WONDERWORD vs ABC Member
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
WONDERWORD
Engage your brain with a challenging word search puzzle, now available on your mobile device. Find hidden words within a grid, with a free puzzle offered three times a week. Exercise your mind with this classic brain teaser.
- Word search puzzles
- Daily free puzzles
- Variety of themes
- Grid-based gameplay
- Brain exercise
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WONDERWORD first entered syndication in Edmonton and Montreal in 1970. Andrews McMeel Syndication of Kansas City assumed syndication rights in 1980. It appears in 2 formats: A 15 x 15 grid Monday through Saturday and 20 x 20 for Sunday editions. For space reasons, some Sunday newspapers carry a 15 x 15 version under the name of TELEWORD. WONDERWORD was created by Canadian author Jo Ouellet, and starting in 1980, David Ouellet started helping his mother in the creation of the puzzles. By 1984 David was creating the majority of WONDERWORDs, and his name appeared as co-author in 1994. After Jo Ouellet's untimely passing in 1997, David continued the feature. In all formats, it appears in some 250 newspapers around the world. We know you love to play Wonderword on our website. Well now you can play on your Smart phone or tablet. So we welcome you to the official App for Wonderword , and exclusively on our App, we are offering a free puzzle 3 times a week. As usual, there will be a variety of themes and challenges offered. Here’s how to play: Look at the word list, find the words, circle the word and at the end when all the words are found, the Wonderword/solution will appear. Wonderword is known to be the world’s greatest word search. We hear from our fans that WONDERWORD is the most challenging word searches and guaranteed to exercise the brain.
ABC Member
Access membership features like newsletters, event listings, and safety zone maps. Track balloon and crew locations during flights, log flight details, and record pilot/crew tasks.
- Membership features access
- Newsletter and events
- Red/green zone maps
- Flight location sharing
- Flight logging and replay
- Pilot/crew task logging
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The American Ballooning Community app is designed for ABC members to utilize to access membership features, such as the newsletter, red/green zone maps, and events page. It may also be utilized to share balloon and crew location during flights, log/replay flights, and log pilot/crew task information.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: ABC Member at 5.0 against WONDERWORD's 3.0. ABC Member also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 26 months) and monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). WONDERWORD's advantage is ratings volume (109 vs 7). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
ABC Member holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: WONDERWORD has 109 ratings behind it against 7, so its average is the more settled of the two.
WONDERWORD ships an update every 26 months, ABC Member fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | WONDERWORD | ABC Member |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.0 (109 ratings) | 5.0 (7 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 30.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 109 — better | 7 |
| Update frequency | Every 26 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.2 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 83 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Words R Us Inc | American Ballooning Community |
Customer experience
WONDERWORD
ABC Member
Bugs and requests
WONDERWORD
Reported bugs
15 issues- App won't open - stuck on loading screen with spinning circle
- Blank or black screen on launch
- iPad compatibility completely broken
- App crashes after iOS updates
- Word selection not registering when highlighted
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- Puzzle flashing on and off screen
- Word list display overlapping and cut off
- Bottom rows of words not visible
- 404 error messages on load
- Grid formatting issues on different screen sizes
- Columns cut off on Android devices
- Grid too small to interact with properly
- App stuck after completing puzzle with no progression
- Ads blocking puzzle content and appearing as interface elements
- Text alignment broken for diagonal and vertical words
Requested features
9 requests- Daily puzzle availability instead of 3 per week
- Puzzle archive or library to access past puzzles
- Paid subscription option for more content
- In-app puzzle pack purchases
- Offline play capability
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- Customizable word highlighting options
- Ability to download and print puzzles
- Option to buy online versions of puzzle books
- More frequent puzzle updates
ABC Member
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
WONDERWORD
No in-app purchases
ABC Member
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is WONDERWORD free?
Is ABC Member free?
Which has better reviews, WONDERWORD or ABC Member?
Do WONDERWORD or ABC Member have ads?
Which is updated more often, WONDERWORD or ABC Member?
Other comparisons
