Comparison

Gauntlet vs Cantrip

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Gauntlet

This app helps Magic: The Gathering players track game lives, build and customize decks, and record game history. It offers detailed stats for players and decks, supports multiple players, and includes a powerful hand simulator.

Highlights
  • Life tracking for up to 6 players
  • Deck building and importing
  • Game history and stats
  • Hand simulator
  • Deck customization with card art
  • Deck organization with folders
Features
Read full description

Gauntlet is the most feature packed Magic: The Gathering utility app available. It’s a life tracker, deck builder and record keeper of your games. THE BEST LIFE TRACKER: • Select your deck and the decks your opponents are playing. Player tiles will be updated with the cover art of each deck. • Save the results when the game is over. Select a winner, and each player will have their career and deck stats updated immediately. • Full support for up to 6 players with custom life totals, and a turn randomizer to determine who plays first. • Other features include 21 unique tile colours, 15 unique counters, rolling D6, and a game timer. THE BEST MOBILE DECK BUILDER: • Brew on the go or import your decks from other deck building sites. • Customize your deck with art from any card in the multiverse. • Pick a format and your deck screen adapts to show things like your commander or your signature spell. • Bling out the cards in your deck with foils. • Shuffle up and draw an opening 7 with a powerful hand simulator. • Stay ahead of your competition with deck list data. View your mana curve, pip breakdown, and more. • Export your deck lists as text, or share a link to your profile on social media. • Keep your decks organized with folders, and sort them by name, games played, wins, and format. YOUR GAME HISTORY IN DETAIL: • Every game is saved making it easy to go through previous games and see who played, who won, and which decks came to battle. • Track wins and losses for each deck, and see how your career wins and losses change over time. • Follow your friends to stay up-to-date with their latest brews, deck performance, and game history.

About

Cantrip

Easily build and manage your Magic: The Gathering decks. Search and filter cards from any set, and quickly add, remove, or sideboard cards with intuitive gestures.

Highlights
  • Powerful deck builder
  • Card search and filtering
  • Add/remove cards with swipe
  • Sideboard management
  • Supports all card sets
Features
Read full description

Cantrip is an poweful and easy to use deck builder for Magic: The Gathering. With Cantrip you can filter and search for cards from any set. Building decks is quick and easy using Cantrips deck builder which lets you add, remove, and sideboard cards with a swipe.

Screenshots

Gauntlet4 screens
Cantrip4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Gauntlet at 4.9 against Cantrip's 3.9. Gauntlet also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 4 months) and review sentiment (83% vs 57%). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Gauntlet holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 3.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Gauntlet has 299 ratings behind it against 15, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 83% of Gauntlet's written reviews are positive against 57% of Cantrip's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Gauntlet ships an update weekly, Cantrip every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on September 10, 2026 and September 12, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Gauntlet versus Cantrip: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGauntletCantrip
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (299 ratings) — better3.9 (15 ratings)
Positive reviews83.3% of reviews — better57.1% of reviews
Number of ratings299 — better15
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 4 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS16.4 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size18 MB142 MB
Age rating4+9+
DeveloperScott CampbellWhite Bridge Labs

Customer experience

Gauntlet

All ratings299 ratings
Positive97.7%
Neutral1.0%
Negative1.3%
Written reviews30 reviews
Positive83.3%
Neutral6.7%
Negative10.0%

Cantrip

All ratings15 ratings
Positive66.7%
Neutral20.0%
Negative13.3%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive57.1%
Neutral28.6%
Negative14.3%

Bugs and requests

Gauntlet

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Developers have seemingly given up (according to one review)
  • App ruined for jailbroken phones (iOS 14 and up)
  • Board scrolls every time life or counters are moved
  • Does not track win-rate for the deck not shown as primary in a match
  • App is very small on iPad Pro

Requested features

19 requests
  • Scan cars to make adding decks easier
  • More precise search engine
  • Faster card loading times
  • Display card prices
  • Scan cards in deck building
Show 14 more
  • Add Android support
  • Add tournament bracket functionality
  • Deeper stat tracking
  • Leave notes about each deck
  • Leave notes about individual cards
  • In-app purchases for donations
  • Add play test cards
  • Better layout for exporting decks to text
  • Feature to track win/loss ratios without starting a game
  • Option for locking board scrolling
  • Android release (mentioned as desired)
  • Manual change of player names when playing 'against yourself'
  • Add friends who don’t use the app to games
  • Add full deck lists

Cantrip

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Gauntlet

No in-app purchases

None

Cantrip

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Gauntlet free?
Gauntlet is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Cantrip free?
Cantrip is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Gauntlet or Cantrip?
Gauntlet is rated higher. Gauntlet averages 4.9 out of 5 from 299 ratings, while Cantrip averages 3.9 from 15 ratings.
Do Gauntlet or Cantrip have ads?
Neither Gauntlet nor Cantrip shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Gauntlet or Cantrip?
Gauntlet ships an update weekly, and Cantrip every 4 months. Most recently, Gauntlet was updated on September 10, 2026 and Cantrip on September 12, 2026.

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