The right poker solver depends on three questions a student should answer before spending a cent: Does it need to run on the student’s own computer or in a browser? Which game and format does it solve (heads-up Hold’em postflop, multiway, Omaha, push-fold tournaments)? And is the price a one-time licence or a subscription? This page sorts seven live solvers by those three points, using only what each vendor publishes, checked on Nov 6, 2026.
The order is alphabetical. “Best” here means best fit for a particular student, not a ranking.
What a solver actually does
A solver takes a spot, two ranges and a betting tree, then calculates strategies that neither player can improve on by changing their own play alone. That is the equilibrium idea covered in GTO poker meaning. The student supplies the inputs; the solver supplies the answer to the question as asked.
A worked spot shows what “inputs” means in practice:
- Game: 100bb cash, button opens 2.5bb, big blind calls.
- Pot on the flop: 5.5bb (2.5 + 2.5 + the 0.5bb small blind left behind).
- Board: K♠7♦2♣.
- Ranges: the button’s opening range and the big blind’s calling range, typed in or loaded from a preflop chart.
- Tree: for example, a 33% pot bet and a 75% pot bet on each street, plus raises.
Change any one of those and the output changes. This is why solver output is only as good as the ranges a student feeds it, a point the ranges explainer covers.
One more number explains why some tools ship pre-solved libraries. The total number of possible flops is C(52,3) = (52 × 51 × 50) ÷ 6 = 22,100. Many of those are the same flop with suits swapped, and solver vendors commonly reduce them to 1,755 strategically distinct flops. Solving every one of those for every stack depth is a lot of computing, which is the gap cloud libraries fill.
The seven solvers at a glance
| Solver | Type | Main games and formats | Platform | Published price (Nov 6, 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSolver | Cloud | NLHE heads-up postflop; MTT, cash, SNG | Browser | Essential $49/mo, Pro $69/mo, both billed yearly |
| GTO Wizard | Cloud, AI solver plus library | NLHE and PLO, cash and MTT, multiway on top tier | Browser | NLHE plans shown after sign-in; PLO Premium $139/mo billed annually |
| GTO+ | Desktop | NLHE heads-up postflop; separate 6+ version | Windows installer | $75 one-time, second computer $40 |
| HRC | Desktop | Tournament preflop (Classic); MTT and cash at any depth (Pro) | Windows, macOS, Linux | Classic $16.66/mo; Pro $49.99/mo or $359.90/yr |
| ICMIZER | Desktop plus browser | Tournament preflop, ICM, bounty models | Windows, macOS, browser (v3) | Basic $99.99/yr; Pro $179.99/yr |
| MonkerSolver | Desktop | Hold’em and Omaha, any street, any number of players | Windows 64-bit or Mac | €499 |
| PioSOLVER | Desktop | NLHE heads-up; Edge adds heads-up preflop | Windows (Mac via Parallels or Boot Camp) | Pro €450; Edge €800 |
Desktop solvers
Desktop solvers run on the student’s own CPU and RAM. They are usually a one-time purchase, they work offline, and big trees need big hardware.
GTO+
GTO+ describes itself as game theory analysis software for heads-up postflop Hold’em. Its purchase page lists a main licence at $75 and a second licence at $40, and states that “the registration fee is one-time” with all future updates included. The download page offers Windows installers only, plus a separate GTO6+ build for short deck. The vendor highlights small save files, databases of solved trees and built-in graphing.
Fits: a cash player on a budget who wants to run their own heads-up postflop spots on a Windows machine.
HRC (Holdem Resources Calculator)
HRC comes in two editions on its pricing page. HRC Classic is described as an entry-level preflop solver “tailored for short-stacked tournament calculations”, at $16.66 a month, $39.99 a quarter or $119.90 a year. HRC Pro, the flagship, covers tournament and cash calculations at any stack depth, at $49.99 a month, $119.97 a quarter or $359.90 a year, with a 14-day money-back guarantee. The download page lists Windows, macOS and Linux.
Fits: tournament players who live in push-fold and ICM spots, and Mac or Linux users who are shut out of Windows-only tools.
ICMIZER
ICMIZER is a preflop tournament solver. Its homepage covers MTT, SNG, Spin & Go and bounty formats and lists Windows and macOS, with ICMIZER 3 also running in a browser. The pricing page shows annual plans of $99.99 for Basic and $179.99 for Pro (prices exclude VAT), with monthly list prices of $17.99 and $32.99. Pro adds MTT Coach and the Replayer. There is a 7-day free trial, and the page says ICMIZER 4, in public beta, is included at the ICMIZER 3 price for now, with a separate Max plan planned after the beta.
