ChessBot vs Seam Reader
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ChessBot
This app offers a comprehensive chess experience, allowing you to play against AI with adjustable difficulty, challenge friends, and analyze your games. It includes a detailed guidebook with lessons, openings, and puzzles to improve your skills.
- Play vs. AI with scalable ELO
- Human vs. Human mode
- Game management and sharing
- PGN import/export
- Board analysis and statistics
- Chess openings, puzzles, and lessons
- Play with friends via iMessage
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ChessBot is an elegant chess app designed for Apple platforms — play, learn, and analyze on iPhone and iPad. Whether you are picking up your first pawn or refining a tournament repertoire, ChessBot pairs a strong chess engine with a clean, focused board. KEY FEATURES • Play against the computer or a friend — Human vs Human and Human vs Computer modes. • Strong engine hints — get the best next move whenever you are stuck, powered by a modern NNUE engine. • Encyclopedia of Chess Openings — explore and learn named openings from the full ECO catalog. • Classic or 3D board — switch between a crisp 2D board and a real-time 3D board. • Import & export PGN — bring in your games or share them anywhere, and preview PGN files right in the Files app. • Save & share games — keep your games organized and send positions to friends. • Play over iMessage — challenge friends to a game without leaving Messages. • Beautiful, native design — thoughtfully built for iPhone and iPad. Questions or suggestions? We would love to hear from you at chessbotapp@outlook.com.
Seam Reader
Improve your baseball or softball hitting skills by learning to recognize pitches based on their spin and appearance. This app offers modes to learn, practice, and test your ability to identify different pitch types and speeds, from little league to professional levels.
- Learn pitch "faces" from spin
- Real-life analytics (RPM, MPH)
- Learn Mode for 6 baseball/softball pitches
- Batting Cage for practice
- Career Mode with increasing difficulty
- Adjustable pitch speeds
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The ONLY WAY to actually get BETTER AT HITTING by playing on your phone. Seam Reading is the ability to recognize a pitch by how it looks. Each pitch has a different “face” that the spin creates. Knowing what each pitch looks like could be the difference between strike 3, or a home run. In Seam Reader all the balls and pitches use real life analytics in RPM as well as MPH. From a little league fastball all the way up to a major league heater, the app has it all. Discover what every pitch looks like in our one of a kind Learn Mode, that features 6 pitches for baseball and 6 for softball. Practice a variety of pitches and difficulties in the Batting Cage mode. Here speeds vary from your average little leaguer to your major league or Olympic level ace! Test your Seam Reading skills in Career Mode. With increasing variety of pitches and speeds, the accuracy is as real to life as it gets on a phone. Download now if you want to get better at “the hardest thing to do in sports” - hitting.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: ChessBot at none against Seam Reader's shown. ChessBot also leads on review sentiment (67% vs 42%) and device support (5 vs 3). Seam Reader's advantage is update cadence (every 8 days vs every 2 months) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 18.0). On price, rating, ratings volume and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. ChessBot sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and Seam Reader sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.0 for ChessBot against 3.9 for Seam Reader. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 34 and 64 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 67% of ChessBot's written reviews are positive against 42% of Seam Reader's.
ChessBot ships an update every 2 months, Seam Reader every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ChessBot | Seam Reader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (34 ratings) — better | 3.9 (64 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 66.7% of reviews — better | 41.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 34 | 64 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 8 days — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Vision Pro — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 163 MB | 164 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Hengyu Zhou | Jared Tiefenthaler |
Customer experience
ChessBot
Seam Reader
In-app purchases
ChessBot
- ChessBot Pro - Monthly7 Days trial$1.991 Month
- ChessBot Pro - Yearly7 Days trial$17.991 Year
- Master of Chess$29.99
Seam Reader
- 100 Seed Pack$0.99
- Season Pass$3.99
- 600 Seed Pack$4.99
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- 1000 Seed Pack$7.99
Questions
Is ChessBot free?
Is Seam Reader free?
Which has better reviews, ChessBot or Seam Reader?
Do ChessBot or Seam Reader have ads?
Which is updated more often, ChessBot or Seam Reader?
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