Complete Reference for D&D 5 vs Cascade
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Complete Reference for D&D 5
This app serves as a comprehensive guide for playing tabletop role-playing games, offering quick access to spells, items, and monsters without needing internet. It includes tools for Dungeon Masters and a character sheet manager, with the option to add custom content and print cards.
- Offline access to spells, items, and monsters
- Searchable SRD 5 content
- Online Content Creator for custom content
- Printable spell, monster, and equipment cards
- DM tools: map, name, loot, encounter generators
- Character Sheet Manager with export and print
- Initiative tracker
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This app is your guide while playing your favorite pen and paper RPG, for both players and DM's. *NOTE: While this app is mainly meant to be used with pen and paper role playing game DnD 5th Edition, it can also be used with different versions. All your spells, items and monsters at hand without Internet or heavy books! Includes all material from the SRD 5, in a searchable handy way. You can add your own content and share content easily by using our Online Content Creator system, check out our forum to find out more details. New! You can also print cards such as spell cards, monster cards and equipment cards directly from the app. Print a complete list at once and customize the card color and icons to your liking. What is in the app: - Over 200 Spells - Over 800 Deities - All base classes - Many monsters completely linked with their spells and skills -1 feat (check our forum) - More than 200 items and even more! The DM section contains a Random dungeon map generator, fantasy name generators, loot and encounter generators, an initiative tracker and much more. If you unlock this section you also remove the adds. The new Character Sheet Manager can be used to manager all your characters. Share and export characters and print characters for a nice overview. Bookmark items, spells, monsters and more to quickly access your favourite items. Internet is not needed to use this application! The internet permission is only used to display some ads in the app. Disclaimer: Deity information is from DnDwiki (homebrew) and wikipedia. All the information provided by the application are bound by the terms of the Open game License v1.1 of Wizards of the Coast. A copy of this license can be downloaded here: http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/SRD-OGL_V1.1.pdf We are not affiliated by any way to Wizards of the Coast.
Cascade
Effortlessly manage your Magic: The Gathering collection and decks. Scan cards quickly, track their value with daily updated prices, and build/playtest various deck formats. Sync your collection across all your devices for seamless access.
- Fast card scanning
- Unlimited collection tracking
- Real-time price updates
- Deck building and playtesting
- Cross-device sync
- Import/export collection data
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Cascade is a free MTG card scanner, collection and price tracker, and deck builder for Magic: The Gathering™ players and collectors. Scan your cards, see what your collection is worth, and build and playtest decks on iPhone, iPad, Android and the web, with free sync between them. FAST CARD SCANNER • Scan a whole stack with your camera, one card after another • Fix the set or finish right in the scan list • Add the scanned cards to your collection, a deck or a list in one step COLLECTION AND PRICES • Track your whole collection, with no limit on the number of cards • See what it is worth with TCGplayer market and median prices, updated every day • Price history for every card, and the biggest price movers of the day and the week • A watchlist for the cards you want to follow DECKS AND PLAYTEST • Build decks for every format: Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Commander and more • Mainboard and sideboard, with format legality checks • Playtest your decks and share them with friends ONE COLLECTION EVERYWHERE • No ads, on any device • Free sync between your phone, tablet and computer, with no subscription • Build decks on the big screen at cascademtg.com and scan cards on your phone • Moving from another app? Import your collection from a CSV or text file, in the app or on the web LISTS, SPOILERS AND SECRET LAIR • A wishlist and your own custom lists • Spoiler lists for upcoming sets, with a notification when new cards are revealed • Secret Lair drops with their cards and prices • Banlists for every format, with an alert when they change CASCADE PREMIUM (OPTIONAL) Price history for your collection, decks and lists; unlimited lists and wishlist cards; up to 300 watched prices; full deck history, notes and maybeboard; playtest tools; and faster scanning. Premium is a monthly or yearly subscription, with the price shown in the app. Terms: https://www.cascademtg.com/terms Privacy: https://www.cascademtg.com/privacy
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Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Cascade at 4.6 against Complete Reference for D&D 5's 3.7. Cascade also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 4 days vs fortnightly). Complete Reference for D&D 5's advantage is iOS requirement (11.2 vs 17.0). On price, ratings volume, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Complete Reference for D&D 5 sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and Cascade sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Cascade holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 273 and 281 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 50% of Complete Reference for D&D 5's written reviews are positive against 65% of Cascade's.