Fits: a tournament student who wants to drill short-stack and final-table decisions without a big hardware bill.
MonkerSolver
MonkerSolver is the outlier on this list. Its page says it can “solve Omaha and Hold’em from any street with any number of players”, using abstraction to shrink the game. The full version is €499. Requirements are Windows 64-bit or Mac OS X with at least 8 GB of RAM, and the vendor notes tree size scales with RAM and speed with CPU.
Fits: a PLO or multiway student who accepts the trade-off of abstractions and long solve times. Players new to Omaha should read the PLO rules first.
PioSOLVER
PioSOLVER 3 comes in two versions on the products page: Pro at €450 and Edge at €800, both plus applicable taxes. Pro solves flop, turn and river spots with multiple bet sizes, supports up to 16 cores and includes one year of updates on two computers. Edge raises the core limit to 64 and adds a heads-up preflop solver. The vendor’s technical notes state it is a Windows desktop application and that Mac customers run it through Parallels or Boot Camp, and they point Mac users to the free version as a first test. Version 3.12, released Oct 28, 2026, added 6-Plus Hold’em as a separate short-deck build under the same licence.
Pio’s documentation also gives a useful sense of scale for accuracy. In a $5/$10 spot, a solution exploitable by $0.25 a hand works out to 0.25 ÷ 10 = 0.025bb a hand, or 2.5bb per 100 hands.
Fits: a serious cash player with a strong Windows PC who wants full control of heads-up trees and scripting.
Cloud solvers
Cloud solvers run on the vendor’s servers and open in a browser. No hardware is needed, the bill is recurring, and the student is limited to the formats the vendor supports.
DeepSolver
DeepSolver’s pricing page lists Essential at $49 a month and Pro at $69 a month, both billed yearly ($588 and $828 a year at renewal). Both plans show unlimited calculations and unlimited trainer use. The FAQ says it currently solves MTT, cash and Sit & Go No-Limit Hold’em with two players postflop, and that it runs in a browser on a 10 Mbps connection. New users get a 2-day free trial that turns into a paid subscription unless cancelled.
Fits: a heads-up postflop student who wants solve-your-own-spot speed without buying a workstation.
GTO Wizard
GTO Wizard combines a pre-solved library with its own AI solver, a trainer and hand-history analysis. It covers Hold’em and PLO, cash and tournaments. Its blog describes custom heads-up solving on the Elite tier and custom multiway and preflop ICM solving on the Ultra tier (Tournament plan), and says anyone can try preflop solving free up to 10bb effective.
This desk couldn’t confirm current NLHE plan prices from a public vendor page, because they appear only after sign-in. The PLO page lists PLO Premium at $139 a month billed annually ($179 month to month) and PLO Elite at $179 a month billed annually ($229 month to month), labeled early-bird, plus a free tier. For a head-to-head, see GTO Wizard vs PioSOLVER.
Fits: a student who wants answers quickly and studies across formats, and who doesn’t want to manage a desktop solver.
Also checked: Simple Postflop
Simple Postflop, from Simple Software Solutions FZE LLC, is still live. Its product page describes free turn and river solving, NL and fixed-limit Hold’em support, and Windows only (Mac via Parallels or Boot Camp). This desk couldn’t confirm a current licence price on the vendor’s page, so it sits outside the main table.
A quick decision path
- Plays tournaments, mostly short-stacked? HRC or ICMIZER.
- Plays PLO? MonkerSolver (desktop, multiway) or GTO Wizard PLO (cloud).
- Heads-up postflop NLHE on Windows, one-time spend? GTO+ ($75) or PioSOLVER (€450 and up).
- Heads-up postflop NLHE, no hardware? DeepSolver or GTO Wizard.
- On a Mac or Linux? HRC, ICMIZER, MonkerSolver or a cloud tool.
Whatever the tool, a solver is a study aid. PokerStars’ prohibited tools page lists GTO solutions and range-vs-range tools among the things a player can’t use for the decision in front of them, and GGPoker’s security policy bans external real-time assistance. The solver belongs on the study desk, not next to an open table.
Real-money poker is for adults 21 and over. If the game stops being fun, the National Problem Gambling Helpline (1-800-MY-RESET, call or text) offers free, confidential help; more resources are on the responsible gambling page.