Phantom Words vs Jarble
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Phantom Words
Unscramble letters by sliding rows and columns to form words. Discover hidden letters as you play, with increasing complexity and new mechanics introduced. Offers multiple game modes for varied challenges.
- Sliding row and column puzzles
- Hidden letter discovery
- Progressive difficulty
- Multiple game modes (Classic, Endless, Daily, Lightning)
- iCloud sync across devices
- Game Center leaderboards
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We made Phantom Words for anyone who loves that small, satisfying moment when a jumble of letters suddenly turns into a word. Each board begins scrambled, with most of the letters hidden behind ghost tiles. Slide rows and columns like a 2D Rubik’s Cube, then look for words running across or down the board. Whenever you make one using a tile for the first time, another letter appears. Once every tile is used, the puzzle is complete. Longer words are worth more, while tiles lose value each time you use them. Yellow means a tile is nearly spent; red means you’ve leaned on it too often. Later boards introduce gaps that split rows and columns, multi-letter tiles that keep their letters together, wildcards that can stand in for any letter, and locked tiles that stay fixed until you use them in a word. And if a solution feels messy, you can always come back and find a more elegant one. There are four ways to play: • Classic has 99 handmade levels with increasing difficulty and evolving mechanics. • Endless starts small and procedurally grows while you play. • Daily Challenge gives everyone a new board each day, plus a streak to keep going. • Lightning Mode is the same word hunting, but against the clock. Classic, Endless, and Daily Challenge aren’t timed, so there’s no rush. You get a full score breakdown after each level and can replay it whenever you want. Your progress and settings sync across your devices with iCloud. There are also Game Center leaderboards if you care about high scores. We hope you enjoy discovering the words we’ve hidden for you.
Jarble
Engage your mind with a unique word game where you swap letters to form new words of the same length. Choose from daily challenges, competitive timed matches, or a solo adventure with hundreds of levels.
- Swap up to 5 letters
- Maintain word length
- Daily mental challenges
- 60-second timed matches
- 300 solo levels
- Multiplayer via game code
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JARBLE-The letter swap word game. The name of the game is simple, change up to 5 letters in place to make a different valid word. The length never changes — substitution only. Three ways to play Daily, Quick Match and Solo. Daily-A daily mental spark that gives you something new every day. Share your results with friends or coworkers. Quick Match-For the competitive player-A word appears; you have 60 seconds to think of a new word and swap the letters. Fewest swaps wins the round, but if any players land on the same word they cancel out and neither scores. 10 rounds, most round wins takes the game. Solo-For the more casual player. 300 levels that increase in difficulty the further you go along. Play on your pace! Play Quick Match with friends as well. Share the game code and start a match!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Jarble at Free against Phantom Words's $2.99. Jarble also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 3). Phantom Words's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 5 days vs every 6 weeks). On rating, 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
Jarble is free to download; Phantom Words costs $2.99 up front. Phantom Words sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Jarble asks for nothing beyond the download.
Phantom Words holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Phantom Words has 23 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 93% of Phantom Words's written reviews are positive against 67% of Jarble's.
Phantom Words ships an update every 5 days, Jarble every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Phantom Words | Jarble |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.7 (23 ratings) — better | 4.5 (4 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 93.3% of reviews — better | 66.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 23 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days — better | Every 6 weeks |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free — better | Ad-supported |
| Best chart rank | #37 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.6 | 16.4 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 131 MB | 42 MB |
| Age rating | +4 | 12+ |
| Developer | Fleon Labs | F Originations LLC |
Customer experience
Phantom Words
Jarble
In-app purchases
Phantom Words
- Kind Supporter$2.49
- Generous Supporter$4.99
- Huge Supporter$9.99
Jarble
No in-app purchases






