Comparison

Best Quick Crosswords vs Codewords

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Best Quick Crosswords

Enjoy a collection of 500 professional quick crossword puzzles designed for casual players. This app offers a relaxing puzzle experience with features like pinch zooming, landscape mode, and helpful gameplay enhancements.

Highlights
  • 500 professional quick crossword puzzles
  • 30 free puzzles with full features
  • Pinch zooming grid
  • Landscape mode with clue list
  • Cheats and answer checking
  • British style puzzles
  • No ads
Features
Read full description

500 professional quick Crossword puzzles set by Michael Curl from www.bestforpuzzles.com. 30 free puzzles with all features enabled, and no ads. These are casual level puzzles suitable for all. Features: - great for iPads and iPhones - pinch zooming grid - landscape mode with clue list - cheats and answer checking - Resume button - useful preferences to enhance gameplay - British style puzzles - no ads - Backup and restore

About

Codewords

Features
Read full description

Focus on British English spellings and enjoy relaxing gameplay without timers, scores, or leaderboards - just lots of puzzles to enjoy at your leisure. CODEWORDS:UK includes a starter collection of 30 puzzles, with more puzzle collections available to buy in-app. There’s a tutorial to help you with the fundaments, plus in-game tools that help you spot letter patterns, quickly fill in answers and mark guesses as you go. The hints system is versatile, is not limited by time or usage, and the game does not penalise you for using them. You can also change the size and colour of the interface to make the game feel that much more comfortable on your device. WHAT IS A CODEWORDS PUZZLE? Codewords puzzles are like crosswords but without the usual clues. Instead, every box is numbered 1 to 26, where each number corresponds to a single letter. Puzzles guarantee that every letter of the alphabet is used at least once, and always start with just three letters given. With only that information you can identify patterns and deduce the code that will crack each puzzle. It’s a great game for expanding your vocabulary and improving your spelling. LEARN NEW WORDS Interesting and uncommon words are used throughout. Here are some examples you might encounter while playing: ABSCISSA ARGOT BATIK CALLIOPE CREDENZA DIATRIBE EXECUTRIX FERRULE FIXITY FOOLSCAP JEROBOAM KANJI LAMBENT NEOPHYTE PLOSIVE THOUGHTFULLY CURATED WORDLIST Each puzzle is edited to make sure the words used are interesting and fair. Here's some of the considerations we've made when assembling puzzles. -- CONFUSING ALTERNATES When a word can be spelt more than one way only the more common spelling is retained or, if there is no favourite, sometimes all variations removed. Here are some of the edits made: BANISTER, BANNISTER: both removed. SPELLED, MISSPELLED, MISSPELT, and variations: all removed. But MISSPELL, MISSPELLING and DISPELLED left in. 'SPELT' is left in as it's also noun. CADDY, CADDIE: both removed. RACQUET removed, RACKET left in. LIQUIFY, LIQUEFY and all variations like LIQUIFIED and LIQUEFACTION removed LAMBASTE, LAMBAST, and their variations removed PARLEY and PARLAY both left in INQUIRE and ENQUIRE both left in FASCIA and FACIA, both kept SIPHON, SYPHON plus variants: removed CONVERTER, CONVERTOR: both kept CIPHER, CYPHER: both kept FOETID, FETID: both kept EON, AEON: both kept JUDGEMENT, JUDGMENT: both removed SLED, SLEDDING, BOBSLED, BOBSLEDDING: removed FORBEAR, FOREBEAR: both retained ADAPTOR, ADAPTER: both retained LOVABLE, LOVEABLE: both retained RACOON, RACCOON: both retained SOYA, SOY: both retained -- ACCENTED WORDS Words with accented letters have been curated according to the editor’s discretion. Here are some examples: ATTACHÉ removed CAFE retained CANAPÉ removed CRÊPE removed FACADE retained FETE retained FIANCÉ removed MACRAMÉ removed MATINEE retained MOIRE retained NAIVE retained -- WORD ENDINGS The dictionary has been pruned to use -ise rather than -ize word endings. At the time of writing, these are the only words ending in -ize that remain in the game's wordlist: BAIZE CAPSIZE DOWNSIZE MAIZE OVERSIZE PRIZE SEIZE SIZE -- AMERICAN WORD SELECTION All words in the game use UK spellings, with non-UK variations omitted. Here are some examples where the American words have very similar spellings; below only the UK versions are used CODEWORDS:UK: AESTHETE (UK) ESTHETE (US) ANALOGUE (UK) ANALOG (US) ARTEFACT (UK) ARTIFACT (US) CARAT (UK) KARAT (US) DISTIL (UK) DISTILL (US) FLAUTIST (UK) FLUTIST (US) Some words with an American etymology, and that are in common parlance in the UK, have been retained. Here’s a few examples that you might find used in puzzles: BALLPARK BASEBALL BELLHOP CANDY DIAPER ESCROW FELON JUNK RODEO ROOKIE

Screenshots

Best Quick Crosswords4 screens
Codewords4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Codewords at none against Best Quick Crosswords's 10. Codewords also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 5 months). Best Quick Crosswords's advantage is iOS requirement (10.0 vs 14.0). On price, ads and device support 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Best Quick Crosswords sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Codewords asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Best Quick Crosswords ships an update every 5 months, Codewords every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Best Quick Crosswords versus Codewords: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBest Quick CrosswordsCodewords
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (123 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews78.8% of reviews—
Number of ratings123 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 5 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS10.0 — better14.0
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB11 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTeazelDANIEL JEREMY LEACH

Bugs and requests

Best Quick Crosswords

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Keyboard support dropped out
  • Latest version wiped completed crosswords
  • Display issues after iPad on
  • Game logic errors (word length)

Requested features

4 requests
  • More free puzzles
  • Option to watch ads for more content
  • Ad-free paid version
  • See all clues at once

Codewords

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Best Quick Crosswords

One-time10
  • Best Crosswords - Pack 1$0.99
  • Best Crosswords - Pack 2$0.99
  • Best Crosswords - Pack 3$0.99
Show 7 more
  • Best Crosswords - Pack 4$0.99
  • Best Crosswords - Pack 6$0.99
  • Best Crosswords - Pack 7$0.99
  • Best Crosswords - Pack 8$0.99
  • Best Crosswords - Pack 9$0.99
  • Best Crosswords - Pack 10$0.99
  • All the packs of Crosswords$2.99
None

Codewords

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Best Quick Crosswords free?
Best Quick Crosswords is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Codewords free?
Codewords is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Best Quick Crosswords or Codewords have ads?
Neither Best Quick Crosswords nor Codewords shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Best Quick Crosswords or Codewords?
Best Quick Crosswords ships an update every 5 months, and Codewords every 3 weeks. Most recently, Best Quick Crosswords was updated on October 26, 2026 and Codewords on October 14, 2026.

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