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Murdoku vs Cozy Culprits
Disclosure first: Cozy Culprits is our game. Murdoku is an independent puzzle by Manuel Garand with a free web daily, printable puzzles and a physical book — and it deserves a fair description, so every claim about it below reflects what its own site and store listings say as of August 2026. This page exists because a lot of people search for one while meaning the other, and the two scratch genuinely different itches.
The 30-second answer
Both live in the "murder sudoku" family — grid logic with a whodunit on top — but they branch from different roots. Murdoku grows out of sudoku itself ("Sudoku meets murder mystery," in its own words): if you love number-placement logic, its daily and book give you exactly that with a crime-solving frame. Cozy Culprits grows out of constraint deduction: no numbers at all — you place sixteen recurring suspects on a manor floor plan where rows, columns, rooms, walls and furniture all constrain who can stand where, and written clues pin the rest. Solving the placement is solving the murder.
Head to head
| Murdoku | Cozy Culprits | |
|---|---|---|
| Core mechanic | Sudoku-rooted murder mystery | Suspect placement: rows/columns + rooms, walls, furniture + written clues |
| Formats | Free web daily (murdoku.com), printables, physical book | Native iPhone app + free web daily (murdersudoku.com) + printable cases |
| Price | Web daily free; book paid | Free with ads (never mid-puzzle); one-time $3.49 removes them — no subscription |
| Offline | Book and printables | The app generates and checks cases fully on-device — works in airplane mode; printables too |
| Daily ritual | One daily web puzzle | One case a day in three difficulties (5×5 / 6×6 / 7×7), same board worldwide, streaks + leaderboards + spoiler-free share card |
| Beyond the daily | Book volumes | Campaign from Rookie to Mastermind, hints that never spoil the killer, 30 languages |
Pick Murdoku if…
- Sudoku is the part of "murder sudoku" you love — the number logic itself
- You want a paper puzzle book to gift or to solve on a flight
- You already do the murdoku.com daily and it's exactly the right size for your coffee break
Pick Cozy Culprits if…
- You want the daily ritual as a native iPhone app — offline, streaks, leaderboards, widget-friendly
- You prefer deducing where people stood from clues over placing digits — closer to a detective's floor-plan reasoning
- You want a guarantee that every case has exactly one solution, so you're never forced to guess
You can try it in 10 seconds without installing anything: today's case plays free in the browser.
And where does Murdle fit?
Murdle — G.T. Karber's daily and bestselling book series — is the third name people mix into this search, and it's a different family again: an elimination grid where you cross-reference suspects, weapons and locations until only the guilty combination survives. No sudoku DNA at all. If that's your favorite mechanic, start with is there a Murdle app? (short answer: no official one) and the wider games-like-Murdle roundup. For how the murder-sudoku family itself relates to killer sudoku, see murder sudoku vs killer sudoku.
Quick answers
Is there a Murdoku app for iPhone?
Murdoku's official home is the free web daily at murdoku.com, plus printables and the book; the web daily plays fine in Safari. If you specifically want a native daily murder-puzzle app on iPhone, that's the niche Cozy Culprits is built for.
Is Murdoku free?
The murdoku.com daily is free in the browser; the book is a paid physical product. Cozy Culprits is also free — ad-supported with a one-time ad-removal purchase, never a subscription.
Which is better for offline play?
Paper wins: Murdoku's book/printables, or Cozy Culprits' printable daily cases. Among apps, Cozy Culprits runs fully on-device with no connection needed.