Free board games to play online with friends, no download

What board games can you play online with friends for free?

Codenames Online is the quickest: free in a browser with no account. Board Game Arena has 1,403 games and a free account, Colonist has a free Catan-style base game, and Hearthsea, our hex-island trading game, runs in a phone browser for 2 to 6, with online rooms opened by one host’s pass. Tabletopia and BuddyBoardGames are free too.

“Free” means something different on each site. Some need no account at all. Some are free to join but need one paying player to create the table. Some are free with ads. The table below spells that out for each one, because it decides whether your game night starts in one minute or ends at a payment screen.

Everything here runs in a web browser, so nobody downloads anything. Facts come from each site, checked on 11 October 2026; where we couldn’t confirm something, we say so. Hearthsea is our game, and we’ve tried to describe it as plainly as the others.

What “free” really means on each site

Hearthsea’s free account also plays 3 games a day against bots or pass-and-play on one device. A pass for hosting online starts at $3.99 a month.

The best free sites, one by one

Codenames Online: no account at all

The official browser version of Codenames, at codenames.game, is the fastest way from “let’s play something” to the first clue. You type a nickname, send the room link to your friends, and play. Two teams each have a spymaster who gives one-word clues, so the game is mostly talking and works on any voice or video call. It is the best pick on this page for big groups.

Board Game Arena: the biggest free catalogue

Board Game Arena lists 1,403 games and 10,853,000 players. A free account can create tables for the games that aren’t Premium and can join any table. For a Premium game, at least one player needs a Premium membership, and only that player can create the table and invite the rest. CATAN is one of the Premium games. Playing in the same location is also Premium only.

Use it when your group wants variety: open a game page, check whether it says Premium, and send the table link. The last Premium price BGA announced was 5 €/$ a month or 36 €/$ a year, in June 2023.

Hearthsea: a Catan-style game on any phone

Hearthsea is our game: an independent hex-island trading game, not affiliated with CATAN GmbH, where you settle, roll for resources, trade with each other and build. It runs in the browser on phones, tablets and desktops, and you can add it to your home screen. Every table seats 2 to 6, across 46 maps in three modes: Classic, Seafarers with ships and fog, and Highlands with cliffs, copper mines and a yeti. There are no ads.

It earns its place here for groups where everyone is on a phone and nobody wants an app. The host creates a room and reads out a four-letter code; friends in the same room can scan a QR code on the same Wi-Fi instead. If someone can’t make it, Settler, Merchant or Veteran bots fill the seat, and they trade too.

What free means here: you need a free account, which plays 3 games a day against bots or pass-and-play on the Standard, Balanced, New Shores and The Peaks maps, and can join a friend’s room. To host an online room, one person needs a pass, from $3.99 a month, and the friends who join don’t pay. The pricing page has every price, and our guide to playing online with friends walks through a first game.

What free means here: you need a free account, and with it every mode, all 46 maps, online rooms and quick match are free, with no daily limit. Cosmetics such as dice, frames, house themes and pets are sold, and they never change the rules. Our guide to playing online with friends walks through a first game.

Colonist: free Catan-style games with ads

Colonist’s base game is free in the browser, with ads. You can play the Beginner mode, a 4-player game or Colonist Rush against bots without signing in; ranked games need a login. Expansions such as Seafarers and Cities & Knights, 5 to 8 players and the fun maps need a membership, from $6.99 a month billed yearly. Colonist says only one player at a friends’ table needs it. There are Android and iOS apps as well as the browser version.

CATAN Universe: the official game, standard map only

CATAN Universe is the official CATAN app, and its FAQ says it also runs in Chrome and Firefox. The download and account are free; the free match is the base game on the standard map against two other human players. The base game, expansions and spin-offs are unlocked with CATAN Gold. Our comparison of Colonist, CATAN Universe, BGA and Hearthsea covers its pricing in detail.

Tabletopia: a free virtual table

Tabletopia gives you a table with pieces you move by hand, in the browser or through its free Steam app. The Bronze plan is free. More than 100 premium games and setups need a paid Silver or Gold plan, and only Gold lets Bronze and guest players join your premium games. Video chat inside Tabletopia needs one premium player at the table, so most free groups talk on Discord or Zoom instead. A 7-day free trial is available. We couldn’t verify the current Silver and Gold prices.

BuddyBoardGames and the classics

BuddyBoardGames is free with no sign-in: you name a room and share it. Check its home page for the current list of games. For the oldest classics, sites such as Pogo and AOL Games have free browser versions of games like chess and checkers, and Pogo has Scrabble.

Which free games suit 2, 4, or 6 or more players?

For two or four, the non-Premium games on Board Game Arena cost nobody anything, and Colonist’s 4-player base game is free with ads. For five or six, Hearthsea seats up to six on every map. For seven or more, Codenames.

• Two players: on BGA, each game page shows the player count and whether it is Premium. Colonist’s ranked 1v1 is free with a login, against strangers. Our guide to two-player Catan-style games covers how hex-island rules change for two.
• Four players: Colonist’s 4-player base game is free with ads. On BGA, a non-Premium four-player game costs nobody anything.
• Five or six: Hearthsea seats up to six on every map, with the island growing for bigger tables. Online, the host needs a pass and the others join free.
• Seven or more: Codenames, split into two teams. Colonist seats seven or eight, but only with a membership.

Which ones work on phones?

Hearthsea runs in a phone browser and can be added to the home screen. Colonist and CATAN Universe have Android and iOS apps. For the other sites, we didn’t verify phone support, so try the link on your phone before the night.

A phone matters most for games where you hold a hand of cards or resources. In Hearthsea everyone sees their own hand on their own screen, which is why it works for a group sitting in one room with their phones as well as for a group spread across a call.

How do you play board games over Zoom or Discord?

Talk on the call and play on your own screens. One person creates the room on the game site, pastes the link or code in the chat, and everyone joins from their own device. Screen sharing is only needed if one person runs the game for everyone.

1. Pick the game before the call, and check its row in the table above. If it needs a paying host, decide who that is.
2. Have everyone make the free account in advance, if the site needs one. Waiting for five sign-up emails is the slowest part of most online game nights.
3. Start the call, then open the room and share its link or code in the chat. On Hearthsea it is a four-letter code you can read out.
4. Keep secret information off shared screens. In Codenames, the spymaster should not share their screen, and in trading games, your hand stays on your own device.
5. Use the call for the talking. Trading games and Codenames are better when people can hear each other, and Tabletopia’s own video chat needs a premium player.

Questions people ask

Sources

Facts about Hearthsea come from the game and its rules and pricing pages. Facts about the other sites come from their own pages, checked on 11 October 2026.

1. Codenames Online
2. Board Game Arena home page: games and players
3. Board Game Arena: Premium membership and Premium games
4. Board Game Arena forum: Premium price from June 2023
5. CATAN GmbH: CATAN on Board Game Arena is a Premium game
6. Colonist home page: free modes and ads
7. Colonist store: membership and expansions
8. CATAN Universe FAQ: free download, CATAN Gold, browser version
9. CATAN Universe on Steam: what the free version includes
10. Tabletopia: player plans
11. BuddyBoardGames

Keep reading

• How to play a Catan-style game online with friends5 min read
• How to play a Catan-style game with five or six players6 min read
• How to play a Catan-style game with two players7 min read

CATAN is a registered trademark of Catan GmbH. Hearthsea is an independent game and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Catan GmbH or its publishers. Other game names belong to their owners and are used here only to describe and compare.