The Best Puzzle Apps For Kids

From brain puzzles and jigsaws to word games and riddles, puzzles are an entertaining way for kids of all ages to hone their problem-solving skills and sharpen their developing brains.

Early education experts vouch for this method of learning by playing, and the benefits of logical puzzles and brain teasers are well-known. Solving these on a daily basis employs logic, memory, math, and critical-thinking skills and is known to boost brain function.

In the internet era, instant gratification is a leading learning and developmental problem in young children. These puzzle apps for kids can help improve mental flexibility, attention span, and processing speed. If you want to give your child the educational edge and have them spend time on mobile devices productively, Puzzle Apps is a great choice.

To save you the trouble, we’ve compiled a list of the best puzzle apps and games. From toddlers to teens, and across iOS and Android, here are the top ten Best Puzzle Apps for Kids!

Kids solving a tangram puzzle

1. Cats In Time:

Cats In Time is a unique 3D Puzzle app that lets young kids explore historic locations through space and time. The narrator, Professor Tim Edger, uses cute cats and a time machine to teach your kids spatial logic, reasoning, and critical thinking skills through fun, tactile puzzles and riddles.

Your kids must help the Professor search for his beloved cats that have gone missing. While playing in the lab, they activated a time machine and are now lost in space and time. Your children must travel from ancient Egypt all the way to the streets of late 20th century New York and even beyond the present into future Tokyo.
Their goal is to find all the cats!

This science puzzler features more than 330 furry friends who can be found after solving amazing puzzles and riddles. The app features eight distinctive locations set in different historical time periods, and each level contains masterfully crafted 3D Puzzles for your kids to solve.

Cats In Time also contains relaxing sounds and music pertinent to the history of the period that your kids can enjoy while exploring space and time.

The first two levels from each time period are completely free to play, and these 18 levels can provide endless hours of fun for your kids. If you like the game, you can purchase all the levels with a one-time payment. This unlocks two more puzzles per level and is sure to keep your kids entertained.

Overall, this cat can be great fun while also teaching your kids important concepts and training their brains through interactive puzzles. If a unique 3D puzzle game with cats and time machines sounds fun to you and your little ones, give this fun app a try!

Cats In Time interface

For Ages: 3-8

The Good:

• Features dozens of 3D puzzles that enhance logic, problem-solving, and memory skills
• It has great UI with amazing graphics and relaxing background music to ensure your kids never get bored

The Not-so-good:

• Only limited levels are free, and payment must be made to unlock the full version
• It contains ads in the free version and requires payment to remove them

Available on: iOS, Android

2. Thinkrolls Logic Puzzles:

Thinkrolls Logic Puzzles help set your child’s mind into motion with 26 hilarious characters who guide your kids through platformers and physics puzzles.

Your kids will have a blast navigating their Thinkrolls through a series of obstacles in brightly patterned mazes. Each chapter introduces a new object with unique physical properties that kids discover through hands-on manipulation. 

Your children will encounter and use force, acceleration, buoyancy, heat, elasticity, and gravity to get their Thinkrolls where they need to go. This game incorporates a wealth of educational content into a fun platformer adventure.

It appeals to children’s natural curiosity and challenges them with gameplay that fosters creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. There are 104 easy and 103 harder levels organized into eight chapters that gradually build upon successive lessons to strengthen observation, reasoning, problem-solving, spatial cognition, and memory.

As kids try different combinations to clear a path through the maze, they intuitively learn through trial and error. Kids must also plan out their moves in advance, use precise timing and rely on their memory to reunite their Thinkroll friends. 

‘Biscuit’ allows kids to get accustomed to fine motor skills, while ‘Rock’ gives them a crash course in Newtonian physics as they discover that dropping a heavy boulder will generate enough force to break through the ground.

Other chapters like ‘Lift’ feature levels that are a culmination of everything your kids have discovered so far. It has them coordinating all the elements as they synchronize the movements of two different lifts.

The game can be purchased for a one-time payment on both the Appstore and Play Store. The best part is that the game is language-neutral and COPPA-compliant, with no ads or in-app billing.

Thinkrolls Logic Puzzles Interface

For Ages: 3-8

The Good:

• Features 207 mind-sharpening puzzles that enhance logic, problem-solving, and memory
• Available in multiple languages and is kid-friendly (COPPA certified)

The Not-so-good:

• The app is not free to use; you must purchase it first

Available on: iOS, Android

3. Puzzles For Kids:

Puzzles for Kids has fun puzzles for your toddlers and lets them improve their memory and cognitive skills. This colorful puzzle game is aimed at kindergarten and preschool children aged 2-6 and includes educational games for your children that will help them develop memory and spatial skills.

