SmartGo One vs Piccolo
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
SmartGo One
Learn, play, and improve at the ancient game of Go. This app offers adjustable board sizes, a strong AI opponent, and tools to study professional games and solve Go problems. It's designed for players of all skill levels, from beginners to masters.
- Adjustable board sizes (9x9 to 19x19)
- Strong KataGo game engine
- Study professional game records
- Solve Go problems and tutorials
- Pattern matching for move suggestions
- Territory estimator
- Game recording and annotation
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SmartGo One is the only Go app you’ll need, whether you’re just getting started or already a seasoned player. Learn, play, study, and improve with SmartGo One. Experience the ancient game of Go on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac in a whole new way. Also known as igo (囲碁), wéiqí (围棋), or baduk (바둑), Go begins with an empty board that gradually fills as players surround territory and capture stones. Start with a 9x9 board and move up to 13x13 and 19x19 as your skills grow. SmartGo One adapts to your strength, automatically adjusting handicaps so games remain competitive and enjoyable. And when you’re ready for a serious challenge, the powerful KataGo-based engine delivers strong, rewarding play. But SmartGo One is far more than a way to play Go. Read interactive Go books while replaying the moves they describe to deepen your understanding. Explore a collection of more than 138,000 professional game records spanning both modern and historical masters. Improve your reading and decision-making skills with a growing library of Go problems and tutorials. Want to know how a master would handle a position on your board? SmartGo’s pattern matching technology compares your game with historical pro games and shows how strong players approached similar situations. No matter your level, SmartGo One helps you continue improving. Features include: • 9x9, 11x11, 13x13, and 19x19 board sizes • Powerful KataGo-based engine • Fast and responsive gameplay • Manual or automatic handicap adjustment • Record, annotate, and edit your games • Territory estimator • Hints and move analysis • Undo and replay controls • Tutorial with over 100 problems • Extensive user manual We value your privacy and only collect the minimum information necessary to make our apps work well for you. Learn more at https://smartgo.com/privacy.html. This app is licensed under Apple’s standard Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Piccolo
Experience the classic strategy board game with a powerful AI and a polished interface. Customize your game with beautiful themes, play online with friends or strangers, and enjoy a seamless experience across devices. Includes fun iMessage stickers.
- Strong, customizable AI engine
- Polished native user interface
- Variety of beautiful themes
- Local and online multiplayer
- Automatic game saves and move undo
- iMessage stickers
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• #1 Most Downloaded Game (April, May, June, July 2021) — Japan Mac App Store! • Featured in Apple's "What We're Playing", "Games We Love" and "Best Games Made in France"! • "Beautiful, minimalistic and highly addictive." — TouchArcade • "A simple but captivating game." — Mac4Ever • "From us, this small but fine application therefore receives an absolute recommendation." — Appgefahren • "Whether you're a fan of the game or not, Piccolo will make you love Othello." — MaxiApple Piccolo® is the best Othello app for iPhone®, iPad® and Mac®. It features a strong, fast AI on top of a polished user interface, with beautiful themes, advanced features, online play and more. Piccolo is available in 20 languages and comes with no ads or tracking. It's an Othello app made for Othello players by Othello lovers. • Strong AI: Piccolo features a custom Othello AI engine written in the Rust programming language, designed to be fast, challenging and customizable. The AI's default Level 1 difficulty can be beaten by beginners, while its Level 8 difficulty is likely to challenge even top Othello masters around the world. Designed from scratch, the Piccolo AI engine is sure to give seasoned Othello players a new type of opponent to play against, with often surprising and creative strategies. • User Experience: Piccolo features a native user experience designed for iOS and macOS. A modern design lets you focus on the game, with helpful move indicators, the ability to undo moves, and automatic game saves between every move in case you close the app by mistake or your phone's battery runs out. Multiplayer play is supported both locally and online. • Themes: Piccolo features a variety of beautiful themes to customize and breathe fresh life into your Othello experience. Othello veterans might enjoy sticking to the Classic theme, while others might prefer the handsome Seasoned Wood theme, the adorable Sailor Moon theme or even the Persian Spray theme, inspired by traditional Iranian ceramics. Additional themes designed by guest artist Aline Corrêa are also available, giving you access to an Othello game on top of an alligator lake, inside an ancient castle, next to Egyptian pyramids, and more! • Play Online: Piccolo Online is a free online service that lets you connect with friends via easily exchangeable Game Codes to play friendly Othello games wherever you are around the world. Piccolo Online also supports automatic matchmaking so that you can quickly play games with random opponents worldwide. Piccolo Online features quick, stable connections, and benefits from a strong privacy policy. • Cute iMessage Stickers: Send cute “chibi”-style iMessage stickers to your friends with Piccolo's bundled iMessage Sticker Pack! Featuring 36 custom illustrations drawn by anime artist Erica Li, the stickers feature Piccolo's adorable mascot in different relatable situations. • No Ads, No Tracking: Unlike a majority of games on the App Store today, Piccolo has no terms you need to accept before playing. Piccolo will never show you a single ad, and will never track you. The app is entirely a labor of love for the game of Othello, made by players for players. • Available in 20 Languages: Thanks to contributions from players around the world, Piccolo has been translated from English into Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese. No matter where you are, Piccolo's interface will be easy to understand. Othello® is a registered trademark of MegaHouse Corporation. Piccolo: Othello is an independent implementation of the underlying game, which is placed in the public domain.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Piccolo at every 4 days against SmartGo One's every 2 weeks. SmartGo One's advantage is ratings volume (1.9K vs 603). On price, rating, review sentiment and ads 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. SmartGo One sells 46 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Piccolo sells 2 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 — 4.8 for SmartGo One against 4.7 for Piccolo. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1.9K and 603 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 77% and 77% positive.
