Last updated on November 29th, 2025 at 11:16 am
Laddergrams – Word Game Review
Laddergrams is a Word/Puzzle game from John Blackburn, first launched in 20th December 2016.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 110+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Laddergrams Stand Out
Laddergrams is the classic and beloved word game enjoyed by magazine puzzlers for years—-and now it's on iOS for the first time!
Laddergrams are like crossword puzzles with numbered clues you solve by writing the answer into the proper spot in the puzzle.
Unlike crossword puzzles, though, Laddergrams are arranged into rows of three answers. And there's a twist: answers are formed by dropping a letter from their left neighbors, like TABLE > BEAT > ATE.
Enjoy tons of puzzles beautifully presented in stunning audio and animation, with unlimited hints and help tips.
Kind words:
“Comfort Food for Gray Matter!
These games are a flashback to nearly 60 years ago, sitting at my mother's knee as she helped me figure out the Laddergrams in Dell magazines. These are just as clever – the puns are great and bring a giggle when solved. Have tried to limit myself to one or two games a day so that they'll last longer but they're just too fun. Instead I've gone back and erased the answers so that I can play them again.
Also want to mention the superb customer service provided. I had occasion to email with a concern and received a response almost immediately (from a human being; not a form letter!) And the follow-up emails were timely and appreciated. Thank you, John. This is chicken soup for my aging brain.”
"Perfect! Addictive!—This game is a treat. Get it. You won't be able to put it down. Great way to dig up those old synonyms! For the lovers of words and puzzles!"
"Addictive—I am really enjoying the puzzles. I liked the free puzzles, and purchased books 1,2,3, and 4…This is a very fun puzzle."
"I am new to Laddergrams. If you like a challenge as much as I do, you will love Laddergrams. It is everything a game should be hard, fun, and a puzzle with a twist! Get your friends playing and challenge each other this game is such a blast!"
This Word game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Laddergrams is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 22nd May 2019
Recent improvements include:
The feedback submission form now works on newer models.
Download & Availability
Laddergrams is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Agree with other reviewers, it would be great to have a bulk buy price, like with cryptograms. You can buy several packages at once for a few dollars off.
Our Family and we love this game! Please update it with more puzzles.
Im enjoying playing this great app. Im unsure if Id buy those packs because of high costs. Itd be great thered be discount price for buying five packs including future packs Id like to see free daily puzzles as we may play everyday.
Great way to make a plane trip go by quickly.
$12 for 150 puzzles! Give us a break.
Please provide a means to reset an entire Book of puzzles at once rather than having to reset each individual puzzle within a Book.
Amazing app but hoping for an update for yall phones with notches and better keyboard.
Like the app a lot, but it wont allow you to purchase the puzzle packs. Kind of renders it useless. Hope they fix the proble.
We like the concept of this game and enjoy playing it when it works, but its extremely glitchy and the titles dont show up correctly on our phone. So many puzzles we just cant finish because if we leave them and come back our answers are deleted or messed up. We paid an extra couple dollars for an expansion pack and we cant even finish it. Very irritating. If they fixed it we would love to keep playing.
We love this game but we purchased the first pack and never received the puzzle pack! We tried deleting and restoring purchase but nothing. We tried emailing through app and cant. Very disappointed! Want our money back or the puzzles we purchased.
We really enjoyed the sample levels. However a few issues. One problem is that we cannot see the top of the screen. We are on an iPhone XR and the header of the puzzle is cut off. We could deal with this, but we cannot actually buy any new packs. Every time it says it cannot connect to internet. Ive deleted and redownloaded but to no avail. Im disappointed because we really like the premise of this app and we cannot find anything similar on the App Store :( Please help us, we really want to do the puzzles. We would love to rate this app five stars but we want to get the developers attention. Im very sad.
We really enjoy the App. However, Im running out of books to purchase. We hope more come along soon. :-).
We have purchased several packets. Usually two or three of the puzzles do not work. The last batch had six bad puzzles . We dont think we are going to buy another package.
These puzzles are well done – fun, clever, challenging.
We love this original game, and the developers are awesome. We asked for more games for one of their other apps and they said theyre working on it. We like their clues. Some are hard so we ping pong around the puzzles. Glad they are saved. Like the side two word puzzle too. Figuring that out is helpful. Also, our fav about their apps is that the hint button is on the keyboard so you dont have to go through menus to get a hint. Just gotta use some self-control. Re: someones complaint of only having a few demo puzzles… We have to say that we rarely buy in-app puzzles. Five was enough to get us…. We agree that 10 would probably make people happier. And a whole pack would be awesome. But we wonder how many people would buy more? Hmm. Packs are kinda expensive but give us a lot of game play. Plus we never remember all of the prev puzzles and can replay after awhile. Just saying.
Theres no way we would pay so much ($12!) for every single puzzle. Not when an entire hours or weeks -long game could be bought at that price.
We love Laddergrams and so we downloaded this without bothering to look at reviews. This apps downfall? This isn't one of those games where they give you, like, 20 free puzzles. They give you 5. FIVE. Not even 10! F. We. V. E. Now we're not an unreasonable person. We believe devs should be paid for the work they put into making apps, but really? We'd rather have paid for all the puzzles once for, like, $2-3, which we mean we can do per puzzle pack within the app in its current iteration, but this stinginess turned us off SO much. What is the point of even giving any free puzzles at all if you're just going to give 5? Most games that allow you to purchase additional content give you at least one pack that has as much content as one paid pack. Eg: Episodic games will give you at least 1 free episode, A game that sells 25 puzzles per pack will give you at least 25 free puzzles It's borderline deceptive to list this as a free puzzle if only, like, 3% of total game content is actually free. That's super misleading. If you're going to keep this apps idiotic payment model, then you should CLEARLY label this game as a demo, or "lite.".
These games are a flashback to nearly 60 years ago, sitting at our mother's knee as she helped us figure out the Laddergrams in Dell magazines. These are just as clever – the puns are great and bring a giggle when solved. Have tried to limit ourselves to one or two games a day so that they'll last longer but they're just too fun. Instead we've gone back and erased the answers so that we can play them again. Also want to mention the superb customer service provided. We had occasion to email with a concern and received a response almost immediately (from a human being; not a form letter!) And the follow-up emails were timely and appreciated. Thank you, John. This is chicken soup for our aging brain.
This game is a treat. Get it. You won't be able to put it down. Great way to dig up those old synonyms! For the lovers of words and puzzles.
We are really enjoying the puzzles. We liked the free puzzles, and purchased books 1,2,3, and 4. However, book 3 Halloween is the same as book 1. Please fix this. Changing review to 5 stars due to prompt response from the developer on the book 3 problem. This is a very fun puzzle.
We are new to Laddergrams. If you like a challenge as much as we do, you will love Laddergrams. It is everything a game should be hard, fun, and a puzzle with a twist! Get your friends playing and challenge each other this game is such a blast.
We played the free levels. They are fun. If you get a word right, it will automatically advance to the next word.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.1.5
- Size: 8.68 MB
- iOS: 9.3 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: [John Blackburn]()
Last updated: 22nd May 2019 | Genre: Word, Puzzle | Developer: John Blackburn