Merchant RPG vs Goblin's Workshop
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Merchant RPG
Manage a fantasy shopkeeping empire by sending heroes on quests for materials and using crafters to create gear. Balance crafting, selling, and hero upgrades to build your trade empire and conquer foes. This offline idle RPG blends tycoon mechanics with traditional RPG elements.
- Send heroes on quests
- Craft weapons and armor
- Manage shop economy
- Upgrade heroes and crafters
- Raid bosses
- Customize characters
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Be the Merchant of your very own empire! Quest, Craft, Profit, Upgrade! As the Merchant, you are the commander of your own domain! Blending together traditional RPG systems, tycoon mechanics, and a fantasy overworld, Merchant aims to reimagine the traditional mobile RPG. In Merchant, players take the role of a shopkeeper who must manage a team of Heroes and Crafters. Heroes are sent out on quests in order to fight enemies and gather materials. Crafters then use those materials to create weapons and armor. As the shopkeeper, players must balance their micro-economies between selling items for gold and crafting items to better ensure success for the Heroes. * * * TAKE REIGN OF YOUR MARKET - Send Heroes out on epic adventures! - Pay Crafters to create gear! - Earn gold and dictate the direction of your economy! - Grow your inventory and profit from your trade empire! VICTORY THROUGH CONQUEST - Choose your cast of characters from multiple Hero classes! - Ride out to battle to bring back items and loot! - Customize your champions with weapons and armor! - Band together to raid powerful bosses as a party! - Better performance leads to greater rewards! CRAFT YOUR LEGACY - Utilize the unique Crafters to create items and gear to use and sell! - Train the Crafters to create better items, allowing them to master their trade! - Ensure the victory of your Heroes by outfitting them with superior items! * * *
Goblin's Workshop
A simulation RPG where you craft weapons, recruit monsters, and explore to gather materials. Sell items to monsters, upgrade your transport, and equip your monsters to battle humans and reclaim territories.
- Item crafting and selling
- Monster recruitment and exploration
- RPG combat mechanics
- Idle gameplay
- Monster equipment upgrades
- Territory battles
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***** goblin's Workshop is a simple and easy item making simulation & RPG idle game. ***** Make weapons, recruit monsters to explore, get more materials and make more powerful weapons! Defeat the evil humans! [Introduction] In the game, you can make all kinds of items to sell to monsters to earn money, from time to time there will be a variety of monsters to visit your store. If you are very idle, you can also click them to pimp, from them to cut more money. When there are not enough materials, you must send your monster hired soldiers to explore the world to get more resources. If you have some money, please buy a better transport wagon for the monsters to ride. But the humans in this world is not a vegetarian, they occupy many territories. So your monsters if the equipped items are too bad to explore, it is easy to be beaten by human! You can leave the better items to your monsters to put on, so that the monsters increase more combat power. The crap will be left to other idiot customers to buy it, this is the right way to do business! Well, no more chit chat. I'm going to the market to buy materials and drink... [Terms of Use] https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Merchant RPG at 4.6 against Goblin's Workshop's 3.7. Merchant RPG also leads on ratings volume (265 vs 9) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 12.0). Goblin's Workshop's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 4 months). On price, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Merchant RPG sells 12 one-off in-app purchases and Goblin's Workshop sells 11 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Merchant RPG holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Merchant RPG has 265 ratings behind it against 9, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 69% of Merchant RPG's written reviews are positive against 71% of Goblin's Workshop's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Merchant RPG ships an update every 4 months, Goblin's Workshop every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and September 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Merchant RPG | Goblin's Workshop |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (265 ratings) — better | 3.7 (9 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 68.9% of reviews | 71.4% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 265 — better | 9 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 12.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 67 MB | 423 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Retora Game Studios | JUNG CHUN HUNG |
Customer experience
Merchant RPG
Goblin's Workshop
Bugs and requests
Merchant RPG
Reported bugs
3 issues- Ads not working properly
- Inventory management issues
- Progression-blocking bugs
Requested features
4 requests- Add save slots or cloud sync
- Improve equipment visuals
- Implement auto-repeat quests
- Provide more guidance for new players
Goblin's Workshop
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Merchant RPG
- 16 Inventory Slots$0.99
- 16 Additional Inventory Slots II$0.99
- 16 Additional Inventory Slots III$0.99
Show 9 moreShow fewer
- 16 Additional Inventory Slots$0.99
- Unlock the Jeweler$0.99
- Hero Slot I$0.99
- Hero Slot II$0.99
- Enchanter Unlock$1.99
- Unlock all Shop Themes$2.99
- Frozen Tome Expansion$2.99
- Scribe Expansion$3.99
- Unlocks Everything$14.99
Goblin's Workshop
- Double Bless$9.997 Days
- Goblin King's Bless$9.997 Days
- Hire Crystal Miner$14.991 Month
- Fistful of crystals$0.99
- Unlock a random recipe$1.99
- Pouch of crystals$2.99
Show 5 moreShow fewer
- Chest of crystals$9.99
- 3x Battle Speed$9.99
- Newbie Special Package$9.99
- Barrel of crystals$29.99
- Unlock all monsters$47.99
Questions
Is Merchant RPG free?
Is Goblin's Workshop free?
Which has better reviews, Merchant RPG or Goblin's Workshop?
Do Merchant RPG or Goblin's Workshop have ads?
Which is updated more often, Merchant RPG or Goblin's Workshop?
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