Comparison

Dave's Word Game vs Codewords

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

Head to head
About

Dave's Word Game

A daily word game focused on strategic word finding and board manipulation to maximize scores. Compete on daily and monthly leaderboards against friends and other players. Offers a free daily puzzle with no advertisements.

Highlights
  • Strategic word finding
  • Daily fresh board
  • Board shaping mechanics
  • Daily and monthly leaderboards
  • Free daily puzzle
  • No ads
Features
Read full description

Dave's Word Game (known as DWG by fans) is an important new daily word game, where you must strategically use your best words to maximise your score every day. STRATEGIC WORD FINDING Each day, everyone gets the same fresh board, so you can truly measure up against your friends. Your goal isn’t just to find words, it’s to shape the board, visualising how every move will change your future options. Clear things too early and you might lock yourself out of a high score; play patiently and cleverly, and you’ll give yourself a real shot at the top of the leaderboard. DAILY AND MONTHLY LEADERBOARDS You can play the board as many times in one day as you like - chase the top spot on the daily leaderboard, or play regularly in an attempt to win the monthly leaderboard and be immortalised for all time, or at least until the sun explodes and we have to turn the servers off. GIVE ME THE JUICE - Free daily puzzle, no ads ever - More than just finding words - strategy is key! - Top the leaderboards or find cool words - Made by 4 very handsome boys - Please play our game or Dave will be sad

About

Codewords

Features
Read full description

Focus on British English spellings and enjoy relaxing gameplay without timers, scores, or leaderboards - just lots of puzzles to enjoy at your leisure. CODEWORDS:UK includes a starter collection of 30 puzzles, with more puzzle collections available to buy in-app. There’s a tutorial to help you with the fundaments, plus in-game tools that help you spot letter patterns, quickly fill in answers and mark guesses as you go. The hints system is versatile, is not limited by time or usage, and the game does not penalise you for using them. You can also change the size and colour of the interface to make the game feel that much more comfortable on your device. WHAT IS A CODEWORDS PUZZLE? Codewords puzzles are like crosswords but without the usual clues. Instead, every box is numbered 1 to 26, where each number corresponds to a single letter. Puzzles guarantee that every letter of the alphabet is used at least once, and always start with just three letters given. With only that information you can identify patterns and deduce the code that will crack each puzzle. It’s a great game for expanding your vocabulary and improving your spelling. LEARN NEW WORDS Interesting and uncommon words are used throughout. Here are some examples you might encounter while playing: ABSCISSA ARGOT BATIK CALLIOPE CREDENZA DIATRIBE EXECUTRIX FERRULE FIXITY FOOLSCAP JEROBOAM KANJI LAMBENT NEOPHYTE PLOSIVE THOUGHTFULLY CURATED WORDLIST Each puzzle is edited to make sure the words used are interesting and fair. Here's some of the considerations we've made when assembling puzzles. -- CONFUSING ALTERNATES When a word can be spelt more than one way only the more common spelling is retained or, if there is no favourite, sometimes all variations removed. Here are some of the edits made: BANISTER, BANNISTER: both removed. SPELLED, MISSPELLED, MISSPELT, and variations: all removed. But MISSPELL, MISSPELLING and DISPELLED left in. 'SPELT' is left in as it's also noun. CADDY, CADDIE: both removed. RACQUET removed, RACKET left in. LIQUIFY, LIQUEFY and all variations like LIQUIFIED and LIQUEFACTION removed LAMBASTE, LAMBAST, and their variations removed PARLEY and PARLAY both left in INQUIRE and ENQUIRE both left in FASCIA and FACIA, both kept SIPHON, SYPHON plus variants: removed CONVERTER, CONVERTOR: both kept CIPHER, CYPHER: both kept FOETID, FETID: both kept EON, AEON: both kept JUDGEMENT, JUDGMENT: both removed SLED, SLEDDING, BOBSLED, BOBSLEDDING: removed FORBEAR, FOREBEAR: both retained ADAPTOR, ADAPTER: both retained LOVABLE, LOVEABLE: both retained RACOON, RACCOON: both retained SOYA, SOY: both retained -- ACCENTED WORDS Words with accented letters have been curated according to the editor’s discretion. Here are some examples: ATTACHÉ removed CAFE retained CANAPÉ removed CRÊPE removed FACADE retained FETE retained FIANCÉ removed MACRAMÉ removed MATINEE retained MOIRE retained NAIVE retained -- WORD ENDINGS The dictionary has been pruned to use -ise rather than -ize word endings. At the time of writing, these are the only words ending in -ize that remain in the game's wordlist: BAIZE CAPSIZE DOWNSIZE MAIZE OVERSIZE PRIZE SEIZE SIZE -- AMERICAN WORD SELECTION All words in the game use UK spellings, with non-UK variations omitted. Here are some examples where the American words have very similar spellings; below only the UK versions are used CODEWORDS:UK: AESTHETE (UK) ESTHETE (US) ANALOGUE (UK) ANALOG (US) ARTEFACT (UK) ARTIFACT (US) CARAT (UK) KARAT (US) DISTIL (UK) DISTILL (US) FLAUTIST (UK) FLUTIST (US) Some words with an American etymology, and that are in common parlance in the UK, have been retained. Here’s a few examples that you might find used in puzzles: BALLPARK BASEBALL BELLHOP CANDY DIAPER ESCROW FELON JUNK RODEO ROOKIE

Screenshots

Dave's Word Game4 screens
Codewords4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Codewords at none against Dave's Word Game's 1. On price, update cadence, ads 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

Both are free to download. Dave's Word Game sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Codewords asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Dave's Word Game ships an update fortnightly, Codewords every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 4, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Dave's Word Game versus Codewords: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDave's Word GameCodewords
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (7 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews66.7% of reviews—
Number of ratings7 — better—
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.614.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size69 MB11 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBearwavesDANIEL JEREMY LEACH

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Dave's Word Game

One-time1
  • DWG Premium$4.99
None

Codewords

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Dave's Word Game free?
Dave's Word Game is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Codewords free?
Codewords is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Dave's Word Game or Codewords have ads?
Neither Dave's Word Game nor Codewords shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Dave's Word Game or Codewords?
Dave's Word Game ships an update fortnightly, and Codewords every 3 weeks. Most recently, Dave's Word Game was updated on November 4, 2026 and Codewords on October 28, 2026.

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