Calamus vs Turn Tracker
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Calamus
Create expansive battlemaps with hand-drawn tiles for tabletop RPGs. Design custom character tokens and host real-time games where players can move their own pieces. Engage in robust chat, sending messages as yourself or any in-game token.
- Create large battlemaps
- Dozens of hand-drawn tiles
- Custom PC, NPC, FOE tokens
- Host real-time games
- Player character movement
- Robust in-game chat
- Send messages as tokens
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The Calamus is a companion for tabletop roleplaying games, such as Dungeons & Dragons or Pathfinder, that allows you to create huge battlemaps utilizing dozens of hand-drawn tiles, create custom PC, NPC, and FOE tokens, and host games in which players can add and move their own characters in real-time. It also features a robust chat, in which you can send messages as yourself or any token you have in play, publicly or privately. You can find our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy here: http://trapstreetstudios.com/theCalamus/tos/
Turn Tracker
This app simplifies combat initiative tracking for tabletop role-playing games. It allows for customizable dice rolls, turn order management, and easy creation of character and NPC tiles. Upgrade to unlock unlimited campaigns and participants.
- Customizable dice rolls (d20, d10, d6)
- Configurable initiative rules
- Draggable PC/NPC tiles
- Automatic dice rolling
- Supports multiple RPG systems
- Landscape and portrait orientation
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Turn Tracker (the successor to the popular app InitiativeBoard) is a slick and easy to use initiative tracking aid for combat in pen-and-paper role playing games like D&D (5e or any other edition), Pathfinder (1e or 2e), Starfinder, Shadowrun and many other systems. Initiative rules are configurable to your game's rules: choose dice (d20, d10, 1d6 to 5d6), ascending/descending order, range of values and more. Also choose from one of the built-in color schemes, or design your own. No more messy whiteboards, magnetic boards or pencil and paper! Quickly and easily create draggable tiles for PCs and NPCs, and arrange them in initiative order on the board, or let the app take over the dice-rolling for you. Determining initiative, changing the turn order and starting new encounters is all a matter of seconds. Turn Tracker fully supports landscape and portrait orientation as well as slide-over and multitasking - no more app switching just because you need to look something up in a PDF or on the web. The free version of Turn Tracker supports one campaign with up to 10 tiles on the board (5 PCs/NPCs each). Upgrading to Premium lifts these restrictions and you can run multiple campaigns in parallel, with unlimited PCs/NPCs per campaign.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Turn Tracker at 83% against Calamus's 33%. Turn Tracker also leads on rating (4.4 vs 3.3). Calamus's advantage is update cadence (monthly vs every 3 months) and ratings volume (83 vs 12). On price, ads, 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. Calamus sells 15 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Turn Tracker sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Turn Tracker holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 3.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Calamus has 83 ratings behind it against 12, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 33% of Calamus's written reviews are positive against 83% of Turn Tracker's.
Calamus ships an update monthly, Turn Tracker every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Calamus | Turn Tracker |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.3 (83 ratings) | 4.4 (12 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 32.5% of reviews | 83.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 83 — better | 12 |
| Update frequency | Monthly — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 46 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | TrapStreet Studios | Gereon Steffens |
Customer experience
Calamus
Turn Tracker
Bugs and requests
Calamus
Reported bugs
40 issues- No undo option
- Walls erase when removing objects
- Rune password login issues
- Water turns light blue when saving/cropping
- App repeatedly asks for password
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- Pop-ups are disruptive
- Download issues
- Support issues
- Map saving issues
- App crashes
- Broken text formatting
- Tabs do not work
- Program freezes while placing tiles
- Login issues after canceling subscription
- Pinch and pull zoom doesn't work
- Erase button in wrong menu
- Forced password system
- Locked out if away from app for too long
- Not designed for mobile user experience
- Maps don't save properly
- App never loads
- Never got to do much of anything
- Non-functional, never makes it past loading screen
- Monetization model kills it
- Forced subscription after idle period
- Limited variety of items
- Cannot download saved maps
- App asks for subscription after payment
- Free app with subscription service
- Too complicated login process
- Freezes when adding players
- Rune password is confusing
- Subscription is a big problem
- Keeps locking, requires frequent passcode entry
- Slowdown on larger maps
- Text is incredibly small
- Menu screen swipe function doesn't work
- Cannot figure out rune password
- Slow learning curve
- No simple tutorial
Requested features
18 requests- Add undo option
- Improve Apple Pencil support
- Add more assets like columns
- Add desert themed items
- Add steering wheel and crows nest
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- Add fungi for underdark maps
- Allow watching ads instead of subscription
- Fix water color issue when saving/cropping
- Improve login process
- Add more variety of items
- Allow downloading saved maps to device
- Implement a one-time purchase option
- Add more content
- Change rune password system to typed password or tap option
- Add more VTT features
- Provide a simple tutorial
- Allow maps to be exported as PDFs
- Allow maps to be printed
Turn Tracker
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Calamus
- Calamus Player Only$0.991 Month
- Full Version - Monthly$2.991 Month
- Calamus Monthly Subscription$3.491 Month
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- Full Version - Yearly$29.991 Year
- Calamus Yearly Subscription$39.991 Year
- More Tokens Slots (12)$0.99
- More Tokens Slots (30)$0.99
- More Tokens Slots (24)$0.99
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- All Epic Token Icons$0.99
- 2x2 Token Ring$0.99
- More Map Slots (6)$0.99
- More Tokens Slots (6)$0.99
- Full Roommaker$1.99
- All Epic Token Rings$2.99
- Player Enhanced Version$2.99
Turn Tracker
- Turn Tracker Premium$0.99
Questions
Is Calamus free?
Is Turn Tracker free?
Which has better reviews, Calamus or Turn Tracker?
Do Calamus or Turn Tracker have ads?
Which is updated more often, Calamus or Turn Tracker?
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