Best Crossword Apps According to Reddit (2026)
We read 30 Reddit threads and counted which crossword apps people recommend. Redstone, Shortyz, NYT, alphacross and Omni lead, with the arguments behind each.
Reddit does not agree on one best crossword app, but it does repeat itself. We read 30 threads where someone asked which crossword app to use, counted every app that a commenter recommended, and this is the tally: Crossword Puzzle Redstone came up in 12 of the 30, Shortyz in 11, and NYT Games, alphacross and Omni Crosswords in 8 each. The NYT app is the yardstick in nearly every thread. It is not the most recommended app, because most people asking are trying to get out of paying for it.
That gap between "the best" and "what people actually tell each other to install" is the whole story. Below is the count, the arguments behind each pick, the places where Reddit splits (paying for the NYT, solving .puz files, ads, cryptics) and every thread we used, linked. If you would rather read a hands-on comparison than a digest of other people's opinions, we keep our own roundup of the best crossword apps up to date separately.
How we built this list
This is a digest, not a review. We searched r/crossword, r/crosswords, r/androidapps, r/iosapps, r/puzzles, r/AppHookup and Reddit as a whole for threads where someone asked for a crossword app, then read 30 of them, posted between July 2018 and February 2026. Twenty-five are on r/crossword. The rest come from r/puzzles, r/androidapps, r/NYTCrossword and r/AskIndia. r/AppHookup only turned up promo-code giveaways from 2013, r/crosswords is a cryptic-clue community that rarely talks about apps, and the r/iosapps search returned nothing, so none of those contributed a thread.
The ranking is a tally. An app scores one point per thread if at least one commenter recommended it, no matter how many people piled on, so a thread with four NYT fans and one Puzzazz fan gives each app one point. We did not count developers promoting their own apps, and we did not count an app that was only named to be complained about. Four of the 30 threads produced no recommendation at all, and we say so where it matters. We did not weight by upvotes, because Reddit's feeds do not expose them reliably and we would rather not guess.
Quotes are kept to a few words and attributed to the subreddit, never to a username. Facts we state in our own voice (prices, in-app purchases, whether an app is still in a store) come from the App Store, Google Play or F-Droid listings as checked on September 22, 2026. Everything else is what commenters said, and we mark it that way.
The apps Reddit recommends most
| App | Recommended in | What commenters praise | What they complain about |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crossword Puzzle Redstone (iOS, Android) | 12 of 30 threads | Thousands of free puzzles from "name-brand constructors", sortable difficulty, mini grids, works offline, "not as America-centric" | Ads until you pay; one commenter balked at "$29 to remove ads" (the App Store lists Remove Ads at $34.99 today); no cryptics |
| Shortyz (Android) | 11 of 30 | Auto-downloads daily puzzles from several newspapers, "never run out of puzzles", free, no ads | Delisted from Google Play, "no longer actively supported", feeds break as papers change formats, no rebus |
| NYT Games (iOS, Android, web) | 8 of 30 | Hand-made puzzles, the archive commenters say reaches back to 1993, the best interface, "well worth the money" | Subscription price, US trivia for non-American solvers, a reported surprise billing jump |
| alphacross (Android) | 8 of 30 | Pulls free newspaper feeds and imports .puz files; "not even close" for one fan; UI over Shortyz for others | Gone from Google Play (we confirmed the listing returns nothing); one solver disliked its cursor behaviour |
| Omni Crosswords (iOS, with an Android version commenters mention) | 8 of 30 | "Most of the major non-NYT crosswords all in one app", free, no ads or account per commenters | Navigation "a little weird" if you are used to the NYT app; Android version lacks the New Yorker |
| Crosswords by Stand Alone and Crosswords Classic (iOS) | 7 of 30 | Opens .puz files, Newsday and the Saturday Stumper, "paid once and never again" | Fewer auto-download sources than before; AVCX downloads described as hit and miss |
| Crosshare (web) | 6 of 30 | Free and ad-free indie puzzles, add-to-home-screen, personal difficulty ratings | No native app; one solver found the mobile interface harder than the NYT's at first |
| Puzzazz (iOS) | 4 of 30 | Plays any .puz file, good for AVCX and indie packs | Limited puzzles included; you bring your own files |
| Downforacross (web) | 4 of 30 | Free, upload a .puz, solve together by sharing a link | Not an app; needs a connection |
| USA Today and LA Times (sites and apps) | 4 of 30 each | Free daily puzzles; USA Today's are praised for smooth fill and a steady difficulty | USA Today's app called "atrocious"; LA Times puts an ad before the puzzle; commenters report USA Today now limits free plays |
Three things are worth knowing about the top of that table. First, Redstone's lead is partly the work of a few enthusiasts: the same two or three usernames recommend it across several threads, and a pattern like that can inflate a count. Second, Shortyz and alphacross, the two Android favourites, are both gone from Google Play. Reddit knows this and keeps recommending them anyway, with sideloading tips and a pointer to Forkyz, the open-source fork of Shortyz on F-Droid, which was named in two threads. Third, the NYT app's eight points understate its standing. It is the app people compare everything to, and the app people are usually trying to leave.