The app features various puzzles and game modes that are suitable for both boys and girls, and the child-friendly interface lets your kids intuitively navigate the app to solve puzzles. This can help develop reasoning and problem-solving capabilities in young children and also helps with pattern recognition.

It also helps your children develop fine motor skills that are very useful for elementary activities such as writing, drawing, and painting. To further encourage them, the game awards your toddlers with animation rewards for the solved puzzle. This gives them a sense of accomplishment and ensures they keep playing and learning.

Puzzles for Kids has nearly 300 puzzles on a variety of topics like animals, dinosaurs, cars, fruits, vegetables, robots, monsters, sports, toys, and many more. It also has adaptive difficulty levels, including easy, normal, and hard. These let you customize puzzles to your liking and select from Jigsaw Puzzles, Rotation Puzzles, Vertical Slider Puzzles, Flip Puzzles, Shape Puzzles, or Cut Puzzles.

The game contains a few free puzzles and has a free trial period, after which parents can subscribe to unlock all the puzzles, as well as hundreds of other games for kids by the same developer.

This game-based learning app uses puzzles to develop and hone cognitive skills and has been designed in collaboration with early education experts. It’s also ad-free with no third-party links and is COPPA-certified, kid-safe as well as GDPR-compliant.

If you are looking for a fun educational game for your toddler to help them match colors and shapes, and develop hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, along with problem-solving, give this puzzle app a try.

Puzzle For Kids interface

For Ages: 2-6

The Good:

• Features 270 mind-sharpening puzzles that enhance logic, problem-solving, and memory
• Available in multiple languages and is kid-friendly (COPPA certified)

The Not-so-good:

• The app is not free to use; you must purchase it first

Available on: iOS, Android

4. Thinkrolls Logic Puzzles 2:

Thinkrolls Logic Puzzles 2 is the second part of the delightful puzzler for young kids and is perfect for your children. This app will help them sharpen their minds and solve increasingly challenging puzzles, all while having fun!

Your children will get to use their wits to help guide 32 spunky characters through 270 levels of increasingly complex mazes. This includes 135 levels for ages 3-5 and another 135 for ages 5-9. 

Whether your child is a fan of the original rolling ball platformer or new to the world of Thinkrolls, this sequel app will provide them with a thought-provoking challenge. This clever logic game keeps kids on their toes as they use properties of matter and basic physics to make their Thinkrolls reach the next level.

Each chapter gradually introduces a new scientific concept in a way that’s accessible and easy to understand. As kids explore and master, through trial and error, how to navigate the twists and turns, they gain confidence in their deductive reasoning and problem-solving skills.

Completing each puzzle requires juggling multiple possibilities, but by thoughtfully combining elements and planning moves well in advance, players can keep progressing their Thinkrolls to the next level.

The Accordion levels help develop fine motor skills using expansion and compression to open pathways, build bridges and create stairways. Water and Barrel levels test theories on what will sink or float to help Thinkrolls avoid water hazards.

The Egg and Fan levels let your kids experiment with force, acceleration, and gravity to walk and explain aerodynamic concepts.

Finally, the Battery and Lightbulb levels teach concepts about electricity and enhance visual memory.

All these levels are designed to let your child experiment and learn about gravity, buoyancy, levitation, electricity, density, and acceleration. It also enhances logic, spatial cognition, problem-solving, memory, and observation.

Other than this, the app also allows parents to track up to 6 player profiles. The game is also language-neutral and completely kid-friendly, without any ads or in-app billing. With its original design and thought-provoking gameplay, we highly recommend this app for your child.

Thinkrolls 2 interface

For Ages: 3-9

The Good:

• Features 270 mind-sharpening puzzles that enhance logic, problem-solving, and memory
• Available in multiple languages and is kid-friendly (COPPA certified)

The Not-so-good:

• The app is not free to use; you must purchase it first

Available on: iOS, Android

5. Sliding Areas:

Sliding Seas is a puzzle-match game that lets your kids take control and be the mayor of their very own tropical world! They can pick cute buildings to decorate their personal island and hang out with cool VIP characters that they collect along the way.

Sliding Seas features a cute art style and provides hours of relaxing match-3 and merge puzzle games on mobile devices. The UI is super simple and intuitive and can be easily played with by young children. It is hard to master, though, and the difficulty keeps increasing as your child progresses through the island. This ensures endless fun and addictive gameplay that is also beneficial for your child’s mental development.

The unique gameplay lets them match and merge land to make islands and also choose from a variety of different game modes. They can conduct ocean rescues, fight pirates and whirlpools and find hidden treasure. As they progress, they can customize their very own island and decorate it as they wish.

Your kids earn in-game rewards and prizes with daily missions and timed events and can also unlock cute VIP characters as they play.

They can interact and play with these colorful characters through hundreds of levels, and new ones are added all the time.

