When BoardGameArena goes down (it happens!), here are some excellent alternatives. All of these are free to play, browser-based (no download), and no login required for guests—someone creates a “room” and shares a link or code.
Recommended Sites
| Website | Game Type | Players | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Netgames.io | Social Deduction Hub | 5–20+ | A polished interface for social deduction hits. Includes Secret Hitler, Avalon, One Night Ultimate Werewolf, Spyfall, and Codewords (Codenames clone). No setup required; just share the room code. |
| Codenames.game | Team Word Game | 4–8+ | The official online version of Codenames. Two teams compete to contact all their agents first by guessing words from one-word clues. Excellent for teams. |
| Gartic Phone | Drawing / Party | 4–14+ | The “Telephone” game but with drawings. Player A writes a prompt, Player B draws it, Player C describes the drawing, and so on. Hilarious results and perfect for Zoom laughter. |
| Longwave | Social / Team | 2–10+ | A web implementation of the board game Wavelength. Teams try to guess where a hidden target lies on a spectrum (e.g., “Hot” to “Cold”) based on a psychic’s clue (e.g., “Coffee”). |
| PlayingCards.io | Card Game Sandbox | 1–6+ | A virtual tabletop that moves anything you drag. Comes with pre-made rooms for Crazy Eights, Hearts, Go Fish, and Cribbage, or you can build custom games. |
| Colonist.io | Strategy | 1–4 | A clean, fast clone of Settlers of Catan. Gather resources, build roads/settlements, and trade with other players. Base game is free for 4 players. |
| OneWord.games | Co-op Word Game | 3–∞ | A web version of Just One. Everyone writes one-word clues to help the guesser find the mystery word. If clues are identical, they’re deleted! |
| World Of Card Games | Card Games | 1–6 | Many different card games including Hearts, Spades, Euchre, Gin Rummy, and more. |
| Gidd.io | Variety Hub | 2–20 | A suite of simple games including Yatzy, Uno (Crazy Eights), and GeoClash (Geography guessing). Handles up to 20 players smoothly. |
| JigsawPuzzles.io | Co-op Puzzle | 1–10 | Collaborative real-time jigsaw puzzles. You can see everyone’s mouse cursors moving pieces around. Very chill and great for chatting while playing. |
| Fake Artist Online | Drawing / Deduction | 5–10 | Based on “A Fake Artist Goes to New York.” Everyone draws one line to contribute to a picture, but the “Fake Artist” doesn’t know the topic and tries to blend in. |
Tips for Hosting
Login: For most of these sites, only the person creating the room might need a login (often not even them), but guests definitely do not.
Audio/Video: Since these run in the browser, keep your Zoom window open in the background or side-by-side to talk while you play.
Browser: These work best on Chrome, Firefox, or Edge on a desktop/laptop. Mobile support varies—Gartic Phone and Spyfall work great on phones; Colonist and PlayingCards.io are harder on small screens.
Need help getting started with any of these platforms? Come join us for our Friday night sessions where we often use these backup sites when BGA has issues. Check our upcoming events to see when we’re playing next!