Best Lichess Insights Alternatives in 2026
Lichess Insights is free, fast, and good. It's also Lichess-only, visualisation-heavy without coaching depth, and limited to the questions its built-in views can answer. Here are the 6 best alternatives if you've hit those limits.
Founder, Improve my Chess · · 10 min read
Why look for an alternative to Lichess Insights
Lichess Insights is genuinely great for what it is: a free, fast, visualisation-first view of your Lichess game data. Most casual players never need anything more. People typically start looking for alternatives when one of three things happens.
You play on chess.com too. Lichess Insights only sees your Lichess games. If half your rated games are on chess.com, your insights are missing half the data. Aimchess and Chess Insights from chess.com cover this gap.
You want explanations, not just charts. Insights shows you that you lose more games as Black against the King's Indian Attack. It doesn't explain why or what to do about it. Coaching tools (Improve my Chess, DecodeChess) translate the patterns into actionable advice.
You want the insights to become drills. Knowing you blunder on move 14 of the Sicilian is useful. Getting auto-generated puzzles to drill that specific position is more useful. Aimchess and Improve my Chess close that loop; Lichess Insights doesn't.
How we compared these tools
We tested each tool with real Lichess game histories from players rated 800, 1200, 1600, and 1900 across rapid, blitz, and bullet. For each tool we looked at six things: depth of analysis compared to Lichess Insights, cross-platform support (Lichess + chess.com), quality of coaching language, drill generation, opponent scouting, and value for money.
TL;DR: Quick recommendations by use case
| If you are... | Best alternative |
|---|---|
| A Lichess-only player wanting a richer dashboard | Aimchess |
| A Lichess player who also plays on chess.com | Aimchess (single dashboard across both) |
| A Lichess player who wants plain-English coaching | DecodeChess |
| A Lichess player whose weakness is tactics | ChessTempo |
| A power user who wants a configurable desktop tool | Lucas Chess |
| A Lichess player thinking about switching to chess.com | Improve my Chess |
The 6 best alternatives, ranked
Aimchess
Best for: Lichess users who want a multi-platform improvement dashboard with deeper drilldowns
Pricing: Free (limited) · ~$8/mo Premium
Strengths
- · Connects to both Lichess and chess.com — useful if you play on both
- · Stronger long-term trend dashboards than Lichess Insights (blunder rate, opening accuracy, time usage over months)
- · Custom puzzles automatically generated from your specific weaknesses
- · Familiar UI for chess.com users (owned by chess.com)
Weaknesses
- · Puzzle-heavy approach can feel disconnected from your actual games
- · Free tier is meaningfully restricted compared to Premium
- · Less detailed per-game breakdown than DecodeChess
Best alternative: DecodeChess (for per-move depth) or native Lichess Insights (if free is non-negotiable)
DecodeChess
Best for: Lichess users who want plain-English explanations of every engine evaluation
Pricing: Free (2 games/day) · ~$8/mo Premium
Strengths
- · Translates Stockfish output into English reasoning Lichess Insights doesn't provide
- · Strong at explaining 'why' a candidate move is good or bad, not just the centipawn delta
- · Works with Lichess PGN imports out of the box
- · Useful across all skill levels including 1500+
Weaknesses
- · Engine-style explanations can feel mechanical compared to coach-style writing
- · Less focused on the recurring patterns that lose games at 400-1000 ELO
- · No long-term dashboard or trend tracking
Best alternative: Aimchess (for the dashboard layer) or ChessTempo (for tactics integration)
ChessTempo
Best for: Players who want tactics training tied directly to their analysis stats
Pricing: Free (limited) · ~$5 to $10/mo Premium
Strengths
- · Excellent tactics database with adaptive difficulty per puzzle theme
- · Strong analysis board with tree-of-variations support and game database search
- · Detailed performance stats per tactical theme (forks, pins, skewers, etc.)
