Expert Sudoku vs ContraBee
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Expert Sudoku
This app offers a challenging Sudoku experience with 1000 handcrafted puzzles designed for advanced players. It features multiple skill levels, advanced solving techniques, and helpful options to aid your gameplay. Track your progress and challenge yourself with unique, solvable puzzles.
- 1000 unique handcrafted puzzles
- Advanced solving techniques
- Show incorrect answers
- Smart buttons and notes
- Multiple color schemes
- Challenge a friend
- Hints and progress statistics
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Join over 21,000,000 of our fans and download one of our Sudoku games today! Makers of the Best Sudoku Game of 2008, Sudoku (Free), we offer you the same great features with 1000 extremely difficult puzzles! Warning! Expert Sudoku is for serious Sudoku players. Our hand-crafted puzzles are solvable with only one solution and no guessing. Show your expertise using advanced solving techniques: Naked and Hidden Triples, X-Wing, XY-Wing, Swordfish, Forcing Chain, 2-string Kite, Skyscraper, Unique Corner, and more. OPTIONS All options are OFF by default, but you can turn them on in the Options menu • Show Incorrect :: Shows incorrect answers in red. • Smart Buttons :: Disables the number button when that number is completed on the game board. • Smart Notes :: Removes the number from the notes in the box, column, and row that contains the cell with your correct answer. FEATURES • 1000 unique handcrafted puzzles • Four different skill levels • ALL puzzles are solvable WITHOUT guessing • Multiple color schemes • Challenge a friend • "ALL notes": tap the "All notes" button on to show all the possible answers for each square. Tap the "All notes" button off to remove the notes. • Hints: shows the answer for the selected square or a random square when one is not selected • Pause the game at any time and resume where you left off • Best times, progress statistics, and much more Are you a Sudoku Master? Then play Expert Sudoku; you will love it! Otherwise, check out our other popular Sudoku games for iPhone and iPod Touch. Do you want more? Try one of our other versions of sudoku which have all the same great features! * Look for our paid edition of Sudoku with 1000 easier puzzles. * Or try Color Sudoku for a fun twist to solving sudoku puzzles.
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 review sentiment: Expert Sudoku at 86% against ContraBee's 24%. Expert Sudoku also leads on rating (4.4 vs 4.0) and ratings volume (75 vs 4). ContraBee's advantage is price (Free vs $2.99) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 5 months). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model 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
ContraBee is free to download; Expert Sudoku costs $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Expert Sudoku holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Expert Sudoku has 75 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 86% of Expert Sudoku's written reviews are positive against 24% of ContraBee's.
Expert Sudoku ships an update every 5 months, ContraBee every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Expert Sudoku | ContraBee |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.4 (75 ratings) — better | 4.0 (4 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 85.7% of reviews — better | 23.8% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 75 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Best chart rank | #199 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 | 11.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 9 MB | 16 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Mighty Mighty Good Games | Lexi Games LLC |
Customer experience
Expert Sudoku
ContraBee
Bugs and requests
Expert Sudoku
Reported bugs
2 issues- Incompatibility issues with iOS updates
- Incorrect answers sometimes marked as correct
Requested features
3 requests- Ability to color cells or notes
- Progress tracking and puzzle history
- More frequent updates with new puzzles
ContraBee
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Expert Sudoku
No in-app purchases
ContraBee
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Expert Sudoku free?
Is ContraBee free?
Which has better reviews, Expert Sudoku or ContraBee?
Do Expert Sudoku or ContraBee have ads?
Which is updated more often, Expert Sudoku or ContraBee?
Other comparisons
