Retrogram appears legitimate, with a few gaps. The AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for Retrogram is 73 out of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data.

Retrogram User Reviews

Name: Retrogram
Rating: 4.4 (316 reviews)

in Color

Customer Experience

Positive experience65.0% of reviews

Neutral10.0% of reviews

Negative experience25.0% of reviews

~ Based on 60 written reviews from the US App Store.

What users say

Summarized from real user reviews of Retrogram. Based on 316 reviews and a 4.4/5 average, it highlights the 9 positives and 9 negatives reviewers mention most about this game.

Positive things

🎨Retro aesthetic and clean interface design
👍Simple and intuitive gameplay mechanics
🧠Challenging and brain-stimulating puzzles
📚Interesting word definitions and fun comments
🎮Daily puzzle provides consistent engagement
✨Responsive and helpful developer support
🔄Regular updates and new features
📱Smooth synchronization across devices
🎯Clear word-finding feedback system

Negative things

💰Expensive subscription pricing ($30-$80)
🚫Misleading free-to-play model with paywall
📖Inconsistent and limited word dictionary
🔄Words accepted one day but rejected another
⏰Only one puzzle per day (limited content)
❌Missing common words (orzo, aloud, galley)
🐛Glitches and technical issues
🌍American English only (no alternate spellings)
⚠️Lack of transparency about subscription requirements

Is Retrogram Safe?

Retrogram appears safe based on user ratings. AppsHunter Safety Score for Retrogram is 87/100.

This assessment is based on 316 user ratings, with an App Store average of 4.4/5.

Safety Analysis

87.3% of ratings point to a safe experience

2.5% of ratings suggest some concerns

10.1% of ratings point to a risky experience

~ Based on 316 App Store ratings for Retrogram.

Is Retrogram Legit?

Retrogram appears legitimate, with a few gaps. AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for Retrogram is 73/100.

Based on 73 of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data.

Top reviews

Most Recent Highest Rated Lowest Rated

I Love This Game, BUT…..

This game is almost perfect. The only problem I have with it is that if the word isn’t in the everyday lexicon then it isn’t recognized. Would it kill to use the Oxford dictionary? There are more than dime a dozen words.

LivNicks

3 months ago

Great addition!

Thanks!

Car Laa

5 months ago

Great game

I’m really enjoying the app. The UI is simple and looks nice with the 70s theme. It would be good to have a hint feature that gives you a list of how many words start with 2-letter combinations and doesn’t impact your streak unlike the word reveal hint.

Ari’s IPhone

7 months ago

Fun fun

Never do this….its worth it

Kaiser Von Powderhorn

9 months ago

Why no previous puzzles

I just forked over the big $50 for the game forever under the impression I would be able to play previous puzzles. But I am still only limited to the o e puzzle per day. I don’t understand the logic here. You’re effectively making people pay this subscription just to have the *privilege* of playing your game? That’s so pathetic.

It’s a fun game and I like the concept of it a lot. But forking over as much as I did with effectively nothing in return kind of feels like a scam to me. Can I please have my money back?

MeatBicycles

a year ago

Response from developer

Thanks for letting us know! Please note, the free version of the game does not allow you to play one puzzle per day. It has a seven day free trial, after which you can play one puzzle per week for free. What you have purchased did unlock the daily puzzle. Apologies for the confusion. Past puzzles will become available to paid users soon.

Only one game a day, not free

This game requires an expensive subscription but you only get one game a day. I'll stick to Spelling Bee, which costs less and includes the crossword and other games.

Crushlimbarf

2 years ago

Nope

Not paying a subscription, see ya.

hihi77896

2 years ago

Spelling

I do enjoy this game, it can take a while to find all the words and sometimes I run out of steam… but it’s a good test for the brain.
Obviously American English, but I can’t get past “Aluminum”. At least have both spellings, the US is literally the only country who dropped a vowel 😅 other than the occasional frustration, I’ll keep playing it because I’m a perfectionist 😂

Jay Jay 09

2 years ago

Response from developer

Thanks for playing! It's a tricky problem because each word we add makes the puzzle harder for everyone (increasing the total score required to get "Wizard"). We have added WORD NERD words as a solution to this, where the word gives you points, but doesn't increase the puzzle difficulty. We'll consider adding ALUMINIUM as a WORD NERD word for perfectionists like you.

