Baba Is You vs Words With Friends
Which is better in 2026? Five scores, side by side.
Baba Is You is the better app overall, scoring 9.0 to 7.5. Baba Is You wins on 5 of the 5 scores, Words With Friends on 0.
Puzzle fans who love the moment a hard problem suddenly clicks
Friends and families who want a slow, chatty word rivalry on their phones
Score by score
The details
| Feature | Baba Is You | Words With Friends |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Puzzle & Word Games | Puzzle & Word Games |
| Category rank | #1 of 12 | #10 of 12 |
| Developer | Hempuli | Zynga |
| Pricing | Paid | Free + paid plans |
| Usable for free | No | Yes |
| iPhone & iPad | ✓ | ✓ |
| Android | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mac | ✓ | — |
| Windows | ✓ | — |
| Linux | ✓ | — |
Common questions
Is Baba Is You better than Words With Friends?
Baba Is You is the better app overall, scoring 9.0 to 7.5. Baba Is You wins on 5 of the 5 scores, Words With Friends on 0.
Which is cheaper, Baba Is You or Words With Friends?
Baba Is You: $6.99 on the App Store and Google Play, with no in-app purchases. Words With Friends: Free with ads; coins from $0.99 and a $9.99 Ad Free Bundle in the App Store. On value for money, Baba Is You scores higher.
Do Baba Is You and Words With Friends work on the same devices?
Only Baba Is You runs on Windows, Mac, Linux.
Which is more private, Baba Is You or Words With Friends?
Baba Is You scores higher on privacy (9.8/10). App Store label: Data Not Collected. The developer says the app collects no data at all, so nothing is used to track you or linked to your identity.
Strengths and weaknesses
Baba Is You
- A fresh idea that keeps surprising you level after level
- One price, with no ads and no in-app purchases
- Collects no data at all, per its App Store label
- Hard puzzles can leave you stuck for a long time
- Simple pixel art won't wow you
Baba Is You is the puzzle game that rewires how you think. Each level's rules sit on the board as word blocks you can push around, so a few shoves can turn you into a rock, make grass dangerously hot or move the goal somewhere else entirely. The best solutions feel like cheats you found yourself. It's tough and the pixel art is plain, but few games make you feel this clever.
Full Baba Is You review
Words With Friends
- Easy to keep long-running games going with friends
- Solo modes for when nobody has taken a turn
- The dictionary just grew by more than 25,000 words
- Ads between moves unless you pay to remove them
- Purchases include paid random items
- Heavy tracking on the App Store privacy label
Words With Friends is still the easiest way to keep a word rivalry going with people you know. You take turns on a crossword-style board at your own pace, Smart Match finds opponents when friends go quiet, and Solo Challenge pits you against WordMasters. An October 2026 update added more than 25,000 playable words and a way to report bad ones. The catch is clutter: ads between moves, paid random items and heavy tracking.
Full Words With Friends review
