Choose Green Felt if public high scores, Games of the Day, a forum and deep keyboard controls are important to you. Choose FreeCell Now if you want the original Microsoft 1–32,000 deals, deal-difficulty research, hints and dedicated FreeCell analysis tools.
Green Felt has been serving browser card games since the mid-2000s and still has features that newer FreeCell sites often skip. Its FreeCell game supports repeatable game numbers, public score tables, undo and redo, keyboard card-finding shortcuts and assisted “super moves.” FreeCell Now is a newer FreeCell-specific project built around a different data set and a different reason to replay deals.
Green Felt FreeCell vs FreeCell Now: feature comparison
| Feature | Green Felt | FreeCell Now |
|---|---|---|
| Play in a browser | Yes | Yes |
| Account required to play | No | No |
| Repeatable numbered games | Yes — Green Felt game numbers | Yes — original Microsoft deals 1–32,000 |
| Public high scores | Yes — login required for a recorded high score | No public leaderboard |
| Daily shared play | Games of the Day via the leader board | Daily Challenge |
| Undo | Yes | Yes |
| Keyboard controls | Extensive shortcuts and card-finder keys | Core shortcuts for Undo, Hint and Auto |
| Supermove support | Assisted super moves in the game | Standard sequence capacity plus a dedicated calculator |
| Difficulty data for Microsoft deals | No equivalent 32,000-deal index published on the FreeCell page | Deal Difficulty Index for the original 32,000 set |
| Broader game catalogue | Many solitaire, puzzle and arcade games | FreeCell-focused |
| Public forum | Yes | No |
Green Felt features were checked against its live FreeCell page, FAQ and leader board on . FreeCell Now features were checked against the live product and project documentation on the same date.
Where Green Felt is genuinely stronger
Green Felt attaches high scores to individual repeatable games and runs Games of the Day from its leader board. You can play without logging in, but a login is required for a recorded high score.
Its documented shortcuts go beyond undo and replay. Players can highlight cards by rank, suit or colour, which is useful for fast visual scanning on a desktop board.
Green Felt can attempt to move blocking cards out of the way when a player clicks or drags a buried card. That is a distinctive interaction model rather than just a shortcut for moving an already-ordered run.
The site has a public forum where players share difficult FreeCell game numbers, compare times and discuss strategy. FreeCell Now does not currently offer an equivalent public forum.
Where FreeCell Now takes a different approach
FreeCell Now is narrower. It is built around standard FreeCell and the original Microsoft deal collection rather than a large catalogue of card and puzzle games.
The Deal Difficulty Index is the biggest difference. FreeCell Now analyses the original 32,000 Microsoft deals as a set, rather than treating a game number only as a way to reproduce a shuffle. The site also documents the famous Deal #11982 separately and publishes the DDI methodology behind the difficulty model.
Both sites have game numbers — but they are not the same numbering system
This is the easiest difference to miss. Green Felt's FAQ says its game number identifies one repeatable shuffle inside Green Felt's own game system. Its score tables use those numbers so multiple players can compete on the same layout.
FreeCell Now also supports repeatable numbers, but its numbered-deal mode is specifically tied to the original Microsoft FreeCell deals 1 through 32,000. That makes the number useful when you are following classic deal lists, researching a known Microsoft deal or comparing the same board against the Deal Difficulty Index.
A number shown on Green Felt should not be assumed to represent the same card layout as the same number in the original Microsoft 1–32,000 collection.
Green Felt is better if public scoring is the point
Green Felt has the clearer competitive layer. Its high-score tables are tied to individual shuffles, and its leader board directs players toward Games of the Day where more people are likely to play the same deal. The site also has an established forum around those results.
FreeCell Now has a Daily Challenge, but it does not currently publish a public high-score leaderboard. If your main reason for playing is to chase a public time or move ranking against other players, Green Felt has the stronger feature today.
The control philosophy is different too
Green Felt documents a desktop-heavy control system: undo and redo, replay, auto-finish, rank and suit highlighting, colour highlighting, mouse shortcuts and its assisted super moves.
FreeCell Now keeps the core board controls simpler. You can click or tap, drag cards directly, double-click eligible cards to a foundation, undo moves, request a hint and auto-move safe foundation cards. The global keyboard shortcuts include U for Undo, H for Hint and A for Auto.
If the question is purely “which has more keyboard depth?”, Green Felt wins. If you want a tool that explains how many cards a legal sequence can carry with a given number of empty cells and columns, FreeCell Now has a dedicated Supermove Calculator.
Which FreeCell site should you choose?
Choose Green Felt if…
- you care about public per-game high scores;
- you want Games of the Day and an established forum;
- you rely heavily on keyboard card-finding shortcuts;
- you like Green Felt's assisted super-move behaviour; or
- you want many other solitaire and puzzle games in the same site.
Choose FreeCell Now if…
- you want to replay the original Microsoft 1–32,000 deals;
- you want difficulty scores and rankings for that deal set;
- you are researching hard or historically notable FreeCell deals;
- you want in-game hints plus a separate supermove calculator; or
- you prefer a FreeCell-specific research and strategy site.
How we checked this comparison
This comparison was last reviewed on . Green Felt claims were checked against Green Felt's own live FreeCell page, FAQ and leader board rather than copied from third-party “alternative” articles. FreeCell Now claims were checked against the live product and current project implementation.
We intentionally do not score features we have not verified. For example, this version of the comparison does not declare a winner for mobile usability or advertising load. Those are better tested on real devices and sessions than inferred from another site's review.
If a feature has changed, email [email protected] or use our Corrections & Updates process.