Comparison

Words Inside vs Runi

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

Head to head
About

Words Inside

Uncover hidden words in a 3x3 grid. Enjoy casual, arcade, and daily challenge modes. Create and save your own custom grids with a one-time purchase. Unlock themed packs and utilize built-in hints.

Highlights
  • 3x3 grid word puzzles
  • Casual, Arcade, and Daily Challenge modes
  • Create and save custom grids
  • Themed word packs
  • Built-in hints and word lookup
  • Player statistics and achievements
Features
Read full description

Words Inside is a free word game where you uncover as many hidden words as you can from a letter grid. Enjoy 3x3 and 4x4 puzzles, with optional Apple Intelligence features on supported devices. Play your way: Casual Mode lets you take your time, saves your progress automatically, and makes it easy to come back later. Arcade Mode is a fast 1-minute score attack with combo multipliers for quick streaks. Daily Challenge gives you a new puzzle every day, with separate progress tracking and replayable Casual or Arcade runs. Explore the themes: Start with the free starter theme, then discover premium theme packs across a wide range of interests. Themed puzzles now include both 9-letter 3x3 and 16-letter 4x4 grids, giving you more letters to explore. Find longer words for bigger scores, with up to 40 base points for a 16-letter word. Want even more ways to play? Unlock My Grids with a one-time purchase to create, save, and replay your own custom boards. Build 3x3 or 4x4 grids, generate a random board, or enter your own letters and let the app solve it before you start. Need help? Hints are built in, and you can earn more by playing: Complete the tutorial, discover anagrams, hit word milestones, finish Casual grids, and complete the Daily Challenge. Extra hint packs are also available in-app. Features: • No in-game advertising • Light and dark mode support • Free starter theme, including a 4x4 puzzle • Daily Challenge included free with a new puzzle every day • Casual Mode with automatic progress saving • Arcade Mode with 1-minute score runs and combo bonuses • Themed 3x3 and 4x4 puzzles across a wide range of interests • Create and save your own grids with My Grids (one-time in-app purchase) • Build random or custom-letter 3x3 and 4x4 grids • Replay saved grids in Casual or Arcade • An expanded word dictionary, with words up to 16 letters long • Player statistics to track your progress • Game Center achievements • Built-in word lookup for found words • Optional Apple Intelligence features on supported devices, including Grid Analysis, Word Meanings, grid summaries, and post-game coaching • Interactive onboarding tutorial • Built-in hints plus extra hint packs available to purchase • iPhone and iPad support

About

Runi

Engage in a cozy word search and crossword game with hand-crafted puzzles. Enjoy a daily challenge and themed packs without ads, logins, or subscriptions. Own the game forever with a single purchase.

Highlights
  • Hand-crafted word search and crossword puzzles
  • Daily fresh puzzle
  • 480 themed puzzles across 12 packs
  • Kid-friendly mode with 6 packs
  • One-time purchase for full ownership
  • iCloud sync for progress and settings
  • No ads, no logins, no subscriptions
Features
Read full description

Word puzzles, but warm. Runi is a hand-crafted word-search and crossword game you pay for once and actually own. No ads. No logins. No subscriptions. Just 480 themed puzzles, a fresh daily every morning, and a cozy little wheel of letters to swipe through. THE WORD GAME YOU ACTUALLY OWN Other word games keep asking. Asking you to watch a video for a hint. Asking you to upgrade. Asking you to sign in. Runi asks once - $5.99 unlocks the whole game, forever. That's it. HOW IT PLAYS Every level is a word salad - 4 to 7 letters scrambled on a wheel at the bottom of the screen. Drag your finger across them to spell words. The words you find slot into a themed crossword above. Touch a tile twice in a row to reuse a letter. Hit detection is tuned so the wheel feels precise even on a fast swipe. The crossword is capped to stay phone-readable, never a wall of micro-text. 12 THEMED PACKS, 360 HAND-CURATED LEVELS Every crossword has a theme that holds it together. Forest, Ocean, Cosmos, Archive, Kitchen, Critters, Music, Body, Weather, Sport, Garden, Travel - 30 levels each, every target word on-theme. Bonus words pulled from a 4,675-word common-word dictionary so the surprises feel earned, not random. KIDS MODE, 6 PACKS, 120 LEVELS A separate kid-friendly mode with shorter wheels, simpler themes, and big-friendly tiles. Colors, Critters, Numbers, Playtime, Wheels, Yum. The first pack in each mode is free forever - try before you buy. A NEW DAILY EVERY MORNING One puzzle a day, free for everyone, generated fresh. Finish it for bonus hints. Build a streak. No notifications nagging you, no "come back" pop-ups - it's there when you want it. HINTS AND SKIPS, HANDLED FAIRLY Start with 10 hints and 3 skips. Refresh every 24 hours. Earn more by finding bonus words and clearing levels. No coin economy, no premium currency, no "watch an ad for a hint" - the loop is just play, earn, play. iCLOUD SYNC, PRIVATELY Progress, favourites, settings, wallet - all sync across your iPhone and iPad via your Apple ID. No account to create. No data sent to us. Apple's iCloud, your data, full stop. WHAT YOU GET WITH RUNI PRO - All 12 themed adult packs (360 puzzles) - All 6 kids packs (120 puzzles) - Every future pack we ship, included - No price increase for existing players, ever WHAT YOU GET FREE, FOREVER - The full Forest pack (30 puzzles) - The first kids pack - A fresh daily puzzle, every day - No ads. None. Not even a "watch to unlock" button. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No login. No accounts. No analytics. No tracking SDKs. No ads, so no ad networks. Runi doesn't know who you are and doesn't want to. Made small on purpose. Privacy policy: https://sararu.net/runi/privacy-policy.html Terms of use: https://sararu.net/runi/terms-of-use.html

Screenshots

Words Inside4 screens
Runi4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Runi at 5.0 against Words Inside's 4.3. Runi also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 75%) and update cadence (monthly vs every 3 months). Words Inside's advantage is monetization model (free with in-app purchases vs paid). On price, ratings volume, 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

Both are free to download. Words Inside sells 10 one-off in-app purchases and Runi sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Runi holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 3 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 75% of Words Inside's written reviews are positive against 100% of Runi's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Words Inside ships an update every 3 months, Runi monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Words Inside versus Runi: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWords InsideRuni
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (3 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews75.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings33
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size7 MB4 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperA5 MultimediaClaudiu Valentin Sararu

Customer experience

Words Inside

All ratings3 ratings
Positive66.7%
Neutral33.3%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive75.0%
Neutral25.0%
Negative0.0%

Runi

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Words Inside

One-time10
  • Pop Stars Theme$0.99
  • Computing Theme$0.99
  • Anagrams Theme$0.99
Show 7 more
  • Animals Theme$0.99
  • Bands Theme$0.99
  • Birds Theme$0.99
  • Clothes Theme$0.99
  • Colours Theme$0.99
  • Flowers Theme$0.99
  • Food Theme$0.99
1 purchases

Runi

One-time1
  • Runi Pro$3.99

Questions

Is Words Inside free?
Words Inside is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Runi free?
Runi is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Words Inside or Runi?
Runi is rated higher. Words Inside averages 4.3 out of 5 from 3 ratings, while Runi averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do Words Inside or Runi have ads?
Neither Words Inside nor Runi shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Words Inside or Runi?
Words Inside ships an update every 3 months, and Runi monthly. Most recently, Words Inside was updated on November 1, 2026 and Runi on November 5, 2026.

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