MTG Binder vs Decksmith
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
MTG Binder
Manage your Magic: The Gathering collection, track card prices, and build decks. Scan cards with your camera for quick lookups and browse all printings. Organize your collection, create wishlists, and even track life totals for up to four players.
- Card scanning and lookup
- Real-time price tracking
- Deck building and management
- Collection organization
- Wishlist creation
- Life counter for up to 4 players
Read full descriptionHide full description
Binder – MTG Collection Manager is the essential app for Magic: The Gathering players and collectors. Scan cards, track real-time prices, build decks, and manage your collection, all from your pocket. Scan & Search Cards - Scan a card with your camera for quick lookup - Search by name, set, or collector number - Browse every printing, including foils and variants - Read oracle text, legality, and official rulings Price Tracking - Real-time market prices from TCGplayer - See what each card is worth - Collection and deck value totals Collection + Deck Builder - Organize cards into collections and decks - Build decks for any format (mainboard + sideboard) - Filter and sort by set, color, type, and more - Helpful deck stats like mana curve and card type breakdowns - Power level insights to get a feel for your deck Buy Direct - Jump to TCGplayer from any card - Links go to the exact printing, so you don’t have to hunt - Foil and non-foil filtering included Wishlist - Save cards you want to pick up later - See wishlist totals and individual prices - Buy when you’re ready Life Counter - Track life for up to 4 players - Simple, clean controls for game night
Decksmith
Effortlessly manage your Magic: The Gathering collection with real-time card scanning and price tracking. Build and validate decks for various formats, analyze their composition, and connect with a community of players. Enjoy offline access and robust privacy controls.
- Real-time card scanning
- Automatic price tracking
- Format-aware deck building
- Collection inventory management
- Offline access
- Community features
- Privacy controls
Read full descriptionHide full description
Your entire Magic collection, in your pocket. Decksmith turns your iPhone into a card scanner, a price tracker, a format-aware deck builder and a social hub for players — wrapped in a fast, beautiful, native interface. Point your camera at a card and it is recognised in real time. Name, set, rarity, artwork and current market price are filled in automatically. No typing. No spreadsheets. — SCAN. TAP. COLLECTED. — • Real-time card recognition straight from the camera — no manual entry • One-tap confirm adds the card, its artwork and its full data to your collection • Pick the exact printing you own, set foil or non-foil, and track multiple copies • Every card image is stored on device, so your collection stays gorgeous offline — KNOW WHAT IT'S WORTH — Live market prices in USD or EUR. Decksmith keeps the price you paid alongside today's value, for every single card, so you can see at a glance what your collection has done — card by card and as a whole. Refresh whenever you want an update. — A DECK BUILDER THAT KNOWS THE RULES — Build for Standard, Modern, Pioneer, Legacy, Vintage, Commander, Pauper or Casual. Decksmith enforces deck size and copy limits for the format you chose, gives Commander its own dedicated slot, and tells you the moment a deck is legal. — SEE THE SHAPE OF YOUR DECK — An automatic mana curve, card-type distribution and average mana value for every deck you build. Spot the missing two-drop before your opponent does. — FIND ANY CARD, INSTANTLY — Search the full Magic card database or your own collection. Filter by colour, rarity, card type, set, mana cost, foil finish and double-faced cards. Sort by name, price or date added. Switch between grid and list whenever it suits you. — SMART LISTS — Build lists that fill themselves. Save any combination of filters as a smart list — trade binder, EDH staples, everything foil under €5 — and it updates itself as your collection grows. Or curate a list by hand. Give each one its own icon and colour. — YOUR CARDS, FULL SCREEN — A gallery mode built for staring at cardboard. High-resolution art, glowing foil borders on your foils, pinch to zoom into the tiniest detail, swipe from card to card. Double-faced cards flip with a tap. — EVEN BETTER TOGETHER — Join the Decksmith Community and the app opens up: publish decks with one tap, collect likes and comments, follow the players whose brews you love, browse their collections and decks for inspiration, send friend requests, and keep up with everything in a live activity feed. — PRIVACY YOU ACTUALLY CONTROL — The whole app works offline, with no account and no sign-up — your collection lives on your device. Create an account only if you want cloud sync across your iPhone and iPad, or the community features. Then decide exactly what is visible: profile visibility, whether you are discoverable, and whether new decks default to public or private. Block anyone. Export or delete your data at any time. — IMPORT AND EXPORT, NO LOCK-IN — Bring your collection with you via CSV from the popular collection and deck-building sites, or restore a full Decksmith backup — collection, decks and lists included. Export your data to a single file whenever you like and share it via AirDrop, mail or cloud storage. — BUILT LIKE AN APPLE APP — Written from scratch in SwiftUI. Dark from the first pixel, tuned for 120 Hz, alive with haptics, and quick everywhere it counts. No subscription. No ads. No account required. Card data and images provided by Scryfall. Decksmith is an unofficial fan app and is not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by Wizards of the Coast. Magic: The Gathering is © Wizards of the Coast LLC. Start scanning. Start building.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ratings volume: MTG Binder at 7 against Decksmith's 1. On price, rating, review sentiment and ads 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for MTG Binder against 5.0 for Decksmith. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: MTG Binder has 7 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
| Parameter | MTG Binder | Decksmith |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (7 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 7 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | — | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 18.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 24 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Eli Bakal | Waldemar Schneider |
Customer experience
MTG Binder
Decksmith
In-app purchases
MTG Binder
No in-app purchases
Decksmith
No in-app purchases








