Comparison

True Backgammon vs Backgammon for iPad & iPhone

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

Head to head
About

True Backgammon

Engage in classic backgammon against challenging computer opponents or human players online. Customize your game with various board designs and difficulty levels. Connect with friends for local or online matches.

Highlights
  • Play against computer or humans
  • Three difficulty levels
  • Modern and ornate board designs
  • In-app purchase for world-class AI
  • Local and online multiplayer
  • Voice chat with opponents
  • Optimized for iOS
Features
Read full description

One of the most successful backgammon games on the iPad/iPhone, one of the most powerful computer opponents in the world. ALL THE FACTS IN UNDER 30 SECONDS * Play against computer or humans. Choose from three difficulty levels. Play on a cool modern wood or metal board, or choose from beautiful and richly ornamented optional boards. Play from left or right or play using black or white checkers. Play against friends in the same room or play against people anywhere on the Internet. Your choice, your game. * One of the best backgammon AI in the world (BGBlitz) is available as an in-app purchase as your opponent or tutor. Find out how good you already are and let BGBlitz teach you how to get better. After all, who doesn't like to win? * Connect with friends by playing with them in 2-player mode on the same device or anywhere in the world over the network. An occasional game is a great way to stay in touch with friends or to meet new people. * Available for iPad and iPhone (iOS 15 or later). Optimised for the latest iOS. * You could be playing backgammon like never before in less than a minute. What are you waiting for? STILL NOT CONVINCED? READ MORE… ALWAYS READY WHEN YOU ARE - COMPUTER OPPONENT Whether in the middle of the night or during your coffee break, your computer is always ready for a match. Choose from three difficulty levels to suit your skill level. For those who want to play only the best, a world-class artificial intelligence opponent is available as an in-app purchase. Casual play or competitive match? True Backgammon has an opponent for you that is fun to play with or that is a teeth grinding challenge. PLAY WITH PEOPLE NEAR YOU - GAME BOARD MODE Imagine you are with friends and want to pass the time with a game? Or are you on the train playing against the computer and one of your fellow commuters turns out to be a backgammon player too? You don't need to carry around a real board with you all the time. Instead, True Backgammon is your board. CONNECT WITH FRIENDS OR PLAY AGAINST RANDOM OPPONENTS ONLINE - GAME CENTER Would you rather play against a human than an AI, but there is no opponent in sight? Join the growing community of people playing True Backgammon online every day on an iPad, iPhone, iPod, iMac or MacBook. There's always someone ready to play. And not only can you play with them, you can talk to them using the built-in voice chat. BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER - GAME BOARDS We didn't just want to make good AI and smooth gameplay, we also wanted to make it look good. No, not just good... we wanted them to look drop dead gorgeous. We found a skilled designer and then tortured him with feedback until we were satisfied. The result is two boards (metal and wood) that look awesome, while offering little visual distraction to keep you focused on your strategy. And for those who love a little distraction, we let the designer run wild with a selection of (optional) fancy boards, rich in decoration and beautiful detail. Which is your favourite? AAAND ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BOARD, A MULTI-OLYMPIC CHAMPION AI - BEEE GEEEE BLITZ From time to time there is an Olympic tournament for backgammon programs. We have persuaded the creator of the three-time winner BGBlitz to make his AI available to True Backgammon users. This AI is a world class opponent for those who want to play only the best. And it is a patient tutor. BGBlitz offers a tutor mode that will point out moves that are not optimal and show you better ones. It also gives you statistics, and you can export your current game to the common SGF format to analyse it with other applications like XG2, BGBlitz or gnuBG. WHAT ELSE CAN WE SAY? To cut a long story short, we have put a lot of effort into this application, not only in the gameplay, but on every level. If you choose it, we are sure you will not be disappointed.

About

Backgammon for iPad & iPhone

Experience a classic two-player board game of skill and luck. This app offers a user-friendly interface, a comprehensive tutorial for beginners, and multiple ways to play, including against AI or friends online. Customize your game board and pieces for a personalized experience.

Highlights
  • Single-player AI mode
  • Two-player local mode
  • Online multiplayer
  • Customizable board and pieces
  • Interactive tutorial
  • Offline play
Features
Read full description

Put your skills and luck to the test with this challenging board game! Backgammon is a 2-player game that puts your skills and your luck to the test in equal measure. It is no wonder that Backgammon is one of the oldest board games in the world and is still thriving. Enjoy the thrill of scrutinizing every move while the gods of luck dictate your fate through the dice. Our Backgammon has a clean and user-friendly design to ensure you can enjoy and focus solely on the game without any fuss or unwanted interruptions. If you are new to the game, follow our clear and thorough tutorial and you will become a master in no time. Challenge a friend or play against yourself with our 2-player mode or try to beat our clever AI as a single player. The board and the pieces are also customizable, allowing you to personalize the game to have a more pleasant visual experience. FEATURES - Single-player mode: play against our clever AI - Two-player mode: challenge a friend - Online mode: play online against a random player or against your friends - 3 Difficulty levels: play on easy, normal, or hard mode against our AI - Customize board and pieces - Interactive tutorial: learn all the rules and tricks of the game easily - Auto commit feature: commit to your every move without an Undo option - Auto-finish feature: sit back and let our AI bear off the pieces for you - Clean and user-friendly design, intuitive gameplay - Realistic moves: tap and drag the pieces across the board - Fair dice roll: the dice are 100% rolled randomly each time - Play offline: no need for an internet connection - Available in three languages: English, Spanish and Portuguese Do you think you can become a Backgammon master? Put your skills and luck to the test with this challenging board game. Download now!

