We all love gathering friends in the living room and cracking out a good board game. However, sometimes it is tricky to get everyone in one place at the same time, not to mention the set up time required for some board games! People move away, but we still want to stay in contact. The internet is the perfect remedy because it can connect us globally. Forget set up, forget tidying away, lets check out the best online board games for free.
Table of Contents
- Colonist.io (Catan Only)
- Board Game Arena (Board Game Library)
- Tabletopia (Board Game Library)
- Happy Meeple (2 Player Board Game Library)
- Chess.com (Chess Only)
- Honourable Mentions
- Free Board Game Apps
- Summing Up the Best Places To Play Online Board Games For Free
Colonist.io (Catan Only)
Colonist.io is a free online alternative to the classic Settlers of Catan board game. It is an exceedingly popular site with around 50,000 to 100,000 games being played daily. Catan itself has sold around 30 million physical copies since its release in 1995 and so you will certainly be among fans if you try this online version of the board game.
The game has seen devoted team working on it since its release in 1995. You can play against both bots and players for practice, but we would recommend the latter as this will help with your negotiation, a core skill for Catan success.
While the base game is certainly free, they do offer paid cosmetics and also Catan expansions like Cities and Knights and Seafarers. However, the traditional Catan experience is favoured by most.
If you did not know, in short, Catan is a game all about resource management and area control. You are a settler in a brand new world. Supporting up to 4 players, your aim is to get 10 victory points. This is done by creating settlements, cities as well as completing some game objectives, such as longest road.
Board Game Arena (Board Game Library)
Board Game Arena has a huge library to choose from – around 500 games! In addition they have a major user base in the online world, around 8 million. The site has been warmly received by big names in the board game review industry, such as The Dice Tower and Board Game Geek.
Making an account is free and has a great filter mechanic to help you sort your board games and experiment with new ones. Filter by Play time, complexity and theme to find your perfect game. What is also helpful is that it offers you the option to filter by “Never Played” so it encourages you to try new games.
Some free games on Board Game Arena that are worth mentioning are:
- Terra Mystica
- Puerto Rico
- Imhotep
- Stone Age
- Tobago
While Board Game Arena does have access to some more recognisable names in the industry: Ticket to Ride, Wingspan, and Splendor, you will require a subscription to play them. Yearly, it comes out to around £27. You will be paying more for the physical copy of the games, so realistically, it is not that expensive. However, if you only want to play the free ones you will have a more limited selection.
Tabletopia (Board Game Library)
The Team behind Tabletopia has been working on the project since 2014. Their team are avid board gamers from all over the globe: Australia, Germany, and the United States to name a few. Tabletopia supports not only gamers, but designers too. With the free membership you get up to 200mg of storage with two play zones and two setups per game.
While Board Game Area had around 500 games on their roster, Tabletopia has nearer to 2000! However, this does come with some sacrifice. At Tabletopia, on most games, there is not an AI to enforce the rules. It makes the design of the games a lot simpler, therefore meaning they can pump out games more quickly. Unfortunately, this does reduce the quality of life for the games a bit. It relies on players understanding the rules and playing fairly. Not only this, but genuine errors will not be picked up by the game A.I, so it is worth being aware of this. Realistically though, if you bought a game home off the supermarket shelf you would have no AI telling you what to do either; it is up to you to decide if this is a major factor in online gameplay enjoyment.
Notable free games on Tabletopia include:
- Santorini
- Stockpile
- K2
- Rail road Ink
- Cartographers
Again, there is a premium subscription for those more refined and popular games – it is a bit more expensive than board game arena, so it is down to you to choose which has a better library of games.
Happy Meeple (2 Player Board Game Library)
Happy Meeple is much simpler site compared to the two that we have just mentioned. It has a smaller team behind it and it has fewer games to play. However, that does not mean it is not a gem in the rough.
Happy Meeple focuses on the 2-player board game experience and is built specifically with this in mind. Some notable games include:
- Migrato
- Finito
- Keltis Ór
- Lost Cities
- Cartographers
What is most refreshing about Happy Meeple is that it looks like a labour of love. There does not seem to be any subscription based service or much profiteering on the site, just a love of board games.
Chess.com (Chess Only)
Chess.com is really what is says on the tin to be honest – an online platform to play chess. It is the number 1 platform in terms of accounts for online chess. Started by two college friends in 2005, chess.com now employs over 400 people and ironically, while focusing on only one game, has the largest team out of any of the sites on this list.
Chess.com allows both casual and competitive play. There are even Grand Masters – chess professionals – who play on the site, like Magnus Carlsen, world number 1. The site hosts many different formats of chess, such as bullet chess and blitz chess as well as the more typical chess we all know and love.
The most positive thing about chess.com is that it actively tries to make you a better player. It offers a learning centre, to teach beginner and intermediate strategy, as well as daily puzzles to test your brain. In addition, the ranking system attempts to play you against players of a similar standard. You will not learn much if you get smashed by someone significantly better than you; nor do you learn if you crush a much weaker player. You need to find a happy middle ground.
While you can also get premium accounts to chess.com it is one of the best places to play chess online for free.
Honourable Mentions
The following games on this list are worth checking out if you have not managed to find the game you are looking for on any of the sites above. The following do have good selections of online board games for free, but the interfaces to their websites are noticeably outdated:
Free Board Game Apps
Board games are typically easier to play on a web browser. Phones and tablets have smaller screens, but that is not to say that some game designers have had this in mind and try to combat it. You will not find the greatest selection on the app store because the most popular games often have a premium price tag. Hopefully though you will find some good free ones below:
- Hearthstone
- RISK: Global Domination
- Coup
- Ascension
- Onirim
Summing Up the Best Places To Play Online Board Games For Free
If you want to do it right, you will often have to go to a dedicated board game library. Their work and their software are often subscription based, but at the end of the day they have to make money somehow otherwise they could not dedicate themselves to making quality sites. It is hard to make good Online Board Games for Free. Some more popular games, such as Ticket to Ride or Wingspan, require licencing from the original publishers to be reproduced as digital copies. No one wants an expensive lawsuit, so if you want to play these it is probably best to contribute a little. Free ones are available, but the selection is fewer than their premium counterparts.
