ChessPen vs PGN Chess Recorder
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ChessPen
Record and manage chess games with a user-friendly interface. This app offers robust data storage and export options for players of all levels, from casual to tournament participants.
- Chess notation recording
- Sleek interface
- Easy-to-use UI
- Powerful data storage
- Data export capabilities
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Chess Notation app for casual, club, and tournament players alike. Sleek interface, easy-going UI, and powerful data storage & export capabilities.
PGN Chess Recorder
Record chess games by speaking moves. The app updates the board live and builds a move list, which can be exported as PGN. It's useful for older devices, over-the-board play, training, and analysis.
- Voice dictation for chess moves
- Live board updates
- PGN export
- On-device engine analysis
- Move quality assessment
- Interactive board with navigation
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Chess Recorder lets you record chess games by speaking your moves. Say square names, pieces, captures, castling, and undo in plain language — the board updates live, the move list builds as you play, and you can export everything as PGN. Built to capture PGN from games on older chess computers and devices that don’t offer export capabilities— and just as useful for over-the-board play, training, and quick analysis on iPhone and iPad. VOICE DICTATION • On-device speech recognition tuned for chess moves • Support for English and German language dictation • Live transcript while you record • Teach custom phrases when recognition misses something • Optional touch input when you prefer to tap moves instead BOARD & NOTATION • Clear interactive board with move navigation and scrubbing • ECO code and opening name as you play • Browse opening continuations from the current position • Multi-game archive with PGN copy and export • Flip the board and customize colors, coordinates, piece size, and many more ENGINE ANALYSIS • On-device Stockfish analysis via LucidEngine • Evaluation, win probability, main line, and best-move arrow • Each display option can be turned on or off MOVE QUALITY • Background assessment of played moves • Inaccuracy, mistake, blunder, and miss marks in the move list • Accuracy summary with charts for White and Black • Optional assessment symbols in exported PGN When supported, speech recognition runs on your device. Microphone access is used only for move dictation. Chess Recorder is free and open source (GPLv3).
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: PGN Chess Recorder at 100% against ChessPen's 0%. PGN Chess Recorder also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.3) and update cadence (every 2 days vs every 25 months). ChessPen's advantage is iOS requirement (14.0 vs 26.5). On price, ratings volume, ads 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
PGN Chess Recorder holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 6 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 0% of ChessPen's written reviews are positive against 100% of PGN Chess Recorder's.
ChessPen ships an update every 25 months, PGN Chess Recorder every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ChessPen | PGN Chess Recorder |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (4 ratings) | 5.0 (6 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 4 | 6 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 25 months | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 26.5 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 126 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | ENVISIONAIRY LLC | Philipp Guntermann |
Customer experience
ChessPen
PGN Chess Recorder
In-app purchases
ChessPen
No in-app purchases
PGN Chess Recorder
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is ChessPen free?
Is PGN Chess Recorder free?
Which has better reviews, ChessPen or PGN Chess Recorder?
Do ChessPen or PGN Chess Recorder have ads?
Which is updated more often, ChessPen or PGN Chess Recorder?
Other comparisons
