Comparison

Tic vs Recursive

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

Head to head
About

Tic

This logic puzzle game challenges you to fill a grid with X's and O's based on specific rules. It offers a solitary, mentally stimulating experience with various difficulty levels and grid sizes. Enjoy endless fun and sharpen your logic skills with these unique puzzles.

Highlights
  • Fill grid with X's and O's
  • No more than two adjacent X's or O's
  • Equal X's and O's per row/column
  • Unique solution per puzzle
  • Multiple difficulty levels
  • Large grid sizes
  • Weekly bonus puzzles
Features
Read full description

Fill all squares so there are no more than two adjacent X's or O's in a row or column! Each puzzle consists of a grid containing X's and O's in various places. The object is to place X or O in remaining squares so there are no more than two consecutive X's or O's in a row or a column, the number of X's is the same as the number of O's in each row and each column, and all rows and all columns are unique. Tic-Tac-Logic is a single-player puzzle based on Tic-Tac-Toe, a pencil-and-paper game many of us used to enjoy as children. Using pure logic and requiring no math to solve, these addictive puzzles offer endless fun and intellectual entertainment to puzzle fans of all skills and ages. The game features a ruler to help viewing and comparing rows or columns, counters to show how many X and O there are in each row and column, and pencilmarks to place temporary X or O when solving very hard puzzles. To help see the puzzle progress, graphic previews in the puzzle list show the progress of all puzzles in a volume as they are being solved. A Gallery view option provides these previews in a larger format. For more fun, Tic-Tac-Logic contains no ads and includes a Weekly Bonus section providing an extra free puzzle each week. PUZZLE FEATURES • 120 free Tic-Tac-Logic puzzles • 30 extra-large puzzles bonus for iPad only • Extra bonus puzzle published free each week • Multiple difficulty levels from very easy to extremely hard • Grid sizes up to 18x24 • Puzzle library continuously updates with new content • Manually selected, top quality puzzles • Unique solution for each puzzle • Hours of intellectual challenge and fun • Sharpens logic and improves cognitive skills GAMING FEATURES • No ads • Unlimited check puzzle • Unlimited Undo and Redo • Pencilmarks for solving hard puzzles • Ruler for easy row/column viewing and comparing • Row and column counter boxes • Concurrently playing and saving multiple puzzles • Puzzle filtering, sorting and archiving options • Dark Mode support • Graphic previews showing puzzles progress as they are being solved • Portrait and landscape screen support (iPad only) • Track puzzle solving times • Backup & restore puzzle progress to iCloud ABOUT Tic-Tac-Logic have also become popular under other names such as Binero, Binaire, Binairo, Binoxxo, Noughts and Crosses and Takuzu. Similar to Sudoku, Kakuro and Hashi, the puzzles are solved using logic alone. All puzzles in this app are produced by Conceptis Ltd. - the leading supplier of logic puzzles to printed and electronic gaming media all over the world. On average, more than 20 million Conceptis puzzles are solved each day in newspapers, magazines, books and online as well as on smartphones and tablets across the world. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://www.conceptispuzzles.com/index.aspx?uri=info/doc/220

About

Recursive

A challenging puzzle game where you guide robots to collect gems by creating simple programs. Master recursion and logic with a minimalistic, easy-to-learn language and diverse level elements.

Highlights
  • Learn a simple programming language
  • Solve puzzles with robots and gems
  • Master recursion concepts
  • Explore diverse level elements
  • Challenging, hard puzzles
Read full description

Recursive is a puzzle game about recursion, patterns, and programming. It is the perfect game for people who love hard puzzles. Your goal is to help little robots complete their mission and collect all gems by finding the correct pattern and translating it into a short program. # Programming language (no prior knowledge required) The programming language is minimalistic and easy to learn. It doesn't require any prior programming knowledge and consists of only four instructions. - Move forward: Move one cell forward. - Rotate left: Rotate 90° left in place. - Rotate right: Rotate 90° right in place. - Change color: Load a chip of a specified color and execute the instructions it contains. And even with this simple programming language, robots can follow complex patterns thanks to the power of recursion and to other tricks that you can discover along with your progression in the game. # Rich levels Recursive offers a large variety of levels thanks to supporting multiple types of elements. - Robots: They can have different colors that reflect the chip they have loaded. - Gems: Your goal is to collect all of them. - Bugs: They destroy robots and make them disappear. - Chips: They make robots load a different program. - Teleportation gates: They make robots teleport to a different location. - Inactive robots: They are activated when touched by another robot. # Mastering recursion Recursion is said to be hard to understand as a famous quote attributed to Stephen Hawking says: "To understand recursion, one must first understand recursion." However, we believe that playing Recursive is another fun way to understand it or even master it.

Screenshots

Tic4 screens
Recursive4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Tic at Free against Recursive's $2.99. Tic also leads on review sentiment (92% vs 71%) and ratings volume (523 vs 28). Recursive's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 5 months). On rating, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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

Tic is free to download; Recursive costs $2.99 up front. Tic sells 13 one-off in-app purchases and Recursive sells 3 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 — 4.8 for Tic against 4.9 for Recursive. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Tic has 523 ratings behind it against 28, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 92% of Tic's written reviews are positive against 71% of Recursive's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Tic ships an update every 5 months, Recursive every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Tic versus Recursive: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTicRecursive
PriceFree — better$2.99
Rating4.8 (523 ratings)4.9 (28 ratings) — better
Positive reviews92.3% of reviews — better71.4% of reviews
Number of ratings523 — better28
Update frequencyEvery 5 monthsEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS15.614.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB4 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperConceptis Ltd.Kidori

Customer experience

Tic

All ratings518 ratings
Positive96.9%
Neutral1.4%
Negative1.7%
Written reviews182 reviews
Positive92.3%
Neutral4.9%
Negative2.7%

Recursive

All ratings28 ratings
Positive96.4%
Neutral0.0%
Negative3.6%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive71.4%
Neutral0.0%
Negative28.6%

Bugs and requests

Tic

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Freezes phone
  • Ruler update issues

Requested features

6 requests
  • More levels
  • More free games
  • Indicate first guess square
  • Ability to clear all pencil marks
  • More color themes
Show 1 more
  • Unique solutions

Recursive

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

13 purchases

Tic

One-time13
  • Easy Variety 1$1.99
  • Medium Variety 1$1.99
  • Hard Variety 1$1.99
Show 10 more
  • Easy Variety 2$1.99
  • Medium Variety 2$1.99
  • Hard Variety 2$1.99
  • Medium Variety 3$1.99
  • Hard Variety 3$1.99
  • Big & Medium 1$1.99
  • Big & Tough 1$1.99
  • Big & Tough 2$1.99
  • Big & Easy 1$1.99
  • Medium Variety - Large 1$2.99
3 purchases

Recursive

One-time3
  • 10 hint credits$0.99
  • 20 hint credits$1.99
  • 40 hint credits$2.99

Questions

Is Tic free?
Tic is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Recursive free?
Recursive costs $2.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Tic or Recursive?
Recursive is rated higher. Tic averages 4.8 out of 5 from 523 ratings, while Recursive averages 4.9 from 28 ratings.
Do Tic or Recursive have ads?
Neither Tic nor Recursive shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Tic or Recursive?
Tic ships an update every 5 months, and Recursive every 4 days. Most recently, Tic was updated on November 1, 2026 and Recursive on October 29, 2026.

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