Sliding Seas is free to play, though some in-game items can be purchased through in-app purchases. If you don’t want to use this option, you can simply turn it off in your device settings.

The UI is very artistic and is sure to capture your child’s imagination. It also does not contain any ads or third-party links and is kid-safe. If you’re looking for a fun alternative puzzle app for your children, look no further. Get away and relax as you escape to a tropical puzzle paradise with Sliding Seas.

Sliding Areas interface

For Ages: 3+

The Good:

• Features hundreds of free-to-play puzzles that enhance logic, problem-solving, and memory
• It does not contain any advertisements or intrusive pop-ups

The Not-so-good:

• The app contains in-app purchases, and some features require payment to unlock

Available on: iOS, Android

6. IQ Dungeon:

This fun puzzle app lets your kids explore the world of a medieval role-playing game that will test their brains and thinking skills. Through 200 different levels filled with cryptic puzzles, your kids must defeat the demon king and save the world! 

As they adventure through the medieval lands, your children will defeat goblins, explore dungeons and help save the princess. If they manage to solve all the puzzles and riddles in their path, they can defeat the demon king and save the world.

IQ Dungeon features several colorful playable characters and knights and a host of enemies like goblins, orcs, and gargoyles. Your children must help these knights to solve matching puzzles, sorting puzzles, and other IQ-testing games. Some of these can get pretty hard, so get your thinking hats on and try your best to outsmart the game.

To cross all these levels, players will be tested in their critical thinking skills and will need to think logically and imaginatively. It teaches kids out-of-the-box thinking through funny puzzles, classic riddles, and even sudoku. It even contains number and watercolor sorting puzzles that require patient thinking and logic to solve.

If you’re stuck on a particularly hard level, you can use a hint. These are limited and must be used sparingly, but you can also unlock them by watching ads. You can also use gems, the in-game currency, to skip a level if you find it too hard. Both of these features ensure your kids never feel stressed and enjoy playing the game at their own pace.

If you’re looking for a unique world of intellect and adventure puzzles for your young ones, give IQ Dungeon a try.

IQ Dungeon interface

For Ages: 4+

The Good: 

• Develops alternate thinking skills and boosts imagination and creativity through fun puzzles 
• Features great artwork and music that create an immersive puzzle-playing experience

The Not-so-good:

• Contains ads and third-party links 
• It contains in-app purchases and requires a payment to remove ads

Available on: iOS, Android

7. LogicLike:

LogicLike advertises itself as a learning app for “Healthy screen time” for kids. It covers more than 40 topics ranging from math, reading, art, and logic and contains over 3500 puzzles to teach these.

You can choose the age range and learning goals and set them accordingly for your child, no matter their skill level. Your child can then start solving puzzles that advance their thinking skills. Varied skills like maths, logic, pattern recognition and spatial reasoning can be developed by using this app.

The games for children are designed with clear and simple instructions and visuals. The puzzles are intuitive and have helpful voice-overs that guide them at every step. All tasks have exciting images and hints that help children stay motivated and engaged. 

Puzzles are smartly collected into games within the app. Completing the games step-by-step is like doing a learning course and ensures a holistic learning experience.

The app offers a trial to parents who want to test out the app before making a decision. Once you finish the free 3-day trial, the app requires a subscription to use further. 

Subscribed members can use all the features, including access to a report card section that shows detailed analytics of your child’s activities. This is a great way to monitor their course progress and encourage them with certificates and rewards.

All the puzzles are a product of an experienced team of professional educators and psychologists. The app’s design and animations are also expertly designed, and they not only excite but also reinforce the learning effect.

This app’s motto is to show children that learning can be fun, to engage them in learning, and help them face challenges. Children love puzzles, brainteasers, and quizzes, and this app delivers them with a fun, gamified twist. If you want your child to become smarter and think out of the box, definitely give LogicLike a try.

Logic Like interface

For Ages: 4-8

The Good: 

• No ads or intrusive pop-ups, along with a kid-friendly UI 
• Gives parents and educators detailed report cards to track progress

The Not-so-good:

• Only free for a 3-day trial period
• Requires a subscription to use the premium version

Available on: iOS, Android

8. Think rolls kings and queens:

Thinkrolls Kings & Queens is an epic adventure of logic, physics, and fun. This puzzle app lets your child practice reasoning, memory, and problem-solving skills through challenging mini-games and puzzles.

With 228 physics puzzles, 12 fairytale castles, toothy crocodiles, goofy ghosts, and a friendly dragon, this app will provide hours of fun-filled play and brain training for your kids.

The gameplay consists of a simple platformer with a kid-friendly design. They can move, handle and combine objects to clear a path, obtain the key, and open the gate to the next level. They also need to collect treasure for the dragon, so he’ll let them through. 

