After a long day of Slack work notifications capped off with a couple hours cruising TikTok, it’s easy to appreciate any pursuit that peels you away from a screen. No wonder the humble jigsaw puzzle is having a real moment, blending simple tactility with a refreshing disregard for technology.
But not all puzzles are created equal, and among the endless options you can find some real duds. Some cheap brands fill boxes with dusty, papery pieces, while others pass off AI slop in place of the work of human artists.
Fortunately, plenty of companies make beautiful, engaging puzzles that are challenging to assemble, satisfying to complete, and so beautiful you’ll want to frame them. If you’re looking for a new way to kill an hour, an afternoon, or even the better part of a year, these are your best options.
At a glance
Why you should trust me
For this test I teamed up with my wife, Amanda Stevens, a lifelong puzzler who keeps a closet full of jigsaw puzzles old and new. She has a vintage drafting table purchased and positioned for the express purpose of puzzling, where she often spends hours de-stressing. As for me, I’ve been testing products of all shapes and sizes for dozens of international outlets since the late 90s. We teamed up to find the best the jigsaw puzzles the industry has to offer.
How I tested
Together we tested more than 80 puzzles for this writeup, sampled from 26 brands chosen for ease of availability, variety and overall quality.
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Each puzzle was evaluated for set criteria including quality of packaging, piece feel, image reproduction and price.
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We checked for any piece damage as they came out of the box, and noted when any were already stuck together.
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After cracking the box, we poured every puzzle into a sieve to measure and collect puzzle dust, the messy shards of cardboard that cloud the boxes and bags from some of these offerings.
Since most of these brands offer dozens, hundreds or even thousands of puzzles, it’s impossible to evaluate them all. The ones we chose are – we hope – representative of a puzzle brand’s overall offerings in particular categories.
Despite evaluating some tens of thousands of puzzle pieces for this test, we didn’t lose a single one. This meant we could donate our used puzzles various charities for children and seniors in upstate New York, including LifePath and Things of my Very Own.
All prices current at the time of publication.
The best US jigsaw puzzles in 2025
Best overall jigsaw puzzle:
Ravensburger 1,000-piece
After more than a century of producing puzzles, Germany’s Ravensburger has built a reputation for being among the best puzzle brands out there. As we found in our testing, that fame is well-deserved. The company makes puzzles of every conceivable size, but for this overall category we focused on the 1,000-piece category, which is among the most common and competitive.
Ravensburger has endless holiday scenes, such as this Christmas market, as well as plenty of Disney-licensed properties (whether you’re into heroes or villains), and even themed puzzles for TV shows and movies such as Stranger Things and Jaws. Just about everyone should find something in the company’s catalog that speaks to them.
Why we love it
The fit, feel and overall quality of their pieces is consistently among the best. While many jigsaw puzzle manufacturers rely on flimsy, thin paperboard pieces, Ravensburger uses thicker cardboard that is cleanly cut and feels good in the hand. It’s 70% recycled cardboard to boot, which earns the brand some environmental bonus points.
Pieces come out of the box relatively cleanly, without an abundance of puzzle dust cluttering the box as happens with lesser brands. And while we often found that with some brands multiple pieces came out of the box stuck together, indicating low-quality stamping, that was not an issue with Ravensburger.
The company uses high-quality, semi-gloss printing, meaning the print resolution and overall image reproduction stands up to the kind of close scrutiny involved when trying to figure out where a given piece goes. The semi-gloss coating also means the pieces are easy to see in harsh lighting. In other words, these puzzles are easy on the eyes in multiple ways.
Finally, Ravensburger relies on custom dies for most of its puzzles, so different puzzles aren’t cut the same. Again, this can’t be said for some other brands.
It’s a shame that … is Ravensburger experimenting with AI imagery in its puzzles? I asked the company and it did not say. Some online have argued that it is. Also, while the company’s puzzles don’t have much dust, they aren’t completely free of it.
Gardener’s Palette
My Haven No 7: My Beach Hut
50th Anniversary Christmas Village
The Garden Kitchen
Finished dimensions (Gardener’s Palette): 27in x 30in
Material (Gardener’s Palette): Recycled cardboard, FSC-certified paper, cardboard, and wood
Best puzzles under 500 pieces for adults:
Buffalo Puzzles
If the tiny pieces of a 1,000-piece puzzle give you eye strain, or you just fancy less of a challenge, a puzzle with fewer than 500 pieces would probably suit you well. We liked the offerings from New York-based Buffalo, which has many offerings including works from artists such as Eric Dowdle, Aimee Stewart and Charles Wysocki – plus everything from beautiful holiday scenes to celebrations of wildlife and even highlights of national parks.
Why we love it
The large, semi-gloss pieces are thin but fit together well – in fact so snugly that you can easily pick up and move sections of the puzzle as needed.
It’s a shame that … the company glues its boxes shut. This saves on packaging, particularly plastic wraps and internal bags, but the boxes are impossible to open without making a mess. This could also be a challenge for someone with arthritic fingers or mobility troubles.
Finished dimensions (Mystic Seaport): 21.3in x 15in
Material (Mystic Seaport): Paperboard
Eric Dowdle – Mystic Seaport
Charles Wysocki – Sleepy Town West
Delightful Donuts
Garry Walton – Watermelon Surf Shack
Best jigsaw puzzle for kids:
EeBoo Piece & Love
This is a tough category due to the large range of options, but the one puzzle that made us smile the most was the Land of Dinosaurs puzzle from EeBoo. EeBoo is an independent, woman-owned business with a strong focus on education, diversity and environmental concerns. The puzzles are made with vegetable-based inks and the pieces come in a biodegradable, compostable bag. None of that would matter if the puzzles weren’t good but thankfully they are.
