Is Crossword Labs Free? What You Get, Plus 6 Alternatives
Crossword Labs is free with no ads or sign-up, but free puzzles are public. What the $9.95 membership adds, and 6 alternatives for private, AI or phrase puzzles.
Yes, Crossword Labs is free. You can make, print, share and solve puzzles at crosswordlabs.com with no ads, no watermarks and no sign-up. The catch is privacy: a free puzzle is public, visible in search engines, and its answer key is open to any paid member.
For a vocabulary review, that rarely matters. For a graded quiz, a family puzzle with personal details, or answers that need spaces, it might. Below: what Crossword Labs does well, what its $9.95 membership changes, and six alternatives sorted by the problem they solve. Grid Genius is our product, and we hold it to the same standard as the rest.
How we checked. Crossword Labs facts come from its home page, FAQ and membership page, read November 4, 2026. Every alternative was checked on its own site the same day.
What Crossword Labs gets right
It is hard to make a simpler maker. You type one answer and its clue per line, set a passcode that protects the answer key and lets you edit later, and save.
- No barriers. No account, no ads, no watermark.
- Online solving. Every puzzle gets a link that works on phones and tablets. Focus Mode shows the puzzle without the site's branding or buttons, which suits students.
- Exports. Print, or export to PDF, Microsoft Word, an image or SVG.
- Embed code. Drop a puzzle into a class website or blog.
- Commercial use. You may sell puzzles you make, and no attribution is required.
- A sister site. WordsearchLabs makes word searches on the same terms: no ads, no watermarks, no registration.
Free plan vs lifetime membership
| Free | Lifetime membership | |
|---|---|---|
| Price (checked Nov 2026) | $0 | $9.95 once |
| Make, print, share, solve | Yes | Yes |
| Who can see your puzzle | Public: anyone, and search engines | Choose public, hidden (no search engines) or private (only you) |
| Your own answer key | Yes | Yes |
| Answer keys to other public puzzles | No | Yes |
| Dashboard of your puzzles | No | Yes |
| WordsearchLabs membership | No | Included |
That fourth row cuts both ways. Members can open the key to any public puzzle, including yours. If a public crossword is a graded assignment, assume a determined student can find the answers.
Where people hit its limits
- Public by default. Free puzzles can turn up in search results. Hidden and private puzzles need a membership.
- No spaces in answers. Its FAQ is blunt: "Can my answers have spaces?" No. SOLAR SYSTEM has to go in as SOLARSYSTEM.
- You write everything. We found no AI feature, so a topic without a word list means writing the list yourself.
- No help for stuck solvers. Students can check the key or give up; there are no hints between the two.
- Grids are generated, not built. You cannot place black squares or fill a symmetric grid.
Six alternatives, by the problem you want solved
| If you need... | Try | Cost (checked Nov 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| A private puzzle students solve by link | Grid Genius (ours) | Free makers; paid Pro plan |
| Answers with spaces | Grid Genius or Puzzle-maker.com | Free; Puzzle-maker.com PDF from $2.95 |
| A puzzle from a topic, no list | Grid Genius or The Teacher's Corner | Free tiers |
| A decorated worksheet | The Teacher's Corner | Free with ads; premium from $3.49 |
| Pair work or a word bank | Armored Penguin | No charge, ad-supported |
| Paper only, no account at all | Discovery Education Puzzlemaker | Free |
| A real constructor's grid | Crosshare | Free, no ads |
Private puzzles, phrases and AI: Grid Genius
Grid Genius covers most of the gaps above in one place. Its free word-list maker takes your words and clues, one pair per line, split by a dash, colon, tab or equals sign. Phrases stay whole: SOLAR SYSTEM fills as SOLARSYSTEM without you deleting the space. You download the worksheet and answer key as separate PDFs, with no account.
Saved puzzles are private by default. They stay out of public lists and search, and they still open for anyone you send the link to, with no student accounts. A stuck student can tap for a hint. You can write a backup hint for any word, which appears first. After that, AI Hints rephrase the clue or add a related fact, each one a little more helpful, instead of filling in letters.
No word list? Type a topic, such as the solar system or the Harlem Renaissance, and AI builds the words, the clues and the grid. A free account includes 3 AI puzzles to start. Our walkthrough of making a word list crossword covers the maker step by step.
