Four ways to make a KDP puzzle book, compared
People arrive at puzzle books from four directions: a monthly subscription suite, a free browser generator, doing it by hand in Word or Canva, or this tool. Each is the right answer for somebody. Here is what each one actually costs and produces, so you can pick on purpose. Claims about Puzzle Press are checkable on this site; claims about the other routes are kept to what they say about themselves, quoted where it matters.
The free generators have got better, and this page used to describe them as making one puzzle at a time. Several now bulk-generate a whole set with answer keys, free, with no watermark and no account — PuzzleForge is the clearest example. So the line between them and this tool is not how many puzzles you get. It is whether what comes out is puzzles or a book.
Opens the generator. The comparison is below if you would rather read it first.
One correction to the four columns below, added 23 September 2026: they are not the whole field any more. PuzzleBindery does the same thing this tool does — a complete interior and a full-wrap cover with the spine width taken from the page count, generated in the browser, free to build with a watermarked proof and a one-time payment to remove it. On its own page it lists nine puzzle types to this tool's five, thirteen KDP trims plus A4 and Letter to this tool's six, 88 themes, series generation, and offline use. It is $49 once at its launch price, going to $79; this is $19 once. Both offer a 30-day refund and neither asks for an account.
So the honest summary is: if you want the widest set of puzzle types and trims, theirs is the bigger tool and costs two and a half times as much. The two things this one has that are not a matter of taste are the price and the fact that the code is published — the claim that your word lists never leave your browser is one you can check by reading it, rather than one you have to take on trust. Everything below this line is still accurate about the other three routes.
| Subscription suites | Free browser generators | By hand | Puzzle Press | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you pay | Monthly or yearly, for as long as you publish. Book Bolt Pro: $19.99/month billed annually (12 Sept 2026). | Nothing. The good ones carry ads instead, and ask for no account. | Your time — a 50-puzzle book is a day or two the first time. | Free to use; $19 once removes the PREVIEW cover mark. No subscription. 30-day refund. |
| What comes out | Puzzle pages, as images or a PDF, to place into a book template. | A set of puzzles with answer keys — often a browser print to PDF, which is why PuzzleForge's own FAQ tells you to "choose Save as PDF as the printer". No title page, no copyright page, no page numbers, no even page count. You assemble the book. | Whatever you build. | The complete interior PDF — title, copyright, puzzles, solutions, notes pages, page numbers — and the matching cover. |
| KDP geometry | Templates for common trims; check whether margins are set for your page count. | Page size, yes. Inside margin by page count, bleed, and KDP's 24-page minimum and even page count are on you, and a print-to-PDF will not embed fonts the way KDP asks. | You look every rule up and apply it, on both page sides. | Page size, gutter by page count, gutter side, bleed, embedded fonts, even page count — applied automatically and shown on screen. |
| The cover | A separate cover designer on some plans; check whether it works out the spine width for you. | No. | KDP's own cover calculator plus a design tool. | Full wrap generated from the book's own page count — spine width, bleed and barcode area worked out. Your title on one of eight colours, with a puzzle from the book on the front and a second on the back. |
| Puzzle correctness | Varies by tool; rarely stated. | Rarely stated either way. Duplicate words and two-solution sudoku are the classic one-star review, and no free tool I can find says what it checks. | Only if you check every grid twice. | Every word once (checked in all eight directions), no nested words in a grid, filler screened, every sudoku one solution, every maze one route — by construction. |
| Grading | Sometimes, per puzzle. | Per puzzle difficulty, not a graded book. | Manual. | Graded books: easy at the front to expert at the back, level printed on each puzzle. |
| Where your words go | Their servers. | The best of them are client-side too, and say so. Check the one you use. | Your computer. | Your browser. Nothing typed is uploaded — terms. |
| Best for | Publishers making many book types (journals, planners, colouring) who want one login for everything. | Puzzles for a worksheet, a newsletter, or a book you are happy to lay out yourself. If you do not need a cover and do not mind assembling the interior, a free generator is the right answer and you should use one. | A one-off book where you want every page unique. | Puzzle books specifically — word search, sudoku, mazes, criss-cross, themed crosswords — from zero to an uploadable file. |
For scale: Book Bolt, the best-known suite, listed its Pro plan at $19.99 a month billed annually ($239.88 a year; shown as "$0.66/day") and Premium at $29.99 a month billed annually, each with a 3-day free trial, on its pricing page on 12 September 2026. Puzzle, crossword and sudoku tools are listed under Pro. Prices change; check the page. Puzzle Press is $19 once — less than one month of the plan that includes puzzle tools.
Eight tools, tested in October 2026
On 19 October 2026 (Puzzle Generator on 26 October) we used each tool below in a browser, without creating an account, giving an email address or paying, and tried to get a word search or sudoku book out of it. Tested means we saw it in the tool or in the PDF it gave us. Claimed means the tool's own pages say so and we could not reach it free. Prices are from each tool's pricing page that day. Every cell can be checked in a few minutes at the address in the first column; tools change, so check the ones you care about.
