Three Magic Words vs ShiftFive
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Three Magic Words
This word game challenges players to complete three five-letter words using available letter tiles. Success requires logic and language skills to advance through rounds and collect stars. Players can adjust difficulty and challenge friends.
- Complete three five-letter words
- Use available letter tiles
- Test logic and language skills
- Collect stars to win
- Adjust difficulty with clues
- Challenge friends
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A word game for people who love word games. Much more than a word jumble, in each round of Three Magic Words you are challenged to complete three five-letter words with the available tiles in a test of logic and language skills. Solve all three words to advance to the next round. Get the right letter on a star before time runs out to collect it — increasing the difficulty of the next round. Collect nine stars to win! Challenge friends via text message, email, or social media. Having trouble? Adjust the difficulty by giving yourself more clues!
ShiftFive
Engage in a strategic letter elimination game where you guess a five-letter word. Utilize color-coded feedback to eliminate letters and score points. Unlock rewards and themed word packs for extended gameplay.
- Strategic letter elimination
- Color-coded feedback system
- Daily Classic and Daily Shift modes
- Unlockable rewards
- Themed Word Packs
- Scoring based on efficiency
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Shift. Solve. Score. Play daily challenges and unlock rewards! Check out themed Word Packs for a new twist. Welcome to ShiftFive, a game of high-scoring strategic letter elimination. ShiftFive is a fresh take on the daily word puzzle that leaves all those boring Wordle clones and wannabes in the dust. Your job is to guess the target 5-letter word in as few tries as possible and score points while you do it. Spin the letter pickers to enter a 5-letter word and submit your guess. Each letter in the word will light up one of three colors: # Green means the letter is correct and will be locked in. # Red means the target letter comes later in the alphabet, eliminating the guessed letter and all letters before it. # Blue means the target letter is earlier in the alphabet, eliminating the guessed letter and all letters after it. After each guess, you'll see how many possible words are remaining! You're awarded points for efficiently eliminating words, guessing letters correctly, and finding the target word in as few tries as possible. So what are you waiting for? Download today and enjoy 2 different (completely free) daily game modes: > Daily Classic is the original. 5 guesses to solve the target word. Eliminate letters as you go. Use a hint if you get stuck. > Daily Shift spices things up by choosing a random word as your first guess. And what’s this? No access to a hint?! Better hope you’re feeling lucky. Complete both challenges each day to unlock exciting rewards like backgrounds, color themes, and customized logos! But wait, don’t forget about Word Packs! Still craving more sweet Shifting action? Word Packs are where it all comes together. Unlock a new layer of strategy by guessing the target words for each theme. Enjoy one sample Word Pack for free, with 10 more available for purchase and more to be added in the future. Are you still reading? How have you not downloaded this game yet?? Happy Shifting :-D
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Three Magic Words at none against ShiftFive's shown. Three Magic Words also leads on ratings volume (83 vs 6) and device support (4 vs 2). ShiftFive's advantage is update cadence (monthly vs every 3 months). On price, rating, review sentiment and in-app purchases 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. Three Magic Words sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and ShiftFive sells 11 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 — 4.9 for Three Magic Words against 5.0 for ShiftFive. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Three Magic Words has 83 ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
Three Magic Words ships an update every 3 months, ShiftFive monthly. The most recent releases landed on July 7, 2026 and June 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Three Magic Words | ShiftFive |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (83 ratings) | 5.0 (6 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 83 — better | 6 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Monthly — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 14.4 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 68 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Nathan Lamont | Braxton Smallwood |
Customer experience
Three Magic Words
ShiftFive
In-app purchases
Three Magic Words
- Full 3.7K+ Word Pack$3.99
ShiftFive
- It's Spooky Word Pack$0.99
- Gettin' Swoll Word Pack$0.99
- Pass the Popcorn Word Pack$0.99
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- The Feels Word Pack$0.99
- Nom Nom Word Pack$0.99
- Feel the Beat Word Pack$0.99
- To Be Young Word Pack$0.99
- It's a Zoo Word Pack$0.99
- On the Go Word Pack$0.99
- 5 Word Packs + Remove Ads$1.99
- 10 Word Packs+Unlimited+No Ads$4.99
