Magic Research vs Ethos Idle
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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.
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.
- 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
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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
Verdict
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
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.
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.
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.
| Parameter | Magic Research | Ethos Idle |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $3.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.7 (188 ratings) | 4.8 (239 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 95.1% of reviews — better | 84.4% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 188 | 239 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 days — better | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Best chart rank | #111 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 25 MB | 101 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Matias Ezequiel Colotto | Graham Goldstein |
Customer experience
Magic Research
Ethos Idle
User reviews
Magic Research
From 188 App Store ratingsWhat 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 ratingsWhat 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
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- 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
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- 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
Magic Research
No in-app purchases
Ethos Idle
- x2 Speed$6.99
Questions
Is Magic Research free?
Is Ethos Idle free?
Which has better reviews, Magic Research or Ethos Idle?
Do Magic Research or Ethos Idle have ads?
Which is updated more often, Magic Research or Ethos Idle?
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