Chess Hotel vs Lichess
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Chess Hotel
Engage in live chess matches with players globally. Track your progress with a personal account, rating, and game statistics. Features include timed games, a chat function, and league play for competitive engagement.
- Live games with time controls
- Personal account with rating and statistics
- In-game chat function
- Fast opponent matching
- League games
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Play chess online against real players from all over the world. The app is powered by one of the worlds largest chess sites: chesshotel.com, so you will always have someone to play. If you already have an account at chesshotel.com you can log in with the same credentials and keep your rating. Features include the following: - Live games on time. - Time games that let you play live with your preferred time settings. - Your own account with a rating updated after each game and statistics of your games. - Chat function during games. - Fast matching function letting you play a random opponent. - Choose an opponent to play from the list of online players. - Chess Hotel league games. Terms of Use: https://www.chesshotel.com/termsofservice
Lichess
Play chess online with millions of users, participate in tournaments, solve puzzles, and analyze games. This free and open-source application offers a comprehensive chess experience for players of all levels, with features for learning and casual play.
- Real-time and correspondence chess
- Arena tournaments
- Chess puzzles
- Game analysis with Stockfish
- Interactive study feature
- Chess clock
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Lichess is a free/libre, open-source chess application powered by volunteers and donations. Today, Lichess users play more than five million games every day. Lichess is one of the most popular chess websites in the world while remaining 100% free. The following features are available right now: - play real time or correspondence chess - play arena tournaments - play against online bots - solve chess puzzles from a wide variety of themes, online or offline - race against the clock in Puzzle Storm - analyse your games with latest Stockfish locally or on the server - board editor - study chess with a collaborative and interactive study feature - learn board coordinates - play over the board with a friend - watch live chess broadcasts from all major chess tournaments - watch Lichess TV and online streamers - use a chess clock for your over the board games - many different board themes and piece sets - custom background themes - translated into 55 languages
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Chess Hotel at 5.0 against Lichess's 4.1. Chess Hotel also leads on iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.6). Lichess's advantage is review sentiment (52% vs 17%) and in-app purchases (none vs 2). On price 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. Chess Hotel sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Lichess asks for nothing beyond the download.
Chess Hotel holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Lichess has 662 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 17% of Chess Hotel's written reviews are positive against 52% of Lichess's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Chess Hotel ships an update every 4 months, Lichess fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 5, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Chess Hotel | Lichess |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | 4.1 (662 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 16.7% of reviews | 51.8% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 662 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | — | #44 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 28 MB | 86 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Foggy Media | LICHESS.ORG |
Customer experience
Chess Hotel
Lichess
Bugs and requests
Chess Hotel
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Lichess
Reported bugs
1 issue- Swipe-to-go-back gesture interferes with piece placement
Requested features
3 requests- Name of opening in opening explorer
- Ability to add and subtract additional things on the homepage
- Reset/replay button on puzzles
In-app purchases
Chess Hotel
- Premium$2.99
- Premium Membership - 1 Year$6.99
Lichess
No in-app purchases
