Comparison

TCG Archivist vs Chrono

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

Head to head
About

TCG Archivist

Digitize and manage your Magic: The Gathering card collection effortlessly. Scan cards instantly, track their values, and locate any card in your storage. Keep your entire collection accessible anywhere.

Highlights
  • Digitize card collection
  • Scan cards instantly
  • Track card values
  • Locate cards in storage
  • Manage entire collection
  • Accessible anywhere
Features
Read full description

TCG Archivist is the ultimate collection management tool for Magic: The Gathering players. We believe sorting your collection is the wrong approach. Sorting is time consuming, impossible to maintain, and never actually gives you a clear picture of what you own. TCG Archivist is built around a better system. One that the world's most efficient warehouses and retailers have used for decades. Scan your cards into labeled storage locations. No sorting required. When you need a card search the app, find the location, and have it in your hand in under a minute. Your entire collection becomes fully searchable, filterable, and always up to date. Know exactly what you own. Track your collection value in real time. Build decks from cards you actually have. Find any card in seconds. For players with larger collections the CSC100 hardware scanner makes building your digital catalog dramatically faster, but any camera will get you started today. Your collection. Always searchable. Always in reach. Terms of Use : https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Chrono

Features
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We have all been trapped in that pod. The board is a clogged mess, someone has been staring at their hand for ten minutes trying to sequence a cantrip, your cold brew is empty, and you are aging in real time. Enter Chrono-Tithe. Chrono-Tithe is not just a sleek life counter. It is an automated tax collector for slow play. Instead of a passive chess clock everyone ignores, it enforces an escalating “Tithe Tax.” Overstay your welcome in the think tank and your life total starts draining automatically. It is the perfect way to keep the table moving, or to quietly pressure the pod while you assemble your lock behind a wall of artifacts. CORE FEATURES (always free) THE TITHE ENGINE: An escalating turn timer that ramps through four tiers, from Standard to Accelerated to Punishing to Lethal. Choose the turn the tax starts to tighten and watch it change the way your pod plays. BLIND-TAP LIFE TRACKING: Zero-friction split cards. Tap the right side of a player’s color block to gain life, tap the left to lose it. Press and hold to swing by 5 at a time. You never have to take your eyes off the board. FULL COMMANDER TRACKING: Poison, energy, experience, +1/+1, commander tax, and per-source commander damage, with 21 from a single commander tracked and flagged automatically. Monarch and the Initiative too. BUILT FOR THE TABLE: 2 to 6 players, format presets for Commander, 1v1, Two-Headed Giant, and Brawl, a pre-game lobby to set seating and decide who goes first, plus a dice roller, coin flip, and random-player picker. PLAY TOGETHER, ON EVERY PHONE: Connect the whole pod over local Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and everyone plays on their own screen, in sync. Tap your own life, pass your own turn, track your own commander damage, and watch it land on every device instantly. No internet, no accounts, no server. Joining a pod is always free. POST-GAME BREAKDOWN: Average turn length for every pilot and a golden Efficiency Star for the fastest player at the table. Hit Replay Pod to run it back with the same roster in one tap. MINIMALIST AND TACTILE: Deep true blacks, fluid gestures, and subtle haptics, designed to preserve battery and reduce visual fatigue during long matches. Scales cleanly from iPhone to a 12.9-inch iPad, and the screen stays awake during play. CHRONO-TITHE PRO (optional, one-time) The full game is free forever, with every life total, counter, timer, and tool included. A single one-time unlock (no subscription) adds: HOST MULTIPLAYER: Host a synced pod so the whole table plays on their own phones. Joining a pod is always free; hosting one is Pro. THEMES AND ACCENTS: Ten background themes and a full neon accent palette. CLOCK MODES: Alternate ways for the clock to bite. Three are live: Sudden Death (at the Lethal tier, overtime eliminates you outright), Time Bank (unused seconds roll into your next turn), and Chess Clock (one game-long budget per player). Team Clock is on the way, included free. TIMER-ONLY MODE: Switch the Tithe off to time turns with no life loss. COMMANDER ART AND SEAT COLORS: Set any commander’s art as a seat’s background and give each seat its own color. MATCH HISTORY: Every pod saved and synced to your own iCloud, so it survives a reinstall or a new phone with no login. All future Pro features included, free. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account. No ads. No tracking. Your roster, settings, and history live on your device and in your own iCloud, never on our servers. Multiplayer is a direct device-to-device connection over your local network, not through any server of ours. Chrono-Tithe collects zero data about you. Set your pod. Start the clock. Pay the tithe. Chrono-Tithe is an unofficial fan-made utility. It is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC. Magic: The Gathering and Commander are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast.

Screenshots

TCG Archivist4 screens
Chrono4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Chrono at every 4 days against TCG Archivist's every 9 days. TCG Archivist's advantage is iOS requirement (15.5 vs 18.6). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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. TCG Archivist sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $4.99 per month and Chrono sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

TCG Archivist ships an update every 9 days, Chrono every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
TCG Archivist versus Chrono: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTCG ArchivistChrono
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.1 (24 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews40.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings24 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 9 daysEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.5 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size498 MB21 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperTCG Archivist LLCNICHOLAS SALVATORE PUYA

In-app purchases

1 purchases

TCG Archivist

Subscriptions1
  • Monthly Sub$4.991 Month
1 purchases

Chrono

One-time1
  • Chrono-Tithe Pro$4.99

Questions

Is TCG Archivist free?
TCG Archivist is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Chrono free?
Chrono is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do TCG Archivist or Chrono have ads?
Neither TCG Archivist nor Chrono shows ads.
Which is updated more often, TCG Archivist or Chrono?
TCG Archivist ships an update every 9 days, and Chrono every 4 days. Most recently, TCG Archivist was updated on September 23, 2026 and Chrono on September 11, 2026.

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