# Catanerator - Map Generator — user reviews > 116 indexed App Store user reviews of Catanerator by Elevated Pixels Software, rated 4.00/5 from 236 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/catanerator-map-generator/id439248947/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/catanerator-map-generator/id439248947.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 144 · 4★ 31 · 3★ 13 · 2★ 14 · 1★ 34 ## What do users think of Catanerator? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🚀 Great map generator - 👍 Useful tool for game setup - 💡 Allows for different board configurations - 🚀 Saves time setting up the game **Cons** - 🐛 Crashes on some devices - 🔒 Paywall for advanced features - 👎 Difficult to navigate - 👎 Unclear color-resource mapping **Commonly reported bugs** - App crashes on startup for some users - Allows adjacent high-value tiles despite setting - Resets board when switching between portrait and landscape - Difficulty distinguishing resource types due to color scheme **Most requested features** - Add support for Seafarers and Cities & Knights expansions - Implement a dice roller for Knights and Barbarians - Allow custom tile placement and saving of custom boards - Improve board balancing and prevent adjacent high-value tiles ## Newest reviews (11 of 116) ### 4/5 — Great companion app for Catan *2026-05-23, version 4.1* Great list of configurations and features, we recently start playing Catan again as the kids are old enough to enjoy the fun of Board Games One regret I found is that the “Random Port Locations” despite enabled or disabled , each generation would be “random” , while some edition of Catan does not allow port override , or contains the extra “port pieces” Like my current edition, of the right of the “2:1 wheat” it’s a “3:1” port , and both are on the same edge piece which means it’s a fixed combination. It will be nice if the app can take user input of “default port” locations / combinations before the random map generation For now I am going to ignore the port and see how we go ### 4/5 — Great app! But missing one or 2 things *2022-04-09, version 4.1* This app works just as you’d expect it! I just wish there was a way to get back to the main menu without closing the whole app. Besides that, this has pretty much everything you need for a fair and balanced catan game ### 4/5 — Colors to resource? *2021-09-13, version 4.1* What resource is each color? Green = sheep Dark brown = wood Etc…. Thanks ### 3/5 — Good ideas, not completely implemented yet *2021-05-18, version 4.1* This app deserves 5 stars, once some important things are fixed and functional. To the developers, please see those suggestions as direct input to make a well balanced and great application out of this! - there is no info about what is what or how this interface works. It took me quite some time to guess which colour stands for which resource. After a while we think we figured it out, but it stays a guessing game. - once you start a game, there is no obvious to get back to the menu. I Had to close the app completely and reopen it to get to the menu. Only after some time I found a “button” which brings me directly back. This is not very obvious intuitive. - the button to dice could be bigger. Players need to press many times to finally hit it right - the random port sometimes are right next to each other or present on the same hex. It would be nice if they get distributed with at least one hex in between. - sometimes, certain numbers are not present at all in the board. Imagine playing a game without a single 6. What happens if you dive a 6?? This must be an obvious mistake that need immediate fixing. Other than that the app works very nice, makes plying very enjoyable and has a nice design. Please keep optimising it! ### 2/5 — Good idea, but there are issues *2020-09-22, version 4.1* At first glance, the app looks good. It’s only when you start to use it that you realise there are problems. The first issue is that the game board generated uses colours to represent particular tiles, but gives you no indication as to what tile each of the colours represents. There needs to be in in-game key to explain this. The next problem is that there’s no way to quit from a particular game and generate a new board without quitting from the app. The developers really need to fix these couple of issues. ### 2/5 — Does not balance resource tile distribution. *2020-01-18, version 4.1* This app is okay. It functions, but the UI is very ugly and it has minor annoyances like the tab buttons being unresponsive, being unable to generate a new map without restarting the app, and requiring payment to generate 6 player maps. The deal-breaker however, is that it doesn’t balance the locations of resource tiles, only the numbers. For an app that claims to generate competitive and balanced boards, this is very disappointing. ### 2/5 — No key to figure out tile colour vs resource. *2019-11-10* No where in the free app tells u what the tile colours are. Example. Is Green Tree or Sheep? Both cards are green in the game. Need a key to figure it out ### 4/5 — Handy app *2019-06-13, version 4.1* Nice app that saves time searching for or trying to create your own maps. For future updates I would love to see the ability to generate 5-6 player seafarers maps as that is what we normally play. Fog/treasure islands would be fantastic as well. Not sure how to work in fog islands with keeping the board setup unknown to