Where the consensus splits
Paying for the NYT versus everything else
The most common opening line in these threads is some version of "I do not want to pay $40 a year for the NYT". The defenders answer the same way every time. In a 2023 Android recommendations thread, four commenters told a couple who were reluctant to pay that the subscription "pays for itself", one adding that the archive goes back to 1993, and the original poster bought a yearly plan before the thread ended. A 2021 thread complaining about the price drew the same defence, plus a tip repeated in several threads: commenters say they pay a discounted yearly rate after calling customer service, and one suggested buying $3.99 packs of Monday and Tuesday puzzles before committing. We could not verify either offer, so treat them as hearsay.
The App Store listing today shows the New York Times Crossword subscription at $39.99 a year or $6.99 a month, inside the NYT Games app. One change since most of these threads were written: the daily Mini, which used to be free, moved behind the subscription in late August 2025, as The Hill reported. If you want the head-to-head on the daily habit, we wrote it up in Grid Genius vs the NYT Crossword.
The other split inside this argument is geography. A 2025 request for an app with the NYT's polish but less US trivia got exactly one reply, from someone with the same complaint, and no recommendation. A 2020 UK thread summed the feeling up as "far too American". Redstone gets recommended to those solvers for its dictionary-style clues, and the Guardian app comes up for cryptics.
The .puz solvers
A large slice of r/crossword does not want a library at all. They want a player that opens .puz files and pulls the free newspaper feeds (USA Today, LA Times, Universal, Newsday, the Wall Street Journal, Jonesin') plus paid indie subscriptions like AVCX. On Android that means Shortyz and alphacross, and the threads read like an obituary. Shortyz is described as unmaintained and gone from the Play Store, with commenters trading APK links and reporting broken feeds, including in a 2022 thread where the LA Times feed had already stopped working. alphacross fans in the 2023 Android thread were "so mad that this is gone" and swapped tips for restoring it from a phone's uninstalled-apps list. Forkyz, the community fork on F-Droid, is the current answer.
On iOS the answers are steadier. Puzzazz opens any .puz you can download, which a 2021 import question confirmed with a "Worked great!" years later. Crosswords by Stand Alone still auto-downloads a few sources and imports the rest, and its paid sibling Crosswords Classic ($9.99 on the App Store today) is the pick for people who want to pay once. Omni Crosswords gathers the major non-NYT papers into one free app. In a browser, Downforacross and squares.io take an uploaded file, and Downforacross gets extra credit for solving with a friend over a shared link.
Ads, and paying once versus subscribing
Ad complaints cluster around three apps. Daily Themed Crossword's puzzles are praised as approachable, but a 2022 poster described its ads as constant 30-second interruptions. USA Today's app shows an ad before each puzzle. Redstone is free with ads, and its one-time Remove Ads purchase is the price people grumble about. A 2024 thread asking for a paid app with no subscription got three answers: Shortyz (which the poster could not find in the App Store), Crosswords Classic, and Redstone's one-time purchase. A 2026 Android thread asking for minimal ads got Redstone again, plus a tip to block ads with a private DNS. The apps praised for having no ads at all are Omni Crosswords and Crosshare. We went deeper on this in our guide to crossword apps with no ads.
