Smartichoke vs ShiftFive
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Smartichoke
This word puzzle game challenges you to find words of four or more letters within available petals. Strategic letter selection, with bonuses for connected letters and penalties for disconnected ones, adds depth. Earn points for longer words, streaks, and clearing petals.
- Find words of four or more letters
- Bonus and penalty petals for strategic play
- Earn points for longer words and streaks
- Rotate the Smartichoke for different perspectives
- Automatic game saving
- Optional token purchases for letter swaps
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The goal in Smartichoke is to find words that are at least four letters in length in the petals available. You can select letters from any petal, but connected letters help you earn bonuses and disconnected letters lead to penalties! Highlights: - Penalty and bonus petals add strategy to word selection - Earn bonus points for spelling longer words, repeat streaks, target words, and clearing as many petals as possible - Rotate the Smartichoke at any time (seeing the letters from different angles can help with spotting words) - Statistics are automatically saved - Earn swap (or buy tokens) to replace any letter with new, randomly chosen letters - Your game is automatically saved to continue playing later Smartichoke is completely free to play, with no ads! If you enjoy the game, you can support its development by making a purchase for tokens for free swaps!
ShiftFive
Engage in a strategic letter elimination game where you guess a five-letter word. Utilize color-coded feedback to eliminate letters and score points. Unlock rewards and themed word packs for extended gameplay.
- Strategic letter elimination
- Color-coded feedback system
- Daily Classic and Daily Shift modes
- Unlockable rewards
- Themed Word Packs
- Scoring based on efficiency
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Shift. Solve. Score. Play daily challenges and unlock rewards! Check out themed Word Packs for a new twist. Welcome to ShiftFive, a game of high-scoring strategic letter elimination. ShiftFive is a fresh take on the daily word puzzle that leaves all those boring Wordle clones and wannabes in the dust. Your job is to guess the target 5-letter word in as few tries as possible and score points while you do it. Spin the letter pickers to enter a 5-letter word and submit your guess. Each letter in the word will light up one of three colors: # Green means the letter is correct and will be locked in. # Red means the target letter comes later in the alphabet, eliminating the guessed letter and all letters before it. # Blue means the target letter is earlier in the alphabet, eliminating the guessed letter and all letters after it. After each guess, you'll see how many possible words are remaining! You're awarded points for efficiently eliminating words, guessing letters correctly, and finding the target word in as few tries as possible. So what are you waiting for? Download today and enjoy 2 different (completely free) daily game modes: > Daily Classic is the original. 5 guesses to solve the target word. Eliminate letters as you go. Use a hint if you get stuck. > Daily Shift spices things up by choosing a random word as your first guess. And what’s this? No access to a hint?! Better hope you’re feeling lucky. Complete both challenges each day to unlock exciting rewards like backgrounds, color themes, and customized logos! But wait, don’t forget about Word Packs! Still craving more sweet Shifting action? Word Packs are where it all comes together. Unlock a new layer of strategy by guessing the target words for each theme. Enjoy one sample Word Pack for free, with 10 more available for purchase and more to be added in the future. Are you still reading? How have you not downloaded this game yet?? Happy Shifting :-D
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Smartichoke at none against ShiftFive's shown. Smartichoke also leads on update cadence (every 8 days vs monthly) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 16.0). ShiftFive's advantage is ratings volume (6 vs 1). On price, rating, review sentiment 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. Smartichoke sells 6 one-off in-app purchases and ShiftFive sells 11 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 — 5.0 for Smartichoke against 5.0 for ShiftFive. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ShiftFive has 6 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
Smartichoke ships an update every 8 days, ShiftFive monthly. The most recent releases landed on July 4, 2026 and June 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Smartichoke | ShiftFive |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (6 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 6 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 8 days — better | Monthly |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 68 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Too Much Smart, LLC | Braxton Smallwood |
Customer experience
Smartichoke
ShiftFive
In-app purchases
Smartichoke
- Unlock Smartichoke$0.99
- Smartichoke Swaps (100)$0.99
- 100 Smartichoke Tokens$0.99
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- Smartichoke Swaps (500)$1.99
- 1,000 Smartichoke Tokens$2.99
- 10,000 Smartichoke Tokens$9.99
ShiftFive
- It's Spooky Word Pack$0.99
- Gettin' Swoll Word Pack$0.99
- Pass the Popcorn Word Pack$0.99
Show 8 moreShow fewer
- The Feels Word Pack$0.99
- Nom Nom Word Pack$0.99
- Feel the Beat Word Pack$0.99
- To Be Young Word Pack$0.99
- It's a Zoo Word Pack$0.99
- On the Go Word Pack$0.99
- 5 Word Packs + Remove Ads$1.99
- 10 Word Packs+Unlimited+No Ads$4.99