Complete Reference for D&D 5 ships an update fortnightly, Cascade every 4 days. Both last shipped on October 29, 2026.
| Parameter | Complete Reference for D&D 5 | Cascade |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.7 (273 ratings) | 4.6 (281 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 50.5% of reviews | 65.5% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 273 | 281 — better |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 11.2 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 38 MB | 56 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 17+ |
| Developer | van Stein en Groentjes | Cascade MTG LLC |
Customer experience
Complete Reference for D&D 5
Cascade
User reviews
Complete Reference for D&D 5
From 273 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Helpful reference for D&D players
- 🚀 Convenient and easy to use
- 💡 Useful for DMs and new players
- 🚀 Great for quick lookup of information
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes when trying to access custom content
- 🐛 Deletes user-created content
- 🐛 Glitchy character sheet and DM tools
- 🐛 Missing important information (spells, classes, etc.)
Cascade
From 281 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Clean and intuitive user interface
- 🚀 Fast and smooth app performance
- 📱 Excellent card scanning feature (when working)
- 🎯 Great organizational tool for decks and collections
- 💾 Batch importer for quick card addition
Room to improve
- 💸 Misleading 'free' app with significant paywall ($50/year or $5/month)
- 🐛 Unreliable card scanner with high error rates
- 🐛 Scanner fails on extended art, special symbols, and non-English cards
- 🐛 Manual search often returns zero results
- 🐛 Missing card printings and special sets in database
Bugs and requests
Complete Reference for D&D 5
Reported bugs
4 issues- Crashes when trying to access custom content
- Deletes user-created content
- Issues with character sheet and DM tools
- Incomplete information compared to official sources
Requested features
4 requests- Add more official content (spells, classes, races, etc.)
- Improve search functionality and organization
- Allow backing up and restoring user-created content
- Provide better instructions and tutorials for features
Cascade
Reported bugs
14 issues- Card scanner misidentifies cards or fails to scan entirely
- Manual entry bug deletes all previously manually-entered cards from scanning session
- Incorrect card name mapping (e.g., Maarika showing as Zangief)
- App crashes or fails to open after adding many cards
- Account access lost after reinstalling app
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- Export to text feature adds random characters and percentage symbols
- Deck copy feature redirects to premium page unexpectedly
- Search function fails to work when opening app directly into a deck
- Cards missing from database despite being released
- Set assignment incorrect for scanned cards
- Foil designation not retained when using cards in decks
- Deleted deck cards remain in inventory
- Slow bulk scanning with required toast notification dismissal
- Poor set assignment accuracy (50% error rate reported)
Requested features
18 requests- Search function within decks
- Average mana value/CMC statistics for decks
- Easier deck identification when viewing cards
- CSV and table format import support
- Duplicate card detection feature
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- Ability to filter inventory by set
- Multiple card set assignment at once
- Deck copying/sharing functionality
- Play testing feature
- Advanced filtering in inventory (color, type, etc.)
- Card image size adjustment slider
- Extended art and borderless card search filters
- Dark mode support
- Deck sorting options
- Collector number sorting
- Magic Online support and ticket pricing
- Export to properly formatted text files
- Ability to add cards with quantity of 0
In-app purchases
Complete Reference for D&D 5
- Character Manager$3.99
- DM Tools$3.99
Cascade
- Cascade Premium - Monthly7 Days trial$1.991 Month
- Cascade Premium - Annual14 Days trial$19.991 Year
Questions
Is Complete Reference for D&D 5 free?
Is Cascade free?
Which has better reviews, Complete Reference for D&D 5 or Cascade?
Do Complete Reference for D&D 5 or Cascade have ads?
Which is updated more often, Complete Reference for D&D 5 or Cascade?
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