- · Mature platform with a decade-plus reputation
Weaknesses
- · UI is dated next to newer tools
- · Less polished integration with Lichess PGN imports than Aimchess
- · No coaching language — pure engine and stats
Best alternative: Aimchess (smoother integration) or Improve my Chess (for plain-English coaching, once we support Lichess)
Chess Insights (chess.com)
Best for: Players who play on chess.com as well as Lichess and want both platforms tracked
Pricing: Free with chess.com account · Some advanced views Diamond-gated ($14/mo)
Strengths
- · Tracks your performance by opening, time control, and rating bracket on chess.com
- · Free to a useful depth without needing Diamond
- · Good complement to Lichess Insights for players active on both platforms
Weaknesses
- · Only covers chess.com data, so it's a supplement to Lichess Insights, not a replacement
- · Deeper insights and segmented breakdowns sit behind Diamond
- · Doesn't generate drills or training tasks from the stats
Best alternative: Aimchess (single dashboard covering both platforms)
Lucas Chess
Best for: Power users who want a desktop tool with deep custom analysis
Pricing: Free, open-source · Donations optional
Strengths
- · Free desktop app with built-in Stockfish and many custom training modules
- · Wide range of training drills, including elo-tournament simulations
- · Highly configurable for technically inclined users
- · Active community and regular updates
Weaknesses
- · Desktop-only — no mobile or browser version
- · UI is functional rather than polished
- · Steep learning curve compared to web-based tools
- · No cross-game pattern tracking the way Aimchess or Improve my Chess provides
Best alternative: Lichess Insights itself (web-based, simpler) or Aimchess (cross-platform)
Improve my Chess
Best for: Lichess users planning to switch to chess.com, or who already play on both
Pricing: Free for 3 analyses · £4.99/mo · £39/yr
Strengths
- · Coaching language calibrated to your actual ELO — most personalised tone among the tools listed
- · Cross-game pattern detection that goes beyond Lichess Insights' per-game-only view
- · Opponent scouting — none of the other tools listed offers this
- · Drills built automatically from your actual blunders
Weaknesses
- · Currently chess.com only — does not yet support Lichess data import (Lichess support is on our roadmap)
- · New (launched 2026), smaller user base than the incumbents
- · Best fit for players under 1500; advanced players will outgrow it
Best alternative: Aimchess (if you need Lichess support today)
How to choose: a 30-second decision tree
- Want one dashboard for both Lichess and chess.com? → Aimchess.
- Want English explanations of what your stats mean? → DecodeChess.
- Want tactics drills tied to your weakness profile? → ChessTempo.
- Active on chess.com too and want their official insights? → Chess Insights (chess.com).
- Comfortable on desktop and want maximum configurability? → Lucas Chess.
- Planning to switch to chess.com, or already on both? → Improve my Chess (works on chess.com today; Lichess support roadmapped).
The honest verdict for Lichess loyalists
If you're a Lichess-only player who's outgrown Insights, Aimchess is the most honest top pick. It does everything Insights does on the Lichess side, adds chess.com data if you ever play there, and layers on weakness-targeted drills that turn observation into practice. DecodeChess is the better pick if your specific gap is "I see the stat but don't understand what to do about it."
Improve my Chess isn't the right answer for Lichess users today — we're chess.com-only — but if you're active on chess.com as well, or considering the switch, our coaching language is calibrated to the sub-1000 bracket more tightly than any of the alternatives above. Lichess support is on our roadmap.
Frequently asked questions
What's actually wrong with Lichess Insights?▾
Nothing's wrong with it — it's free, it's solid, and for most casual Lichess players it's enough. The limits show up when you want three things it doesn't offer well: (1) cross-platform tracking if you also play on chess.com, (2) plain-English coaching that explains the why behind a stat, and (3) auto-generated drills that turn the insights into practice. Tools further down this list each fill one or more of those gaps.
What's the best free alternative to Lichess Insights?▾
Honestly, Lichess Insights itself is hard to beat on the free axis. The Aimchess free tier gives you a multi-platform dashboard view that Lichess Insights doesn't (chess.com + Lichess in one place). DecodeChess's 2 free games per day give you English-language coaching Lichess Insights doesn't provide. There isn't a single 'better and free' replacement — most alternatives are freemium with the depth behind a paywall.
Can I keep using Lichess and add an insights tool on top?▾
Yes — that's how most serious Lichess users do it. You keep playing on Lichess (free, no ads, great community), then push individual PGNs to whichever analysis tool fills your gap. Aimchess and Lichess Analysis support both platforms automatically. DecodeChess, ChessTempo, and Lucas Chess take PGN imports. Improve my Chess is currently chess.com only but Lichess import is on our roadmap.
Does Improve my Chess work with Lichess?▾
Not yet. We currently pull game data from chess.com only. Lichess support is on our roadmap (most-requested feature alongside multi-account analysis), but we don't have a confirmed ship date. If you're Lichess-only today, Aimchess is the closest equivalent — it supports both platforms with similar dashboard and drill capabilities, though without our cross-game pattern coaching layer.
Is Lichess Insights worth using if I already use Aimchess?▾
Mostly redundant. Aimchess covers everything Lichess Insights does on the Lichess side, plus chess.com data, plus dashboards over longer time windows. The main reason to keep using Lichess Insights alongside Aimchess is if you want the official Lichess view of your stats (sometimes useful for verifying), or if you prefer Lichess's UI for quick lookups.
Are these tools worth paying for over the free Lichess Insights?▾
Depends on your goal. If you just want to track basic patterns and don't mind doing the synthesis yourself, free Lichess Insights is enough. If you want one of (a) cross-platform tracking, (b) plain-English explanations of your weaknesses, (c) auto-generated drills, or (d) opponent scouting — then yes, one of the paid alternatives unlocks something Lichess Insights can't. Most players who pay for an insights tool are paying for one of those four specific things.