the players laying out the board using an app. Maybe just provide the number of resource tiles and tokens to be used and the players can shuffle those face down and place at random? A variety of maps of the 5-6 seafarers size would be a helpful starting point. ### 1/5 — Basic Mapping *2019-01-26, version 4.1* Great if you play with only the small map. Does not provide large maps with expansion players. ### 3/5 — Useful but confusing *2018-09-02, version 4.1* I am having trouble with figuring out how to set up the ports the way the generated map calls it out. It would be useful if the ports were grouped together the way the physical board pieces are. This way, you could tell which order to place the pieces. Most of the time, we try to configure the border pieces with the ports in the locations indicated on the map, but there’s just no way to do it, so we just use the default 1-1, 2-2, etc. Also, I see most of the time that the resources are grouped together pretty heavily (all the wood in one section of the board, etc). And even without the option to have reds together, I see reds together. (8, 8, 6 all on adjacent tiles). The map also resets when you switch from portrait to landscape view. I just want to generate a quick, fair map that we can use to quickly set up the board and get to playing without having to spend a half hour worrying about it being unbalanced. Otherwise, the interface is slick and maybe I’d pay for the extra features if the free ones were a little better. ### 4/5 — Prefer old design *2018-08-07, version 2.0.2* I have not upgraded from the older version because I prefer the old design. If it's not too much trouble, would love a setting to choose the old style. Other than that, this app is indispensable for playing Catan. Thanks! ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Difficult to use *2025-01-06, version 4.1* App is clunky and doesn’t work well. No option for seafaring 5-6 ### 1/5 — Thanks anyway *2022-06-16, version 4.1* Wish I could just make my own tile arrangements and save them. This was just sadness ### 1/5 — Not free and not good *2021-12-20, version 4.1* Horrible generator. Once downloaded you have to pay money for anything besides the basic map. You don’t find this out until after the app is downloaded. If you want a legit and FREE catan map generator with tons of options. Then Get the HEX ISLE MAP and you will be very pleased. This is NOT what your looking for. ### 1/5 — Don’t do it *2021-11-27, version 4.1* Everything is price gated ### 1/5 — Are they colourblind? *2021-04-18, version 4.1* I can’t even work out which resource is which. There is 2 browns and 1 green. How about using the actual Catan colours? Other apps do this better with more free options too. ### 1/5 — Not very good *2020-12-05, version 4.1* My first generated board, pitted two 6’s together ### 1/5 — Does not balance starting positions *2020-03-30, version 4.1* The most obviously missing feature is balancing starting positions so that less experienced players are guided into the game. Randomizing the board is an easy task, finding balanced positions for all 6players is not ### 1/5 — Needs more to be valuable *2019-06-26, version 4.1* Should be programmed to not have the same numbers appear next to each other (even if they aren’t red) or have it as an option in settings. Color blind setting should not be just adding small text to the tiles. Different shades would be way more helpful. Red/green colors used are indistinguishable. ### 1/5 — Breaks a basic rule *2019-04-08, version 4.1* When creating a board, the red numbers are not meant to be adjacent to one another. However, this app gave me nothing but boards with adjacent red numbers, making the app useless. ### 1/5 — Creates bad boards *2019-03-08, version 4.1* Terrible boards generated by this. All the 8s and 6s are grouped together with each other, and the “random” board setting creates terribly uneven boards. You have to pay money to get 5/6 player expansion boards. Not worth my or anyone else’s money. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Great *2025-11-01, version 4.1* Best catan map generator ### 5/5 — very good *2022-07-09, version 4.1* works in all ways it shows. ### 5/5 — Catan *2022-03-18, version 4.1* I rascally won by my self! ### 5/5 — Great way to keep it fresh *2022-01-30, version 4.1* App works great ### 5/5 — Great app *2020-11-28, version 4.1* This app is exactly what it is described as and is very useful at getting different catan boards every time you play. ### 5/5 — Works perfectly *2020-07-03, version 4.1* Super handy and very convenient for when you’re keen on jetting right in to a game without brainstorming different map configs! ### 5/5 — Must have *2019-12-05, version 4.1* Catan lover’s must have...I hope someday they add 6p expansion to sea farers ### 5/5 — Great app, one request *2019-12-01, version 4.1* It would be great to track the rolls we make without having to roll with the app. Have used a few scenarios from the 5-6 player in-app purchase and have been pleased. ### 5/5 — previously one star but i think i figured it out *2019-04-19, version 4.1* i originally gave the app one star because i thought check marking adjacent reds allowed adjacent reds but it appears to be the opposite. as long as it continues to work this way then it’s a good app. i paid the 2 dollars for the expansion. ### 5/5 — A1 *2018-06-30, version 4.1* A1 --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-09.*