# Hacktivate: Capture the Flag — user reviews > 39 indexed App Store user reviews of Hacktivate by Hudson Heavy Industries, rated 4.60/5 from 31 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/hacktivate-capture-the-flag/id6748286602/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/hacktivate-capture-the-flag/id6748286602.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 25 · 4★ 3 · 3★ 2 · 2★ 0 · 1★ 1 ## What do users think of Hacktivate? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🚀 Great set of puzzles - 👍 Fun and educational - 👍 Brain-building - 👍 Great idea, great implementation - 👍 Great game **Cons** - 💰 The price of the full game **Commonly reported bugs** - 🐛 Useless but paid-for hint system **Most requested features** - Dark mode option ## Newest reviews (11 of 39) ### 5/5 — Great brain teaser! *2025-11-14, version 1.4.1* Since my original review (below), the app has been updated many times and now this concern is well addressed via the in-game quiz. It strikes a good balance of free hints without being a rollover. I highly still saving them for when you need. Would now highly recommend this as a way to learn more about hacking and puzzle solving. — Been enjoying the challenges in this app. Would like to rate more highly, but more than a little perturbed hints cost extra money. If this is an educational game aimed at people starting out, why the need to charge extra on top of the £££ for the base game? ### 5/5 — Engaging, Addictive, Absorbing, Fun *2025-11-11, version 1.3.2* If you enjoy cryptography then this game will give you something to think about. If you are like me and knew very little about cryptography other than having watched the move “The Imitation Game” then this game will open up a world of intrigue. There are heaps of challenges differing in difficulty. Some trivial and others tough. There are hints available to point you in the right direction but as you might expect they need to be purchased although you do get a parcel of them free initially. Go get it. You wont be disappointed. ### 5/5 — Intelligent game *2025-11-06, version 1.2* Fun and challenging puzzle games. The tutorials plus the first mission was free but in app purchase was required to continue with the hundreds of other puzzles. Thanks Paul, great fun for programmers. ### 5/5 — Great set of puzzles *2025-11-06* I did the demo levels, got hooked right away, and paid to unlock everything. I’m a veteran developer but still found new stuff to learn. Very impressed with the variety of puzzles so far! **Developer response:** Thank you! We all have new stuff to learn, and I'm glad Hacktivate is making it fun. ### 5/5 — Have fun while exploring your computer skills *2025-11-04* Having spent a lot of time on Paul Hudson’s Hacking With Swift website while I was learning SwiftUI, I had try this app. There are plenty of tutorial challenges to try for free. These challenges are varied entry level computer concepts and this makes the free version of the app worth it for people to see if they like playing with these techniques. I enjoyed them enough that for me it was easily worth the paid one time fee to continue on. **Developer response:** I'm glad you're enjoying Hacktivate! There are a huge range of challenges in the game, and my brain is always thinking up new surprises 😎 ### 5/5 — Mind bender *2025-11-03* Do not get this game unless you 1) want to learn about cybersecurity in an entertaining way, and 2) enjoy having your mind bent (a little) as you try to figure out each puzzle. And you can’t get away from it, as your progress is synched across Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Grrrr! **Developer response:** Yes! That's exactly what I want people to feel: you *are* going to learn something, and it *is* going to be addictive. Thank you for your review 🙇‍♂️ ### 5/5 — Fun :) *2025-11-03, version 1.2* I’ve often imagined a game like this, and someone finally made it, and did it really well! Clearly made with a lot of care and attention. Really enjoyable to dip into for a fun hacking challenge. ### 5/5 — Fun and educational *2025-10-28* This is an amazing app. I’ve been learning a ton, and the UI/UX as well as the teaching methodology are next level. Definitely one of the best educational/programming related apps I’ve experienced. **Developer response:** Thank you so much! Building Hacktivate was a dream come true for me – the chance to help folks learn real skills, while also having fun 🙌 ### 5/5 — Great app!!! *2025-10-28, version 1.1* If you like puzzles that feel like real-world security problems, this app is gold. The challenges are cleverly layered (you’ll decode, deduce, and sometimes get misdirected — in a good way) and they force you to think like an investigator rather than a script kiddie. Clear UI, steady difficulty ramp, and enough variety to keep you coming back. Highly recommended for anyone who likes hands-on crypto/stego/forensics practice. ### 5/5 — Brain-Building *2025-10-28* Challenging, educational, and fun. I’ve been really enjoying making my way through each challenge. Nice work!! Great game! **Developer response:** That's great to hear – thank you for playing Hacktivate! 🙌 ### 5/5 — Absolutely amazing! *2025-10-27* I wish I had something of this sort back in the days. **Developer response:** So do I, but fortunately it's never too late to have fun with computers 😎 Thank you for your review! ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 2/5 — ? *2026-07-13* Toolbox의 Input에 직접적인 수정을 가해도 그게 제대로 반영이 안됩니다. ### 3/5 — Very fun *2026-04-02, version 1.10* Great but why is it paid I really wanted to play more 😭 ### 3/5 — Can’t hear music *2025-11-24, version 1.5* I was on the waitlist for this app, and it finally launched! While I was playing, I got to tutorial two: elevator music needs to be listened to, but deaf people can’t hear it at all. It would be fantastic if there were captions added to make it more accessible. Once the issue is fixed, I might will update stars. Thanks! ### 3/5 — Great, but… *2025-10-29, version 1.1* Been enjoying the challenges in this app. Would like to rate more highly, but more than a little perturbed hints cost extra money. If this is an educational game aimed at people starting out, why the need to charge extra on top of the £££ for the base game? ### 3/5 — Pros n Cons *2025-10-28* First off the game is great