SmartGo One ships an update every 2 weeks, Piccolo every 4 days. Both last shipped on September 25, 2026.
| Parameter | SmartGo One | Piccolo |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (1.9K ratings) — better | 4.7 (603 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 76.5% of reviews | 76.6% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1.9K — better | 603 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 140 MB | 61 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Smart Go, Inc. | Symbolic Software |
Customer experience
SmartGo One
Piccolo
User reviews
SmartGo One
From 1.9K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Awesome app
- 👍 Great for playing and learning Go
- 📚 Excellent integration with Go books
- 🔍 Powerful analysis and review features
- 💻 Seamless experience across devices
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional crashes and stability issues
- 🤔 Unintuitive user interface for beginners
- 💰 Paywall for full 19x19 board and some features
- 🤖 AI too strong for novice players
Piccolo
From 603 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Addictive gameplay
- 👍 Beautiful and simple UI
- 🚀 Smooth and responsive
- 🔒 No ads or in-app purchases
- 👍 Challenging AI opponents
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional bugs and glitches
- 🔍 Difficulty balancing issues (too easy or too hard)
- 🤔 Lack of online multiplayer
- 🤔 No option to undo moves
- 🤔 Unclear win/loss indication at the end of games
Bugs and requests
SmartGo One
Reported bugs
3 issues- Illegal move detection issues on certain board positions
- Problems with missing variations or incorrect answers
- Inconsistent behavior when passing moves
Requested features
5 requests- Add read-only mode
- Improve move suggestion explanations
- Introduce difficulty settings for AI
- Integrate online play functionality
- Provide more randomness in AI moves
Piccolo
Reported bugs
4 issues- AI getting extra moves in certain situations
- Settings button not functioning properly
- Game freezing or crashing on some devices
- Inconsistent piece size on different screen sizes
Requested features
5 requests- Add online multiplayer mode
- Implement an undo move feature
- Add a tutorial or tips section for new players
- Introduce a 'watch AI vs AI' mode
- Allow customization of game board and piece themes
In-app purchases
SmartGo One
- SmartGo One Pro – Monthly$4.991 Month
- Pro Games and Features14 Days trial$29.991 Year
- Just Enough Japanese 1Free
- Key Concepts in Life and Death$2.99
- Go Problems Master Collection$3.99
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- Go Problems Add-on 2: Medium$3.99
- Go Problems Add-on 1: Easy$3.99
- Go Problems Add-on 3: Hard$3.99
- Counting Liberties$4.99
- The Monkey Jump$4.99
- Double Digit Kyu Games$5.99
- Go: A Complete Introduction$5.99
- How Not to Play Go$5.99
- Encyclopedia of Go Principles$5.99
- Want to Play Go? Level 1$5.99
- Black to Play 30-25 Kyu$5.99
- The Workshop Lectures 1$5.99
- Rethinking Opening Strategy$6.99
- Learn to Play Go 1$7.99
- Learn to Play Go 2$7.99
- Learn to Play Go 3$7.99
- Correct Joseki$7.99
- “The Theory of Go”$7.99
- Learn to Play Go 4$7.99
- Buddhist Philosophy Game of Go$8.99
- Graded Go Problems 1$9.99
- Graded Go Problems 2$9.99
- Want to Play Go? Level 2$9.99
- Basic Techniques of Go$9.99
- Graded Go Problems 3$9.99
- Get Strong at Life and Death$9.99
- Mastering Mini Go by Mark Tomlinson$11.99
- Fuseki Revolution$11.99
- Fundamental Principles of Go$11.99
- The Basics of Life and Death$11.99
- Joseki Revolution$11.99
- Life and Death$11.99
- A Survey of the Basic Tesujis$11.99
- Tesuji$11.99
- AlphaGo to Zero, vol. 4$14.99
- Trouble Master, volume 2$14.99
- Trouble Master, volume 1$14.99
- AlphaGo to Zero, Vol. 2$14.99
- Invincible$24.99
- Essential Go Proverbs$24.99
- Pro – Lifetime Unlock$99.00
Piccolo
- Theme Pack: Around the World$2.99
- Theme Pack: Great Painters$2.99