Where Crossword Labs is better: it has no ads anywhere, while the free Grid Genius app shows ads, and AI generation needs a free account. Grid Genius printouts also carry a small footer, and grids top out at 15x15.
Generate a solar system crosswordAnswers with spaces: Puzzle-maker.com
Puzzle-maker.com reads each line as answer, slash, clue, so "Rhode Island / The smallest state" works and fills as RHODEISLAND. The free version is a printable web page with a sponsor's message and ads around the maker. A clean PDF with the solution costs $2.95 per puzzle or $14.95 for a year (not auto-renewing), and a picture-background PDF is $4.95. Buyers can also get an interactive version.
A decorated worksheet: The Teacher's Corner
The Teacher's Corner crossword maker leans on presentation: fonts, colors, pictures, a word bank and a name line, with premade word lists to start from. It can also draft clues for a bare word list, or a whole puzzle from a subject, with an AI feature it labels beta. Puzzles print, download as a PDF or image, or go online as a playable link.
The trade-offs are ads and limits. The free tier allows 30 lines, or 10 if you use an ad blocker. Premium allows 50 lines and removes ads, at $4.99 every 30 days or one-off passes from $3.49 for 7 days. Its citation stays on every puzzle, even for subscribers. If those limits are why you are looking, our Teacher's Corner crossword maker alternatives covers them in detail.
Pair work and word banks: Armored Penguin
Armored Penguin's maker places every word you give it into a simple crossword, with HTML or PDF output, answer keys and an online solver. Two options set it apart for classrooms: a word bank for students who need support, and an information gap mode that prints two partly solved sheets so partners must explain their words to each other. Puzzles stay on its server for about two months, so keep a copy, and ads run on the pages.
Paper only, zero setup: Discovery Education Puzzlemaker
Puzzlemaker's Criss-Cross page asks for a title and your word list, with no account, and returns a printable puzzle with Show Answer, Print Puzzle and Rebuild Puzzle buttons. It has no save button and no online solving, and the first space ends each answer. Our Grid Genius vs Puzzlemaker test shows exactly what that does to a two-word answer.
A constructor's grid: Crosshare
If Crossword Labs feels too automatic, Crosshare is the free step up. It is a free, ad-free, open-source site where you design the grid, place black squares and let autofill suggest the rest. It works on desktops, tablets and phones, imports .puz and .ipuz files, and publishes each puzzle with solver stats. Our Crossword Compiler alternatives roundup covers it and the other constructor tools.
Should you switch?
Stay with Crossword Labs if your puzzles are vocabulary practice, you are fine with them being public, and your answers are single words. It is free, fast and ad-free, and few tools match that.
Switch, or add a second tool, when one of these is true:
- The puzzle is graded, personal or otherwise not for the public.
- Your answers include phrases or names with spaces.
- You have a topic but no word list.
- You want students to get a nudge instead of the answer key.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Making, printing, sharing and solving puzzles on crosswordlabs.com is free, with no ads, no watermarks and no registration. An optional lifetime membership ($9.95 one time, checked November 2026) adds a dashboard, privacy controls, answer keys to any public puzzle and a WordsearchLabs membership. Its own FAQ says most people never buy one.
Not on the free plan. A free puzzle is public: anyone can find, view, solve and print it, and it is visible in search engines. Members can make a puzzle hidden (kept out of search engines) or private (only you can view it). The answer key of a public puzzle can be viewed by you and by paid members, which matters if you use the puzzle as a graded quiz.
No. Its FAQ answers that question with a flat no. Type multi-word answers with no space (ICECREAM), or use a maker that closes the gap for you. Grid Genius and Puzzle-maker.com both accept phrases and fill them without the space.
It depends on what you need. For a private puzzle students solve by link, Grid Genius saves maker puzzles as private by default, and they open by direct link without student accounts. For a decorated worksheet, The Teacher's Corner. For pair work, Armored Penguin's information gap mode. For a no-account paper puzzle, Discovery Education Puzzlemaker.
We found no AI feature on Crossword Labs; you supply every word and clue. Grid Genius builds a whole puzzle from a topic with AI, and The Teacher's Corner can draft words and clues from a subject.
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.