Chessreps vs Chesstempo in 2026: a course or your own lines?
We make Chessreps. This page says where each tool is the better pick.
Short answer
Pick Chessreps if you want an opening you can start learning today without building it first. There are 59 finished courses by 41 titled players, each checked against real Lichess games, and you learn them by playing the moves, for $34.99 a year on the web.
Pick Chesstempo if you already know your repertoire and want a free place to store it and drill it with spaced repetition, next to a tactics trainer with 455,792 problems.
By Ethan Netz, founder of Chessreps · Updated · Competitor facts checked
How do Chessreps and Chesstempo compare?
The biggest difference is where the moves come from. Chessreps hands you a course a titled player has finished, while Chesstempo gives you an empty trainer to fill with your own lines or with one of the e-books it sells.
| Chessreps |  Chesstempo | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the lines come from | ||
| Where the lines come from | 59 courses by 41 titled players and 800+ community courses. Every course gets a coverage score against real Lichess games. | Mostly you supply them, by PGN import or by entering moves. Opening e-books bought in its store load straight into the trainer. |
| How it drills you | ||
| How it drills you | You play every move yourself and the course answers. FSRS spaced repetition in Practice, plus Drill, Puzzles, Time Trials and a rated Arena. Wrong moves are explained. | Spaced repetition per move, limited to a branch, a repertoire or a colour if you like. |
| Build your own or import | ||
| Build your own or import | Course creator: paste or drop a PGN, or import a Lichess study. It lists the gaps you will face most. | Yes. PGN import, and PGN export with annotations. |
| Platforms | ||
| Platforms | Web, iPhone, iPad, Android | Web, iPhone, iPad, Android |
| Free option | ||
| Free option | No signup to start. The first line of every course is free. | Opening training is free. The explorer stops at 10 moves for free members. |
| Paid price | ||
| Paid price | $34.99/year on the web after a 7-day free trial. App store prices are higher because Apple and Google take a cut. | Silver, Gold and Diamond tiers. US App Store monthly: $2.99, $3.99 and $8.99. |
| App Store (US) | ||
| App Store (US) | 4.9 (2,400+ ratings) | 4.0 (113 ratings) |
| Google Play (US) | ||
| Google Play (US) | 4.9 (2,700+ reviews) | 4.2 (2.6K reviews) |
| Best for | ||
| Best for | Learning openings by playing them, from ready-made courses built around the moves real opponents play. | Players who know their repertoire and want a free, deep PGN tree with spaced repetition. |
A check marks the best value in each column.
What is Chesstempo, and how is Chessreps different?
Chesstempo is a large chess training site, known above all for tactics, with an opening trainer as one of its sections. Chessreps is an opening trainer first and last.
Chesstempo's home page counts 455,792 tactics problems, and around them sit endgame training, online play, a game database and Guess the Move. The opening trainer is a serious tool in its own right.
On Chessreps every screen is about the opening you're learning. You make a move, the course replies as an opponent would, and the author's note explains the position when it needs explaining. If you play a move the line doesn't include, Chessreps tells you what's wrong with it before you try again.
Where do the lines come from in each?
On Chessreps the lines come from titled players and are checked against what Lichess players actually reply. On Chesstempo you supply them yourself, by importing a PGN or playing the moves onto the board, or you buy one of its 7 opening e-books.
Each Chessreps course gets a coverage score from real Lichess games. Any reply your opponents choose often enough counts as a gap until the course answers it, and the authors close the gaps you'd meet most often first. The method is explained on the Chessreps vs Chessable page. 800+ community courses sit alongside the titled ones.
Building it yourself means deciding which replies to prepare, and the database you check shapes that choice. Chesstempo's game database holds over 5 million games and by default shows games between players rated over 2200, which is the right view for seeing what strong players choose. Your own opponents may choose differently. In rated Lichess games where the players average 1200-1399, Black answers 1.e4 with 1…e5 56% of the time and with the Sicilian, 1…c5, 10%. Where they average 2200-2399, the Sicilian leads at 35% and 1…e5 falls to 19%. A club player who opens 1.e4 needs far more on 1…e5 than games between strong players suggest. Every band is on our page of what players play at every rating.
How do you use the Chesstempo opening trainer?
You create a white or black repertoire, fill it by importing a PGN or playing the moves on the board, and then train it with spaced repetition.
Training can cover one branch, one repertoire or every repertoire of a colour, which helps when you want to work on a single variation before a game. You can export the whole repertoire as a PGN, annotations included. If you play on Chesstempo itself, each game is checked afterwards to show where it left your repertoire.
On Chessreps the setup step disappears. You open a course and play its first line straight away, without an account, and the author has already decided what to play against each reply.
How does each one schedule your reviews?
Chesstempo schedules each move on its own, and Chessreps schedules whole lines with FSRS that you replay from the first move.
On Chesstempo every correct answer pushes a move's next review further out by a growth factor, 2.0 by default, which you can raise or lower, and a wrong move comes back almost at once. Players who like to tune their own schedule get plenty to tune.