Screenshots

True Backgammon4 screens
Backgammon for iPad & iPhone4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Backgammon for iPad & iPhone at Free against True Backgammon's $3.99. Backgammon for iPad & iPhone also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.3). True Backgammon's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (48% vs 34%). On ratings volume, update cadence, 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

Backgammon for iPad & iPhone is free to download; True Backgammon costs $3.99 up front. True Backgammon sells 12 one-off in-app purchases and Backgammon for iPad & iPhone 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

Backgammon for iPad & iPhone holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2.6K and 4.1K respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 48% of True Backgammon's written reviews are positive against 34% of Backgammon for iPad & iPhone's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 30, 2026 and September 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
True Backgammon versus Backgammon for iPad & iPhone: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTrue BackgammonBackgammon for iPad & iPhone
Price$3.99Free — better
Rating4.3 (2.6K ratings)4.7 (4.1K ratings) — better
Positive reviews48.1% of reviews — better34.4% of reviews
Number of ratings2.6K4.1K — better
Update frequencyFortnightlyFortnightly
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#15 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.015.0
Further details — not scored
Size69 MB301 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCompuLab, Markus GömmelAppgeneration Software

Customer experience

True Backgammon

All ratings2,649 ratings
Positive82.2%
Neutral5.2%
Negative12.5%
Written reviews474 reviews
Positive48.1%
Neutral8.4%
Negative43.5%

Backgammon for iPad & iPhone

All ratings4,079 ratings
Positive93.1%
Neutral2.1%
Negative4.9%
Written reviews529 reviews
Positive34.4%
Neutral9.3%
Negative56.3%

User reviews

True Backgammon

From 2.6K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Smooth gameplay
  • 📊 Helpful tutor and analysis features
  • 🎨 Attractive and intuitive interface
  • 🕹️ Realistic backgammon experience

Room to improve

  • 🎲 Dice rolls perceived as biased towards the computer
  • 🤖 Computer opponent seen as too lucky or advantaged
  • 🧠 Difficulty level imbalance (too easy or too hard)
  • 🐛 Occasional bugs and crashes

Backgammon for iPad & iPhone

From 4.1K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fast gameplay
  • 👍 Great for beginners
  • 👍 Fair and unbiased
  • 👍 Simple and intuitive

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Dice rolls seem rigged
  • 🐛 Unfair advantage for AI opponents
  • 🔍 Suspicious online players
  • 🤬 Frustrating experience
  • 💸 Excessive ads

Bugs and requests

True Backgammon

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Dice not registering correctly
  • Game freezing or becoming unresponsive
  • Issues with the human-computer move synchronization

Requested features

4 requests
  • Ability to play against other human players online
  • More customization options for the board and pieces
  • Detailed player statistics and progress tracking
  • Improved doubling cube functionality

Backgammon for iPad & iPhone

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Game freezes after winning
  • Incorrect scoring and betting
  • Opponent moves not matching dice rolls
  • Inability to exit ads

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add tutorial for new players
  • Improve randomness of dice rolls
  • Implement fair matchmaking
  • Provide option to disable ads

In-app purchases

12 purchases

True Backgammon

One-time12
  • Playboard Orient 3$0.99
  • Playboard Neon 1$0.99
  • Playboard Neon 3$0.99
Show 9 more
  • Playboard Orient 1$0.99
  • Playboard Orient 2$0.99
  • Playboard Leather$0.99
  • Playboard Neon 2$0.99
  • Neon Package$1.99
  • Orient Package$1.99
  • BGBlitz Tutor$1.99
  • BGBlitz Gameplay Engine$3.99
  • BGBlitz Package$4.99
4 purchases

Backgammon for iPad & iPhone

One-time4
  • 5000 coins$1.99
  • Piggy Bank$2.99
  • 10000 Coins$3.99
Show 1 more
  • Remove Ads$4.99

Questions

Is True Backgammon free?
True Backgammon costs $3.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Backgammon for iPad & iPhone free?
Backgammon for iPad & iPhone is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, True Backgammon or Backgammon for iPad & iPhone?
Backgammon for iPad & iPhone is rated higher. True Backgammon averages 4.3 out of 5 from 2.6K ratings, while Backgammon for iPad & iPhone averages 4.7 from 4.1K ratings.
Do True Backgammon or Backgammon for iPad & iPhone have ads?
Backgammon for iPad & iPhone shows ads; True Backgammon does not.
Which is updated more often, True Backgammon or Backgammon for iPad & iPhone?
True Backgammon ships an update fortnightly, and Backgammon for iPad & iPhone fortnightly. Most recently, True Backgammon was updated on September 30, 2026 and Backgammon for iPad & iPhone on September 29, 2026.

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