Mind The Frog Sudoku Alternatives: Hints, Leaderboards, Privacy

Sudoku by Mind The Frog is a small, fast sudoku app with undo and redo, automatic notes and six levels up to Diabolical, and it removes ads for a one-time $1.99. People who leave it usually want one of four things it does not list: hints, a leaderboard, recent updates, or a listing without tracking. Brainium Sudoku and Good Sudoku cover hints. Sudoku Royale covers hints, a daily leaderboard and no tracking label, with no ads and nothing to pay, but it has no undo and no automatic notes.

The app has been on the App Store since 2010 and has 38,659 US ratings, which is a long record of people liking it. Its listing reads like a promise to stay out of your way: no long intros or slow animations, big buttons, your own music playing in the background, up to ten grids in progress at once. That simplicity is the reason to keep it, and also the reason some players outgrow it.

The App Store facts

From each app's US App Store listing, checked October 26, 2026. Prices and paid items change, so check the listing before you buy.

Four reasons to look elsewhere, and who answers each

1. You want help when a puzzle stalls

Mind The Frog's listing has conflict and error highlighting, which tells you that something is wrong, but no hint that tells you what to look at next. On a Diabolical grid that difference decides whether you finish or give up.

Brainium Sudoku is the closest swap in feel: a long-running app with five levels and the same kind of quality-of-life options (auto-fill notes, auto-clear notes, auto-check errors), plus a hint its listing says teaches the logic behind each answer. It also offers landscape play with a left-handed option. Its ad removal costs $11.99, more than Mind The Frog's.

Good Sudoku, by Zach Gage, runs a solver while you play so its hint can point to the next technique you need, and its listing says the hardest puzzles call for Swordfish and Jellyfish. It is free to try and sells one item, Full Game Unlock $4.99.

Sudoku Royale (our app) takes a teaching line too. In Practice, a bulb lights up after about 90 seconds without progress and names the technique and the cell, never the digit, with a link to the lesson. If you would rather learn the patterns before you need them, the Journey covers one technique per chapter, up to X-Wing and XY-Wing.

2. You want to compare your solve with other people

Mind The Frog lists daily challenges and Game Center, but no leaderboard. Sudoku Royale's Daily Challenge gives everyone the same puzzle, keeps your streak, ranks you against friends and the world, and lets you replay past days back to January 2026. Good Sudoku has three daily modes that get harder through the week, with global leaderboards. Brainium lists global and friend leaderboards.

3. You want an app that is still being worked on

At the time we checked, Mind The Frog's most recent update was on June 20, 2025. That is not a problem in itself: a sudoku grid does not need monthly releases, and a stable app can be a good thing. It matters only if you are waiting for a feature, or if a future iOS version breaks something. The table above shows when each alternative last shipped an update.

4. You would rather not be tracked

Mind The Frog's App Privacy section includes the heading "Data Used to Track You", as Brainium's does. Paying to remove ads does not change what that label covers. Sudoku Royale and Good Sudoku list no tracking data. Sudoku Royale also needs no account: you start as a guest, and signing in is optional. For a fuller look at this, see the most private sudoku apps.

What you give up by leaving

Be clear about what Mind The Frog does well before you delete it, because some of it is rare:

• Undo and redo. Sudoku Royale has neither. It checks each number the moment you place it and rejects a wrong one, so a mistake never stays on the board, but you cannot step back through a line of reasoning.
• Automatic notes. Sudoku Royale's notes are manual (it clears them from the row, column and box when you place a number). If you never want to type a candidate, keep Mind The Frog, Brainium or Good Sudoku. Our sudoku apps with notes page compares note tools in detail.
• Ten grids at once. Mind The Frog keeps up to ten puzzles in progress. Sudoku Royale resumes the Practice puzzle you left, but it is not built around juggling several.
• Turning error highlighting off. Mind The Frog lists customizable display settings. Sudoku Royale always checks numbers; there is no switch.
• A tiny download. Mind The Frog is the smallest app in the facts table above, by a wide margin.

If it is variety you are after

Neither Mind The Frog nor Sudoku Royale has variants: both are classic 9x9. For killer sudoku, Easybrain's Killer Sudoku by Sudoku.com is the best known app; it shows ads and sells Killer Sudoku No Ads for $14.99. The guide to sudoku variants explains the other rule sets.

When to stay with Mind The Frog

If you already paid to remove the ads, you rely on undo, and you do not care about hints or leaderboards, there is little to gain by moving. It is a calm, light app with a loyal following. If hints, a shared daily puzzle or a listing without tracking matter more than undo, try Sudoku Royale. If you want hints and want to keep automatic notes, Brainium or Good Sudoku is the better landing spot. Every other matchup is on the sudoku app comparisons page, and the head-to-head is in Sudoku Royale vs Mind The Frog.