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Solitaire without ads on iPhone: what "no ads" actually means

By Gleb Tkatchouk · last updated 2026-10-03

"No ads" is the most searched wish in solitaire and the least reliable label in the App Store. Plenty of apps say it in the title and show a video after every third game; others have no ads and instead sell what you do to advertisers elsewhere. This page is a checklist for telling the difference — you can run it on any app in five minutes — and an honest account of how Decks answers each point.

Decks: no ads, no account, works offline. Free to download; daily game limit without Premium. Anonymous usage statistics and crash reports only if you agree.

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The checklist

1. Read the privacy label, not the description. Every App Store page has an "App Privacy" section the developer is legally bound by. Look for "Data Used to Track You" and "Data Linked to You". An app with no ads and no tracking shows "Data Not Collected" or a short list of "Data Not Linked to You" — usually crash reports and usage data. An app that lists identifiers, location or purchase history under "Used to Track You" has an ad business, whatever the title says.

2. Turn on Airplane Mode and play. A solitaire that will not start or play without the network is a warning sign. A card game should work offline; a small settings download in the background is normal and should be disclosed.

3. Check whether it wants an account. Solitaire needs no login. An app that asks for one is building a profile.

4. Look at the size. A card game is a few dozen megabytes. Very large downloads can mean extra SDKs — each one is a library, and the biggest apps ship a dozen.

5. Find out how it makes money. Free with ads, free with a subscription, or paid up front — all three are legitimate. What is not legitimate is not saying. The honest ones say it on the store page and in the app before you hit the limit.

How Decks answers

Ads. None. There is no advertising SDK in the app, so there is nothing to show and nothing to disable. This is not a setting; it is the absence of the code.

Data. No ads and no advertising SDK. If you agree, the app sends anonymous usage events and crash reports (to Amplitude and Google Firebase); both are off until you say yes and can be switched off in Settings → Data. Every event is listed by name in the privacy policy. The app also asks Google Firebase Remote Config for its settings (details in the privacy policy).

Account. None. Your history, statistics and unfinished games live on the phone.

Offline. The games run on the device and work without a connection. When online, the app fetches its settings (for example the daily limits and which games are shown), and sends usage statistics and crash reports only if you agreed.

Money. Decks is free to download. Without Premium there is a daily limit on new games and on undos, and the top levels of some games need Premium; Premium removes the limits and opens every level. Prices are shown in the App Store. That is the whole model, and it is stated on the store page, in the app before you reach the limit, and in the terms.

What you get

Fourteen games (a four-axis chooser maps the solitaires by goal, information, layout, and round length): nine solitaires — Klondike (five sizes, including Double Klondike), Yukon, Spider with one, two or four suits, FreeCell, Pyramid, TriPeaks, Golf, Black Hole and Spanish Solitaire — and five puzzles: Memo, the Tower of Hanoi, its two-tower variant, Triples and Codebreak. Undo without penalty. Rules one tap away.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a solitaire app for iPhone with no ads at all? Yes. The test is the privacy label and Airplane Mode, not the title.

Does "no ads" mean free? No. An app can have no ads and still charge — by subscription or up front. What matters is that it says so.

Can I play solitaire offline on iPhone? With an app that keeps everything on the device, yes. Decks does.

Why do some free solitaire apps need so many permissions? Advertising libraries ask for them, not the game. A card game needs none.