Playing party games with friends online is a perfect way to stay social, but while Jackbox games are the definitive go-to for party play, they are not always the best choice. Jackbox has a raucous and rowdy atmosphere that can get old. They also lean heavily on blue humor, which isn't always the right vibe. Most importantly, buying access to these games can set players back a pretty penny.

However, there are free digital alternatives for players not prepared to shell out for classic tabletop games or beloved Jackbox Party Packs. The internet is full of games well-suited to different-sized groups and commitment levels. Groups of almost any persuasion and taste can find something to occupy their time in a fun and social fashion.

Updated December 28, 2023 by Hannah Grimes: Online party gaming is every bit as entertaining and popular as doing it in person. However, games like Jackbox Party Packs can be daunting for groups who aren't sure if they'll enjoy them. This list has been updated with even more free games like Jackbox to liven up an evening.

15 Skribble.io Devolves Into Hilarious, Art-Based Chaos

Most Similar Jackbox Game: Drawful

The starting screen for skribbl.io web game

Skribbl.io is a free Jackbox alternative that plays similar to Pictionary. Players take turns drawing out a simple word or phrase while others try to guess based on the drawings. The game often devolves into chaos, with skilled artists creating uninterpretable sketches due to time constraints and unusual prompts. Guessers also contribute to the chaos by misinterpreting drawings even as they try their best to decipher the scribbles.

Skribbl.io provides a clean and robust interface to make gameplay easy with both public games and private groups. Skribbl.io provides everything players need and can be played entirely in-browser. With its tendency towards chaos and gameplay based around quick drawing, Skribbl.io is one of the free games most like Jackbox on the internet.

14 Squabble Is A Competitive Word Guessing Game

Most Similar Jackbox Game: Dictionarium

The title screen for Squabble Wordle game

Wordle has been a pop culture sensation for over a year, even if it's past its initial boom of popularity. Squabble is one of many variants that offers gamers a free Jackbox alternative. It takes similar word-guessing gameplay and sets players head-to-head. Gamers work to guess the words in front of them, dealing damage to their opponents with successful guesses and hurting themselves with wrong ones.

Squabble is best suited to specific groups who enjoy word games and Wordle specifically. Nonetheless, it provides a more social and active way of competing than simply sharing daily results scores. Players have to provide most of the social elements themselves, unlike Jackbox games, but it still gives them a vehicle for doing so.

13 Rocket Crab Is A Platform That Hosts Different Community-Made Games

Most Similar Jackbox Game: Various

Home screen for the Rocket Crab game hosting platform
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Rather than a game of its own, Rocket Crab is a platform that hosts various community-made games. Right on its home screen, users can submit their own games for review and potential listing on Rocket Crab if they're approved, giving players a wide variety of games to choose from that have all been approved by players like them.

Games like Drawphone and Fishbowl are included here, although they're more simplified, community-made versions. There's also a drawing version of the Broken Telephone game, a cooperative party game where groups solve mystery words, a game where teams compete to read the other team's mind, and more.

12 All Bad Cards Keeps Cards Against Humanity Going Online

Most Similar Jackbox Game: Quiplash

The Owl mascot for All Bard Cards game

Fans of Cards Against Humanity, the beloved party game full of raunchy humor and surrealist jokes, can turn to All Bad Cards to keep the gameplay going online. Players draw a hand of cards, each with some strange or relevant phrase, and must use these cards to finish a sentence. Depending on the group's tastes, players can try to make sensical sentences or lean into the game's infamous offensive nature.

All Bad Cards lets players emulate the Cards Against Humanity experience virtually. With an easy-to-use interface, the game takes care of assigning turns and collecting submitted cards. While the basic version of All Bad Cards is free, groups can opt to pay for additional card packs, adding even more replayability to the game. Even without paying, All Bad Cards carries energy like Jackbox free of charge and is darker at times, for those who enjoy that type of humor.

11 Chess.com Makes It Easier To Play A Classic Game With Others

Most Similar Jackbox Game: Timejinx

Chess has been keeping players entertained for centuries. It's only become easier and more convenient to play with people in the modern day. Chess.com provides a way for far-off players to go head-to-head in one of the world's most famous board games. Chess.com gives players the traditional Chess rules as a default but comes with plenty else for players to do.

If traditional Chess is too straight-laced for groups, variants like 4 Player Chess, Bughouse, and Fog of War provide more madcap chaos. It still won't create much of an atmosphere like a free Jackbox game, but it can provide a calmer and quieter social evening, while still providing an entertaining party game.

10 Brimstone Brawlers Mixes Party Game Fun With MOBA Action

Most Similar Jackbox Game: Press The Button

For those who love MOBA-style games, Brimstone Brawlers combines the top-down action of a MOBA with all the chaotic fun of party games. It's a completely free Jackbox alternative that's available on Steam. There are both Deathmatch and Stock modes to play, which both come in Free-For-All or Team varieties, depending on how groups are feeling.

When players want to relax with something more casual, Brimstone Brawlers also offers a Bamball mode, which is their MOBA-flavored take on soccer that plays similarly to Omega Strikers. It's still in Early Access after a few years, but has received updates as recently as Summer 2023 and is still a great free choice.

9 Codenames Is A Classic Board Game Based On Trust And Luck

Most Similar Jackbox Game: Word Spud

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Codenames is a beloved modern board game. Players, divided into teams, have to guess which of the board's words belong to their team, based on hints from a teammate who can only say one word per round. Codenames requires people to be on the same wavelength, trust each other, and get slightly lucky.

The online version of Codenames presents this gameplay free of charge. It doesn't do all the legwork. For instance, players need to divide themselves into teams and select a Spymaster. However, it provides a visually compelling board and an easy way of playing without screen share. This is a fast and simple game that can add to any party, and though it's not a pack of games like Jackbox, it'll provide similar entertainment value for free.

