Comparison

Grim Defender vs Catboxes

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

Head to head
About

Grim Defender

Engage in fast-paced castle defense with strategic upgrades and skill. Defend your base against endless monster waves, gather resources, and combine a vast array of weapons, spells, and traps to become stronger. Compete with others and play offline.

Highlights
  • Upgrade and defend your castle
  • Defend against endless monster waves
  • Gather resources and improve defenses
  • Equip and combine crossbows, spells, and traps
  • Offline play capability
  • Daily quests and global leaderboards
Features
Read full description

Defender! Are you ready to defend your castle? In this fast paced castle defense game you requires strategy and skill. Endless hours of action await you! Upgrade and grow your castle, defend against endless waves of monsters, gather resources, improve your defense, equip and combine dozens of crossbows, spells, traps, modules and legendaries to grow stronger and stronger. The dark army does not sleep and is preparing attack after attack. Defend, fight back and kill the dark hordes - send the monsters back to the dungeon where they came from. Controls are simple: tap and hold the screen to shoot with your crossbows, drag and drop spells on monsters and strategically position traps. Grow your income and use gold, rubies and darkgold that you collect from monsters to create the best weapon combination. Grim Defender is praised for its diversity, endless equipment combinations, depth and fun gameplay. Enjoy huge action loaded battles with hundreds of enemies on the battlefield. Endless levels, tons of upgrades, items, legendaries and infinite combinations Challenging gameplay through endless levels and different game modes. Craft and customize your defense as you like. Non-linear defense and upgrade setup, hundreds of viable builds. Freely combine items to build the best defense, place explosives, lightning or stasis traps to destroy your enemies or use a cool strategy and maze up using palisades. Use fire, ice, lightning or pushback spells as well as powerful crossbows combined with modules to stop the dark monsters. Upgrade your bow to shoot stronger arrows, improve your modules to deal more damage, use multishot or have splintershot. Upgrade your castle wall, buy more defense turrets and magic towers or add an automatic turret to your castle! Choose active play to grind resources in endless mode or use the auto turret to idle grind money. Lots of unique enemies, crazy monsters and bosses Fight your way from easy zombies and skeletons to cannons, palisades and powerful epic boss monsters - can you defeat the strongest of dragons? Kill all bosses and become a legendary defender! Dailies, quests and global leaderboards with other players See how other players defend their castle and compete in global leaderboards. Participate in the season system: a fresh leaderboard is started every few month to create a fair competition with thousands of other defenders. Play dailies and quests to collect huge bonuses and get ahead of the competition. Reach the highest rank and have the highest level of all players with the best strategy and grow to be a tactical mastermind. Offline play Grim Defender does not require an internet connection to be played - play offline from anywhere and whenever you want. Frequent updates and new content Grim Defender is free to play and we are working hard to improve our game even more. Let us know what you think! Game website: https://www.grimdefender.com Company website: https://www.byteghoul.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/grimdefendergame Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/grimdefender Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grimdefender We love defense games and made this game with a lot of passion and focus on details. We really hope that you enjoy our work! BYTEGHOUL GAMES

About

Catboxes

A digital adaptation of the classic pencil-and-paper strategy game, featuring unique feline-themed twists. Engage in tactical box capturing with hidden hazards and treats that alter gameplay. Enjoy customizable boards, AI opponents, and family-friendly fun.

Highlights
  • Capture boxes by drawing lines
  • Hidden hazards and treats modify gameplay
  • Play with up to 4 players (pass-and-play)
  • Adjustable AI opponents and difficulty
  • Multiple board sizes and unique shapes
  • Save and resume games
  • Dark and light mode support
Features
Read full description

Catboxes brings the beloved pencil-and-paper strategy game to life — with a feline twist. Draw lines between dots to capture boxes, but watch out: hidden hazards and treats change everything. The player with the most points wins! CAT SCRATCH MODE - Hidden hazards and treats lurk beneath the grid - Revealed clue numbers hint at nearby surprises - Capturing a hazard costs you points - Treats reward the bold with bonus points - Toggle Cat Scratch on or off to suit your style PLAY YOUR WAY - 2-4 players — pass-and-play with family and friends - Set any opponent to human or AI, each with their own difficulty level - Choose from five classic board sizes, from quick 4x4 games to sprawling 8x8 battles - Try unique board shapes: Hourglass, Diamond, Donut, Cross, and more - Random board mode for endless variety and replayability DESIGNED FOR FAMILIES - Simple rules that kids ages 8 and up can learn in seconds - Surprisingly deep strategy that keeps adults engaged - 8 bright, high-contrast player colors - Fun gameplay tips between turns POLISHED EXPERIENCE - Smooth animations for every move and capture - Sound effects and haptic feedback - Save your game and pick up right where you left off - Dark mode, light mode, or match your system setting - Works in portrait and landscape PRIVACY FIRST - No ads. No in-app purchases. No account required. - Anonymous analytics help us improve the game — no personal data collected. - Player names and preferences stay on your device.

Screenshots

Grim Defender4 screens
Catboxes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Catboxes at none against Grim Defender's 10. Catboxes also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 3 months). Grim Defender's advantage is ratings volume (1.1K vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price 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. Grim Defender sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Catboxes asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Catboxes holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Grim Defender has 1.1K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Grim Defender ships an update every 3 months, Catboxes every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Grim Defender versus Catboxes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGrim DefenderCatboxes
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (1.1K ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews87.6% of reviews—
Number of ratings1.1K — better1
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size190 MB2 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperBYTEGHOUL GAMESNicholas Hart

Customer experience

Grim Defender

All ratings1,060 ratings
Positive94.4%
Neutral3.2%
Negative2.4%
Written reviews340 reviews
Positive87.6%
Neutral3.2%
Negative9.1%

Catboxes

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Grim Defender

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Progress/purchase loss after updates
  • Crashes and freezes during gameplay
  • Inability to close ads after watching

Requested features

5 requests
  • More diverse enemy types
  • Additional tower/weapon options
  • Prestige system or resets
  • Improved dark gold acquisition
  • Multiplayer/co-op gameplay

Catboxes

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Grim Defender

One-time10
  • Darkgold Pack XS$1.89
  • 3 Darkgold$2.99
  • 5 Darkgold$4.99
Show 7 more
  • Darkgold Pack S$5.99
  • 10 Darkgold$8.99
  • Darkgold Pack M$10.99
  • 20 Darkgold$16.99
  • Darkgold Pack L$19.99
  • Darkgold Pack XL$34.99
  • Darkgold Pack XXL$49.99
None

Catboxes

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Grim Defender free?
Grim Defender is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Catboxes free?
Catboxes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Grim Defender or Catboxes?
Catboxes is rated higher. Grim Defender averages 4.7 out of 5 from 1.1K ratings, while Catboxes averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Grim Defender or Catboxes have ads?
Grim Defender shows ads; Catboxes does not.
Which is updated more often, Grim Defender or Catboxes?
Grim Defender ships an update every 3 months, and Catboxes every 3 weeks. Most recently, Grim Defender was updated on October 25, 2026 and Catboxes on October 12, 2026.

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