Lichess vs Chess.com: Which is Best
Online chess is fun. Addicting even. It can overtake your life. But, if you are new to chess, you may not know the best places to play. Even worse, you may start paying for services that are offered elsewhere completely for free! There are plenty of good reasons to pay for online chess, and there are lots of great places to play chess, but it's best to be informed about how you are spending your time and money on chess.
The Power Houses of Online Chess
In the world of online chess, there are two names that in 2026 have risen above the rest. Today, both Lichess.org and Chess.com, have a firm grasp on the online chess marketplace. At first glance, they may seem similar enough; chess.com has a slightly more child-friendly appearance, even including chesskid.com as an important part of its business, while the other has a slightly more sterile look. Lichess doesn’t mess around with funny cartoon bots of chess celebrities, and has a little more of a streamlined look. But, whats the main difference in these websites, and does it matter where you play?
The Differences
The truth of the matter is, you should play online chess wherever you please, but I want to give a little bit of context to those who may be new to the game. Lots of players learn about one website or the other, make an account, and start playing, never thinking again about where they play, just addicted to the game. That’s fine, except when they start asking for money. That is the biggest difference between Lichess and Chess.com: one is completely free, and the other ultimately will ask you to pay in order to have all of its features ad-free.
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Lichess vs Chess.com
If we compare Chess.com to Lichess, you can start by comparing what they offer for free. Ultimately, if you have a free chess.com account, you can use very few of their features. You can play online chess with ads on the side of the screen, but they will restrict your access to full game analysis (while pushing you to analyze games with premium features). They actively withhold features from their free users to drive them to a paid account. While this is a perfectly valid way to advertise a service, it can become frustrating for the user (Me, I'm the frustrated user).
The Lichess of it All
Almost every single feature that Chess.com offers to the serious chess player, is matched, for free, by Lichess. Now, that’s not to say there aren't features like chesskid, playing fun chess bots, and being told you are doing great by AI chess coaches, etc. However, I think that most players would be better off by examining and learning how to use Lichess and its features. Lichess still offers puzzles and even lets you raise your puzzle rating, it's just not quite as geared towards giving your brain as much dopamine. There is also a game analysis feature on Lichess that is free for all of your games, and it can tell you your accuracy score and show you where you blundered.
What Lichess Offers vs Chess.com
You would think that with Chess.com being the paid service, that they would have all of the features that a free website like Lichess offers, but no! One of my favorite features of Lichess is the robust “Study” feature. Lichess Studies are incredibly useful tools for players of all levels. A Lichess study allows you to combine multiple analysis boards and lines within one place, and make different chapters in that study. You can add your own games to a study as well! This is something that I recommend all players do, especially after an OTB tournament. Take your recorded games and input them into a Lichess study. Not only does this let you see the computer analysis, but more importantly it lets you add your own observations and notes into the study so you can track what you were thinking during the game.
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Analyzing Your Games
Most chess coaches, when asked about how to improve at chess, will eventually mention the importance of analyzing your own games! In order to get better at chess, you need to understand the shortcomings of your own chess games. Plus, if you have recorded your games into a Lichess study, you can easily share that study with friends or a chess coach in order to get more feedback and learn from your mistakes. Surprisingly, Chess.com doesn’t offer a similar feature, even at their highest tier.
Lichess vs Chess.com Puzzles
In my opinion, the one way that chess.com stands apart from Lichess is its recent updates to its puzzles. They recently added a gamified mode where you can level up your puzzle ranking and compete with your friends. I have seen this be a very effective way to hook players into completing more puzzles and tactics. Their app works great with the puzzles, and generally improves the experience. But, if you aren't paying for premium, they will cut you off after doing like five puzzles. Can't have you getting too good at tactics without paying them. This is made extra absurd by the fact that Lichess will let you do endless amounts of puzzles for free, always, just without the fun cartoon man encouraging you. It's cute, but it will cost you.
The Difference in Chess Ratings
One of the bigger differences that people may notice is the disparity in online chess ratings between the two websites. On Lichess, the ratings, especially for rapid chess, are sometimes higher than on chess.com, and certainly higher than OTB ratings. This inflation doesn’t affect too much, but it can be good to be aware of. Lichess also offers Classical ratings, which is good. A longer time control rating that is separate from rapid.
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You Don’t Have to Choose!
When it comes to Lichess vs Chess.com, you don't have to choose! Many people, including myself, have accounts on both websites and use them for different features. With a free chess.com account, you can still play games, do a few puzzles, play a few bots, etc. But when I want to play more games, analyze, and do endless amounts of puzzles, then I choose Lichess.
Low Barrier of Entry to Online Chess
One of the best parts of chess is that it has a low barrier of entry. It’s not like golf or tennis, where kids with more means naturally play because it costs more for equipment and playing. Chess doesn’t have to be like that! Lichess has made its platform free and open source so more people can play.
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This means anyone can make an account and play chess games in seconds, without ads. Lichess also has great learning tools for beginners. I often walk new players through how the pieces move by using their learn page. If you are able, you can still support Lichess through donations.
What Does “Best” Mean?
So, is Lichess “better” than chess.com? It depends! In many ways, Lichess vs chess.com is a question of whether you want to spend money. A paid premium chess.com account has tons of great features, especially for kids and new players. They also have a ton of great learning and training videos if you have a premium account. But that premium account is not cheap, and the price has even gone up in recent years. If you have the funds and you are comfortable supporting their company, then you will probably gain something from using chess.com, but if you want a completely free website that won’t sell your information, won’t push paid versions of their service down your throat, all while giving you an amazing way to play, learn, and analyze chess, then Lichess is for you.