Daily cryptic crosswords, free and paid, plus a clue a day

For a free full cryptic, start with the Guardian's weekday cryptic: each numbered puzzle names its setter and has a comments thread where solvers explain the clues. The Independent publishes a 15x15 cryptic every day, free in the browser with a timer and a leaderboard, and The Globe and Mail runs a cryptic every day with a Canadian-made puzzle on Saturdays. Arkadium's Best Daily Cryptic Crossword adds a Reveal button for clues that will not crack. The Hindustan Times (six days a week, each puzzle credited to a pseudonymous setter), the Daily Express with its Crusader, and the Daily Mirror also publish free daily cryptics with ads.

If you subscribe to a paper, The Times Cryptic runs Monday to Saturday, with The Sunday Times setting its own on Sundays, and The Times Quick Cryptic is a shorter, easier grid that many solvers learn on. The Telegraph's cryptic needs a Telegraph Puzzles subscription, though the paper offers a free Mini Cryptic each day. The Irish Times's Crosaire, the NZ Herald's cryptic and the Sydney Morning Herald's cryptic, shared with The Age, are also for subscribers, and the South China Morning Post's SCMP Cryptic Crossword is a dated 15x15 grid on its SCMP Games page, with full access through its app or a subscription.

If a full grid is too much, try one clue a day. Minute Cryptic gives a single clue with hints, a par score and a short video explaining it; a paid membership adds the archive. Parseword lets you take the wordplay apart step by step until the answer appears. Daily Cryptic (dailycryptic.co) and The Daily Cryptic both give one clue with layered hints that name the definition and the wordplay before they give the answer away. Daily Crypticle turns the clue into a Wordle-style round: three guesses with coloured tiles. PokeCryptic does the same kind of single clue with Pokémon answers.

A few games mix cryptic clues with other puzzles. Riddle Grid gives a set of cryptic clues whose answers you trace through a grid of letters, Cluword pairs a cryptic clue with five Wordle-style guesses and gets harder through the week, and RTÉ's Word Eile has a Cryptic level beside its Quick and Median words. Estimation Gym's Crossword Clues game gives one word a day with three cryptic clues, hardest first, and fewer points for each clue you need. The Times Quintagram, for subscribers, sets five clues whose answers share one pool of letters, in a concise and a cryptic version each day. On iPhone and iPad, Teazel's Cryptic Crossword app has a daily grid and an Explain clue button; daily puzzles unlock with coins earned by playing or with a subscription.

To learn, start with Parseword, Minute Cryptic or Daily Cryptic for a week, move to The Times Quick Cryptic or Best Daily Cryptic Crossword, and then try a full Guardian or Independent cryptic. Every daily crossword we list, cryptic or not, is on the daily crosswords page (/daily-crosswords).