Orion Backgammon vs Backgammon Online with Friends
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Orion Backgammon
Experience live backgammon with real players worldwide. Compete in weekend tournaments, climb ranked leagues, and collect unique game boards. Play with friends and join clubs in this fair and friendly digital adaptation of the classic game.
- Live online matches with real players
- Weekend Masters tournaments
- Ranked leagues with seasons and rewards
- Collectible handcrafted boards and dice
- Club creation and friend challenges
- Provably fair dice rolls
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Orion Backgammon is live backgammon with real players: a Masters tournament every weekend, leagues to climb and legendary boards to collect. Call it backgammon, tavla, nard or shesh besh: this is your table. WEEKEND MASTERS Every Friday to Sunday, enter the Masters, climb the live standings and win your share of a guaranteed gem prize pool. Champions are crowned with a ceremony. PLAY LIVE Real opponents in real time, match play, the doubling cube, and dice you can verify: every roll is provably fair. CLIMB THE LEAGUES Win ranked matches, earn trophies and rise league by league through a season with its own pass and rewards. TRAVEL ICONIC TABLES From a cafe on the Bosphorus to Monte Carlo: play on handcrafted boards, dice and checkers, and collect legendary sets. CLUBS AND FRIENDS Found a club, chat, challenge your friends and earn rewards for inviting them. FAIR AND FRIENDLY Gold and gems are virtual items only: no real-money betting, no cash prizes. Available in 44 languages. Download free and take your seat.
Backgammon Online with Friends
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Backgammon against a real person — and you can hear them. At a table joined by an invite code you see their face too. The dice are fair: the game seed is on the table and every roll can be recomputed. No coins, no banners, no sign-up. VOICE AND FACE AT THE TABLE At an online table you can talk. The microphone is asked for once, when you sit down; say no and nothing else changes — the game simply goes on in silence. Video is switched on with a button and only at a table joined by an invite code, that is, between people who know each other; the camera is off by default. You can mute your opponent, report them, and never be matched with them again. GLASS DICE Every roll is computed from the game seed (HMAC-SHA256). The seed is shown on the table; “Verify” recomputes every die. Face, doubles and luck statistics for you and your opponent. No rigged dice, ever. BACKGAMMON AND THREE MORE RULE SETS • Backgammon: hitting, the bar, the doubling cube, the Crawford rule, gammon and backgammon. • Long nardy: the head, the 6-6/4-4/3-3 first-move exception, the six-block rule, mars and koks. • Tavla and Shesh Besh presets. Matches to 3, 5 and 7 points. A CHAMPION-LEVEL COACH Hints show the best play; the post-game review shows where points were lost. In backgammon the evaluation comes from a neural net stronger than GNU Backgammon, on your phone, offline. HONEST OPPONENTS Six bot characters from novice to master, always labelled. No fake “humans”. Two players on one phone. ONLINE WITH LIVE PLAYERS Find an opponent by rating or play a friend with a table code. Online dice come from the arbiter: the seed hash is shown to both before the first roll, and after the match the seed is revealed so every roll can be recomputed. Elo rating and a top-100 table — only for matches against real people. NO COINS, NO BANNERS Nothing you can buy makes you stronger. The Store screen holds Pro, three boards sold separately, and tips. Pro unlocks board themes, unlimited hints and the full luck history. Tips (“Support the yard”) unlock nothing — they are just a thank-you. The whole game is free. No banners and no ads mid-game — just a short video between games, and Pro or any purchased board turns it off. Any board can be tried on for a day for one video. ONE HAND Portrait board, tap a checker and tap a point, two-dice jumps in one tap, auto-move when there is no choice. Works offline. No sign-up. Interface in 19 languages.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Orion Backgammon at none against Backgammon Online with Friends's shown. Orion Backgammon also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 11 days). On price, 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
Both are free to download. Orion Backgammon sells 7 one-off in-app purchases and Backgammon Online with Friends sells 7 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Orion Backgammon ships an update every 2 days, Backgammon Online with Friends every 11 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Orion Backgammon | Backgammon Online with Friends |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days — better | Every 11 days |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 228 MB | 53 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | ARTHEA LLC | NTSAUTOSIGA LLC |
In-app purchases
Orion Backgammon
- 80 Gems$0.99
- 500 Gems$4.99
- 1,200 Gems$9.99
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- Season Pass$9.99
- 2,600 Gems$19.99
- 3,600 Gems$49.99
- 8,000 Gems$99.99
Backgammon Online with Friends
- Tea for Gocha$0.99
- Night board$1.99
- Tbilisi board$1.99
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- Istanbul board$1.99
- Dinner for the yard$4.99
- Narde Pro$5.99
- A new board for the yard$9.99
Questions
Is Orion Backgammon free?
Is Backgammon Online with Friends free?
Do Orion Backgammon or Backgammon Online with Friends have ads?
Which is updated more often, Orion Backgammon or Backgammon Online with Friends?
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