Words Inside vs Runi
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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
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.
- 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
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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
Verdict
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
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.
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.
Words Inside ships an update every 3 months, Runi monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Words Inside | Runi |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (3 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 75.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 3 | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Monthly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 7 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | A5 Multimedia | Claudiu Valentin Sararu |
Customer experience
Words Inside
Runi
In-app purchases
Words Inside
- Pop Stars Theme$0.99
- Computing Theme$0.99
- Anagrams Theme$0.99
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- 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
Runi
- Runi Pro$3.99









