Word search and letter-grid games like Strands, free or paid, daily or unlimited
Updated October 22, 2026 · 3 min read
Strands gives you one board a day. If you want more of the searching, the games below are grouped by how they search: paths that bend through a grid as in Strands, timed races on a small board, and classic straight-line word searches. Each says what is free, what costs money, and whether it comes once a day or as often as you like.
What Strands itself offers
The daily board costs nothing in a browser or in the NYT Games app. NYT Games, All Access and Home Delivery subscribers also get the archive, added in September 2025, which holds every puzzle back to March 4, 2024, and Colorful Strands, a variant with specially designed boards that comes with the weekly bonus puzzles on Wednesdays. Bonus puzzles do not count toward your stats. There is no official unlimited mode, and sites offering a Strands Unlimited are unofficial copies, so we do not link to them.
Bending paths through a letter grid
These come closest to how Strands feels in the hand: words snake through neighbouring letters in whatever direction they need.
Free and daily, with a 3×3 Express board beside the main one and yesterday's board still open. The archive and replays need Squaredle Squared.
Unlimited themed levels plus a daily puzzle on iPhone and Android, free with ads; the catch is that extra hints are sold in packs.
The same maker's original, also unlimited with a daily puzzle, and built around using every letter in the grid exactly once.
A daily tower on Puzzmo in the browser, and many more modes in the iOS app, which costs $4.99 to unlock in full.
Timed tracing races
Same tracing, different mood: a clock, a small grid and points for every word you find, often against another player.
- Letter GridOurs
Ours, free in the browser with no account: a 4×4 board and 90 seconds a round, as many rounds as you like. It has no daily puzzle and no theme.
Two-minute rounds with friends or strangers, plus solo practice and daily challenges. Free to install; tokens, power-ups and tickets cost extra.
- Ruzzle
MAG Interactive's 2012 head-to-head word game, in 14 languages: three two-minute rounds on a 4×4 grid against one opponent, with bonus tiles that multiply your score.
- Wordament
Microsoft's letter-grid game from 2012. The Android app has an Adventure mode of more than 1,500 puzzles, quick games by difficulty, daily challenges and multiplayer; on Windows it now comes inside Microsoft Ultimate Word Games. You have to accept the Microsoft Services Agreement to play.
- Word Hunt (GamePigeon)
A short head-to-head word grid inside GamePigeon, an iMessage add-on with about 25 two-player games: you and a friend get the same letters and race to link words before time runs out. It works only in Messages on Apple devices, and the app was last updated in September 2024.
Classic straight-line word searches
For the relaxed puzzle-book feel: a list of words, a square of letters, and answers that run in straight lines.
Free every day in the browser, with ads, from The Washington Post's games site and the games company Arkadium.
- Word Search RushOurs
Ours, free with no sign-up: three growing grids against a two-minute clock, with backwards and diagonal words in the later ones. Play as many runs as you like.
At a glance: free or not, daily or unlimited
- One a day: Strands, Squaredle (yesterday's board stays open too) and The Washington Post's Daily Word Search.
- Daily plus unlimited: WordBrain, WordBrain 2, SpellTower and Wordament, which all pair endless levels or modes with a daily puzzle.
- As many rounds as you like: our Letter Grid and Word Search Rush, Boggle With Friends, Ruzzle and Word Hunt.
- Free: the daily Strands board and our two games, which need no download or sign-up.
- Free with ads: Squaredle's daily boards, Wordament and the Daily Word Search.
- Free to install, extras paid: WordBrain, WordBrain 2, SpellTower, Boggle With Friends, Ruzzle and Word Hunt.
- Subscription for more: the Strands archive and Colorful Strands with NYT Games, Squaredle Squared for Squaredle's archive, and Puzzmo Plus on Puzzmo.
Questions people ask
Is there a free unlimited game like Strands?
Nothing official: Strands itself is one free board a day. WordBrain and WordBrain 2 come closest, with unlimited levels free with ads, and our Letter Grid lets you trace words in the browser for as many rounds as you like, though without a theme.
How is Strands different from an ordinary word search?
In a classic word search you are given the list, and the words run in straight lines and often cross. In Strands the words hide behind a theme clue, bend through neighbouring letters and never share a letter, because together they fill the board.
More from Games Like Strands
- 13 games like Strands for when one themed board a day runs out
Games like Strands, checked on their makers' sites: Squaredle, WordBrain 2, SpellTower, Bonza and more letter grids, with prices and time per game. - Strands tips: how the hints work and how to find the spangram
The official Strands rules and hint system, what a hint actually shows, and a practical method for spotting the spangram and finishing without help.