Puzzle Sidekick vs Anagram Solver
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Puzzle Sidekick
This app provides a comprehensive suite of tools, reference materials, and links for puzzle enthusiasts. It includes various decoders, timers, and extensive lists of codes, ciphers, and common data for solving complex puzzles and games.
- Codebreaking tools (ROT-N, Vigenere, Substitution)
- Character encoding references (Morse, Semaphore, Braille)
- Word pattern matching dictionary
- Countdown timer prediction
- Color mixer and password generator
- Extensive reference lists (constants, periodic table, zodiac)
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Puzzle Sidekick is a set of tools, reference material, and links for anyone who plays The Game, solves puzzle hunts, plays Alternate Reality Games, participates in transmedia storytelling, or solves puzzle trails. The tools range from decoder-ring style codebreaking to countdown timer prediction. The reference material includes word frequency, morse code, semaphore, and more. *NOTE* This application is for iOS 7 only. If you are stuck on an earlier version of iOS, you can still use the “ARG Tools” app. Included in this package are: • Dictionary: ◦ Search for words matching patterns (e.g. all possible crossword answers) • Encoding/Decoding: ◦ ROT-N (from 1 to 26, including ROT-13) ◦ BASE64 ◦ Vigenere / Beaufort ◦ Transposition ◦ Substitution • Character Encodings ◦ Baudot Code ◦ Braille ◦ Fingerspelling ◦ Letters to numbers (1..26) and ASCII ◦ Nautical Flags ◦ Moon Alphabet ◦ Morse Code (two representations) ◦ Myst D'ni Glyphs ◦ Phonetic alphabet ◦ Pigpen Cipher (two representations) ◦ Roman Numerals ◦ Semaphore (two representations) • Tools and Reference ◦ Telephone digits to letters (2=ABC, 3=DEF, etc.), optionally constrained by dictionary words. 228 becomes ACT, BAT, and CAT ◦ A red/green/blue color mixer with hex and decimal values ◦ A list of common English words, letters, letter pairs ◦ Billiard ball colors ◦ Books of the Bible ◦ Countdown timer prediction ◦ Dart board scoring ◦ Dewey Decimal System ◦ ISO Country Codes ◦ Mathematical Constants, Prime Numbers ◦ Music Notes and their Frequencies ◦ Password Generator ◦ Periodic Table ◦ Planets ◦ Resistor Color Codes ◦ Ring Sizes ◦ Zodiac, Chinese Zodiac ◦ Quick access to Google, Wikipedia, Sudoku Step-Solving, Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences The design goals of this application include: • Easy to use in the field • Small enough to be downloadable over the air so you can quickly obtain it without WiFi access • Free-as-in-beer!
Anagram Solver
This powerful word finder assists with puzzles and games by quickly searching over 400,000 words and phrases. It supports crossword puzzles, multi-word anagrams, blank letters, and includes a built-in dictionary with definitions and synonyms.
- Fast search of 400,000+ words
- Crossword solver with wildcards
- Multi-word anagrams
- Blank letter support
- Powerful search filters
- Built-in dictionary with definitions
- Support for multiple languages
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Super fast search of over 400,000 words, people, places and phrases. FEATURES • Crossword Solver & Thesaurus • Multi-word anagrams • Blank letters for board games • Powerful filters to refine your results • Built-in dictionary, look up over 100,000 definitions ANAGRAMS Try moonstarer to find astronomer, also finds smaller words such as resonator and tearooms. CR.SSW.RDS Use . (or ?) to represent an unknown letter, try c....w... to find clockwork and crossword CROSSWORD PHRASES Search over 100K built-in phrases, try m.... ... ...... to find motte and bailey, miles per gallon and milky way galaxy WORDLE Green letters use the crossword search, eg ..e.t Grey letters, add them to the Excludes Letters filter Yellow letters, add them to the Contains Letters filter SPELLING BEE Spelling Bee puzzles are where you only use the letters provided but as many times as you like. Try $qntuaei to find: quinquina, aquanaut and queenie BLANK LETTERS Use + to represent blank letters, enter scrabb++ to find crabbers and scrabble. DEFINITIONS Press the info icon next to a word to view its definition, example usages and synonyms. You can click on the synonyms for further info and hear the word by pressing the speak button. Note, if no definition is found the app will search the web for a definition. THESAURUS Enter a word to look up related words, ideal for solving crossword clues CODEWORDS & CRYPTOGRAMS Try ?1221? to find bottom and hippie. Use the filters to exclude letters you already have found. WORD LISTS Español, Français, Português, Deutsch and Italiano word lists can be selected in the app's settings. Try out the Game Acceptable word list that only returns common words suitable for most games.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Puzzle Sidekick at none against Anagram Solver's 1. Puzzle Sidekick also leads on ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (100% vs 89%). Anagram Solver's advantage is update cadence (every 3 months vs every 20 months) and ratings volume (4.1K vs 116). On price, rating 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
Both are free to download. Anagram Solver sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Puzzle Sidekick asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Puzzle Sidekick against 4.8 for Anagram Solver. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Anagram Solver has 4.1K ratings behind it against 116, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 100% of Puzzle Sidekick's written reviews are positive against 89% of Anagram Solver's.
Puzzle Sidekick ships an update every 20 months, Anagram Solver every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 26, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Puzzle Sidekick | Anagram Solver |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (116 ratings) — better | 4.8 (4.1K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 88.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 116 | 4.1K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 20 months | Every 3 months — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 55 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Netninja.com | Mark Bailey |
Customer experience
Puzzle Sidekick
Anagram Solver
Bugs and requests
Puzzle Sidekick
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Anagram Solver
Reported bugs
2 issues- Crashes when using certain features
- Some valid words not recognized
Requested features
4 requests- Add copy/paste functionality
- Improve dictionary/thesaurus integration
- Introduce a dark mode option
- Allow sorting/grouping of results by word length
In-app purchases
Puzzle Sidekick
No in-app purchases
Anagram Solver
- Remove Adverts$4.99
Questions
Is Puzzle Sidekick free?
Is Anagram Solver free?
Which has better reviews, Puzzle Sidekick or Anagram Solver?
Do Puzzle Sidekick or Anagram Solver have ads?
Which is updated more often, Puzzle Sidekick or Anagram Solver?
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