Sudoku Solver Review

Use a Sudoku solver to solve your most difficult sudoku puzzle instantly! You have several Sudoku solvers from which to pick. I reviewed several Sudoku programs to help you decide which is best for you.

Sudoku Works

Sudoku Works is a Sudoku puzzle generator, game, and puzzle solver. I downloaded Sudoku Works for a free 7 day trial, to check out the latest version. I had the software generate a devious puzzle. I figured a very difficult puzzle would be a good test of a software solver’s ability to solve puzzles.

To solve the puzzle in Sudoku Works, all I had to do was click the “show solution ” button. After affirming that I did want to see the solution, the puzzle was solved instantly! The solved puzzle is displayed until you start a new game.

You can also enter a Sudoku puzzle from another source (newspaper, book, etc.) and have the software solve the entered puzzle.

Sudoku Dragon

I then entered the same devious puzzle into Sudoku Dragon, another popular Sudoku game and solver. To solve an entered puzzle all you need to do is:

  • Press F9 or Select “Hint” from the “Game” menu.
  • Select “Briefly show me the puzzle solution.” menu option.
  • Click the “Show Button”.

The solution for the puzzle will be displayed instantly, but briefly. Hardly enough time to do a screen print or examine the results. You can keep re-displaying the solution.

Simple Sudoku (My Favorite Sudoku Puzzle Solver)

I then entered the same devious puzzle into Simple Sudoku. To solve a puzzle using this program, you need to press F11 to solve the next step. This game doesn’t solve a puzzle instantly.

After solving only six cells, and removing candidates from six cells, the program was unable to solve any more steps. You get the “No hint available” message.

Conclusion

The best Sudoku puzzle solver of the ones I tested is Sudoku Works. Sudoku Works is very similar to Pappocom Sudoku game. That is, you can manually enter your pencil marks. Unlike, Pappocom Sudoku, you can also automatically generate and remove candidates. Sudoku Works is an excellent game and solver.

Sudoku Dragon will also solve your difficult puzzles. My only objection is it only shows the solution briefly.

Both Sudoku Works and Sudoku Dragon provide a free trial period before you buy.

Download both programs and see which one you like best.

Click to download Simple Sudoku here.

Online Sudoku Solver

I tried a few free online Sudoku solvers. The ones I tested performed very poorly compared to Sudoku Works or Sudoku Dragon. The online solvers were very slow in response. You could actually see the solvers use the trial and error/brute force method. Cells were filled in, and then cleared later when the entered number didn’t work.

Good Sudoku puzzle solvers can solve their puzzles using logic. They look for specific patterns in the puzzles, much like I teach you on this website. Save yourself some grief and time. Buy either Sudoku Works or Sudoku Dragon.