Chess.com - Play and Learn vs SmallFish Chess for Stockfish

How do Chess.com - Play and Learn and SmallFish Chess for Stockfish compare on difficulty, ad pressure, in-app-purchase pressure and what real reviewers say? A side-by-side look, grounded in App Store data.

	Chess.com - Play and Learn	SmallFish Chess for Stockfish
Genre	Strategy	Strategy
Price	Free	Paid
Difficulty	variable	variable
Ad intensity	high	none
In-app-purchase pressure	high	none
Typical session	variable	variable
Rating	4.8 / 5	4.8 / 5
Ratings count	810,779	4,463
Reviews say	What players like Learn chess with built-in lessons and coach features Huge online player base for real-time matches Extensive puzzle library with 500k+ problems Common complaints Aggressive pop-up ads and forced ads between games Heavy paywall on puzzles and lessons per day App crashes during game analysis features	What players like No ads, no IAPs, no data tracking Stockfish 18 engine rated 3600+ Elo strength Multiple analysis tools and game review features Common complaints Unintuitive UI obscures core functionality Half-screen display bug after recent update No full-screen board mode easily accessible

Chess.com - Play and Learn — Master chess against millions online with puzzles, lessons, and real-time gameplay across all skill levels. (rated variable difficulty, high ad pressure) SmallFish Chess for Stockfish — A powerful, privacy-respecting chess engine app using Stockfish 18 for analysis, study, and improvement without ads or paywalls. (rated variable difficulty, none ad pressure)

Data: Apple App Store, as of 2026-08-24. Last updated 2026-08-24.