Grid Genius vs Puzzlemaker: Which Crossword Maker for Class?

Discovery Education Puzzlemaker is the right choice for a quick paper crossword. Grid Genius is the right choice when students should solve on a screen, when you want to keep the puzzle, or when your answers have more than one word.

That is the short answer. To check it, we ran the same 12-word science vocabulary list through both makers on November 4, 2026 and compared what came out. Grid Genius is our product, so we name the places where Puzzlemaker does the job better, and there are several.

The comparison at a glance

Puzzlemaker facts come from its own pages at puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com, checked November 2026.

What happened with the same word list

Our list had twelve photosynthesis words with short clues, such as "CHLOROPHYLL Green pigment that captures light." Two of the answers were two words long: CARBON DIOXIDE and CELL WALL.

In Puzzlemaker

Puzzlemaker's crossword is called Criss-Cross. You give it a title of up to 49 characters, then type each word, a space and its clue on one line, up to 3,000 characters in all. Click Create My Puzzle and a printable page appears with the grid, the clues and its buttons: Show Answer, Print Puzzle and Rebuild Puzzle.

All twelve words made it into the grid, but the two-word answers broke. Puzzlemaker treats the first space as the end of the answer, so it placed CARBON and CELL. Their clues came out as "DIOXIDE Gas that leaves take in from the air" and "WALL Rigid outer layer of a plant cell." A student would be stuck on both. The fix is to type CARBONDIOXIDE as one word, which works, but you have to know to do it.

Everything else is quick. Print Puzzle prints whatever is on screen, so you print the student copy first, click Show Answer, and print the key. Rebuild Puzzle shuffles the same words into a new grid. The grid itself is an image, which is why students cannot type into it.

In Grid Genius

We put the same twelve lines through the paste reader and layout engine behind the word-list maker, this time with a dash between each word and its clue, which is one of the formats it reads. CARBON DIOXIDE and CELL WALL went in whole, as CARBONDIOXIDE and CELLWALL, the way printed crosswords handle phrases. All twelve words fit on a 15x15 board; the maker chose that size because CARBONDIOXIDE is 13 letters long.

The worksheet and the answer key download as separate PDFs, and the worksheet carries Name and Date lines. Saving the puzzle gives it a link students can solve on a Chromebook or phone, with no student sign-ups. Puzzles saved from the maker are private by default, so they stay out of public listings.

Where Puzzlemaker wins

Be fair to the incumbent. Puzzlemaker is the better pick in four cases.

• You want more than crosswords. It makes ten puzzle types: Word Search, Criss-Cross, Double Puzzles, Fallen Phrases, Math Squares, Mazes, Letter Tiles, Cryptograms, Number Blocks and Hidden Message. Grid Genius makes crosswords only.
• You want zero setup. No account, no email, no settings to read. A title, a list and one button.
• Your answers are single words. Spelling lists and one-word vocabulary never hit the space problem.
• You print, and that is all. If the puzzle is going on paper and into a folder, saving and links do not matter.

Where Grid Genius wins

• The puzzle outlives the tab. Puzzlemaker has no save button, so a puzzle is gone once you close the page. Grid Genius saves it with a link you can reuse next year.
• Students can solve on a screen. The link opens a playable grid in any browser. That suits homework, sub plans and one-to-one device classrooms.
• Phrases work. Answers with spaces fill as one entry instead of breaking the line.
• Hints that teach. You can write a backup hint for any word, and a stuck student sees your second clue before anything else. After that, AI Hints rephrase the clue or add a related fact, each one a little more helpful, instead of filling in letters. Our post on backup hints shows how to write them.
• No word list yet. Give Grid Genius a topic, such as the water cycle or the American Revolution, and AI builds a complete puzzle: the words, the clues and the grid. A free account includes 3 AI puzzles to start, and you can edit anything before you print.
• Anti-copying versions. Puzzlemaker's Rebuild button gives a new layout, but you match keys to copies yourself. A Grid Genius class set, on Pro, prints 2 or 4 lettered versions of one puzzle, each with its own answer key. See how to print crossword versions.
• Constructor files. The website maker imports and exports .puz, .ipuz and .jpz files, alongside PDF and image downloads.

Limits on the Grid Genius side

You should know these before you switch.

• Crosswords only. Keep Puzzlemaker bookmarked for word searches and mazes.
• Plain letters. Answers use A to Z. Accented letters are folded, so CAFÉ becomes CAFE.
• Small branding. Free printouts carry a small Grid Genius footer.
• Ads on the free app. The free tier shows ads in the app, and AI generation needs a free account.
• Square grids, 15x15 at most. A very long list is split into up to three linked puzzles instead of one huge grid.

Which should you use?

Plenty of teachers use both: Puzzlemaker for the odd word search, Grid Genius for vocabulary units they reuse. If you want to see the rest of the field, our Discovery Education Puzzlemaker alternatives compares eight more makers, and the crossword puzzle maker for teachers guide has ten ways to use a puzzle in class.

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