If you've ever sat down at a computer and clicked on "Solitaire," you've probably played Klondike without even realizing it had a name. It's the default, the OG, the one that shipped with every Windows PC since 1990. But then there's Spider Solitaire, the sneaky sibling that showed up in Windows 98 and quietly stole thousands of hours from office workers worldwide.

So what's the difference between solitaire and spider solitaire? And more importantly, which one should you be playing? Let's break it down.

Both games fall under the "patience" category of card games, meaning you play alone and the goal is to organize cards in a specific way. But the similarities pretty much end there. The deck setup, the rules, and the strategy are completely different. One uses a single deck. The other uses two. One has you building up. The other has you building down. And when it comes to difficulty? Well, that's where things get interesting.

The Basics: What Makes Each Game Unique

Klondike Solitaire: The Classic

Klondike is what most people mean when they say "solitaire." You're working with a single 52-card deck. The setup gives you seven tableau columns with cards dealt in a staircase pattern (one card in the first column, two in the second, and so on). Only the top card of each column is face-up.

Your job? Build four foundation piles, one for each suit, starting with Ace and going up to King. On the tableau, you stack cards in alternating colors (red on black, black on red) in descending order. When you run out of moves, you draw from the stockpile, typically one or three cards at a time depending on your settings.

The whole thing feels like untangling a knot. You're constantly shuffling cards around, flipping hidden cards, and hoping the stockpile has what you need.

Spider Solitaire: The Brain Burner

Spider Solitaire plays by different rules entirely. You're dealing with two full decks (104 cards) spread across ten tableau columns. Instead of building up on foundations, you build down on the tableau itself. Your goal is to create complete sequences from King down to Ace, all in the same suit. Once you complete a sequence, it disappears from the board.

Here's the catch that makes Spider so tricky: you can stack any card on a card that's one rank higher, regardless of suit. A 7 of Hearts can go on an 8 of Spades. But if you do that, you can't move them together as a group. Only same-suit sequences can be moved as a unit. This creates a constant tension between making progress and maintaining flexibility.

If you want to dive deeper into the mechanics, check out our complete guide on how to play Spider Solitaire.

Side-by-Side Comparison

Let's put these solitaire variations next to each other and see how they stack up:

Is Spider Solitaire Harder?

Short answer: yes. Spider Solitaire is generally considered the harder game, and here's why.

More Cards, More Chaos

With 104 cards instead of 52, Spider gives you twice the mess to sort through. More cards mean more hidden information, more variables to track, and more opportunities for things to go sideways. You're also dealing with duplicate cards (two 7 of Spades, for example), which can create blocking situations where you need a card that's buried under itself.

The Same-Suit Trap

In Klondike, alternating colors is a simple rule that's easy to follow. In Spider, you're constantly tempted to mix suits because it lets you make immediate progress. But every time you place a Heart on a Spade, you're creating a roadblock. Those cards are now stuck until you untangle them. This creates a layer of strategic depth that Klondike simply doesn't have.

The Suit Variations

Spider also offers three difficulty modes based on how many suits are in play. One-suit Spider is almost trivially easy since every card can stack with every other card. Two-suit mode adds meaningful friction. And four-suit mode? That's where the game earns its reputation. Experienced players often win less than a third of their four-suit games.

Win Rates: What the Numbers Say

Let's talk about the math. Win rates vary based on player skill, but here's what you can generally expect:

Here's what's fascinating: while Spider has a lower human win rate, it actually has a higher theoretical win rate. Almost every Spider deal can be won if you make perfect moves and know where every hidden card is. The gap between human performance and computer performance is massive, which tells you just how much hidden complexity the game contains.

Which Game Should You Play?

The right choice depends on what you're looking for:

There's also nothing stopping you from playing both. Many solitaire fans use Klondike as their "wind down" game and Spider as their "level up" game. Start your session with Spider to challenge yourself, then switch to Klondike when you want something more relaxing.

How Strategy Differs Between the Two

Klondike Strategy

The core Klondike strategies are straightforward: always play an Ace or Deuce to the foundation immediately, expose hidden cards whenever possible, and don't move cards to the foundation too fast (you might need them for stacking). The stockpile is your friend, and cycling through it multiple times is part of the game.

Spider Strategy

Spider requires you to think several moves ahead. Empty columns are crucial because they let you temporarily store cards while you reorganize. You should prioritize flipping hidden cards over making "clean" moves. And critically, you need to resist the urge to mix suits unless absolutely necessary. Every mixed-suit stack is a future problem you're creating for yourself.

The stockpile in Spider works differently too. You can only deal from it when every column has at least one card. This creates pressure to keep columns populated, even with bad placements, just so you can access fresh cards.