Apps like Game Master 5th Edition

Game Master 5th Edition, by Lion's Den, has been the DM's phone app for a long time: 1,595 ratings on the App Store at 4.7, 1.61K reviews on Google Play at 4.1 and 500K+ downloads. It does a lot, from a combat tracker and encounter builder to a creature scaler and a campaign manager. The iPhone version has not been updated since 24 September 2020, and its listing still says it requires iOS 9.0. The Android version got an Android 15 compatibility update, dated 10 August 2025. If you are looking for something maintained, these are the trackers that were current on 20 October 2026.

What each one costs, read off the listings

Read on 20 October 2026. App Store prices are the In-App Purchases row in each listing. Google Play prices are the badges and the per-item range. The web trackers' prices are their own Patreon and plan pages.

Why people go looking

The free version of Game Master 5th Edition holds one campaign with one adventure and up to three encounters, by its own description, and the $2.99 Premium Version removes that. The price is not the complaint. The age is. Apple's listing shows version 3.9 from September 2020 and an App Privacy panel that reads No Details Provided, which Apple says the developer must fill in at the next update. On Google Play the reviews shown first on 20 October 2026 included one from 9 December 2019, marked helpful by 47 people, describing a paid copy that wiped itself and its backup after five sessions. Another, from 8 May 2023, describes a compendium of 50+ homebrew entries gone without warning. Its compendium is the SRD 5.1, so the 2024 rules are not in it.

The alternatives

Encounter+, by QBIT

The closest thing to Game Master on Apple devices, and maintained: version 5.0.9, updated 5 October 2026, 568 ratings at 4.4. The free tier covers initiative, health, experience and condition tracking, a random encounter generator with a difficulty calculator, a searchable library, campaigns and dice, and its D&D 5e package includes SRD content. Battle maps with fog of war and dynamic lighting are a one-time $10.99, or part of Premium at $3.99 a month or $24.99 a year with a one-week trial. The listing says No ads, ever. It needs iOS 18.6, and we found no Android version. Its App Privacy panel lists purchases, usage data and diagnostics, not linked to you.

Improved Initiative

A browser tracker, open source, and the answer to “free with no sign-up”. Its Patreon page says all the basic functionality will always be free and you will never have to create an account to build and run encounters. Paying buys extras: Account Sync at $3 a month syncs stat blocks and encounters across devices and removes the ads, and the $8 Epic Tier adds a D&D Beyond importer and a custom player view. There is a $15 Mythic Tier for support. There is no store app to install.

Shieldmaiden

Another browser tracker, built around a public initiative list you share with your players. You create a Shieldmaiden account, and its pricing page says the free tier should be sufficient for most users. The free tier's exact limits were not on the pages we read. Patreon tiers raise the storage: $3 a month for 2 campaigns with 5 encounters each, $5 for 3 with 6 each, and $8 for unlimited, all with character sync from D&D Beyond and Dice Cloud, avatar upload and background effects.

D&D Beyond Encounters

Wizards of the Coast's own encounter builder and tracker, on the web. It is free with an account, capped at 6 encounters on the free tier. Hero Tier, from $2.99 a month, and Master Tier, from $5.99, make it unlimited, and Master adds content sharing and hosting on the Maps VTT. Its strength is that monsters from books you own on D&D Beyond are unlocked in the encounter tools, and your players' character sheets come in from the campaign.

BattleTrack Initiative Tracker, by TechTev

An Android tracker with 10K+ downloads and 405 reviews at 4.3. It sets up several encounters ahead, bundles SRD monsters, calculates difficulty, rolls monster initiative and logs every change during the fight. Google Play badges it Contains ads and In-app purchases, at $3.99 per item. It was last updated 15 October 2024, and its Data safety section says it may share location, app activity and device IDs with third parties.

Initiative Tracker: DM Tools, ours

Free with a banner ad on the party screen and in Settings, never on the tracker, with nothing to buy. It is on the App Store and Google Play, in English and Spanish. It bundles every creature in the SRD 5.1 (334) and SRD 5.2 (341), with the 2014 or 2024 rules picked in Settings, and keeps the order, hit points, all fifteen conditions with durations, death saves and legendary actions. There is no account, and your party and encounters stay on the device. The browser version keeps turn order, hit points, conditions and death saves with nothing to install. It has no campaign manager, notes or battle maps, and it is new, with no ratings yet.

What these do better than ours

Game Master 5th Edition still does more than any app here in one place: a campaign manager with notes and treasure, a creature scaler, a rules screen you can edit, and character import from Fight Club 5th Edition. Encounter+ has battle maps, an external display over AirPlay and no ads at all, and ratings going back to 2016. Improved Initiative runs with no account and no install on any device. D&D Beyond brings in the monsters from books you own and your players' sheets, which no SRD-only tracker can do. Shieldmaiden and Improved Initiative sync across devices for a few dollars, and ours keeps everything on one device. If you want one maintained app that replaces the whole of Game Master on an iPad, Encounter+ is the nearest fit; if you only need to run the fight, most of this list will do.