Advanced Crossword Solver vs Grace Gems Devotionals
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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"...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.
Grace Gems Devotionals
Access a vast collection of timeless devotional writings from renowned authors. Receive daily notifications for new posts and easily find content categorized by topic. This app aims to challenge, console, and encourage Christian pilgrims on their spiritual journey.
- Extensive collection of devotional writings
- Timeless authors included
- Daily new devotional notifications
- Devotionals categorized by topic
- Displays latest 4 devotionals on main screen
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This devotional app contains the excellent collection of devotional writings from gracegems.org. These choice writings range from many timeless authors such as C.H. Spurgeon, A.W. Pink, John Newton, Martin Luther, Octavius Winslow, George Everard and many more! Receive daily notifications when new devotionals are posted! The complete database of "Gems" have been categorized by topic for quick reference and the main app screen displays the latest 4 "Gems", so you can easily catch up! "Our desire is that the Holy Spirit, who is the Divine Revealer and Interpreter of Christ and His truth, may impart to your hearts a sober, spiritual and sanctifying receptivity of His Word — abasing self, and exalting Christ! Our intention is to unfold and illustrate the Lord Jesus Christ in the relation in which He stands to His people — to unveil His glory, beauty, and fullness — to define the close bond of union that unites to Him all His people — and to bring you into a more personal realization of what Christ is to you, and of what you are to Christ." (Octavius Winslow) Our objective is to set before the Christian pilgrim some reflections which may prove challenging, consolatory and encouraging — as he journeys up from this bleak, arid, wilderness world, leaning on his Beloved. May God's blessing attend our humble effort to minister comfort to the downcast, strength to the weak, and courage to those who have set their faces towards their glorious eternal home.
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Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Grace Gems Devotionals at Free against Advanced Crossword Solver's $4.99. Grace Gems Devotionals also leads on review sentiment (96% vs 65%) and ratings volume (207 vs 1). 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
Grace Gems Devotionals is free to download; Advanced Crossword Solver costs $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Advanced Crossword Solver against 4.9 for Grace Gems Devotionals. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Grace Gems Devotionals has 207 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 65% of Advanced Crossword Solver's written reviews are positive against 96% of Grace Gems Devotionals's.
Advanced Crossword Solver ships an update every 6 months, Grace Gems Devotionals every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 11, 2026 and October 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Advanced Crossword Solver | Grace Gems Devotionals |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | 4.9 (207 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 64.7% of reviews | 95.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 207 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Every 3 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 13.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 18 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | KuDaTa Software | Maranatha Technologies |
Customer experience
Advanced Crossword Solver
Grace Gems Devotionals
Bugs and requests
Advanced Crossword Solver
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Grace Gems Devotionals
Reported bugs
3 issues- No longer supported / unable to connect to server
- Won't open / error loading notification
- Jittery scrolling
Requested features
3 requests- Random gems section
- Archive option to scroll through past gems
- Update for newer iPhone models (e.g., iPhone X)
In-app purchases
Advanced Crossword Solver
No in-app purchases
Grace Gems Devotionals
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Advanced Crossword Solver free?
Is Grace Gems Devotionals free?
Which has better reviews, Advanced Crossword Solver or Grace Gems Devotionals?
Do Advanced Crossword Solver or Grace Gems Devotionals have ads?
Which is updated more often, Advanced Crossword Solver or Grace Gems Devotionals?
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