nowfound

Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to Three Magic Words

Here’s a free, fun, novel five-letter word game for the web! It’s a game I originally wrote for the iPhone in 2010, but wasn’t able to finish before my first child was born. When I left my senior web developer job in September 2021 I figured I would postpone looking for work and finish the game before another 11 years passed, and expose myself to new skills doing it (in this case, Swift). I released it on the App Store in December, then turned my attention to doing a web version — when suddenly Wordle was in The NY Times, and then everywhere. Perhaps foolishly, I plowed ahead and here we…

Three Magic Words is a free web-based five-letter word game with a single daily puzzle that increases in difficulty throughout the week. Players guess words to solve each day's challenge. The game was developed by a… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Three Magic Words launched in 2022; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

  1. 1
    18 Words▲1,160

    Play 18 Words, the free daily word puzzle. The official home is 18words.com. Tap Play now to open today

    Jul 2026 · 18words.com · its alternatives →

  2. 2
    Letters▲71

    I made a new daily word game for web and iOS which is a funky mix of scrabble and boggle. Each day everyone gets the same randomly generated configuration of bonus tiles and letters on a grid. The app is written completely in SwiftUI and the web port is written in ts/react. Both use the same random seeds each day.

    2015 · thelettersgame.com · its alternatives →

  3. 3IM
  4. 4

    Hi everybody. I occasionally make little browser-based games, and this is my latest attempt. It's not quite done, but it's quite playable (note: it does include audio): https://www.omiword.com/ This has been my occasional tinker target for ~5 years now, starting in the early days of Covid. The objective is to drag letter tiles within certain boundaries to spell four common American-English words. It hasn't got ads or anything, it's just supposed to be fun for its own sake. If people happen to like it, I might add an option for folks to make a small, one-time payment to unlock…

    2025 · omiword.com · its alternatives →

  5. 5
    Wordle▲302

    A daily word game

    2022 · powerlanguage.co.uk · its alternatives →

  6. 6

    I shared Word Slicer here a while back — it’s a free, ad-free, browser-based word game where you try to find 5 words in 5 minutes. Since then I’ve been improving it (daily challenge archive, cleaner UI, better stats), and I’d love more feedback from the HN crowd. In particular, I’m interested in thoughts on the gameplay flow, design/UX, and what would make it more engaging.

    2024 · wordslicer.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7

    A free word game for iOS

    2022 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8

    Addictive word puzzle game

    2022 · fiveletters.xyz · its alternatives →

  9. 9
    Threes!▲95

    A tiny puzzle that grows on you

    2014 · asherv.com · its alternatives →

  10. 10NL

    I've been playing Wordle and remembered this puzzle game I used to play with my grandfather. It's inspired by the block puzzles in many newspapers but made to be shorter: just guess the nine letter word. So I made a quick thing to play with my family like we used to. I thought you guys might enjoy it.

    2022 · nineletterwordgame.com · its alternatives →

  11. 11IW
  12. 12

    Fun daily word game where you make sequences of words.

    2022 · robinwords.com · its alternatives →

  13. 13AN

    2022 · twentyletters.com · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    Play word puzzles with friends, learn and train your brain

    2022 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

  15. 15
    Az▲70

    Relaxing word puzzle game for iOS

    2021 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

  16. 16

    Solve puzzles, train brain, increase vocabulary, get smarter

    2019 · play.google.com · its alternatives →

  17. 17IM

    Hi everyone, Wanted to share a game I built. It's called Unscramble! and I believe it's the simplest word building game. Rules: You get a few letters on screen. You need to make one word with all the letters. Tap a letter to select. Tap again to deselect. Faster you go, better you score. If you enter anagrams of the word it's looking for, it gives you extra points. If you are stuck, you can either "Ask Friend" or get Hint. You get extra points for getting the word fast but you don't get penalized for taking too long. I believe the simplicity of the game along with big touch buttons makes it…

    Sep 2026 · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    I'm in the process of learning German and wanted to play a German version of the NYT’s Spelling Bee. It was awful, I was very bad at it, it was not fun. So I built my own version of Spelling Bee meant for people like me. Three Emojis is a daily word game designed for language learners. You get seven letters and a list of blanked-out words to find. When you discover shorter words, they automatically fill into longer ones—like a crossword—which turns out to be really useful for languages like German. Each word also gets three emojis assigned to it as a clue, created by GPT-5 to try and capture…

    Nov 2025 · threeemojis.com · its alternatives →

  19. 19
  20. 20

    A simple, challenging, daily, word game

    2022 · 6words.xyz · its alternatives →

  21. 21

    A head-scratching word puzzle game

    2019 · play.google.com · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    A Word Puzzle game Inspired by the New York Time's, Wordle

    2022 · play.google.com · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    Multiplayer word puzzles with endless replayability

    2022 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    Hi HN! Looking for feedback on this 1v1 and daily word dueling game I've built over the last few months. Play here: https://wordtrak.com/ Or on iOS here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/wordtrak/id6760442363 (Android version soon!)

    May 2026 · wordtrak.com · its alternatives →

Also compare

Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →