The Teacher's Corner Crossword Maker: Limits and 6 Alternatives

The Teacher's Corner crossword maker is free, but the free version comes with ads, a 30-line cap and a citation on every puzzle. Run an ad blocker and the cap drops to 10. Premium lifts the cap to 50 and removes the ads; the citation stays even then.

None of that makes it a bad tool. It has more formatting options than most free makers, premade word lists, and a long shelf of other worksheet makers. But if one of those limits is why you are here, this page shows which alternative removes it. Grid Genius is our product, and we say plainly where it falls short too.

How we checked. Every limit and price below comes from The Teacher's Corner's own maker page, FAQ and plans list, read November 4, 2026, in US dollars. Alternatives were checked on their own sites the same day.

The Teacher's Corner, tier by tier

The site runs three tiers, and which one you are on depends partly on your browser.

The one-off passes run $3.49 for 7 days, $6.99 for 30 days, $18.99 for 90 days, $35.99 for 180 days and $67.99 for 365 days, and the site says every package carries the same features. The 30-day $4.99 plan is the only recurring one.

What it does well

Be fair before you leave. The Teacher's Corner earns its audience.

• Formatting. Change the font, font size, font and background colors, add pictures, and add or remove the name line and instructions. A word bank sits under the advanced options.
• Premade lists. Start from a ready-made word and clue set instead of a blank form.
• Online play. Puzzles can be printed, saved as a PDF or image, or shared as a playable online crossword.
• AI help (beta). Paste a list of words and it drafts the clues, or give it a subject and it drafts both. Free users get up to 10 AI clues per set and subscribers 30, and the site notes its data is roughly two years old.
• A whole worksheet shelf. Word search, word scramble, match-up, fill-in-the-blank, maze, sudoku and math worksheet makers live on the same site, plus Spanish and French crossword makers.

Six alternatives, matched to the limit you want gone

No ads at all: Crossword Labs

Crossword Labs is free with no ads, no watermarks and no registration. You type one answer and clue per line, set a passcode to protect the key, and get a link students can solve on phones or tablets, plus PDF, Word, image and SVG exports. Two catches: free puzzles are public and visible in search engines, and answers cannot contain spaces. We cover it in depth in Is Crossword Labs free?

More lines, private links and AI: Grid Genius

The Grid Genius word-list maker takes up to 50 words on its free tier, with no account and no ads on the maker page. A list too long for one board becomes up to three linked puzzles, Part 1 to Part 3. Phrases stay whole, so CELL WALL fills as CELLWALL. The worksheet prints with Name and Date lines, and the answer key downloads as its own PDF.

Saved puzzles are private by default: they stay out of public listings, and anyone with the link can solve them without an account. For a stuck student, your own backup hint comes first, then AI Hints, which rephrase the clue or add a related fact instead of revealing letters. If you only have a topic, AI builds the whole puzzle, words and clues included; a free account includes 3 AI puzzles to start.

Where The Teacher's Corner wins: far more styling (fonts, colors, pictures), and many other worksheet types. Grid Genius makes crosswords only, prints a small Grid Genius footer, and its free app shows ads.

No account, no setup: Discovery Education Puzzlemaker

Puzzlemaker's crossword, called Criss-Cross, takes a title and up to 3,000 characters of words and clues, with no account and no settings to learn. Discovery Education's site shows its own promotional banners, and we saw no third-party ads. It is paper only, though: no save button, no online solving, and the first space ends each answer. See Grid Genius vs Puzzlemaker for a side-by-side test.

A desktop app, on Windows: EclipseCrossword

EclipseCrossword is a free Windows app with no ads and no trial limits. You type words and clues, it builds the puzzle on your PC, and you print it or export the grid and clues to a word processor, with a separate answer key file. It does not run on Mac, Chromebook or phones, and its latest version dates from December 2020. Our EclipseCrossword alternatives post covers the options for other devices.

Pair work: Armored Penguin

Armored Penguin's maker charges nothing and needs no account. Its information gap mode prints two copies of a puzzle, each partly answered, so partners write their own definitions to help each other finish. It also adds a word bank on request, grey squares that save ink, and PDF page sizes from US Letter to A4. It shows ads, and puzzles stay on its server for about two months.

One list, many worksheets: WordMint

WordMint turns a word list into crosswords, word searches, bingo cards, matching worksheets, word scrambles and multiple-choice worksheets, and can convert a crossword into a matching worksheet. It has full support for diacritics, which helps world-language classes. Its create buttons lead to a sign-up page, and saving as a PDF or Word document is paid: $5.99 a month or $47.90 a year, checked November 2026.

So, should you switch?

Stay with The Teacher's Corner if you value styling and its other worksheet makers, and the ads do not bother you. If you use it weekly, its premium tier is a fair price for 50 lines and no waits.

Look elsewhere when:

• Your school blocks ads, so you are stuck at 10 lines. Crossword Labs or Grid Genius gives you more room with no ads on the maker.
• You want no ads and no watermark. Crossword Labs, if a public puzzle is fine.
• Students should solve on screens, privately. Grid Genius.
• You have a topic but no list. Grid Genius builds the whole puzzle; The Teacher's Corner's beta AI drafts the words and clues for you to place.

For the wider field of classroom makers, our Discovery Education Puzzlemaker alternatives compares eight of them side by side.

Frequently asked questions