Perfect daily word app

Love the nostalgia of the interface and a puzzle to keep coming back to throughout the day. I signed up for a year subscription and have now bought lifetime. Neon Nites was game changing.

Celtic_Heart

2 years ago

Response from developer

Thank you!

Does not compute many words

I don’t know what dictionary or word list is being used, but many words found in any common dictionary, such as Mariam Webster,, result “does not compute“. A standard dictionary should be used. This is, after all,a game, utilizing word and spelling skills so to omit so many commonly used words is a significant flaw in the app. Otherwise the app is well designed and works well.

12bluros

2 years ago

Response from developer

Great suggestion! We will take it on board. When you say “finish the game” you mean reach Wizard level?

unfound words arenot revealed until the following day

I purchased the year subscription, but the unfound words are not revealed, until the following day —-not when I conclude the game. After I finish the game, I like to see what I missed and not wait an entire day. By the next day, I forgotten the whole game.

12bluros

2 years ago

Response from developer

Great suggestion! We will take it on board. When you say “finish the game” you mean reach Wizard level?

They should just tell you it costs $30

They let you download for free and play a couple times but then out if nowhere you can’t play anymore unless you subscribe for at least $30. Thats not cool and expensive for just one game.

mishtrav

2 years ago

A bit pricy

Graphics are cool and the game is fun. I really like the retro look. You also learn some obscure words. And I’m happy to pay and support an indie developer, but $8 a month/$50 a year/$80 lifetime is a bit steep for just one daily puzzle and the occasional challenges.

Subtle Beetroot

2 years ago

Response from developer

Our bonus puzzles are free for everyone, as are Sunday's puzzles. We will try to find some more ways to include free puzzles and paid puzzles, thanks for your great feedback!

Don’t bother

I absolutely love playing word games and I ditched this app pretty quickly, before having to subscribe. The main reason is that I can’t figure out which dictionary they’re using, or if they’re even using one. There’s a lot of legitimate words that I’ve used in the New York Times Spelling Bee game that they don’t accept. For example, galley wasn’t accepted, Lily - as in the flower - wasn’t accepted. But then there are a lot of proper nouns that are accepted. It makes no sense at all and is really frustrating for someone who loves to play word games. Plus, it looks like the game hasn’t been updated in over a year so I feel like the developers have kind of abandoned it. Better to subscribe to the New York Times games package. Also, check out the app Spelling Queen. It seems to be much better.

Jamiel13579

2 years ago

Response from developer

Apologies if we missed a word. We have rules around which words we accept, but do edit by hand each day's puzzle. This means there are a lot of cases where we are on the fence about whether to include a word or not — this decision is then carried forward into future puzzles. GALLEY and LILY should be accepted, we will look into our archives to see why these were missed. Also please note that the game was last updated in March 2024, which is three months ago, and we have many more updates planned, as well as regular bonus puzzle packs which we release monthly

Doesn’t have daily games

I deleted this “free” app after playing only two daily puzzles and a round of bonus puzzles. Lasted two days before I was only given the option of paying $30 or more to unlock more puzzles. It was a fun game while it lasted.

JaqMoon

2 years ago

Response from developer

Sorry to hear you were taken by surprise that this game is not completely free. It does seem frustrating. Bonus puzzles are always free, as are Sunday's puzzles. The regular daily puzzle is a subscription. We spend each day editing puzzles, and so have chosen a price to help support the work

Satisfying and challenging

A snack sized game, made fresh every day. I play a lot of word games but none that I look forward to as consistently. Worth the subscription!

MoiraMum

2 years ago

Response from developer

Thank you! We loved reading your feedback

Strange Glitches, Otherwise Fun

Addictive fun for word lovers - I love beating the daily goal. There are a LOT of legit English words they don’t accept, especially past tenses and plurals, and quite a few I’ve used repeatedly in other word games. Today, though it’s glitching quite bizarrely, changing the letters every time you spin the wheel to rearrange them. Apparently you can only contact them through Apple mail, which I don’t use and don’t want, so I can’t ask them directly what is going on.

