Cascade vs BrushForge
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Cascade
Manage your Magic: The Gathering card collection with a powerful scanner, deck builder, and finance tracker. Organize your inventory, playtest decks, and stay updated on card prices and spoilers.
- Lightning fast camera scanner
- Organize inventory and collection
- Create and playtest decks
- Customizable wishlists and lists
- Card search and detailed information
- Finance and market tracking
- Spoiler and Secret Lair notifications
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Cascade MTG – free, all‑in‑one app for Magic: The Gathering™ players and collectors Scan • Organize • Playtest Lightning Fast Camera Scanner • Detect cards with a single tap • Supports single‑card and batch scanning • The most reliable scanner in the App Store Inventory & Collection • Add cards by scanning, searching, or importing a text file • View current and historic net worth • Pick any card from anywhere in the app and add, edit, or move it with one tap Deck Building • Create and manage decks for every format (Standard, Modern, Legacy, Commander, etc) • Drag cards to mainboard, sideboard, or maybeboard • Playtest decks and track their worth over time • See your change history as you add and remove cards over time • Add custom notes and share decks with friends Custom Lists • Add cards to a dedicated Wishlist or any list you create • Quick‑add cards from anywhere in the app • Explore curated card lists from the Cascade MTG team Spoilers & Secret Lair • Get notified of new cards from upcoming sets as they are spoiled • See cards in past and upcoming Secret Lair drops Card Search & Details • Search by name, set, color, mana value, and more • View rulings, format legalities, Oracle text, and full card properties Finance & Market Tracking • Spot the cards that changed price the most in the past day or week • Explore historical price charts for any card • Add specific cards to the Watchlist to monitor their daily price movements Format Rules & Curated Lists • View banlists for every format • Check which cards are legal in Standard at a glance • Receive push notifications for newly spoiler cards and format banlist changes iOS‑Specific Enhancements • Full dark‑mode support • Dedicated iPad layout Get Cascade MTG today – it’s packed with features and built for the real card collector! Follow us on Twitter: @CascadeMTG Terms & Conditions: https://www.cascademtg.com/terms
BrushForge
This app helps miniature painters organize their paint collections, convert colors between brands, and build custom color palettes. It offers AI-powered suggestions and works offline, allowing users to focus on their creative projects.
- Instant color conversion across dozens of brands
- Scan paint rack to inventory collection
- Track owned paints and create wishlists
- Build custom painting recipes and palettes
- Check model contrast with black & white view
- AI-powered color suggestions
- Offline functionality
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BrushForge – Complete Miniature Painting Toolkit BrushForge helps miniature painters track their paint collection, compare colors across brands, build palettes, save recipes, and plan painting sessions with less guesswork. Use it for Warhammer, tabletop, RPG miniatures, scale models, and hobby projects of every size. Key Features: Paint Converter Find close paint matches across popular miniature paint brands including Citadel, Vallejo, The Army Painter, Scale75, and more. Paint Collection Tracker Track the paints you own, mark wishlist paints, add custom or mixed paints, and keep notes on your collection. Photo Paint Import Take a photo of your paint rack and let BrushForge help identify paints. Review matches before adding them to your owned list. Recipes & Palettes Create step-by-step painting recipes, save project notes, and build custom color palettes for your models. Color Harmony Tools Explore palette ideas with harmony-based color tools and build stronger color schemes for your miniatures. Primed Photos Save photos of primed models and review contrast, lighting, and value placement while planning your paint scheme. AI-Powered Suggestions Get optional AI help for paint matching and recipe ideas while staying in full creative control. Offline-Friendly Your paint library, collection, recipes, palettes, and core tools are available offline. AI and purchase-related features require an internet connection. Feedback & Support Send feedback, request features, or get help directly through the app. Why BrushForge? • Match paints across brands with less guesswork. • Keep your paint library, recipes, and palettes in one place. • Plan projects faster and spend more time painting. BrushForge is free to use. Optional premium features unlock expanded limits and AI-powered tools while supporting ongoing development. Download BrushForge and focus on what matters most: bringing your miniatures to life. Links: Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Custom Terms of Use: https://brushforgeapp.com/terms.html Privacy Policy: https://brushforgeapp.com/privacy.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Cascade at none against BrushForge's shown. Cascade also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 6 weeks) and ratings volume (280 vs 12). On price, rating, review sentiment 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. Cascade sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and BrushForge sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Cascade holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Cascade has 280 ratings behind it against 12, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 65% of Cascade's written reviews are positive against 67% of BrushForge's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Cascade ships an update every 2 weeks, BrushForge every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 15, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Cascade | BrushForge |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (280 ratings) — better | 4.4 (12 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 65.5% of reviews | 66.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 280 — better | 12 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 6 weeks |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 54 MB | 43 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Cascade MTG LLC | Bastiaan Mahieu |
Customer experience
Cascade
BrushForge
Bugs and requests
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
BrushForge
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Cascade
- Cascade Premium - Monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
- Cascade Premium – Monthly$6.991 Month
- Cascade Premium - Annual14 Days trial$49.991 Year
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- Cascade Premium – Annual$59.991 Year
BrushForge
- Premium Monthly2 variants$2.991 Month
- Tip – Small2 variants$1.99
- Tip – Medium2 variants$9.99
- Premium Lifetime2 variants$14.99
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- Tip – Large$17.99
- Tip – Large$19.99
Questions
Is Cascade free?
Is BrushForge free?
Which has better reviews, Cascade or BrushForge?
Do Cascade or BrushForge have ads?
Which is updated more often, Cascade or BrushForge?
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