Lichess Vs Chess.com
This is an extremely heated debate in the chess community. Let's get this over with, this is the conclusion to the best chess website. I will logically look at both websites and attempt to explain why lichess is my personal preference.
Lichess - Everything is completely free
Lichess is completely, 100% free. You can play with computers, friends, strangers, solve puzzles, play mini games i.e puzzle streak, storm, etc. all for free. You do not need to pay a single penny to get the full experience that Lichess can offer. There are only 3 micro transactions and here they are : -
1. Merchandise Store
This store sells chess related merchandise such as clothes or caps of the Lichess brand. They aren't related to chess or your experience on the website. You can choose to ignore this store and enjoy Lichess to its full worth. There are NO irritating pop-ups, and the occasional survey is incredibly rare, and you could still skip it.
2. Coaches
To hire coaches you will need to pay. However, you only get the coach through Lichess but the actual feature isn't related to Lichess, rather, the coach then well, 'coaches' you. Again, from your point of view, this is the same as hiring a coach on any other platform, and Lichess not being a coaching platform doesn't grant any other benefits for this payment.
3. Patrons
You can get a patron account by donating an amount of your choice to Lichess and it is optional. This doesn't grant you any other benefits than a cool 'Wing' logo and will not impact your overall experience on Lichess.
Meanwhile, Chess.com is filled with micro transactions, memberships, etc. and to fully enjoy it you need to get a premium subscription, which has several tiers. In terms of affordability, Lichess wins.
Lichess- Better Customisation
When it comes to modding a chess website, Lichess is open source and there are dozens of extensions you can download to enhance your experience, which is unheard of on chess.com. While both have options to customise chessboard and pieces, Lichess offers more freedom, allowing you to add extensions to completely alter the feel of the website. Viewing a source code is another feature. If your are into programming or technical stuff, Lichess is your pick.
Lichess- Runs smoother and better UI
This is subjective, but to me the Lichess UI is way more beginner friendly and intuitive and everything is simple and easy to understand, while the chess.com UI is more complex.
However, there's no denying that Lichess runs smoother. With a low ping and average network, you can easily run Lichess while chess.com can occasionally lag. Performance wise Lichess users have a much easier time.
Lichess- Less toxic community/Trolls
Lichess' community is much less toxic and immature compared to chess.com. There are less trolls and overall less toxic streamers or creators (mostly). While conversations in forums can get more heated, this is only because Lichess has an off topic discussion and allows topics unrelated to chess, while sensitive topics are immediately shut down on chess.com. Lichess also offers more freedom, letting you speak freely about the competition, which Chess.com doesn't.
Lichess also has no ads.
Chess.com- Bigger player base and stronger pool, more players
There's no denying that chess.com has a bigger player base and is the most popular chess website. The players are stronger and you will get tougher competition. If you are looking to sharpen your chess skills by going up against strong online players then chess.com is the way to go.
It is also the preferred choice of most GM's and famous creators due to sponsorships offered to them by chess.com.
Chess.com- Interesting better quality articles
On Lichess, articles go as far as blogs made by popular users or Lichess creators. Chess.com have more interesting, better quality articles that are instructive and helpful. In terms of creation, chess.com's YouTube channel is also way bigger than Lichess'.
Conclusion
Ultimately, there's no 'better' website, and that's the brutal truth. Choose what you want, or play both. Or maybe use chess.com to play bughouse and read the cool articles and Lichess to play games and do puzzles. Yea, bughouse is a huge pro in chess.com's favour. Bye, imma go watch someone turning bugs into tea- oops! I meant coffee into bugs.