Zingiberk

2 years ago

Response from developer

Hi Zingiberk, thank you for leaving your review! Apologies for the glitchy puzzle two days ago, we’ve put in safeguards to prevent it from happening again. We will also make our contact details more visible in the game. For now, you should be able to use any email client to email us, please copy the address from the “to” field and paste it into the email client of your choice (retrogram.app@gmail.com)

I am a bit confused.

First of all, I like the look and the feel of this game. I appreciate the word lists and the handy way you can switch from an alphabetical list to a list that shows words you have recently found.

The comments in the definitions are great. Who knew that Preener is one of Santa’s reindeer, and the vainest to boot ?

Now, why am I confused ? I’m not sure exactly how the daily games work. Do I need to pay for them ? How about the Bonus games ? If I don’t want to sign up for Instagram or Mastadon (?), how can I get a discount ? I have been able to figure out some of this from the Comment section, but a page on the App explaining all this would be really helpful .

Love this game. Keep ‘em comin’. 🙂

RA ^..^ ^,,^ ^,,^

2 years ago

Response from developer

Thank you so much for your review! To clear some things up, bonus puzzles are free. Sunday's puzzle is free. The daily puzzle requires a subscription If you'd like a discount you can use ILOVEWORDS for 50% off one year

No daily puzzle

I had maybe 3 days with a free puzzle, now for the past four days it tells me I have to subscribe to play the daily puzzle. It’s ridiculous, it’s a word game

All taken but this one

3 years ago

…

First of all, shoutout to the devs: I emailed them with a question and they quickly responded with a clear explanation that showed they understood my email and weren’t just brushing me off.

Anyway, I’ve been playing Retrograms daily for about three weeks now. Been enjoying it as a nice spin on the word game genre. (It looks like there are some games on the App Store with the same general mechanics, but not Retrogram’s emphasis on appealing aesthetics.)

The basic setup features a rotary phone-like dial of letters with one letter in the middle, seven letters in total. Make as many words out of those letters as you can. If you’ve played Boggle you know what’s going on here, except here there’s no timer.

Two unique rules help keep this from being your garden variety Boggle clone: 1. Every word has to use the center letter. 2. Words have to be 4 letters or longer (ie, it cuts out the typical gimme words like “ale,” “ire,” “ore,” “bar,” etc.). Both work very well in creating Retrogram’s challenge.

Also unique (at least among the non-themed word games I’ve played) is the accepted word pool seems to be curated somehow. Which is to say, if you’re used to word games that pull from the scrabble dictionary (which most word games seem to), you’ll probably be making some words that aren’t accepted. The degree to which that matters to you will probably depend on how much you lean on weirdo words that people only know because they play word games (think: “qat,” “zymurgy,” etc).

I generally consider the trimmer word list a strength: Feels more like a genuine test of coming up with real words, not a regurgitation exercise. At the same time, a curation means some good words get left off (a few weeks ago I was able to play “ballad” but not “balladeer”), whether by oversight or intentional decision. Likewise, the word list seems curb the endless mileage word game players get out of endings like “-ed” and “-er,” which generally allows obvious words, but not some of the wackier morpheme combinations that have long aided Boggle lovers.

The curation—while a touch too limited—is a nice change of pace. I dig it.

That said, it’s impossible to talk about Retrogram without talking about its monetization. Let me be clear: I am pro-premium pricing with games. I dislike the in-game currency micro transactions that most free-to-play banks on. Retrogram avoids that and monetizes with a subscription. I won’t say that they have high prices on their subscription plans—they know much better than I do what they need to support the initial development and ongoing updating of the game—but I do know it’s higher than I would be comfortable with as a consumer. (When I emailed them, they included a discount code for the year-long sub at half price, which did drop the subscription rate to one that made sense to me.)

I do have one suggestion: Integrating word find rates. I don’t want leaderboards or anything super competitive. The casual, laidback vibe is part of the game’s charm. However, I often find myself wondering how many players found the words I found. I’d envision a simple percentage on the prior day’s word list. Just a nice way to get some context for how we performed.

Anyway, definitely an app worth checking out for fans of word games. But definitely scope out the subscription rates before you get too enthusiastic about it.

TheTheory