Compare
Lichess vs Chess.com
Free and open, or paid and polished
Lichess is free, open source and donation funded, with nothing behind a paywall. Chess.com has the bigger player base, the better mobile app and a structured learning path, and it charges for the parts that matter most. Below: a side-by-side table, a rating converter, and the honest case for each.
The short answer
Choose Lichess if you want everything free and unlimited: puzzles, computer analysis, studies and tournaments, with no advertising and no membership. Choose Chess.com if you want the largest player pool, the more polished apps and a guided course to follow, and you accept that the free tier is limited and the paid tiers start at $4.17 a month billed yearly.
Which one to choose
Choose Lichess if
- You do not want to pay anything, ever
- You want unlimited puzzles and engine analysis
- Advertising annoys you
- You care that the software is open source
Choose Chess.com if
- You want the largest pool of opponents
- You want lessons in a fixed order
- You prefer the more polished mobile app
- You will pay for a membership to remove the limits
Side by side
The same criteria for both, plus Zapp Chess in the third column so that you can see where a short-game app sits against the two big servers.
| Criterion | Chess.com | Lichess | Zapp Chess |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free tier; plans from $4.17/mo billed yearly | Free; no paid tier exists | Free to install, every game free |
| Business model | Memberships, four tiers | Donations; no ads, no paywalls | Free app |
| Open source | No | Yes, the whole server | No |
| Typical game length | 3 to 30 minutes | 3 to 30 minutes | Under 3 minutes |
| Where a game starts | The opening | The opening | The middlegame |
| How you win | Checkmate, resignation or time | Checkmate, resignation or time | Checkmate or a 2-point material lead |
| Opening theory needed | Yes, from the first move | Yes, from the first move | None |
| Platforms | Web, Android, iPhone | Web, Android, iPhone | Android, iPhone |
✓Prices and features checked on 28 August 2026. Sources: Chess.com membership plans, About lichess.org, ChessGoals rating comparison, 2026 update.
Rating converter
This is the question people actually ask. The two sites do not share a rating scale, so the same player carries different numbers on each one. Enter a rating and get the rough equivalent.
Equivalent Lichess blitz rating
≈1555
Half of players land within roughly 70 to 115 points of that number. Built from the ChessGoals dataset of players with a rating deviation under 150.
The gap is not constant. At 1200 Chess.com blitz you are around 1555 Lichess blitz, a difference of 355 points. At 2500 the difference falls to about 90 points in blitz, while in bullet it reverses and Lichess reads higher. Neither number is more real than the other: each one describes the pool it was earned in.
Price and limits
Lichess has no paid tier to buy. The site states plainly that it does not sell advertising, does not sell user data and does not put features behind paywalls, and it runs on donations and volunteers.
Chess.com sells four membership tiers, starting at $4.17 a month when billed yearly and rising to $16.67 for the top tier. The free account works, but it caps the number of puzzles and game reviews you get each day, and it carries advertising. If those caps are what you use the site for, the free tier will feel small quickly.
Puzzles and analysis
This is the clearest split. On Lichess, puzzles are unlimited and engine analysis of your games is unlimited, for everybody. On Chess.com both are metered on the free tier. For a player whose improvement plan is puzzles every day, that single difference usually decides it.
Chess.com answers with structure. Its lessons run in a fixed order with a clear next step, and its game review writes a readable summary rather than a list of engine numbers. If you want to be told what to do next, that is worth money.
Players and pairing
Chess.com has the larger user base. In practice both are large enough that pairing is instant at any normal rating and time control, and Lichess reports more than five million games played every day. The pool size matters at the extremes: very high ratings and unusual time controls fill faster on Chess.com.
What each does better
Lichess does better: price, because everything is free; puzzles and analysis, because neither is capped; openness, because the whole server is open source and anyone can read or improve it; and cleanliness, because there is no advertising anywhere.
Chess.com does better: the size of the pool, the mobile apps, the lesson path for a new player, the events and the commentary, and the readable game review. If you are learning alone and want a course rather than a toolbox, it is the easier place to start.
A third option
Both servers assume you have twenty minutes and some opening knowledge. Zapp Chess assumes neither. Every game starts in the middlegame, so no theory applies, and a game ends on checkmate or a two-point material lead, so it takes under three minutes. It is not a replacement for a full server. It is what you play when you have the time for one game, not one hour. If you want the rules first, read the rules of chess or chess strategies for beginners.
Questions people ask
Is Lichess really free?
Yes. Lichess is a free and open-source server funded by donations and run by volunteers. There is no paid tier, no advertising and no paywall, and the source code is public.
Why is my Lichess rating higher than my Chess.com rating?
The two sites start players at different points and their pools are different, so the numbers are not on the same scale. A 1200 blitz rating on Chess.com is worth roughly 1555 blitz on Lichess. Neither number is wrong; they measure different populations.
Which site is better for beginners?
Chess.com if you want lessons and a guided path, because its learning content is more structured. Lichess if you want unlimited puzzles and analysis without paying, because nothing there is gated.
Which one has more players?
Chess.com has the larger player base. Lichess reports more than five million games a day, which is enough that you will never wait for a game on either site.
Does Chess.com limit free accounts?
Yes. A free Chess.com account has daily limits on puzzles and game analysis, and it shows advertising. The paid tiers start at $4.17 a month billed yearly and remove those limits.
Can I use both?
Yes, and many players do. There is no exclusivity, and your rating on one site has no effect on the other.
Prices, limits and features checked on 28 August 2026 against the Chess.com membership page and the Lichess about page. Rating conversions are built from the ChessGoals comparison dataset, which uses players with a rating deviation under 150.