The best games like Jackbox depend on your budget and display setup: stay with Jackbox if you want the host-screen-plus-phones format, switch to skribbl.io or Gartic Phone for free browser drawing rounds up to 20 or 30 players, or use Codenames Online and Kahoot when you want boardgame play or trivia on individual devices.
While Jackbox requires one player to purchase and run the game on a shared display, most free web alternatives run entirely inside each participant’s own browser.
Games Like Jackbox, Matched to Your Group
Pick your game based on your display hardware, participant count, and budget requirements.
| Situation | Recommended Game | Key Tradeoff | The Condition That Flips It |
|---|---|---|---|
| Living room or any single shared screen | Jackbox Games | Host must purchase the game | Switch if you have zero budget for paid packs |
| Remote group of 6 to 20 wanting free drawing | skribbl.io | Every player needs their own screen | Switch if your group exceeds 20 participants |
| Remote group wanting prompt-and-drawing chains | Gartic Phone | Discord or Twitch login optional; lobby caps vary | Switch if you require a verified lobby larger than 30 |
| Playing the classic boardgame online | Codenames Online | Player caps and pricing are not stated on the page | Switch if you need guaranteed room limits before launching |
| Host-run live quiz rounds | Kahoot | Free tier caps range from 10 to 40 participants | Switch if you refuse to buy a paid plan for large groups |
If you want the host-screen-plus-phones format, you must stay with Jackbox. The non-Jackbox alternatives covered here run on each participant’s individual screen rather than turning smartphones into simple gamepads.
When planning holiday calls, you can also explore our guides for virtual Christmas party games or virtual team building activities to keep remote colleagues engaged.
How We Compared Group-Size Fit
To evaluate how these games handle real gatherings, we calculated player fit from published lobby limits across four common group sizes: 6, 12, 25, and 40 participants. An option seats a gathering if its published room limit is equal to or greater than the group size without forcing organizers to split members across multiple lobbies. We did not play-test these games for this guide; these findings reflect arithmetic on published numbers.
Most standard titles across the twelve Jackbox Games packs seat 1 to 8 players. That baseline seats a group of 6, but fails to seat 12, 25, or 40 active players. As noted on our guide to the best Jackbox games, select individual titles expand those caps. Bracketeering seats up to 16, Drawful: Animate and Job Job seat up to 10, and Lie Swatter accommodates up to 100 players according to published documentation on Wikipedia. Many Jackbox titles also allow extra participants to join as audience members to vote on answers.
skribbl.io publishes a custom room limit of 2 to 20 players. In our size calculation, this capacity seats groups of 6 and 12. It cannot seat groups of 25 or 40 in a single private room.
Published player limits for Gartic Phone vary across independent sources. Coverage from TheGamer and MobyGames states that lobbies support a host plus up to 29 friends, totaling 30 players. An older write-up from Says.com listed a cap of up to 14 players in a private game, noting it works best with at least 4. Gartic Phone seats groups of 6 and 12 on all published figures. It seats 25 players only if the 30-player limit holds in your active lobby. It does not seat 40 players.
Kahoot official support states that free account tiers have low limits between 10 and 40 participants. A third-party guide lists the free baseline at 10 participants, while paid subscription tiers list limits of 50 and higher. On the low reported figure of 10, Kahoot seats 6 players. It seats 12, 25 or 40 only if your account sits at the top of the 10-to-40 range.
Nothing on this list seats 40 active participants in one room on a confirmed free account without upgrades. Only large-capacity Jackbox titles like Lie Swatter or audience voting pools seat 40 or more participants under one roof. Because vendor limits update periodically, organizers should check the Kahoot support page to verify current tier rules before running an event.
Jackbox as the Baseline
Jackbox Games is the baseline for phone-controlled party games. Players participate by opening a web browser on a smartphone or mobile device and entering the room code. Players do not need to install an app or purchase software. Only the game host buys the software, which is distributed across twelve main numbered Party Packs containing five distinct games each.
The mechanic relies on a shared visual anchor. Every participant must be able to view the host’s screen, whether on a shared television or any shared screen.
