Backgammon Sage Pro vs Backgammon Mastermind
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Backgammon Sage Pro
This app acts as a personal backgammon coach, offering advanced analysis and play against a strong AI engine. It helps users improve by explaining strategies, tracking progress, and drilling weaknesses. Suitable for all skill levels, from beginners to advanced players.
- AI-powered backgammon engine
- Position analysis with AI justification
- Play against a world-class bot
- Game and match analysis
- Progress tracking and performance rating
- Targeted weakness drills
- Plain-English strategy explanations
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Backgammon Sage Pro is your personal backgammon coach, powered by the strongest backgammon engine on the market today. Play, analyze, and improve, calculating in the cloud so you get the strongest evaluations even when you're on the move. Whether you're learning your first prime or sharpening a tournament game, Sage shows you the best play, explains why, and tracks your progress over time. WHAT YOU CAN DO • Analyze a position: Quickly set up a checker play or cube action position and analyze it at your choice of strength, with AI justification of the best decision. • Play a world-class bot: unlimited and match games at adjustable strength, with live performance feedback and post-game analysis. • Analyze your games and matches: Every game you play, against Sage or friends, is recorded and analyzed. See where you went wrong and why. • Track your game: See Performance Rating (PR), error themes, and progress across multiple player profiles. • Drill your weaknesses: Quiz yourself on the exact positions where you went wrong, zeroing in on parts of the game where you need work. • Plain-English insight: Sage AI explains the ideas behind each position, with backgammon strategy and tactics instead of equities and probabilities. • Import your history: Bring in XG and online match files to build a complete database of your play. POWERED BY A WORLD-CLASS ENGINE Backgammon Sage Pro is powered by the open source backgammon engine, Open Sage. Open Sage is a modern standard for backgammon engines, demonstrated to outperform other commercial engines at similar evaluation strength. You can find more information on Open Sage at its github page: https://github.com/markbgsage/bgsage. FOR EVERY LEVEL New players get clear, expert guidance. Advanced players get the depth: expanded dice distribution, cloud rollouts, modern market window information for cube decisions, and the precision serious study demands. This is a strategy and analysis tool. No gambling is involved. SUBSCRIPTION Backgammon Sage Pro offers full access through a monthly or annual auto-renewing subscription. Pricing is shown in the app before you confirm. • Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. • Your subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. • Manage or cancel anytime in your App Store account settings. Terms of Use: https://sage.bgsage.ai/terms Privacy Policy: https://sage.bgsage.ai/privacy
Backgammon Mastermind
Master the classic board game with interactive lessons and AI opponents. Learn rules, practice moves, and play against friends offline. Enjoy a full backgammon experience without ads or accounts.
- Interactive lessons
- Heuristic AI opponent
- Local 2-player mode
- Drag and tap controls
- Legal move highlighting
- Offline play
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Backgammon Mastermind is a polished take on the classic strategy board game — with an interactive Learn to Play path that teaches real rules on a live board. New to backgammon? Work through five short guided lessons covering the board, movement, hitting, the bar, and bearing off. Pass a quick check, then play your first real game. Already know the game? Jump straight into a match against the computer or share the board with a friend in pass-and-play mode. Roll dice, move your checkers, hit blots, and bear off all fifteen to win. Features: • Learn to Play — interactive lessons on a real board • Play against the computer • Local 2-player pass-and-play • Drag or tap to move; legal destinations highlighted • Direction guide and beginner-friendly preferences • Available in 17 languages • No account and no ads — gameplay runs on your device One purchase. Play offline after download.
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Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Backgammon Sage Pro at Free against Backgammon Mastermind's $4.99. Backgammon Sage Pro also leads on ratings volume (10 vs 1) and update cadence (every 2 days vs every 6 days). Backgammon Mastermind's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.6). On ads, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement 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
Backgammon Sage Pro is free to download; Backgammon Mastermind costs $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Backgammon Mastermind holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Backgammon Sage Pro has 10 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Backgammon Sage Pro ships an update every 2 days, Backgammon Mastermind every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Backgammon Sage Pro | Backgammon Mastermind |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $4.99 |
| Rating | 4.6 (10 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 10 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days — better | Every 6 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Subscription | Paid — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 16.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 58 MB | 62 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Backgammon Gaming Technologies LLC | Zachary Ebenfeld |
Customer experience
Backgammon Sage Pro
Backgammon Mastermind
In-app purchases
Backgammon Sage Pro
No in-app purchases
Backgammon Mastermind
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Backgammon Sage Pro free?
Is Backgammon Mastermind free?
Which has better reviews, Backgammon Sage Pro or Backgammon Mastermind?
Do Backgammon Sage Pro or Backgammon Mastermind have ads?
Which is updated more often, Backgammon Sage Pro or Backgammon Mastermind?
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