All these levels are spread across 12 epic castles filled with obstacles, puzzles, and, most importantly, fun science concepts. Your kids can send a cool crocodile to sleep with a song or make a goofy ghost vanish with reflected light. 

As they solve the puzzles and collect sweets and precious gems, they get rewarded with crowns, tiaras, mustaches, costumes, and many more accessories to customize their own unique Thinkroll characters.

Some of the fun physics concepts implement tools like gear and racks to create ladders & conveyor belts. Kids can also fill gaps and collapse swaying bridges to clear the way. Other mechanisms let them switch the lever to open and close hatches.

The game also has levels of variable difficulty, with 115 easy puzzles for children 5-8 years old and 113 challenging puzzles for children older than eight. These levels teach fun physics like simple machines, forces, tension, light reflection, and more. The app teaches STEM skills, hands-on physics, strategizing, and problem-solving skills to your kids. 

While some levels are free to play, offering 71 unique puzzles, you can unlock the remaining 157 levels with a single in-app purchase. The app does not contain any third-party ads and provides a safe for your kids.

This brain-twisting puzzle game has it all; castles, dragons, knights, princesses, simple machines, physics, and science-based learning. If that sounds like something your children would enjoy, definitely give this app a try.

Thinkrolls Kings & Queens Interface

For Ages: 5-8+

The Good:

• Features customizable characters and supports upto six player profiles 
• It has no time limits and is stress-free for kids
• Features gorgeous artwork, delightful music, and game design and is COPPA compliant

The Not-so-good:

• Not all levels are free; it requires a one-time payment to unlock the full game

Available on: iOS, Android

9. Train Your Brain:

Train Your Brain is a fun and colorful puzzle app aimed at children of all ages. It has a multitude of puzzles and mini-games that can help improve memory, reasoning, coordination, and spatial awareness in your child.

The app is straightforward and doesn’t require any sign-ups, and lets you get straight to the content. Each game is divided into the above-mentioned categories and features an animated tutorial to help get your child started.

It features classics like Sudoku and Crosswords and also has a variety of unique problem-solving games that involve memory, reasoning, and logic. All of these are animated colorfully and are easy to use with a kid-friendly UI.

The design of all these games has been carried out in collaboration with experts in neuroscience and psychiatry, with the aim of creating playful content that also complements your child’s school efforts. The puzzles are not only colorful and fun but also improve vital cognitive skills.

The app’s UI is simple to use, with big buttons and colorful designs. The app is also available in 10 different languages and is available to play for a global audience. Another useful feature is a daily training reminder to help you stay consistent.

While most games are free to play, a few require you to buy the premium version. This is a one-time payment that removes all ads and unlocks all games.

The app is aimed at younger audiences but can be played by anyone who wants to keep themselves occupied with mental exercises. This is a great app to download and use if you have young children or older family members.

Train Your Brain Interface

For Ages: 3+

The Good:

• It gets you straight to the games without any registration
• Very simple design with bright colors and big buttons

The Not-so-Good:

• Annoying video ads in the free version
• Contains in-app purchases and ads

Available on: iOS, Android

10. Brain Games:

Brain Games: Logic Puzzles help your children boost their memory and logic with brain teasers, logic puzzles, and mind games. These IQ puzzles will surely challenge young minds to concentrate and multitask in order to complete all the challenging levels.

Make your child’s free time more productive, fun, and engaging with different brain puzzles of different levels of complexity. From toddlers to teens, this app has a puzzle for everyone.

The Dot game uses clocks, and the Water Sort levels are relaxing yet challenging for kids. Your kids can also assemble pipelines and form new connections to help water flow, using all their wits in the Plumber levels.

Connect, One Stoke, and Pattern are creative levels that force you to think out of the box and improve hand-eye coordination and memory skills in young children. The app also contains classics like Sudoku if you’re feeling bored yourself or want to help your young ones train their number skills.

Bubble games, number search puzzles, and concentration games let you improve 3D visualizations, focus, and memory power. You can also test your mind with the left versus right brain test game. And the best part is, the higher level you progress to, the higher the difficulty gets. This adaptive difficulty makes for hours of fun and makes sure you always feel challenged, even when you’re having fun.

All these brain games and puzzles can be played anytime, anywhere, even without an internet connection. You can also choose to download specific levels and play them at your leisure.

If you want to turn your child’s screen time into a fun and productive game-based learning session, download this brain puzzle app and enjoy the unique challenges it offers.

Brain Games Interface

For Ages: 3+

The Good:

• Simple design and UI with bright colors and big buttons
• Adaptive difficulty makes it suitable for children of all age-groups

The Not-so-Good:

• It contains a lot of annoying video ads in the free version
• Contains in-app purchases and third-party links through ads

Available on: iOS, Android