Cryptic fans
Cryptics get a footnote in most threads and a section in a few. Redstone "doesn't have cryptics", per one commenter, while Crosswords by Stand Alone does. The Guardian's crosswords are the usual pointer for cryptics (two threads), Teazel's Best Cryptic Crossword and Learn Cryptic Crossword apps came up twice, and Minute Cryptic once. One r/puzzles commenter made the case that cryptics are the answer for solvers who hate trivia, because a cryptic clue can be solved by analysis alone.
What Reddit complains about
A short list of things commenters said to avoid, so you do not learn them the hard way.
- USA Today's app. The puzzles are praised in four threads. The app is called "atrocious" and its web version "comically outdated" in the 2021 price thread, and one solver noted you cannot review a finished puzzle in it. The consensus is to solve the USA Today puzzle in a browser or through a feed app. A 2025 reply in the free daily thread says the free allowance is now two puzzles a week.
- The Washington Post redesign. A 2025 thread on WP Crossword alternatives was written by people fleeing a site update that removed the play-together feature they loved. The LA Times, which runs the same puzzle, was the answer.
- Apps that vanish. Shortyz, alphacross and an iOS app called Crux all earned loyal users and then stopped being updated. If you build a habit around a solo developer's free app, keep a backup plan.
- Surprise billing. One commenter in the 2025 best crossword app thread reported an NYT charge that jumped from $4.99 to $25 a month without notice. One report is not a pattern, but check your subscription page.
Where Grid Genius fits, and full disclosure: it is ours
Grid Genius is our app, and it is not a Reddit staple. It appears in two of the 30 threads, and both mentions were posted by our founder, so we struck them from the count under the same rule we applied to every other developer plug. We are also not going to hide that r/crossword is wary of AI puzzles: when a developer offered an AI-generated app in a 2026 Android thread, the poster's reply was that they "shouldn't use AI for this".
So why include it? Because the threads keep circling a request nobody answers. A 2021 r/androidapps poster asked for an endless supply of crosswords sorted by topic, geography and so on, and the only reply was "I'm interested too". The 2025 request for a less US-centric app got no recommendation. An r/AskIndia poster wanted puzzles without "western roots" and the replies were deleted. A topic-first crossword is the one thing none of the apps above does, and it is the thing Grid Genius does.
You type a topic (a band, a science unit, your family's inside jokes) and the AI writes a full puzzle with a grid and clues. The free tier includes a free daily challenge with a leaderboard and streaks, community puzzles, word-list and freeform puzzle makers that need no account, three AI-generated puzzles to start and one free per day after that, and AI Hints that rephrase a clue or add a related fact instead of just revealing letters (two a day free, plus a daily bonus and ad rewards). Pro is $7.99 a month or $49.99 a year for unlimited AI generation and hints, no ads, news-grounded puzzles and premium themes. It runs on iPhone and iPad, Android and the web at play.gridgenius.app, and the free crossword puzzle maker works in a browser without an install.
The honest limits, in Reddit's own terms. The puzzles are AI-generated, so you do not get a named human constructor or an editor's voice, which is what the NYT camp values most. There is no .puz import, so if you carry a library of newspaper files the solvers above are the better fit. And if the hint debate makes you wonder where the line is, we asked the same question in is using crossword hints cheating?
Browse puzzles by topicThreads we read
Every thread that fed the count, newest first. Four of them (marked) produced no app recommendation.
- 2026-02, r/crossword: Best android app with minimal ads?
- 2026-01, r/crossword: Looking for an app on Android
- 2025-11, r/AskIndia: Best crossword puzzle app? From India's perspective! (no recommendation; replies deleted)
- 2025-08, r/crossword: App/Website Suggestions?