Why we love it
The pieces are large, glossy and feel very durable, the kind of thing that kids could put together again and again without fraying. We loved the happy dinosaurs, but the brand offers plenty of other options for children and adults, like this gorgeous Love of Octopuses & Friends puzzle and this Magical Creatures puzzle that is oozing with charm – both 100 pieces.
It’s a shame that … EeBoo puzzles tend to be slightly more expensive. Many of the 100-piece puzzles cost $23.99, upwards of $10 more than some competitors. That said, we think they’re worth it.
Finished dimensions (Land of Dinosaurs): 24in x 16in
Material (Land of Dinosaurs): 90% recycled paper for packaging and pieces, vegetable-based inks, compostable bag inside, FSC-certified paper
Love of Octopuses & Friends
Magical Creatures
after newsletter promotion
Love of Nocturnal Life
Best custom jigsaw puzzles:
Ravensburger Custom Photo Puzzles
We ordered custom puzzles from five different companies (Puzzery, PuzzleYou, Ravensburger, Snapfish and Shutterfly), all using the same image, and quality varied widely in our tests.
Why we love it
Ravensburger again impressed us here. While its custom puzzles don’t quite match the quality of its mass-produced models, they are still a step or two above the competition. Dust was not a problem, and as with Ravensburger’s non-custom puzzles, image quality was great. The colors were vivid, the high resolution meant the photo looked clean, and it was laid out perfectly on the resulting puzzle.
Beyond that, we appreciated the extensive customization options for both the puzzle itself and the box. Ravensburger’s box-design wizard lets you choose from dozens of different themes, ranging from birthday ribbons to hearts, snowflakes and paw prints. We went for a travel motif, which made the box look like a map.
It’s a shame that … Ravensburger’s custom puzzles are slightly more expensive than the competition. Where most of the competition came in at around $40, Ravensburger’s cost just under $50.
Finished dimensions: 26.5in x 19.25in
Material: Recycled cardboard, FSC-certified paper, cardboard and wood
Best large jigsaw puzzles:
Ravensburger Puzzles
If you have a little more time to kill – and a lot more space for puzzling – many companies make puzzles ranging from 2,000 pieces up to 5,000 or more. These larger puzzles can measure in excess of 5ft (1.5 meters) across, which might take your dining room table out of commission for a while.
Why we love it
Ravensburger’s Space Odyssey puzzle was as grand and epic in scope as its galactic subject. At 5,000 pieces and measuring 60.25in on the horizontal, the puzzle offered amazing detail, not only of numerous interstellar objects, but also of the spacecraft exploring them. The piece and image quality met the same high standards we observed with Ravensburger’s smaller puzzles. We could see fine details such as the antennae on the various spacecraft, while the colors of Saturn and Jupiter were spectacular.
Though there was a bit more dust in the box than we’re used to from the brand’s smaller puzzles, it was proportional to the scope of the thing.
It’s a shame that … It’s perhaps inevitable, but just flipping and sorting the pieces after we removed them from the box took the two of us hours. If you want a real challenge, this is it.
Finished dimensions (Space Odyssey): 60.25in x 39.75in
Material (Space Odyssey): Mostly recycled paper and cardboard; FSC-certified paper, cardboard, and wood
Space Odyssey
The Forest Dragon Awakes
The Hidden World of Fairies
Fantasy Street
Best wooden jigsaw puzzles:
Nautilus Jigsaw Puzzles
Wooden puzzles have blown up in a big way over the past few years, and the market is full of excellent offerings. The thick, heavy pieces feel like luxury items compared to the paperboard that most jigsaw enthusiasts will be used to. In addition, higher-end wooden puzzles often feature charming designs full of color and contrast. We sampled six different brands and fell in love with most of them, but Nautilus slightly edged ahead.
Why we love it
The adorable, 480-piece Creation of Dogs puzzle we sampled came packaged in a beautiful cloth bag. The puzzle features numerous whimsies (unique shapes that fit the theme of the puzzle), including little dogs, bones and sticks.
And if you’re not a dog person, the company offers a big selection of puzzles featuring birds, dragons and, yes, cats. They’re all hard to resist.
It’s a shame that … you’re looking at over $100 for most Nautilus puzzles, and more than $200 for larger ones. That’s quite a commitment, but not out of line given the other offerings in this category.
Finished dimensions (Creation of Dogs): 14.5in x 11.5in
Material (Creation of Dogs): Wooden pieces, cloth bag
The Creation of Dogs
Fantasy Chess
The Painted Orca
Spirit of the Woodlands
The best of the rest
Best puzzle for kids that need a little more excitement: Melissa & Doug’s Race Around the World
Why we love it
If you have a little extra room and some little ones who need an extra incentive to finish their puzzle, check out the motorized options from Melissa & Doug. We had a lot of fun putting together the Race Around the World Puzzle and when we were finished, we had a race track for the pair of wind-up toys included in the box. The pieces are large and fit together well, and while the cars aren’t the quickest, the appeal here is immediate for players of any age.
It didn’t make the final cut because … EeBoo’s kid’s puzzles were just that much more charming, even if not motorized.
Finished dimensions (Race Around the World): 36in x 24in
Material (Race Around the World): Cardboard
Melissa & Doug’s Race Around the World Tracks Floor Puzzle
Round the Shore Tracks Floor Puzzle
Animal Chase
What other products did the Guardian test?
We sampled puzzles from:
Tim Stevens is a freelance journalist with more than 25 years of experience reviewing products of all sorts. He is a frequent contributor to US and international publications on everything from cybersecurity to supercars. An avid cyclist, outdoorsman and automotive enthusiast, if Tim isn’t traveling for work he’s probably on his bike, out in the woods, or in his garage tinkering with something