which for $30 is worth saying. The only turn off is the useless but paid for hint system. I used mine after already finishing the first mission thinking they were for fun. Turns out I used them all and now any cost to use. Feels gross in a $30 game even if you never intend to use. Pointless. Maybe okay in a free to play product but it’s just gross here. Would rate it 5 otherwise. **Developer response:** Thank you for your review! I'm glad you're enjoying Hacktivate. I take all feedback very seriously, so I've made an important change that I hope you'll like: users can now earn free hints by answering questions from a security quiz, so they learn important security tips and techniques (and some fun ones!), at the same time. People who want to can still buy hints, but people who don't can get free hints completely free. I hope this fully addresses your concern, but if not please email hello@hacktivate.app – I want to keep improving the game until I can earn a five-star review from everyone. Thank you again! 🙌 ### 4/5 — Suggestion *2026-05-26* Its a good app, but ,, I'd like to add multilingual settings so that the interface supports other languages, including Chinese. This would make the app more popular worldwide. ### 4/5 — LOVE IT *2026-03-24, version 1.10* I have been thoroughly enjoying this app My only complaint is the app crashes when I click the “get more hints options” apart from that I love it ### 4/5 — Like the game, not the music *2026-03-14* I’ve liked the game so far, but I really, really wish there was a way to turn off the music. I’d prefer to listen to something else while I play. ### 4/5 — Amazing! But a bit pricey. *2025-11-19* Hi Paul! First, congrats on putting out a novel, entertaining, and educative game! It really shows all the dedication. Having said that, I feel like the price might be too steep. For every person buying it at $20 there could have been 10 people buying it at $10 or 50 at $5. I understand you have to make a living (and you should, and keep developing new things!!) but I feel you probably would get way more purchases if the price was lower. My 2 cents. Thanks again for building this! ### 4/5 — The price of the full game… *2025-10-26* Why do I have to pay for it??? **Developer response:** Thank you for trying Hacktivate. I know that not everyone can (or wants to) pay for it, but I'm an independent developer who has invested a lot of time, energy, and money in making the app, and I want to be able to earn a living doing that work. I could make versions of Hacktivate that use adverts, or track information about users and sell them to data harvesters, but both of them are really invasive for users and not something I would ever want to do. So, I hope you can understand why I need to charge for the game: it allows me to continue building something great in a fair, honest way, that people can choose to support if they want to. Thank you! Paul ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Wow *2026-06-27* This is exactly what has been needed for so long. Very well done. ### 5/5 — Great way to keep up training *2026-06-16* This app is a great way to dust off your cybersecurity learnings and have a little fun along the way ### 5/5 — Fun *2026-05-17, version 1.12* Fun ### 5/5 — A MUST-HAVE! *2026-04-03* I haven’t even finished the tutorials yet and I want to give a review! This is awesome! I will definitely be unlocking the rest of this game. I love games like this — and there are not enough of them. I want this game to be successful and by proxy, the developer — Please continue to develop this game and more games like it. I can tell that this was a serious labor of love. You have gold here, and I fully support your success. Thank you. **Developer response:** Thank you for writing this delightful review! Hacktivate was indeed a labor of love for me – I had an absolute blast designing the various challenges so they provided lots of variety for players (and taught real techniques rather than fake, “hand-wavy” computer science!), making sure they fitted into different themes across the regions, and also injecting bits of fun into them – you have no idea how many domain names I bought while I was making the game, so that folks who were curious about Hacktivate Radio, Goat Stare, and similar would not be disappointed 😅 Thank you for playing Hacktivate – I'm so glad you enjoyed it! 🙌 ### 5/5 — Like the game, not the music *2026-03-19* Love the game, but to turn the music off, you must skip the tutorial for the Settings option to appear. This is not very obvious and it would be better if the Settings were available through the menu bar as well. **Developer response:** Hello! I’m glad you’re enjoying the game. Thank you for your suggestion – the latest Hacktivate update adds a second Settings button during the tutorial, as requested. I hope this helps! ### 5/5 — Really nice *2026-03-14, version 1.10* I saw that app suggested and I’ve completed the tutorial in one seating! Wow that it’s so nice because you learn and at the same time you’re having fun. Great game for geek who love computer stuff. ### 5/5 — Awesome Puzzle Challenge *2026-03-12* I used to compete with Cyber Skyline challenges and since graduating I miss completing cyber challenges without having to compete in a full CTF. This is exactly what I am looking for. One thing though, I played around with the hints and while clicking “get more hints” it crashes the app immediately and I am not able to get any more hints. ### 5/5 — Clever Crypto Challenges *2025-12-07, version 1.7* Brilliantly addictive challenges that combine teaching cryptography and computer science with those wonderful “a ha!” moments. ### 5/5 — A wonderful game (oh… and an opportunity to learn, too!) *2025-11-18* Really enjoying this game. The storyline and puzzles have been very enjoyable. There was clearly a lot of thought and design consideration in creating the game mechanics. The “tools” provided to assist in problem solving are stellar… the wide diversity of tools, the open ended coding tools, the interactivity… it’s all excellent. ### 5/5 — Very fun! *2025-11-15* Would love to be able to accordion collapse elements of the recipe. Playing on phone means I have to scroll a lot if upstream recipe item has an effect on a downstream output. Keep up the good work! --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-14.*