Comparison

Magic Research vs Ethos Idle

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

Head to head
About

Magic Research

Lead a new magic institution to discover the secrets of magic and achieve fame. Research spells, build your campus, manage staff, and uncover hidden storylines to win the Tournament of Magic. Enjoy a complete game experience with no ads.

Highlights
  • Cast over 100 spells
  • Research magic in various schools
  • Build and manage campus
  • Manage researchers and apprentices
  • Discover hidden features and storylines
  • Retirement bonuses for faster progress
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

In Magic Research, you are the headmaster of a newly-created institution of Magic with one goal: to learn as much as possible about this power and get enough fame to be able to compete, and win, the prestigious competition of schools: the Tournament of Magic. But what will you discover along the way? * Cast over a hundred different spells with various effects * Research magic in various magical schools to discover new, surprising ways to use this power * Accumulate resources and build the school campus * Manage a team of researchers and apprentices to lead your school to fame * Discover tons of hidden new features - when will you unlock the next one? * Find over eight dozen secret storylines with permanent, game-altering effects * Restart the game and make faster progress each time with retirement bonuses * Optimized both for iPhone and iPad * No ads! This is the full, complete game. You can transfer save data from the demo by using the Export / Import Save feature available in both the demo and in the full game.

About

Ethos Idle

Guide humanity's progress from its earliest discoveries to the distant future. Manage your tribe's choices, develop over 200 unique ideas, and explore the world. Advance your civilization, unlock bonuses, and enjoy a single-player, offline experience with optional ads.

Highlights
  • Develop over 200 historic ideas
  • Explore and exploit the world
  • Manage tribe choices
  • Unlock exploration bonuses and synergies
  • Prestige mechanic upgrades
  • Customizable challenge scenarios
  • Offline single-player experience
Features
Read full description

Chart the progess of Humanity through the ages, and guide their every discovery from the moment they kindle the first fire to the far future. Develop over 200 unique ideas across three different flavours of thought. Help your people to conquer or make peace with their enemies, explore and exploit the world, and develop projects to meet their needs. Manage your tribe's choices to squeeze out more strength, or sit back and idle as your clan develop on their own. Advance as far as you can take your people, and then collect bonuses to improve future runs. Select varied challenges that change the way the game plays, and combine these challenges to create your own unique scenarios with big rewards. Features: - Over 200 historic ideas to develop, across 3 flavours of thought - Dozens of exploration bonuses and synergies to unlock and exploit - Permanently power up your civilisation with prestige mechanic upgrades - Combine varied challenge conditions to create your own scenarios with powerful rewards - Optional, out-of-the-way ads won't interrupt your experience - A completely offline, single player experience - All game content is accessible for free

Screenshots

Magic Research4 screens
Ethos Idle4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Ethos Idle at Free against Magic Research's $3.99. Magic Research's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ads (none vs shown). On rating, ratings volume, device support and iOS requirement 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

Ethos Idle is free to download; Magic Research costs $3.99 up front. Ethos Idle sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Magic Research asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Magic Research against 4.8 for Ethos Idle. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 188 and 239 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 95% of Magic Research's written reviews are positive against 84% of Ethos Idle's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Magic Research ships an update every 4 days, Ethos Idle fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Magic Research versus Ethos Idle: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMagic ResearchEthos Idle
Price$3.99Free — better
Rating4.7 (188 ratings)4.8 (239 ratings) — better
Positive reviews95.1% of reviews — better84.4% of reviews
Number of ratings188239 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterFortnightly
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#111 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.615.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size25 MB101 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperMatias Ezequiel ColottoGraham Goldstein

Customer experience

Magic Research

All ratings188 ratings
Positive93.6%
Neutral1.6%
Negative4.8%
Written reviews61 reviews
Positive95.1%
Neutral0.0%
Negative4.9%

Ethos Idle

All ratings239 ratings
Positive93.7%
Neutral3.8%
Negative2.5%
Written reviews64 reviews
Positive84.4%
Neutral9.4%
Negative6.3%

User reviews

Magic Research

From 188 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Great idle/incremental game
  • 💡 Deep and complex systems
  • 🚀 Well-paced progression
  • 💰 Worth the price
  • ✨ No ads or microtransactions

Room to improve

  • 🐛 UI layout issues
  • 🐌 Can be grindy
  • 🔋 High battery consumption
  • 🐛 Text running off page/scrolling issues
  • 🐛 Wood resource bug

Ethos Idle

From 239 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fast progression
  • 👍 Minimal ad interruption
  • 👍 Simple and enjoyable design
  • 👍 Great for relaxing and watching numbers go up
  • 👍 Excellent incremental game design

Room to improve

  • 🐢 Slower progression speed desired
  • 🛒 IAP for 2x production doesn't eliminate video ads

Bugs and requests

Magic Research

Reported bugs

8 issues
  • On new iPhones, switching away and back causes UI unresponsiveness
  • Text running off the page, preventing interaction with buttons
  • Wood resource counting backwards
  • Becoming stunned for a full minute, unable to act
  • Bosses running away from fights
Show 3 more
  • Exploration difficulty jump
  • UI layout issues on iPad Pro (long scrolling panels, cut-off inventory views, difficult spell favorite scrolling, useless event panel)
  • Text pages not scrolling, making discoveries unreadable

Requested features

12 requests
  • Add background music
  • Add Chinese language support
  • Make monsters pixelated
  • Adjustable times for apprentice auto-casting
  • Display monstium collection counter during exploration
Show 7 more
  • Allow apprentices to auto-craft potions
  • Make the game accessible to the blind
  • Add a way to start further into dungeons
  • Automate crafting
  • Improve quality of crafted items (armor, weapons)
  • Add a 'Magic Smithing' school
  • Allow players to avoid or cure silence effects

Ethos Idle

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • RNG for challenges is unfair and unfun
  • Unlocking buffs for inaccessible technologies

Requested features

2 requests
  • Option to remove ads entirely
  • Clarification on prestige warp gain multipliers

In-app purchases

None

Magic Research

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Ethos Idle

One-time1
  • x2 Speed$6.99

Questions

Is Magic Research free?
Magic Research costs $3.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Ethos Idle free?
Ethos Idle is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Magic Research or Ethos Idle?
Ethos Idle is rated higher. Magic Research averages 4.7 out of 5 from 188 ratings, while Ethos Idle averages 4.8 from 239 ratings.
Do Magic Research or Ethos Idle have ads?
Ethos Idle shows ads; Magic Research does not.
Which is updated more often, Magic Research or Ethos Idle?
Magic Research ships an update every 4 days, and Ethos Idle fortnightly. Most recently, Magic Research was updated on September 22, 2026 and Ethos Idle on September 16, 2026.

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