Crosswords vs Rows Garden
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Crosswords
Engage with daily crossword puzzles from various newspapers, offering hints, clue lookups, and progress tracking. Upgrade for automatic puzzle delivery, access to extensive archives, and a wider selection of premium puzzle sources.
- Daily newspaper crossword puzzles
- Hints and clue lookups
- Progress tracking
- US and UK cryptic puzzles
- Automatic puzzle downloads
- Access to extensive puzzle archives
- Comparison with other solvers
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"… the definitive source for puzzles for iOS…" -- the New York Times Play the Award Winning Crosswords on your iPad or iPhone, optimized for iOS 12! Each day many newspapers provide their crossword puzzles online; wake up each day to new puzzles, solve them, get hints, view clues, and track how quickly you're improving! • Touch and hold a square to view hints • US and UK Cryptic puzzles available • Hints, Websites, and Clue lookups • Enter answers in 'ink' or 'pencil' • Quickly see your recently played, or sort by date, difficulty or source • Detailed info on each puzzle • Post your solve times online and compare with other solvers After upgrading, you can also: • Automatically get new puzzles every day • Access nearly unlimited puzzles from many different sources • Grab older puzzles with a tap • Download new puzzles automatically in the background Upgraded Puzzle Sources: • Brendan Emmett Quigley's Weekly Puzzle • Inkwell Crossword (Archives only) • Village Voice (Archives only) • Chronicle of Higher Education (Archives only) • King Features Crosswords (Joseph, Sheffer, and Premier) • People Magazine (Archives only) • Newsday (Archives only) • Andy Kravis, Cruciverbist at Law • Glutton for Pun • MacNamara’s Band • Murchie’s Monday Fills • Neville Fogarty • Puzzle Express • The Stickler Weekly • World of Crosswords Premium Crosswords subscription required: • Matt Gaffney’s Crossword Contest • American Values Crossword • Crooked Crosswords Providers list subject to change. •• For support, please visit our website at http://www.standalone.com •• Privacy Policy: https://www.standalone.com/legal/ EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Rows Garden
This app offers a unique crossword puzzle variant with interlocking row and bloom clues. Solve puzzles with adjustable difficulty levels, suitable for both beginners and experienced players. It includes pre-made puzzles and links to external constructors.
- Unique row and bloom clue system
- Fully-packed triangular grid
- Adjustable difficulty levels
- Includes pre-made puzzles
- Links to puzzle constructors
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Rows Garden is a crossword puzzle variant invented by Patrick Berry. Instead of the across and down clues and black and white squares of a traditional crossword grid, a Rows Garden puzzle consists of interlocking row and bloom clues whose answers are filled into a fully-packed grid of triangular spaces. Each row consists of one or more clues, with answers entered across the rows of the garden from left to right. Bloom clues are grouped by shade -- light, medium, and dark -- and have six-letter answers that are each entered in a hexagonal bloom within the garden, with the starting point and direction left for you to determine. You can adjust the difficulty level of the solving experience within the app, providing a suitable challenge for both beginning and experienced solvers. The app comes with 30 full-sized puzzles and 135 smaller "Rosebuds" (perfect for solving on iPhone) created by leading Rows Garden constructors to whet your appetite, and includes links to their Web sites for downloading and subscribing to puzzles that you can import into the app. If you like crossword puzzles and are looking for a new challenge, or are seeking an interesting twist on the familiar crossword format, give Rows Garden a try!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Rows Garden at 88% against Crosswords's 28%. Rows Garden also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 14) and rating (4.7 vs 4.4). Crosswords's advantage is price (Free vs $3.99) and ratings volume (574 vs 16). On ads 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
Crosswords is free to download; Rows Garden costs $3.99 up front. Crosswords sells 14 one-off in-app purchases. Rows Garden asks for nothing beyond the download.
Rows Garden holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Crosswords has 574 ratings behind it against 16, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 28% of Crosswords's written reviews are positive against 88% of Rows Garden's.
Crosswords ships an update every 3 weeks, Rows Garden every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Crosswords | Rows Garden |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $3.99 |
| Rating | 4.4 (574 ratings) | 4.7 (16 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 27.7% of reviews | 87.5% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 574 — better | 16 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | — | #158 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 34 MB | 23 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Stand Alone, Inc. | Robert Bosch |
Customer experience
Crosswords
Rows Garden
Bugs and requests
Crosswords
Reported bugs
3 issues- Puzzle grid freezing or displaying blank
- Inconsistent behavior when switching between apps
- Inability to access or download certain puzzle sources
Requested features
4 requests- Dark mode option
- Ability to delete puzzles
- Comprehensive error checking and feedback
- Customizable keyboard and gestures
Rows Garden
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Crosswords
- Lionel's crosswords, Vol. 1$0.99
- Ink Well Xwords, Vol. 1$1.99
- Dell Crosswords$1.99
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- Edited by Ben Tausig, Vol. 1$1.99
- Ridonkulous Crosswords$1.99
- Liz Gorski's Crossword Nation: Vol. 1, No. 1-20$1.99
- Dell Medium Crosswords$1.99
- Brendan Emmett Quigley's Faves #1$2.99
- Jonesin' Crosswords$2.99
- Edited By Tausig 2$2.99
- Brendan Emmett Quigley Freestyle$2.99
- Crosswords Pro (Upgrade)$3.99
- Crossword Nation's Centennial Edition$7.99
- Crosswords Pro$9.99
Rows Garden
No in-app purchases