On Chessreps, Practice brings back the lines you haven't yet played cleanly, then the most overdue, and each review is a short game from move one, the way you'll reach the position on a real board. The same lines feed the other modes. Drill keeps a streak going across your learned lines, Time Trials races a clock, and Puzzles come from Lichess games where the opponent left your line and blundered. Arena plays your opening out against replies drawn from Lichess games near your Arena rating and scores the result with the engine. Each course keeps its own Arena rating, starting at 950. The modes are described in full on the Chessreps vs Chessable page, and Arena on the opening trainer guide.
Is Chess Tempo free, and what does Chessreps cost?
Chesstempo's opening trainer is free, and Chessreps costs $34.99 a year on the web after a 7-day free trial, with the first line of every course free to play without signing up.
A free Chesstempo account holds repertoires of up to 20,000 positions, and its opening explorer goes 10 moves deep. The paid tiers, Silver, Gold and Diamond, raise both limits, up to 60,000 positions on Diamond. In the US App Store they cost $2.99, $3.99 and $8.99 a month. On the web Chesstempo shows prices in your local currency, about €18 to €71 a year before VAT when we checked.
One Chessreps membership includes every titled course, so there's nothing else to buy. On Chesstempo, each of the opening e-books is a separate purchase.
Which is easier to use on a phone?
Both run on the web, iPhone, iPad and Android. Chessreps is rated 4.9 (2,400+ ratings) on the App Store and 4.9 (2,700+ reviews) on Google Play, and Chesstempo is rated 4.0 (113 ratings) and 4.2 (2.6K reviews).
Chessreps was built for short sessions on a phone. One account syncs your progress across every device, and courses work offline and catch up when you reconnect. Chesstempo's app carries a whole training site, with tactics, endgames and play alongside the opening trainer, so there's more on each screen to learn your way around.
Where is Chesstempo the better pick?
Pick Chesstempo if you want to drill a repertoire you already have, for free, and keep it all in your own hands.
Its opening trainer costs nothing, and a free account stores repertoires of up to 20,000 positions, which is room for a lot of theory. Your annotations go out with your PGN export, so the work stays yours. Games played on Chesstempo get checked against your repertoire. And if tactics are part of your training, its puzzle collection of 455,792 problems sits one tab away.
Which should you pick?
It comes down to whether you want to build a repertoire or start learning one.
A player with a repertoire already written out, perhaps from years of books and games, will find Chesstempo a capable free home for it. A player who wants a titled player to have made the choices, checked against what real opponents play, and wants to be playing the opening this week, will get further with Chessreps. The two also work together. Export your Chesstempo repertoire as a PGN and drop it into the Chessreps course creator to see which common replies it still doesn't answer.
How we compared
I've used Chessable, Chessly, Chessbook and Lichess myself. Every competitor fact on this page comes from that product's own website, help pages or store listing, read on November 3, 2026. Each source is listed below. Prices are in US dollars. Store ratings are from the US App Store and Google Play on the same day.
Prices and features change. If something here is wrong or out of date, email ethan@chessreps.com and I will fix it and update the date at the top.
Sources checked
- Chessreps
- Chesstempo
- apps.apple.com/us/app/chess-tempo-chess-tactics/id1441878094
- chesstempo.com/memberships/
- chesstempo.com/opening-training/
- chesstempo.com/manual/en/manual.pdf
- play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chesstempo.mobile&hl=en_US&gl=US
- chesstempo.com/game-database/
- chesstempo.com/chess-books/buy-chess-books/
- chesstempo.com/
Chessable, Chessly, Chessbook, Lichess and the other names and logos on this page belong to their owners. Chessreps isn't affiliated with them.
Frequently asked questions
Is Chess Tempo free?
Yes, Chesstempo's opening trainer is free, with repertoires of up to 20,000 positions and an opening explorer that stops at 10 moves for free members. Paid tiers raise those limits, and in the US App Store they cost $2.99, $3.99 and $8.99 a month.
Does Chesstempo have ready-made opening courses?
Chesstempo sells 7 opening e-books from Quality Chess in its store, one at a time, and each loads into the opening trainer when you buy it. Otherwise you enter or import your own lines. Chessreps includes 59 courses by titled players in one membership.
Chesstempo vs Chessable: which is better for openings?
Chesstempo suits players who already have a repertoire and want to drill it for free. Chessable suits players who want a grandmaster's book on one opening, bought one at a time, with an optional PRO membership at $74.99 a year. Chessreps sits between them: finished courses by titled players, every one included for $34.99 a year on the web.
Does Chessreps use spaced repetition like Chesstempo?
Yes, both use spaced repetition. Chesstempo schedules each move on its own and multiplies the gap after every correct answer by a growth factor you can change (2.0 by default). Chessreps schedules whole lines with FSRS and has you replay each one from the first move.
Can I move my Chesstempo repertoire to Chessreps?
Yes, export your repertoire from Chesstempo as a PGN, annotations included, and paste or drop it into the Chessreps course creator. The creator then lists the common replies your repertoire does not answer yet, most frequent first.