8 Broken Picturephone Incorporates Picture-Drawing Into The Classic Game Of Telephone

Most Similar Jackbox Game: Drawful

The logo and title for Broken Picturephone game

Broken Picturephone is a cult game that has been played at parties for years. It works a lot like Telephone, where a phrase gets reinterpreted as it is passed from person to person. However, Broken Picturephone also expects players to draw this phrase. Each player starts by creating a phrase, which is then passed along to another member of the party who interprets their phrase as a picture. The next player then tries to create a phrase from the picture. This pattern continues until everyone has participated.

While in person this game can be played with just some scraps of paper, the digital version of Broken Picturephone provides an application that covers all aspects of the game. It's not completely free of bugs and lacks much-needed features like a time limit. Nonetheless, it's a quick and easy way to create communications-based chaos worthy of a free Jackbox game.

7 Mad Adventures Has Players Survive A Four-Day Expedition Before Facing A Final Boss

Most Similar Jackbox Game: The Devils And The Details

Mad Adventures tasks up to four players with surviving a four-day expedition filled with platformer puzzles and smaller boss fights. Players can work together to make their way to the boss or betray each other to come out on top, making Mad Adventures a chaotic Jackbox alternative with both cooperative and competitive options.

As players progress, they'll earn coins that can be spent on upgrades to make platforming sections or boss fights easier, by granting things like extra jumps or extra push force. Coins can also be spent on expressive cosmetics, like hats or color customization, for those who prefer to express themselves.

6 PlayingCards.io Is A Platform For Many Other Party Games

Most Similar Jackbox Game: Various

Two players playing cards games on the title of PlayingCards.io

PlayingCards.io isn't a game in its own right. It's instead a platform for party games, most of which revolve around playing cards. Most of PlayingCards.io's options are well-known card games like Blackjack and Hearts, or other types of tabletop board games like Go, Backgammon, or Reversi.

PlayingCards.io also offers more unconventional games, including the hidden identity game Zap: Space Mutiny, the comedy game Joking Hazard, and a demo version of Trial by Trolly. The atmosphere of these three feels much more like a free Jackbox game and will satisfy groups looking for that sort of tone.

5 Fishbowl Is A Varied Three-Round Party Game

Most Similar Jackbox Game: Blather 'Round

A goldfish in a tilted bowl in Fishbowl game
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Fishbowl, more commonly known as Monikers, is secretly three games in one. Players each submit a few words or phrases for the group to use and then split into two teams. Each team then goes through one round of Taboo, where they get their teammates to guess the word on the card without using that word. The next round is Charades, where players act out each word without saying anything. The final round is Password, where players can say only one word to get their teammates to guess the correct word. Players use the same words in each round, helping things go quickly.

The digital version of Fishbowl is a clean, powerful web app that takes care of everything from collecting the words for each game to timing and scoring each round. Fishbowl doesn't require any screensharing and takes care of all emcee duties. The game has a lot of moving parts because it combines so many things, and it does require a large group to play. For those with the numbers and time to dive into it, Fishbowl is an excellent free Jackbox alternative.

4 Catch Me If You Can Combines The Game Of Tag With Super Fast, Bouncy Physics

Most Similar Jackbox Game: Zeeple Dome

The classic game of tag is combined with fast-paced, bouncy grappling physics in Catch Me If You Can. This free alternative to Jackbox curses one player every round, who then has to pass the curse off to another player before it expires, exploding and eliminating the player. There are power-ups strewn across the map to give players an advantage, and the grappling hook physics are fun to play with.

Proximity chat adds another layer of fun to Catch Me If You Can, for those who aren't using something like Discord to keep in touch with their friends. The maps are varied and detailed, providing colorful sandboxes for players to grapple around in as they chase each other down.

3 Gartic Phone Is An Artistic Guessing Game

Most Similar Jackbox Game: Drawful

Gartic Phone is very similar to Broken Picturephone, with a similar gameplay loop. Players sketch a phrase, another player tries to guess the phrase from their picture, and it continues down the line. However, Gartic Phone has much more customizability and many more variants to keep things fresh.

Gartic Phone also has a number of quality-of-life features like an inbuilt time limit that players can turn off. Variant modes like Animation, Complement, and Missing Piece change the gameplay to create something entirely new. Gartic Phone is ideal for those who want the chaos of Jackbox games for free.

2 Colonist.io Is A Free Version Of The Iconic Settlers Of Catan

Most Similar Jackbox Game: The Wheel Of Enormous Proportions

An in-progess match of Colonist web game

Colonist is a free version of the iconic The Settlers of Catan board game. They go head-to-head and spend their turns gathering resources, building roads and cities, and making deals with other players. Catan is a staple tabletop game, and this version takes out all the work of setting up the game and remembering the rules. It also enforces a timer, so players don't cause the game to lag too much.

Colonist.io makes the classic board game free and easy to set up. It even offers bots to pad out a group if there aren't enough players. Although its gameplay is very different from that of a Jackbox game for free, Colonist.io still offers an evening of entertainment for players who aren't afraid to get competitive.

1 MicroWorks Combines Smaller Party Games With Climactic Boss Fights

Most Similar Jackbox Game: Dodo Re Mi, Timejinx, Press The Button

The Nexus in MicroWorks is made up of several smaller towers, which each host a different mini-game fittingly called a "microgame." These include answering trivia questions, shutting down killer turrets, completing obstacle courses or even just linking up with a specific friend. There are over one hundred and fifty total microgames to choose from.

Each game session ends with a boss stage, which is a longer and more evolved mini-game. Examples include Go-Kart racing, Wild West standoffs, and even ghost hunting, with fifteen different boss stages available as of December 2023.