SmartGo One vs IGO Academy
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/
IGO Academy
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IGO Academy is a complete way to learn and play Go — the ancient board game also known as Baduk (바둑) and Weiqi (围棋). Whether you have never placed a stone or you are sharpening your reading, everything is here, offline, with no ads and no accounts required. LEARN FROM ZERO • Eight interactive lessons take you from the very first stone to scoring a finished game: liberties and capture, atari, saving stones, illegal moves, the ko rule, life and two eyes, and territory. • Every lesson step is hands-on — you play the move yourself. 500+ PROBLEMS TO SHARPEN YOUR READING • More than 100 problems at each of five difficulty tiers: Novice, Easy, Normal, Hard, and Expert. • Capture, atari, escape, connection, and life-and-death (tsumego) — including snapbacks and vital-point shapes. • Your progress is tracked so you always know what is left. FIVE LEVELS OF AI • Play full games against opponents from gentle beginner to a Monte-Carlo Tree Search engine that actually reads ahead. • Choose your color, add handicap stones, and play on 5×5, 7×7, 9×9, 13×13, 19×19, or 21×21 boards. PLAY PEOPLE • Game Center for online matches. • Local-network play over your Wi-Fi or wired network using Bonjour — no internet or account needed. BUILT RIGHT • Full rules: captures, suicide, simple ko and positional superko, two-pass scoring (Chinese area or Japanese territory) with komi, and unlimited undo. • Export any game as an SGF file to study or share. • Clean, native, and fast. IGO Academy is free. Sit down at the board and play.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: IGO Academy at 17.0 against SmartGo One's 26.0. 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. SmartGo One sells 47 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and IGO Academy sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
| Parameter | SmartGo One | IGO Academy |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (2K ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 76.6% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 2K — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 154 MB | 7 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Smart Go, Inc. | BUDDY CHRISTOPHER KINDER |
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
IGO Academy
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
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
- Tesuji for Beginners$14.99
- 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
IGO Academy
- Buy Me a Stone$0.99
- Buy Me a Goban$2.99
- Sponsor an Update$4.99









