Backgammon apps for iPhone, compared
Checked 28 October 2026 (dice: 1 November) · US App Store prices
We make Backgammon Room, so we aren’t neutral. We’ve tried to be fair anyway: every fact about another app comes from its App Store page, its developer’s own website or code its developer has published, and each app is listed with what it does best.
Which one for you
- To play people online at any hour, with tournaments: Backgammon Galaxy.
- To understand your mistakes, explained in plain words: Backgammon Room.
- A one-off price, a computer opponent up to Expert, and Game Center play: Backgammon NJ.
- XG’s computer opponents and Tutor mode, for a one-off $9.99: XG Mobile.
- Quick games with coins and a casino feel: Lord of the Board or Backgammon Live.
Backgammon Room
Ours: backgammon to get better at, at your own pace. After each game, a review finds your mistakes and explains each one in a sentence or two, with your chances of winning before and after rather than engine numbers.
- Price: free to play. Premium is $6.99 a month or $39.99 a year, with a 7-day free trial, for unlimited coached reviews, every course and the puzzle archive.
- Free: unlimited games against the bots, the daily puzzle, Puzzle Rush and the first three courses of lessons. A free account adds all 15 bots (4 without one), one fully coached review a day with a summary of every other game, and online play.
- Online: rated Live matches to 1, 3 or 5 points, and challenges to friends.
- Ads and coins: none. No tracking in the app, and never real money.
- Dice: locked before the first roll and checkable after the last one. How the dice work.
- Devices: iPhone, iOS 26 or later. The bots also play offline.
- Keep in mind: it isn’t out yet, and it’s new, so there are fewer people online than in Galaxy.
Backgammon Galaxy
The largest place to play backgammon online, by its own count over 100,000 games a day, with rated play, leaderboards and daily tournaments. More about Backgammon Room and Galaxy.
- Price: free to play. Star membership is $7.99 a month, with a 7-day free trial, and Star Pro is a higher tier. Coins are also sold.
- After a game: every game is analysed, showing your move, the best move and what each choice cost. Star and Star Pro analyse more deeply; Star Pro adds what Galaxy calls grandmaster coaching.
- Learning: feedback on your moves against the computer, plus puzzles and interactive lessons added recently.
- Dice: Galaxy has published the code that rolls its dice, open source, so anyone can read how it works.
- Devices: iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android and the web.
- Keep in mind: some reviews mention prompts to upgrade or buy coins, and a busy home screen.
XG Mobile Backgammon
The phone version of eXtreme Gammon, from Open Roll: computer opponents from Beginner to World Class, hints, Tutor and Training modes, and positions you can set up and analyse.
- Price: free, with a $9.99 Premium version as an in-app purchase.
- Online: none. Two people can play on one device.
- Devices: iPhone and iPad.
- Keep in mind: last updated in September 2017, and some reviews since 2023 report it freezing at launch.
Backgammon NJ
A long-standing paid app by Jimmy Hu with a neural-network opponent up to an Expert level, hints, a Tutor mode, winning chances, the top 10 moves and advice on the doubling cube.
- Price: $4.99 on iPhone, plus optional in-app purchases (Power User $4.99, Analysis Package $2.99, Online VIP $2.99). Backgammon NJ HD, for iPad, iPhone and Mac, is $7.99.
- Online: through Game Center, in real time or turn by turn, with leaderboards.
- After a game: full match analysis is part of the paid extras.
- Keep in mind: last updated in October 2024.
Lord of the Board
Beach Bum’s casual online backgammon, one of the most rated backgammon apps on the App Store, built around coins and rewards.
- Price: free, with coin packs from $0.99 to $99.99 and a battle pass. The App Store notes simulated gambling.
- After a game: no analysis or coaching.
Backgammon Live
Come2Play’s online backgammon with coins and casino mini-games.
- Price: free, with coin packs from $1.99 to $19.99. Rated 18+ on the App Store for frequent simulated gambling.
- After a game: no analysis or coaching.
Simple free apps
Easybrain’s Backgammon and Optime’s Backgammon are among the most rated on the App Store: a quick game against the computer, free with ads (Easybrain sells Remove Ads for $14.99). Neither lists any analysis of your games.
About “rigged dice”
Reviews of nearly every backgammon app say the dice are rigged, and the developers say they aren’t. Most of the time it’s how luck feels: the rolls that hurt are the ones we remember. Galaxy has published the code that rolls its dice, so anyone can read how it works. In Backgammon Room you can also check the rolls of every game you play: fair dice you can check.