Speeling Bee vs ContraBee
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Speeling Bee
A word game where players form words using a set of seven letters. The objective is to discover all possible words, with a mandatory center letter and scoring based on word length and using all available letters.
- Form words from 7 available letters
- Mandatory center letter
- Letters can be repeated
- Minimum 3-letter words
- Scoring based on word length
- Bonus points for using all letters
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Spelling Bee is a game of letters whose goal is to find all the words that can be formed with 7 letters. - Only the letters available to form the word can be used. - It is not necessary that all the letter appear in the Word. Except the letter of the center that is mandatory. - Letters can be repeated. - Words must have a minimum of 3 letters. Spelling Bee Game Score: - The words of 3 letters give 1 point. - The 4-letter words give 2 points. - From 5 letters, so many points are obtained as letters have the floor. - If all the letters are used, 10 extra points are obtained. - The game ends when all the possible words are found.
ContraBee
This app offers a daily word puzzle using the same letter hive as the New York Times Spelling Bee. It challenges players to find words without using the required center letter, encouraging a different approach to word discovery.
- Daily word puzzles
- Uses NYT Spelling Bee letter hive
- Excludes center letter
- Encourages alternative word finding
- Unique puzzle twist
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ContraBee is a complement to each day’s official New York Times Spelling Bee. It uses the same hive as each day’s Spelling Bee, but with a twist: Instead of requiring the center letter, Contra Bee excludes it. You’ll be surprised at how many words you can find if you turn your mind upside down.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: ContraBee at 4.0 against Speeling Bee's 3.3. ContraBee also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 8 months). On price, ratings volume, 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.
ContraBee holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 3.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 4 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 0% of Speeling Bee's written reviews are positive against 24% of ContraBee's.
Speeling Bee ships an update every 8 months, ContraBee every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 27, 2026 and July 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Speeling Bee | ContraBee |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.3 (3 ratings) | 4.0 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | 23.8% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 3 | 4 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 8 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Ad-supported | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 11.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 101 MB | 16 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Joan Carles Cayro Baronat | Lexi Games LLC |
Customer experience
Speeling Bee
ContraBee
In-app purchases
Speeling Bee
No in-app purchases
ContraBee
No in-app purchases
