Memory Pairs

Updated by Darryl Waterhouse on 3 November 2026 6 min read

Put memory games on your website. You make the pairs of cards; visitors turn them over two at a time to find every pair, in as few moves and as little time as they can, and the best go top of the leaderboard. Memory Pairs is a Pro Tool, and can be gifted to a site.

What it does

Three kinds of pair, mixed as you like in one game:
- Same picture twice - the classic game.
- Picture + words - a flag and its country, an animal and its name, a tool and what it is for.
- Two texts - a term and its meaning, a word and its translation, a sum and its answer.
4 to 24 pairs (8 to 48 cards). Pictures come from your Media; you can upload new ones from the picture chooser.
A fresh shuffle for every go. Where each card is stays on the server, and a card's face only reaches the visitor's browser when they turn it over - so nobody can peek, not even by looking at the page's code.
Fewest moves wins. A move is two cards turned over. A tie goes to the faster time.
Timing kept by the server, from the moment the game is started to the moment the last pair is found.
Hints if you want them: a hint turns one pair face up for a moment, and adds seconds to the time.
Leaderboards for today, this week, this month and all time, best go per name.
Optional time limit, opening and closing times, and a limit on goes per name.
Works with a mouse, a finger or the keyboard. On a phone, even 48 cards stay big enough to tap.
Personal best on the finished screen, and a Share button.

Getting started

Switch Memory Pairs on in Tools.
Open Tools > Games > Memory Pairs and choose New game.
Give it a title, then fill in the pairs (see below). Eight to twelve pairs make a good game.
Press Test and play it yourself.
Set the status to Open and save.
Put it on any page:

[memory-pairs id="capitals" /]

Making the pairs

Each row is one pair. Choose its kind first:

Same picture twice - press + Picture and choose one from Media. Describe it in a few words: players who use a screen reader hear the description when they turn the card.
Picture + words - a picture as above, and the words for the other card.
Two texts - the first card and its match. Keep each short: a word or a few words fits a card best (up to 80 characters).

Add a pair adds another row. Empty rows are left out when you save.

No two cards from different pairs may look the same - two "Paris" cards in different pairs, or the same picture used twice - because players could not tell which goes with which. The editor says which pair to change.

Settings for each game

The game

Title, Short name (used in the shortcode; made from the title when empty), Status (Draft, Open or Closed), Introduction (shown before the game starts), Opens and Closes (optional).
Only an Open game can be played on a page. It needs at least 4 pairs, and every picture must be in Media.

The cards

Card backs - the site's colour (follows your theme), a pattern in the site's colour, or a picture of your own.
Cards across - Auto lays the cards out nearly square, and keeps to six across on a phone. Choose a number to fix it; on a narrow phone a wide grid then scrolls sideways.
A missed pair stays up for (ms) - how long two cards that are not a pair stay face up before turning back, in thousandths of a second. 900 is about a second. Turning another card over sooner turns them back at once.

Hints

Players can ask for hints - off unless you switch it on.
Hints a game - 1 to 10.
Seconds added for each hint - a hint costs no moves, so it costs time. The leaderboard marks plays that used hints with a small H.

Rules and leaderboard

Time limit (minutes) - 0 for none. Running out of time means not on the leaderboard.
Goes each (per name) - 0 for as many as they like.
Leaderboard size and Leaderboard opens on (which period it shows first).
Show a leaderboard - fewest moves, then fastest time.
Animations - cards turn over and pairs light up. Visitors who have asked their device for less motion (or switched on the site's Reduce motion) see the cards swap at once instead.

Settings for the Tool

The cog at the top of Memory Pairs sets what a new game starts with: the missed-pair time, the card backs, the leaderboard, hints and animations. Each game keeps its own copy, so changing these never changes a game already made.

Testing a game

Test (in the editor, on each game in the list, and on its Plays screen) opens the game right there, exactly as your players see it.

It plays the version you last saved. With unsaved changes the button says Save and test, and saves first.
It works whatever the status.
A test go is never saved to the leaderboard, is not in the Plays list, does not count towards goes per name and raises no notification. When you finish, it tells you where you would have come.

Shortcodes

[memory-pairs id="capitals" /]

The game, with its leaderboard below it.

[memory-pairs id="capitals" board="hide" /]
[memory-pairs id="capitals" board="only" /]

board="hide" leaves the leaderboard out; board="only" shows the leaderboard on its own.

[memory-pairs-leaderboard id="capitals" period="week" limit="5" title="This week's best" /]

A leaderboard on its own. period is today, week, month or all (left out: the game's own setting); limit is how many rows; title is the heading.

Plays and leaderboards

Plays (on each game) lists every go, newest first, with the moves and any hints beside each name. Hide takes a play off the leaderboard without deleting it; Show puts it back. Reset the leaderboard deletes every play of that game.

Notifications

Memory Pairs new bests (on by default) - someone has gone top of a game's leaderboard.
Memory Pairs perfect games (off by default) - someone found every pair without a single miss.

Switch them on or off in your notification settings.

Moving games between sites

Export a game from its menu in the list (right-click it, or the ⋮), or from the download button at the top of its editor. Export all puts every game in one file. The file holds the pairs and settings - never who played.

Pictures travel as references to Media, not as the picture files. Copy the pictures into the other site's Media too (same folders and names).

Import… at the top of the list adds the games in a file to this site:

Each arrives as a draft with no plays.
A picture this site's Media does not have is named in the message, the game is marked picture missing in the list and the pair is marked in the editor. Upload the picture to Media, or choose another, before opening the game.
A game whose short name is taken gets one of its own (capitals-2), so check the shortcode.
One that is not valid is skipped, and the message says which and why. Up to 50 games at a time.

Gifting

Memory Pairs is a Pro Tool that can also be gifted to a site, for good or for a number of days.