Comparison

MapMinter vs StepHaven

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

Head to head
About

MapMinter

Features
Read full description

MapMinter turns your real-world travels into a global collecting adventure. Every city you visit becomes a unique digital coin you can mint, trade, and show off—building a living map of everywhere you've been. MINT CITY COINS Arrive in a city and mint its coin on the spot. Eligible places include cities with 125,000+ residents and capital cities. Each coin is a souvenir of a real journey. TRADE WITH TRAVELERS Send a coin to anyone with a simple QR code—and keep your own copy forever. Meet fellow travelers, swap coins from cities you haven't reached yet, and watch your collection grow. See the "Past Travelers" who once carried each coin around the world. EXPLORE FOR REAL-WORLD LOOT Materials and famous historical personalities appear on a live map around you. Walk within range to collect them—just like the cities themselves, your loot is tied to where you actually are. BUILD WORLD LANDMARKS TOGETHER Use collected materials to unlock an artwork with quirky facts about the city.Join a Construction Party of up to 100 travelers to build faster—bigger parties need fewer materials per person, so teamwork pays off. Completed artworks are saved forever in your City Archives. CITY HALL & AUCTION HOUSE Trade materials and personalities with other players for gold in the Auction House, where prices move with the market. Browse your Citizen Registry of historical figures and revisit every landmark you've helped build. CHASE ACHIEVEMENTS & CLIMB THE LEADERBOARDS Earn Bronze, Silver, and Gold medals, complete entire countries, and create your own custom community challenges for others to join. Compete on global Points and Coins leaderboards. DISCOVER LOCAL GEMS Add and browse attraction and restaurant recommendations on every city's coin—real tips from real travelers, filtered by price and cuisine. Whether you're a frequent flyer, a weekend explorer, or a collector at heart, MapMinter rewards your curiosity and turns every trip into something you can keep. Pack your bags. Mint the world. Note: MapMinter uses your location to mint city coins and find nearby materials, and requires an internet connection.

About

StepHaven

Walk to build a charming town, from cozy cottages to expansive landscapes. Design every detail of your homes and watch your creation come alive with villagers and wildlife. Collaborate with friends to build a shared haven.

Highlights
  • Build towns with walking steps
  • Customize houses and landscapes
  • Interactive town with villagers
  • Co-op building with friends
  • Offline building functionality
  • Widgets and Live Activities
Features
Read full description

StepHaven is a town-building game you play by walking. Every step you take goes toward something you build: a cottage, a garden path, a waterfall, a whole town of your own design. A BRISK WALK, A FIRST STREET StepHaven reads your steps from Apple Health, so the iPhone in your pocket or the Apple Watch on your wrist already does the counting. A ten-minute walk pays for your first house. An ordinary day on your feet builds a street. A BIG MAP THAT'S ALL YOURS Every haven has its own map, 300 tiles across, with rivers, hills and mountain ranges. Raise the ground, dig ponds, send waterfalls down your terraces, lay a railway, build bridges and piers. Make a canal town, a hillside village or a valley of cottages. There's room for every idea. DESIGN EVERY HOUSE In the Workshop you choose a shape, a style, a roof and the colors, then add flower boxes, shutters, a porch or a chimney that smokes. No two towns look alike, because yours is built from your ideas. OVER 500 THINGS TO PLACE Cherry trees and wildflowers, stone walls and lanterns, koi ponds, sailboats, trains, jukeboxes, and a garden gnome holding a lantern. New things arrive with updates. A TOWN THAT LIVES Villagers walk to the shops and visit their neighbors. Deer, foxes and ducks wander in once there's enough green, and a dog house or a stable brings a pet of your own. Visiting merchants stop by with things the shop doesn't sell. The light follows your clock, and the seasons change through the year. BUILD WITH FRIENDS Start a shared haven and invite up to three friends. What they build shows up on your phone a few seconds later. EVERY KIND OF MOVING COUNTS Wheelchair pushes count, just like steps. Heading out for a bike ride or a swim? Light an Ember first and the workout counts too. Ember works best with Apple Watch. ON YOUR HOME SCREEN Widgets show your town and what you're saving for. A Live Activity keeps your Ember on the Lock Screen. FAIR BY DESIGN • No ads and no energy timers. • Steps can't be bought. Everything in the shop costs steps. • Steps typed into Health by hand don't count. • Your step count stays on your phone. • Building works offline. STEPHAVEN+ AND ITEM PACKS StepHaven+ is an optional membership: monthly, yearly or lifetime. It adds more Workshop shapes and styles, roof shapes, color washes, a covered porch, and more havens. Item packs such as Castle & Crown are one-time purchases. Some buildings in the screenshots need StepHaven+ or a pack. Privacy Policy: https://bmrich12.github.io/stephaven-privacy/ Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

MapMinter4 screens
StepHaven4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: MapMinter at none against StepHaven's 5. MapMinter also leads on iOS requirement (16.4 vs 26.5). StepHaven's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs fortnightly). On price, ads and device support 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. StepHaven sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. MapMinter asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MapMinter ships an update fortnightly, StepHaven every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 8, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
MapMinter versus StepHaven: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMapMinterStepHaven
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (9 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—9 — better
Update frequencyFortnightlyEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
Monetization—Free with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS16.4 — better26.5
Further details — not scored
Size110 MB104 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperJasper von HammersteinBrody Richmond

In-app purchases

None

MapMinter

No in-app purchases

5 purchases

StepHaven

Subscriptions2
  • StepHaven+ Monthly$4.991 Month
  • StepHaven+ Yearly$29.991 Year
One-time3
  • Cottage Garden: Cozy Cottages$6.99
  • Castle & Crown: Medieval Town$9.99
  • StepHaven+ Lifetime$79.99

Questions

Is MapMinter free?
MapMinter is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is StepHaven free?
StepHaven is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do MapMinter or StepHaven have ads?
Neither MapMinter nor StepHaven shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MapMinter or StepHaven?
MapMinter ships an update fortnightly, and StepHaven every 5 days. Most recently, MapMinter was updated on November 8, 2026 and StepHaven on November 10, 2026.

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