If you want a free Puzzmo alternative, PerDiem is a curated set of daily games that costs nothing and lets you replay past days. NYT Games is the closest in polish, but most of it needs a subscription. LinkedIn Games is free if you already use LinkedIn. Below is each one side by side, then a game-by-game list of what to play in place of each Puzzmo favorite.
We make PerDiem, so weigh what we say about it accordingly. We aren't affiliated with any other site here. Details about the others come from their own pages, app listings and press coverage as of October 24, 2026. Prices and lineups change often, so check each site before you subscribe to anything.
Puzzmo alternatives at a glance
| Site | Cost | Past puzzles | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Puzzmo | Free daily games; Puzzmo Plus is $3.99 a month or $39.99 a year | With Puzzmo Plus | Original games by Zach Gage and friends |
| PerDiem | Free | Free, back to each game's first day | Logic, spatial and card puzzles you won't find elsewhere |
| NYT Games | Mostly subscription | With a subscription | Wordle, Connections, Strands and the crossword |
| LinkedIn Games | Free, inside LinkedIn | None listed | Quick logic grids like Queens, Tango and Zip |
The alternatives, one at a time
Puzzmo, for reference
Puzzmo is owned by Hearst and launched in October 2023. Its App Store listing names ten games, including Pile-Up Poker, Typeshift, SpellTower, Flipart, Memoku, Bongo, Really Bad Chess and a crossword with optional easier clues. The daily games are free. Puzzmo Plus adds the archive, early access to new games and ad-free play. There are apps for iPhone, iPad and Mac as well as the website.
PerDiem
PerDiem has 23 free daily games in the browser, and nothing is behind a paywall: today's puzzles, past puzzles, leaderboards and friends are all free. You don't need an account to play; signing in syncs your streaks across devices in most games. We don't have a native app, but you can add it to your home screen.
Two honest limits. PerDiem is new, so most games launched in October 2026 and their archives are only a few weeks deep (Canals, Route and Theorem go back to March 2026). And we have no chess game and nothing built by guest curators, so Really Bad Chess and Bongo have no stand-in here.
NYT Games
The Times has the best-known daily games: Wordle, Connections, Strands, Spelling Bee, Pips and its crosswords. Most of the suite and the archive need a subscription, and Wikipedia lists the Mini as subscriber-only since late August 2025. If you'd pay for one puzzle service, this is the obvious rival to Puzzmo Plus. PerDiem vs NYT Games lists the free near-matches.
LinkedIn Games
LinkedIn has five short daily puzzles (Queens, Tango, Zip, Mini Sudoku and Patches) played inside the LinkedIn app or site. They're free and quick, and they lean toward grid logic. You'll want a LinkedIn account, and we couldn't find a way to replay past days.
Also worth a look: Washington Post Games has a free daily crossword, mini, sudoku and Hurdle.
Which free game replaces which Puzzmo game
The other "sites like Puzzmo" lists stop at the site level. If you already have a favorite on Puzzmo, here's the closest PerDiem game to try.
| If you play this on Puzzmo | Try this on PerDiem | How close? |
|---|---|---|
| Pile-Up Poker | Stacks, then Delve | Same deck, different job |
| The crossword | Mini and Midi | Close |
| Typeshift, Wordbind | Duet | Loose |
| SpellTower, Cube Clear | Throughline | Loose |
| Flipart | Cliques or Theorem | Loose |
| Memoku | Seams | Loose |
| Really Bad Chess, Bongo | Nothing yet | No match |
Pile-Up Poker. Pile-Up Poker deals cards into a grid and scores the poker hands in each row and column. Stacks also scores a grid of cards, but you don't place them: you drag a path through touching cards that share a suit or a rank, bank it, and do that six times. Three modifiers change each day, so a stack worth a lot on Monday can be worth very little on Tuesday. Delve is built on Scoundrel by Zach Gage (who also made Pile-Up Poker) and Kurt Bieg. Four cards make a room, you deal with three, and your weapon wears down each time you use it.
The crossword. Puzzmo's crossword has an optional easier version of each clue. Ours don't, so keep Puzzmo if that's what you'd miss. Mini is a 5 by 5 grid. Midi is themeless and grows from 9 by 9 on Monday to 11 by 11 on Friday and Saturday.
Typeshift and Wordbind. Duet is a word ladder scored like golf. Each step changes, adds or drops a letter, or rearranges all of them, and you try to reach the goal word under par.
SpellTower and Cube Clear. Throughline is a themed word search on a 6 by 8 grid where every letter is used once and one key word crosses the whole board. Nothing falls or disappears, so it's slower and calmer.
Flipart and Memoku. Cliques has you place 16 dominoes to grow groups of matching shapes and colors. Theorem has you swap tiles until three daily rules hold. Seams, the pick for Memoku players, asks every touching edge to match by color, by number, or by adding to 10.
Every PerDiem game, by type
A good Puzzmo alternative should also have games Puzzmo doesn't. Here's the whole PerDiem lineup, grouped the way the home page filters them.
Word games
Two crosswords, a themed word search, a word ladder, and a 16-word grouping puzzle for Connections players.
Logic and deduction
Hearsay is a liar puzzle where you never have to guess; there's a full case solved step by step. Clockwise gives you hot and cold hints with no direction.
Card games
One scores the deck, one survives it, and one swaps cards for dominoes.
Paths and connections
Untangle lines, join pairs without crossing, turn pipes, slide across ice, or climb a grid of arithmetic to hit a target.
Shapes and space
Packline is a gerrymandering puzzle where the side with fewer voters still has to win. Scope gives you unlabeled knobs and a wave to match, and the knobs mean something different every day.
Something else
Ticker is a 90-second trading day on one fictional stock, with play money.
Questions people ask
Is Puzzmo free?
The daily games are free. Puzzmo Plus ($3.99 a month or $39.99 a year on the App Store as of October 2026) adds the archive, early access to new games and no ads.
Is there a free alternative to Puzzmo's archive?
Yes. PerDiem lets you replay past puzzles for free: every game's results screen has a strip of recent days, and you can go back to the game's first puzzle.
What's the closest free game to Pile-Up Poker?
Stacks. Both score a grid of playing cards by suit and rank, though in Stacks the cards are already dealt and you trace paths through them instead of placing them.
Do I need an account?
Not on PerDiem. LinkedIn Games is played inside LinkedIn.
If you want a place to start, play Stacks if you came from Pile-Up Poker, then Packline and Hearsay, the two least like anything on Puzzmo. Our PerDiem vs Puzzmo post compares the two libraries in more detail.