Jackbox does not list retail prices directly on its main landing page; buyers must check the Jackbox Games site or their platform’s store to confirm pricing for individual packs. The main downside of Jackbox is its strict active player limit. Because most titles cap active participants at 8 players, larger parties must rotate participants into audience roles or choose specific high-capacity titles. For a detailed breakdown of current releases, see our overview of Jackbox Party Pack 12.
Gartic Phone for Chain Drawing
Gartic Phone is a free browser-based party game released in December 2020 by Onrizon Social Games. The gameplay follows a telephone chain: one player types an initial sentence prompt, the next participant draws that sentence, and the following participant guesses what was drawn. The chain repeats across the group until the final guess is compared against the starting phrase.
Participants join games directly through their web browser. Players can enter lobbies anonymously or sign in through external accounts like Discord and Twitch. The game features multiple rule variations, including Normal, Knock-Off, Animation, and Crowd modes according to documentation from TheGamer.
The primary limitation of Gartic Phone is the discrepancy in published player capacities. While older documentation listed rooms capping at 14 players, newer listings on MobyGames report caps reaching 30 total users. Because published caps vary across sources, hosts should check the lobby to confirm capacity. It also requires every user to look at their own screen to read and draw, rather than sharing a single television display.
skribbl.io for Pictionary Rounds
skribbl.io provides a free online multiplayer drawing and guessing platform based on classic Pictionary mechanics.
Lobbies run in a web browser. Organizers can configure private rooms to hold between 2 and 20 players by adjusting the internal Players setting. A published platform news update confirmed this capacity increase, expanding the maximum private room size to 20 users.
The main drawback of skribbl.io is that custom rooms cap at 20 players. The tool focuses entirely on drawing and guessing mechanics rather than prompt-answering games.
Codenames Online for Word Deduction
Codenames Online lets groups play the classic boardgame online in a web browser.
Setting up a session requires navigating to the site, inputting an organizer nickname, setting custom room rules, and distributing the generated room URL to participants. Players open the room URL on their respective devices to join.
The official Codenames Online site does not publish its pricing parameters or hard player caps. Organizers cannot confirm maximum lobby thresholds because the page does not state player caps. For more casual social gatherings, check our curated lists of office party games or party games for adults.
Kahoot for Host-Run Quizzes
Kahoot operates as a host-run live quiz platform, so one person runs the questions while everyone answers on their own device.
The core drawback is account tier restrictions. While third-party guides describe free tiers capping out at 10 participants, Kahoot support documentation lists free account limits in a variable range of 10 to 40 players. Paid subscription tiers list participant limits of 50 and higher. Kahoot functions strictly as a trivia quiz engine rather than an improvisational prompt-and-answer party game.
When to Stay With Jackbox
You should stay with Jackbox if your gathering takes place in a physical living room around a shared television or inside a single video call screen. Jackbox remains the only platform in this comparison engineered around a central display that treats participant smartphones purely as controllers.
You should also stay with Jackbox if you want built-in joke prompts. Games like Quiplash 3 deliver dedicated joke-prompt answering. If your crowd is large, Jackbox audience features let extra people vote on player submissions without breaking the active player limit.
Budget and hardware are the two main reasons to leave Jackbox. If you do not want to purchase party packs or if your participants cannot see a shared central screen, free browser tools provide an alternative.
Our Takeaway
Stay with Jackbox if you want a host-screen format with smartphone controls and audience voting, which lets a larger crowd take part. Choose skribbl.io for free browser drawing with remote groups of 6 to 20, or Gartic Phone for groups of 6 to 12 (up to 30 only if the higher published cap holds in your lobby). Use Kahoot only if your party calls for structured quiz competition and your participant count fits within the free tier’s published limits.
This recommendation rests on our internal calculation from published lobby limits, not on play-testing. We evaluated how each platform handles room caps of 6, 12, 25, and 40 players based on public documentation from vendors, support guides, and independent reports.
The exception that changes this verdict is lobby cap volatility. Published caps differ between sources and may change, as with the 10-to-40 range in Kahoot support and the 14-versus-30 figures reported for Gartic Phone. Before hosting your event, check the lobby or plan page of your chosen tool to verify current caps.