Comparison

The Know vs Advanced Crossword Solver

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

Head to head
About

The Know

Solve any anagram with this powerful tool. It utilizes a vast database of over 4 million words, names, and phrases to find solutions for simple words, movie titles, scientific concepts, and more. Get instant results and explore details about each answer.

Highlights
  • Solves complex anagrams
  • Database of 4+ million entries
  • Finds words, names, and phrases
  • Covers diverse topics
  • Instant list of possible answers
  • Detailed answer information
Features
Read full description

The Know-It-All Anagram Solver uses a huge database of over 4 million words, names and phrases to solve even the trickiest of anagrams. It'll find the answer whether it's a simple word, a movie title, an obscure scientific concept, a place name, an old saying, or anything else, from the famous to the obscure. The database covers every conceivable topic. Simply enter the letters of your anagram and get an instant list of possible answers, and you can touch an answer to find out more.

About

Advanced Crossword Solver

This app assists in solving complex cryptic crosswords and word puzzles. It offers advanced search functionalities beyond simple pattern matching, including anagrams, wildcards, and partial anagrams, utilizing a large database of words and phrases.

Highlights
  • Advanced pattern matching with regular expressions
  • Combined pattern and anagram searches
  • Wildcard and partial anagram solving
  • Subset anagrams for longest word generation
  • Search with multiple letter possibilities
  • Vowel/consonant symbol searches
  • Find near-miss words
Features
Read full description

"...anyone grappling with the sort of evil cryptics with no black squares will appreciate its power." - The Sunday Times The Advanced Crossword Solver is a combination of a powerful regular expression-style word matcher and a user-customisable database of nearly 300,000 words and phrases. It is specifically designed to help with solving advanced thematic crosswords such as The Times’ Listener and The Sunday Telegraph’s Enigmatic Variations, but is also useful for word games such as Scrabble and Boggle, and indeed for any other word puzzles or games, for logic problems and as an aid to crossword setting. Unlike most crossword solving programs, this is far more than a simple pattern matcher for unknown letters. It can be used as a pattern matcher, and can solve simple anagrams, but in addition, some of its more powerful features include: • search for a combined pattern and anagram, when you know the answer is an anagram, and you also know where some of the letters are. • search with wildcards, when you know that an answer includes a particular letter or string of letters, but not where in the word they are. • solve partial anagrams, when you know that some of the letters of an answer are an anagram, but other letters are unknown. • solve subset anagrams, when you want to find the longest word you can make from a given set of letters. • search with multiple possibilities for letters, when you know a letter is one of a few possibilities, but not which one it is. • search with letter variables, when you know that several letters are the same, but not which letter it is. • search with vowel and consonant symbols, when you know that a letter is either a vowel or a consonant, but not which letter it is. • search for all the words which are one misprinted letter away from another word. • search for words which match a given pattern but which have one or more misprinted letters. • search for pairs of words (across and down) which cross at an unknown letter. Using the simple input syntax, complex combinations of the above can be searched to quickly narrow down to a solution. Even the most complex search takes no more than a few seconds, and results are clearly presented in a scrollable list. Tapping on a result from the solver shows a menu which allows the result to be looked up in a choice of iPhone dictionary and thesaurus applications, including Chambers and WordWeb, or online. This menu can be customised to add your own choice of applications and websites. (Note that in order to link to a dictionary, it must offer a URL that can be used by other apps - check with the publisher of your chosen dictionary that this is the case.) The word list used by the Solver is a combination of the UK Advanced Cryptics Dictionary (UKACD) and the Enhanced North American Benchmark LExicon (ENABLE). The UKACD is compiled by a crossword puzzle enthusiast from the words and phrases that are found in typical British advanced cryptic puzzles. ENABLE is an authoritative list of Scrabble words valid in both US and UK games. Between the two lists, the program searches a database of over 298,000 words and phrases. The word list used by the solver is stored as plain text files, and the files can be accessed via iTunes to allow them to be customised to your own requirements - words can be added or removed, or the entire word list can be replaced if desired. In addition, the symbols used to denote the input syntax can also be changed, making the entire operation of the solver customisable to your own requirements. If your taste in puzzles extends to the truly challenging, this is the application for you.

Screenshots

The Know1 screens
Advanced Crossword Solver1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Advanced Crossword Solver at 65% against The Know's 20%. Advanced Crossword Solver also leads on rating (5.0 vs 2.5) and update cadence (every 6 months vs every 17 months). The Know's advantage is price ($1.99 vs $4.99) and ratings volume (6 vs 1). On ads, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

The Know costs $1.99 and Advanced Crossword Solver $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Advanced Crossword Solver holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: The Know has 6 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 20% of The Know's written reviews are positive against 65% of Advanced Crossword Solver's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

The Know ships an update every 17 months, Advanced Crossword Solver every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
The Know versus Advanced Crossword Solver: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThe KnowAdvanced Crossword Solver
Price$1.99 — better$4.99
Rating2.5 (6 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews20.0% of reviews64.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings6 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 17 monthsEvery 6 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS7.0 — better12.0
Further details — not scored
Size0 MB4 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperUtsireKuDaTa Software

Customer experience

The Know

All ratings6 ratings
Positive33.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative66.7%
Written reviews45 reviews
Positive20.0%
Neutral4.4%
Negative75.6%

Advanced Crossword Solver

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews17 reviews
Positive64.7%
Neutral5.9%
Negative29.4%

In-app purchases

None

The Know

No in-app purchases

None

Advanced Crossword Solver

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is The Know free?
The Know costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Advanced Crossword Solver free?
Advanced Crossword Solver costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, The Know or Advanced Crossword Solver?
Advanced Crossword Solver is rated higher. The Know averages 2.5 out of 5 from 6 ratings, while Advanced Crossword Solver averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do The Know or Advanced Crossword Solver have ads?
Neither The Know nor Advanced Crossword Solver shows ads.
Which is updated more often, The Know or Advanced Crossword Solver?
The Know ships an update every 17 months, and Advanced Crossword Solver every 6 months. Most recently, The Know was updated on October 20, 2026 and Advanced Crossword Solver on October 11, 2026.

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