Comparison

MTG Trades vs TCG Archivist

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

Head to head
About

MTG Trades

Manage your Magic: The Gathering card collection and trades with real-time pricing data. Evaluate trades, track loaned or borrowed cards, and maintain watchlists of desired cards. Access a comprehensive database with offline capabilities.

Highlights
  • Card price lookup by expansion/name
  • Trade evaluation
  • Trade history
  • Watchlist of wanted cards
  • Loan/borrow tracking
  • Offline database access
  • Foil and non-foil pricing
Features
Read full description

MTG Trades gives you the tools you need for trading Magic cards, right at your fingertips. It includes card prices by expansion or card name, lets you evaluate trades and view your trade history, store a watchlist of wanted cards, and allows you to track cards you have loaned or borrowed. Features: • View price information for every physical Magic card by individual printings. • Supports non-foil and foil pricing for all cards, including many promo cards, tokens and emblems. • Download database and automatic prices updates from within the app, for offline use (requires Premium). • Save cards to various Want Lists so you always know what you're looking for during trades and how much they're worth (requires premium for multiple lists) • Want Lists show total value and can be sorted alphabetically, by price or by rarity. • Enter cards or cash in a new Trade to quickly evaluate the equity of the trade. • Store a history of your past trades along with current and at-the-time price information (requires premium for multiple trades) • Track cards you have lent out or borrowed from other people. • Prices are aggregated from a range of online stores courtesy of TCGplayer.com. • Complete iCloud syncing. • Supports Dynamic Type for altering text size. • Universal app for iPhone, iPad and Mac (as iPad app). • Supports iPad multitasking. This app has been carefully designed to be simple and fast to use. If you have any suggestions for improvements, please suggest them from within the app. Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ This app is not produced or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

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/

Screenshots

MTG Trades4 screens
TCG Archivist4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: MTG Trades at 4.6 against TCG Archivist's 4.1. MTG Trades also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and review sentiment (62% vs 40%). TCG Archivist's advantage is update cadence (every 9 days vs every 2 months) and iOS requirement (15.5 vs 17.0). 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. MTG Trades sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and TCG Archivist sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

MTG Trades holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: MTG Trades has 1.1K ratings behind it against 24, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 62% of MTG Trades's written reviews are positive against 40% of TCG Archivist's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MTG Trades ships an update every 2 months, TCG Archivist every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
MTG Trades versus TCG Archivist: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMTG TradesTCG Archivist
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (1.1K ratings) — better4.1 (24 ratings)
Positive reviews61.6% of reviews — better40.0% of reviews
Number of ratings1.1K — better24
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 9 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS17.015.5 — better
Further details — not scored
Size54 MB498 MB
Age rating9+12+
DeveloperMichael WybrowTCG Archivist LLC

Customer experience

MTG Trades

All ratings1,135 ratings
Positive89.7%
Neutral1.1%
Negative9.2%
Written reviews245 reviews
Positive61.6%
Neutral2.0%
Negative36.3%

TCG Archivist

All ratings24 ratings
Positive75.0%
Neutral4.2%
Negative20.8%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive40.0%
Neutral20.0%
Negative40.0%

Bugs and requests

MTG Trades

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes when deleting cards from lists
  • MKM card images not loading properly
  • Incorrect pricing for some promo and special cards

Requested features

5 requests
  • Integrate with deck building and collection management
  • Add more advanced search and filtering capabilities
  • Implement market pricing options for trades
  • Improve basic lands and foil card handling
  • Provide more detailed price history and trending data

TCG Archivist

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

2 purchases

MTG Trades

Subscriptions2
  • Premium Monthly1 Month trial$0.991 Month
  • Premium Yearly1 Month trial$6.991 Year
1 purchases

TCG Archivist

Subscriptions1
  • Monthly Sub$4.991 Month

Questions

Is MTG Trades free?
MTG Trades is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is TCG Archivist free?
TCG Archivist is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, MTG Trades or TCG Archivist?
MTG Trades is rated higher. MTG Trades averages 4.6 out of 5 from 1.1K ratings, while TCG Archivist averages 4.1 from 24 ratings.
Do MTG Trades or TCG Archivist have ads?
Neither MTG Trades nor TCG Archivist shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MTG Trades or TCG Archivist?
MTG Trades ships an update every 2 months, and TCG Archivist every 9 days. Most recently, MTG Trades was updated on September 21, 2026 and TCG Archivist on September 23, 2026.

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