| Tool | Free, no account | Whole book | Cover with spine from page count | Inside margin by page count | Mark on the free file | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PuzzleForge | Yes (tested) | Up to 50 puzzles with answer keys; 6×9, 5×8 or 8.5×11; no page numbers (tested) | No (tested) | No: 0.5" on every side (tested) | None on the page (tested) | Free, ad-funded |
| kdpbook.io | Single pages only: Letter or A4, up to 10 puzzles (tested). The book needs an account (tested) | Claimed, with an account | Claimed, with an account | None on the free pages (tested) | A credit line you can untick (tested); free-credit books watermarked (claimed) | $25–$99 a month |
| Univers Studio | Single puzzles only, email asked before download (tested). The book needs the Studio plan (tested) | Claimed, Studio plan | Claimed, Studio plan | Not tested | Diagonal univers.studio watermark across the puzzle (tested) | $9.99–$49.99 a month; book builder at $49.99 |
| KDPage | A 6-puzzle sudoku book (tested) | Yes, with page numbers and solutions, but the free file came out 8.5×11 when 6×9 or 5×8 was picked (tested) | A free template with guides (tested); a finished cover is claimed | Mirrored, about 0.75" inside, on a 12-page file (tested); longer books not tested | Diagonal SAMPLE-KDPAGE on every page (tested) | $11.99–$39 a month, or $69 lifetime offer |
| PuzzlePage | A 15-page sample (tested). 10 pages plus cover need an email; the full book is paid (tested) | Yes: 16 trims, 18 puzzle types, page numbers, solutions, a large-print setting (tested) | Claimed, beta | No: 0.75" on every edge, not mirrored (tested) | Diagonal SAMPLE, a footer with a QR code, and a closing sample page (tested) | $14.99 a month |
| Book Bolt | No: the studio asks for a login; 3-day free trial (tested) | Claimed: sudoku, crosswords, word search, mazes, cryptograms | Claimed: spine from the page count | Not stated | None stated for the trial | $23.99 a month, or $19.99 a month billed yearly |
| Puzzle Maker Pro | A Windows demo; its puzzles are watermarked (claimed). Not installed | Claimed: trims to 15×15, numbering, solutions | Not offered on any page we found | Mirrored, with a gutter you set (claimed) | Watermark on demo puzzles (claimed) | One sudoku module $27 and word search $97, each a single payment; bundles $17–$97 a month. Windows only |
| Puzzle Generator | Up to 32 word searches in one PDF, with answer pages; 14 trims (tested). 64 or more, and its book builder, need an account (tested) | Puzzle pages, solutions and page numbers, no title pages (tested); the book builder is claimed, with an account | Not offered on any page we found | No: an “Inner margin” box moves everything 0.125" toward the spine whatever the page count, and titles sit 0.18" from the outside edge (tested) | The site’s logo printed across every grid, and the grids are 123 ppi pictures, not type (tested) | Pro $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year; or $0.005 a page for book-builder exports |
| Puzzle Press | Yes | Yes: title and copyright pages, puzzles, solutions, page numbers, even page count | Yes, full wrap from the book's own page count and paper | Yes, and swapped to the inside on left and right pages | None on the pages since 20 October; PREVIEW across the cover | $19 once |
Where Puzzle Press is behind. Both free interiors are unmarked, but PuzzleForge costs nothing at all, and our cover carries PREVIEW until you pay. If you only need clean puzzle pages and will do the layout, the gutter and the cover yourself, PuzzleForge is the better choice. For a book made elsewhere, our spine calculator draws a free cover template for any trim and page count; the finished cover with your title on it comes only with a book made here.
One more thing we saw on the day: PuzzleForge saves through the browser's print dialog, and in our export of a 30-puzzle 6×9 book every other page was blank. That may depend on the browser, so try it in yours before you rely on it either way.
No sign-up, nothing to install. Free books have unmarked pages and a cover marked PREVIEW; $19 once removes that, forever.
When a subscription is the better deal
If you publish a spread of KDP books — planners, journals, colouring books, puzzle books — and put out several a month, a suite with research tools, templates and a cover designer earns its fee. Puzzle Press does one thing. If puzzle books are a sideline in a bigger catalogue, the suite probably wins.
If puzzle books are the thing, the arithmetic goes the other way. A subscription is paid for every month you are publishing, including the months you are only fixing typos — Book Bolt's annual Pro plan is $239.88 a year; $19 once is $19 once. And the suite still leaves you to assemble the book and check the geometry, which is the part that gets manuscripts rejected.
When a free generator is enough
For a single puzzle — a classroom worksheet, a party favour, a page in a newsletter — a free generator is exactly right, and Puzzle Press is overkill. The trouble starts at fifty: fifty images to place, fifty solutions to keep in order, page numbers, a divider, four notes pages, an even count, the gutter swapping sides, fonts embedded. That is not puzzle work; it is layout work, and it is where the free route stops being free.
When by hand is right
A hand-made book can be anything: illustrated mazes, themed pages, a story between puzzles. Generators cannot do that and this one does not try. If you go this way, the guide has every KDP rule with the numbers, and the margin and spine calculators give you the exact figures for your page count. They are free and do not need the tool.
What Puzzle Press does not do
Dense newspaper-style crosswords, cryptograms, dot-to-dot, colouring pages: no. Themed crosswords with clues and criss-cross fill-ins: yes. Illustrated or themed page designs: no. Journals, planners, anything that is not a puzzle book: no. Cover artwork beyond your title on a colour, with two of the book's own puzzles on it: no — many publishers make their cover elsewhere and use the spine figure from here. It makes word search, sudoku, maze, criss-cross and themed crossword books that are correct and print-ready, and stops there.
See it rather than read about it
There is a finished book of each kind on the site, made with the tool and not touched afterwards — and the tool itself is free to try, no sign-up.
Make a book freeWord search book (PDF) · sudoku · mazes · a cover · 60-second video