Comparison

Crostix Pro vs Crostics

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

Head to head
About

Crostix Pro

This app offers a digital library of acrostic puzzles, a word game similar to crosswords where letters from answers form a hidden quote. It provides automatic letter placement and features like hints, scoring, and adjustable font sizes for an engaging puzzle experience.

Highlights
  • Automatic letter placement
  • 150+ included puzzles
  • In-app puzzle purchases
  • Hint system for letters/words
  • Scoring based on hints used
  • Adjustable font size
  • Device rotation support
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Welcome to the world of acrostics! An acrostic, also called a crostic or double crostic, is a cousin of crossword puzzles, with clues and answers whose letters are rearranged to form a quote from a famous (or not-so-famous) author. If you're familiar with acrostics, you will quickly see how convenient they are on the iPhone, because letters are automatically copied to the correct place as you type them in. Crostix, the online library of acrostic puzzles, is now available for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. It includes 150 puzzles, from easy to fiendishly hard, and you can buy more puzzles right in the application. The program has all the features you'd expect: - get hints for a single letter or an entire word, - see your score, based on how many hints you needed, - change the font size by pinching, - rotate the device as you like, and - get help on all program options. If you're new to the world of acrostics, the application also includes a short tutorial to get you started.

About

Crostics

Engaging word puzzles that combine crosswords and quote deciphering. Solve clues to reveal a hidden quote, or use parts of the quote to solve the clues. Enjoy a beautifully designed, ad-free experience with adjustable difficulty.

Highlights
  • Reveal hidden quotes
  • Decipher clues using quote
  • Unlimited hints
  • Undo functionality
  • Light and Dark mode
  • Help section
Features
Read full description

Like word games? Crossword puzzles? Then you’ll love Crostics, the new word game where you reveal a hidden quote by answering clues, and decipher clues by filling in the quote! Letter in the answers are linked to letters in the quote—answer the clues, and you uncover more and more of the quote, or fill in more of the quote to decipher the clues. Beautifully designed for iPhone and iPad, Crostics puts engaging puzzles at your fingertips without the pain of erasing pencil marks from paper. The result is more fun with less distraction. And no ads! Crostics includes a free book of 24 puzzles and you can buy more right in the app. There are a wide range of difficultly levels, so whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned player you’ll find a good challenge to stretch your brain! If you like word games, you’re going to love Crostics! Features - Unlimited hints - Undo - Play in portrait (and in landscape on iPad) - Play in Light or Dark mode - Learn how to play with the included help

Screenshots

Crostix Pro3 screens
Crostics4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Crostics at Free against Crostix Pro's $4.99. Crostics also leads on ratings volume (628 vs 53) and review sentiment (96% vs 87%). Crostix Pro's advantage is chart position (#105 vs unranked). On rating, update cadence, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Crostics is free to download; Crostix Pro costs $4.99 up front. Crostix Pro sells 14 one-off in-app purchases and Crostics sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Crostix Pro against 4.8 for Crostics. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Crostics has 628 ratings behind it against 53, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 87% of Crostix Pro's written reviews are positive against 96% of Crostics's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Crostix Pro ships an update every 4 months, Crostics every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Crostix Pro versus Crostics: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCrostix ProCrostics
Price$4.99Free — better
Rating4.7 (53 ratings)4.8 (628 ratings) — better
Positive reviews87.1% of reviews96.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings53628 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 months — betterEvery 6 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#105 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size78 MB25 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBrian MountfordJohn Blackburn

Customer experience

Crostix Pro

All ratings51 ratings
Positive92.2%
Neutral2.0%
Negative5.9%
Written reviews85 reviews
Positive87.1%
Neutral3.5%
Negative9.4%

Crostics

All ratings628 ratings
Positive96.7%
Neutral3.0%
Negative0.3%
Written reviews25 reviews
Positive96.0%
Neutral4.0%
Negative0.0%

