Comparison

Lichess vs Games Fair

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Lichess

Play chess online with millions of users, participate in tournaments, solve puzzles, and analyze games. This free and open-source application offers a comprehensive chess experience for players of all levels, with features for learning and casual play.

Highlights
  • Real-time and correspondence chess
  • Arena tournaments
  • Chess puzzles
  • Game analysis with Stockfish
  • Interactive study feature
  • Chess clock
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Lichess is a free/libre, open-source chess application powered by volunteers and donations. Today, Lichess users play more than five million games every day. Lichess is one of the most popular chess websites in the world while remaining 100% free. The following features are available right now: - play real time or correspondence chess - play arena tournaments - play against online bots - solve chess puzzles from a wide variety of themes, online or offline - race against the clock in Puzzle Storm - analyse your games with latest Stockfish locally or on the server - board editor - study chess with a collaborative and interactive study feature - learn board coordinates - play over the board with a friend - watch live chess broadcasts from all major chess tournaments - watch Lichess TV and online streamers - use a chess clock for your over the board games - many different board themes and piece sets - custom background themes - translated into 55 languages

About

Games Fair

A free, open-source collection of classic puzzle and arcade games. Enjoy timeless gameplay with features like haptic feedback, high score tracking, and auto-save. Play offline with a comfortable dark theme.

Highlights
  • Block Blast puzzle game
  • Classic falling-block gameplay
  • Tap-based arcade challenges
  • Brick-breaking action
  • Sudoku with multiple difficulties
  • Tile-merging number puzzles
  • Haptic feedback
  • Offline play
Features
Read full description

Games Fair is a free, open-source collection of classic puzzle and arcade games, in one app that never asks you for anything. SOLITAIRE Klondike, turning one card at a time or three. With Winnable Deals Only on, a solver plays every deal through to a win before it reaches the table, and Hint shows a move on the way. Once every card is face up, the rest fly home by themselves. BLOCK BLAST Drag pieces onto the board and fill rows and columns to clear them. Clear on back-to-back moves for a combo, or empty the whole board for a 5,000-point bonus. BREAKOUT Clear the bricks. Power-ups widen the paddle, slow the ball, or let it smash straight through. Levels get faster. FALLING BLOCKS The one you already know how to play. Lines clear, the level climbs, the pieces come quicker. SUDOKU Puzzles at several difficulties, with the number pad where your thumb already is. 2048 Slide the tiles, watch them merge, chase your best score. Reaching 2048 is not the end if you do not want it to be. CHARADES Hold the phone to your forehead while your friends give clues, nod when you guess right, and tip your head back to pass. Decks run from animals and movies to sayings and things to act out, and the screen stays on for the whole round. MINES The classic sweeper. Your first tap is always safe, holding a square plants a flag, and a number with all its flags opens the rest around it. Three board sizes, each shaped to fit your screen. LANGUAGES Menus, instructions and accessibility labels are in 13 languages. Charades has localized animal and food decks in each of them, and twenty-one themed decks in English. WHAT IT DOES NOT DO No advertising. No purchases. No account. No network access at all — every game runs entirely on your device. Your progress is saved when you leave a game and restored when you come back, including if the phone puts the app to sleep mid-round. Games Fair is published by the App Fair Project and is free software under the GNU Affero General Public License, with an exception for distribution through the app stores. It is built with the Day framework: one Rust codebase drawing itself with each platform's real native widgets. github.com/Games-Fair/Games-Fair

Screenshots

Lichess4 screens
Games Fair4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Games Fair at 100% against Lichess's 53%. Games Fair also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.1) and update cadence (every 4 days vs fortnightly). Lichess's advantage is ratings volume (802 vs 3) and chart position (#39 vs unranked). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Games Fair holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Lichess has 802 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 53% of Lichess's written reviews are positive against 100% of Games Fair's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Lichess ships an update fortnightly, Games Fair every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Lichess versus Games Fair: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLichessGames Fair
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.1 (802 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews53.4% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings802 — better3
Update frequencyFortnightlyEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
Best chart rank#39 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size109 MB27 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLICHESS.ORGThe App Fair Project Inc

Customer experience

Lichess

All ratings754 ratings
Positive75.7%
Neutral4.5%
Negative19.8%
Written reviews596 reviews
Positive53.4%
Neutral10.1%
Negative36.6%

Games Fair

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Lichess

Reported bugs

1 issue
  • Swipe-to-go-back gesture interferes with piece placement

Requested features

3 requests
  • Name of opening in opening explorer
  • Ability to add and subtract additional things on the homepage
  • Reset/replay button on puzzles

Games Fair

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Lichess

No in-app purchases

None

Games Fair

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Lichess free?
Lichess is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Games Fair free?
Games Fair is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Lichess or Games Fair?
Games Fair is rated higher. Lichess averages 4.1 out of 5 from 802 ratings, while Games Fair averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do Lichess or Games Fair have ads?
Neither Lichess nor Games Fair shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Lichess or Games Fair?
Lichess ships an update fortnightly, and Games Fair every 4 days. Most recently, Lichess was updated on November 3, 2026 and Games Fair on October 31, 2026.

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