About BrainArena
Hillegom · NL · Online sinds 2026
BrainArena is a small, ad-supported puzzle site built and run by one person — me, Marcel, in Hillegom, the Netherlands. It started in 2026 as a side project, and it has stayed exactly that: a place to play, not a venture pitch.
Why I built it
I love two things: solving puzzles and building things on the web. Most puzzle sites I tried felt like ad-tech experiments first and games second — full screen interstitials, modal pop-ups, the whole circus. I wanted one place where the puzzles are the point. I build the games I want to play, and if other people enjoy them too, even better.
How I use it
I play when I'm bored. Sudoku is the one I keep coming back to, but Crowns has also become a daily habit. Keeping the brain trained matters — five minutes of a logic grid is a small thing that adds up over years.
What's here
Twelve daily puzzles spanning word games (Wordle, Boggle, WordBuild, LetterStack), logic grids (Sudoku, Patches, Connect, Sun & Moon, Crowns), and arcade-style brain teasers (TileDrop, ColorMatch, Typing). Each game has Easy / Medium / Hard, a daily seed everyone shares, and a global leaderboard. Your progress lives in your browser — no account required.
Free, and how that works
BrainArena is free for everyone. Hosting, domains, and email cost real money, so I run Google AdSense to cover those bills. You opt in to advertising cookies via the banner — if you say no, the site still works, you just don't see ads. I don't sell your data and there's no premium tier dangling features behind a paywall.
Open about the tech
Each puzzle is generated with a real solver that checks for unique solutions before publishing — no broken or unsolvable boards. The site is built with Next.js, runs on Hostinger, and uses Upstash for rate limiting. Source-of-truth choices and security policy live at /privacy and /security.
Get in touch
Bug reports, suggestions, leaderboard removal — drop a line via the contact page. I read every email; replies sometimes take a couple of days because this is a side project, not a full-time job.
— Marcel · BrainArena · brainarena.fun