User reviews

Crostix Pro

From 53 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Great game/app
  • 💡 Challenging puzzles
  • 👍 Fun to complete
  • 💡 Good variety of puzzles
  • 👍 Easy to use interface

Room to improve

  • 🐛 App crashes
  • 🐛 Puzzles not opening
  • 🐛 In-app purchases not working
  • 🐛 Data waiting errors
  • 🐛 Lost progress after reinstall

Crostics

From 628 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Clean, intuitive, and modern interface
  • 🎮 Fun and engaging gameplay mechanics
  • 💡 Custom keyboard for faster input
  • 🔇 Minimal, delightful sound effects
  • ⭐ High-quality puzzle content

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional freezing and resizing issues
  • 😴 Repetitive content across 100 levels
  • ⚠️ Very easy difficulty level
  • 📏 Shorter puzzles than traditional magazines
  • 🔤 Unclear multi-word answer formatting

Bugs and requests

Crostix Pro

Reported bugs

13 issues
  • Library is gone, no record of puzzles
  • App not working with latest iOS
  • In-app purchases do not all work
  • Books 10 & 11 will not open
  • AppStore shows purchased but app says waiting for data
Show 8 more
  • App crashes
  • In-app purchase feature does not work
  • Paid for book, charged again after update
  • Completed puzzles show blank after update
  • App is waiting for data
  • Misspelling in puzzle quote
  • Cannot buy Book 5
  • App only checks for new puzzles every 30 days

Requested features

10 requests
  • Add more puzzles
  • Add free starting letters
  • Add ability to skip filled squares
  • Add display for first letters of clue answers
  • Add score tracking
Show 5 more
  • Add more challenging puzzles
  • Add more US-centric puzzles
  • Add more religious references
  • Add dark mode
  • Add puzzle title in top bar

Crostics

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • App freezes occasionally
  • Unexpected resizing of interface elements
  • Delete function requires multiple presses (workaround: long press available)

Requested features

11 requests
  • More puzzle books and content
  • Word count indicators in clues (e.g., '2 words', '3 words')
  • Spaces in clues for multi-word answers
  • Author attribution guessing feature
  • Ability to view solved puzzles after completion
Show 6 more
  • Toggle option to disable correct answer notifications
  • Automatic dark/light mode switching
  • First letters of clues spelling author names
  • More challenging and scholarly clues
  • Bulk delete function for clue answers
  • Lower pricing for puzzle packs

In-app purchases

14 purchases

Crostix Pro

One-time14
  • Crostix Book Thirteen$0.99
  • Crostix Book Twelve$0.99
  • HeadLines$1.99
Show 11 more
  • Crostix Book Four$1.99
  • Guest Author: Gordon Frakes$1.99
  • Crostix Book Five$1.99
  • Crostix Book Six$1.99
  • Crostix Book Seven$1.99
  • Guest Author: Gordon Frakes 2$1.99
  • Crostix Book Eight$1.99
  • Crostix Book Nine$1.99
  • Crostix Book Ten$1.99
  • Crostix Book Eleven$1.99
  • The Golden Treasury$1.99
4 purchases

Crostics

One-time4
  • 1 Book7 variants$1.99
  • 2 Books3 variants$3.99
  • 4 Books2 variants$5.99
Show 1 more
  • 8 Books$9.99

Questions

Is Crostix Pro free?
Crostix Pro costs $4.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Crostics free?
Crostics is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Crostix Pro or Crostics?
Crostics is rated higher. Crostix Pro averages 4.7 out of 5 from 53 ratings, while Crostics averages 4.8 from 628 ratings.
Do Crostix Pro or Crostics have ads?
Neither Crostix Pro nor Crostics shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Crostix Pro or Crostics?
Crostix Pro ships an update every 4 months, and Crostics every 6 months. Most recently, Crostix Pro was updated on October 23, 2026 and Crostics on October 19, 2026.

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