Daily Crosswords
Play today's puzzles
Free alternatives to NYT Games
The daily-puzzle habit without the subscription, the account or the ads.
NYT Games is a great product with one catch: most of it costs money, and all of it wants an account. If you just want a mini, a proper crossword and a word game each morning, Daily Crosswords & Word Games gives you five free daily puzzles in your browser and six in the iPhone app — no sign-up, no paywall on today's puzzles.
Puzzle by puzzle
| If you play… | Try… | Compare |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Mini | Daily Mini — a 5×5 crossword every day | Mini vs. NYT Mini |
| NYT Crossword | Daily Crossword — a full 15×15 grid every day | Crossword vs. NYT |
| Spelling Bee | Gram Slam — seven letters, centre letter required | Gram Slam vs. Spelling Bee |
| Boggle | Word Lapse — trace words on a grid in 90 seconds | — |
| Sudoku | Daily Sudoku — easy, medium and hard every day | — |
What "free" means here
- Today's puzzles are always free, on the web and in the app. Not a trial, not a limited mode.
- No account. Progress, completion and streaks are saved in your browser (or on your phone) and never leave it.
- No ads on the web version.
- The archive is the paid part. Every past daily plus 14,500 more puzzles live in the iPhone app for $0.99 a month or $6.99 a year, after a 7-day free trial. That is the only thing that costs anything.
Where NYT Games is still better
Editing. The NYT crossword and Spelling Bee are curated by a full-time team and a deep bench of constructors, and Wordle, Connections and Strands have no equivalent here. If you want the best-edited puzzles in the world and don't mind paying, subscribe to NYT Games and bookmark this site for the days you want a second helping.
If you want a solid daily habit that costs nothing and never nags you to sign in, start with today's Mini.
Daily Crosswords & Word Games is an independent app and website. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by The New York Times Company. "The New York Times", "NYT Games", "Spelling Bee", "Wordle", "Connections" and "Strands" are trademarks of The New York Times Company; "Boggle" is a trademark of Hasbro. They are used here only to identify the products being compared.