    
  • the child is seemingly healthy but the doctor is concerned
    
  • had been ostensibly frank as to his purpose while really concealing it-Thomas Hardy
    
  • on the face of it the problem seems minor
    

Related words

• Synonyms: 
  apparently , seemingly , ostensibly