Pick Murdle if you want a story around a logic grid, and Clues by Sam if you want strict proof with no guessing allowed. Deductionary is the shortest clean grid of the group, Mystery-o-matic turns a murder into a timeline, and Daily Holmes, the game we make, asks you to find the evidence yourself in a picture before you reason from it.
All five post a new puzzle every day and play free in a web browser. We loaded each one on its official site on 29 September 2026, so the prices, rules, and extras below are as of October 2026. Because we make one of the five, we have kept the descriptions to what each site says about itself and what we saw when we played.
In brief
- Four of the five hand you true clues and test your logic; Daily Holmes hands you a scene and tests whether you can find the clues.
- Every daily here is free in a browser; the paid extras are books, puzzle packs, tips, or a membership.
- The best morning is often two games: one grid for proof and one scene for judgment.
The comparison table
| Game | Format | New puzzle | Price | Time | Skill it trains | Platform |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daily Holmes | One scene, one question; the answer format rotates | Daily, midnight UTC | Daily case free; membership $3.99 a month or $29.99 a year | About 3 minutes | Observation: deciding what counts as evidence | Web browser, desktop and phone |
| Murdle | A short murder story, a clue list, and a logic grid | Daily, with a mini for newcomers | Free; books sold separately | 5 to 15 minutes | Elimination from supplied clues | Web browser |
| Clues by Sam | Twenty people, each criminal or innocent; no guessing allowed | Daily, harder through the week | Free; puzzle packs from $1 (pay what you want) or 5 euros | 5 to 20 minutes | Strict proof, one forced step at a time | Web browser |
| Deductionary | Place ten letters in a small grid of icons using clues | Daily, midnight in your time zone | Free; tips on Ko-fi | Under 5 minutes | Spatial constraints and accuracy | Web browser |
| Mystery-o-matic | A mansion murder: who, when, and with which weapon | Daily | Free and open source | About 5 minutes | Timelines and alibis | Web browser |
Times are our rough estimate for an ordinary day, except Mystery-o-matic, which promises a case in about five minutes, and Daily Holmes, which is built around three. Hard days run longer everywhere.
What each game asks of you
Murdle
G. T. Karber's daily murder: a few paragraphs of story, a list of clues, and a grid of suspects, weapons, locations, and motives to cross off until who, how, where, and why lock together. The About page says the daily cases are generated by a proprietary algorithm it calls MORIARTY, and that the hardest puzzle falls on Saturday and the biggest on Sunday. Newcomers are pointed to a daily mini first. The puzzles also became a book series, which in 2023 was the UK Christmas number one and the Waterstones Gift of the Year.
Clues by Sam
A grid of twenty people, four across and five down, each either criminal or innocent. Everyone tells the truth, even the criminals, and the game refuses any mark you cannot yet prove; its instructions promise there is always a logical next choice. Puzzles get harder through the week. A free account keeps your results and opens the previous week's puzzles, and packs of 50 extra puzzles are sold on the side: the first at pay what you want from $1, the second, harder one at a fixed 5 euros. The studio behind it is Ad Artis Oy.
Deductionary
The smallest game here. A grid holds six icons and ten empty cells, and you place ten letters using clues about rows, columns, and neighbors. Accuracy is the score: five stars for a clean solve, falling to one for five or more wrong placements. A new puzzle arrives at midnight in your own time zone, it passed puzzle number 200 this year, and you can play as a guest; a free account saves your streak and opens past puzzles.
Mystery-o-matic
A group of friends in a mansion, and a new murder every day. You work out who did it, when, and with which weapon from where everyone was, room by room, in fifteen-minute steps. Each clue you read lowers your score, and a wrong accusation costs you too. In the easy mode everyone tells the truth; in the harder one the killer may lie. The code is open source.
Daily Holmes
One scene and one question every midnight UTC, usually a room someone lives in, with a question about the person or about what happened there. The day's format decides how you answer: write a reading, find the object, hunt the clues, pick the lie among three statements, order the morning's events, match objects to their owners, spot the difference between two versions of a scene, or choose a profile. Each case has a fixed answer key, 60 points for the main answer and 40 for extra observations. An AI examiner scores written readings against that key; the tap formats are checked directly. The daily case is free. The paid Inspector membership opens the archive of more than 130 past cases, and every account has it free through October 2026. Every format is on the modes page.
Who each game is best for
- Murdle, if you want a story. The narration makes each grid feel like a case, and the mini is a gentle on-ramp.
- Clues by Sam, if you want the discipline enforced. No other daily here stops you from guessing, and the weekly climb gives it a rhythm.
- Deductionary, if you have three minutes. It is tidy and quick, and it rewards care over speed.
- Mystery-o-matic, if you like alibis. Tracking who was where, and when, is its own skill, and the lying mode adds testimony you cannot trust.
- Daily Holmes, if you want to train your eye. Nothing is labeled as a clue, so the work starts earlier, and the answer format changes from day to day.
The honest trade-offs
The four grid games share a promise: every clue is true and relevant, and there is exactly one provable answer. That certainty is the pleasure. It also means the observing has been done for you; your job begins once the evidence is already on the list.
Daily Holmes gives up some of that certainty to test the earlier step. On the tap formats the answer is exact. On written days an examiner reads your reasoning against the answer key, which is a judgment rather than a proof, so a score can feel less final than a solved grid. It is also one case a day, with no mini and no puzzle packs, which some players will count against it.
For a closer head-to-head of the two biggest names, see Murdle vs Clues by Sam. If you already play one and want the next, we grouped the alternatives in games like Clues by Sam and games like Murdle. Or open today's case and see which kind of reasoning you enjoy more.
Ready to practise?
A new visual case lands every morning. Study the scene and solve it in the day's format. Written deductions receive AI feedback; structured modes check your answer directly.
Play today's caseFrequently asked questions
What is the best daily deduction game?
It depends on the kind of reasoning you want. Murdle is best for a story wrapped around a logic grid, Clues by Sam for strict proof with no guessing, Deductionary for a very short grid, Mystery-o-matic for alibis and timelines, and Daily Holmes for finding the evidence yourself in a picture. All five are free to play daily in a browser.
Are daily deduction games free?
The five compared here all offer a free daily puzzle in a web browser, as of October 2026. The extras differ: Murdle sells books, Clues by Sam sells puzzle packs, Deductionary takes tips on Ko-fi, Mystery-o-matic is open source, and Daily Holmes has an optional paid membership for its archive.
Which daily deduction game is the hardest?
Clues by Sam on a Saturday is the usual answer: its puzzles get harder through the week, and its paid packs run from easy to evil. Murdle says its own hardest daily falls on Saturday and its biggest on Sunday. Mystery-o-matic gets harder when you let the killer lie.
Is there a daily deduction game without a logic grid?
Yes. Daily Holmes gives you a scene and one question instead of a grid and a clue list. You decide which details are evidence, then answer in the day's format, which might be a written reading, marking objects, ordering events, or picking the lie among three statements.
Can you play past puzzles of these games?
Some of them. A free account opens the previous week's puzzles on Clues by Sam and past puzzles on Deductionary. Daily Holmes keeps an archive of more than 130 past cases for members, with a few open to free players each month.