- 2025-06, r/crossword: WP Crossword alternatives?
- 2025-05, r/crossword: Crossword app for a senior with Parkinson's?
- 2025-04, r/crossword: Is there a good daily crossword that is not affiliated with a newspaper?
- 2025-03, r/crossword: Recommendations for a crossword app with as good a UI as NYT but less US-centric? (no recommendation)
- 2025-02, r/crossword: Easy Crossword apps on android
- 2025-01, r/crossword: Best crossword app?
- 2024-12, r/NYTCrossword: What's your favorite crossword app (other than NYT?)
- 2024-11, r/crossword: Crossword iOS app that can import sources?
- 2024-06, r/crossword: Paid Crossword app no Subscription
- 2023-12, r/crossword: Crossword app recommendations for Android
- 2023-11, r/crossword: What is a good crossword app for the iPhone with no ads?
- 2023-08, r/puzzles: Looking for a crossword puzzle app for non geniuses.
- 2022-12, r/crossword: What is the best app for crosswords? Bonus if it has cryptic crosswords.
- 2022-09, r/crossword: Can anyone recommend a good crossword app for iOS?
- 2022-04, r/crossword: Looking for good crossword apps for android.
- 2022-02, r/crossword: Looking for a fun crossword app!
- 2022-01, r/crossword: Crossword apps?
- 2021-08, r/crossword: iOS app that supports importing .puz?
- 2021-06, r/androidapps: Crossword App (no recommendation)
- 2021-04, r/crossword: Why can't anyone else besides NYT make a half decent crossword app?
- 2021-04, r/crossword: Recommendations for good crossword puzzle apps/websites/books?
- 2021-02, r/crossword: best free daily crossword?
- 2020-09, r/crossword: App for android and iphone (no replies)
- 2020-03, r/crossword: UK crossword app
- 2019-03, r/androidapps: REQUEST: Crossword app
- 2018-07, r/crossword: Best Crossword App?
Frequently asked questions
In the 30 Reddit threads we read (25 on r/crossword, plus r/puzzles, r/androidapps, r/NYTCrossword and r/AskIndia), Crossword Puzzle Redstone was recommended in 12, Shortyz in 11, and NYT Games, alphacross and Omni Crosswords in 8 each. We counted an app once per thread when at least one commenter who was not its developer recommended it. The NYT app is the benchmark in almost every thread, but most askers are trying to avoid its subscription, which is why it is not first.
Reddit is split. Defenders call it well worth the money for the puzzle quality and the archive that commenters say reaches back to 1993, and several people who dislike paying for apps say it is their one exception. The complaints are the price, US-centric trivia for non-American solvers, and one report of a surprise billing jump. Several commenters say they got a discounted yearly rate by calling customer service, though we could not verify that offer. Since late August 2025 the daily Mini also sits behind the subscription.
The free picks that recur are Crossword Puzzle Redstone (free with ads and paid packs), Omni Crosswords on iOS (free, no in-app purchases listed, and commenters report no ads), Crosshare (a free, ad-free web app you add to your home screen), and Forkyz on Android, the open-source fork of Shortyz on F-Droid. For free newspaper puzzles, commenters point to the USA Today and LA Times sites and to Downforacross.
On Android, Shortyz and alphacross, though both have left Google Play and Reddit now points to Forkyz on F-Droid. On iPhone and iPad, Puzzazz, Crosswords by Stand Alone (and its paid sibling Crosswords Classic) and Omni Crosswords. In a browser, Downforacross and squares.io take an uploaded .puz file. Grid Genius does not import .puz files.
No, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Grid Genius appears in two of the 30 threads, and both mentions were posted by our founder, so we excluded them under the same rule we applied to every other developer plug. Grid Genius is for AI-generated crosswords on any topic, with a free daily challenge, a free maker and AI hints. It is not a .puz solver and it is not a newspaper archive.
A real crossword on any topic.
AI-generated puzzles with smart hints that help you think, not just give away answers. Free to play, no sign-up required.