Where we stand. We make Initiative Tracker: DM Tools, a combat tracker for fifth-edition-compatible games. It is free with nothing to buy, on Google Play since October 2026 and on the App Store since 17 October 2026, and it shows a banner ad on the party screen and in Settings. It does the initiative part of what Encounter+ does and has no battle maps. We are not connected to QBIT and take no referral fee from anyone on this page.
Yes. Encounter+ runs a whole game for free, with no ads: library, encounters, the initiative tracker, campaigns and dice. Battle maps are a one-time purchase of $10.99. Premium, at $3.99 a month or $24.99 a year, adds remote play and effects. It runs on iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Where the price is
| Surface | What it shows |
|---|---|
| encounter.plus, Pricing section | Three columns: Free, Battle Map (“one-time purchase”), Premium (“monthly or yearly subscription, with a 7-day free trial”). No figure |
| Docs, Purchases page | What each purchase unlocks. No figure: prices “are set by the App Store” |
| Terms of Use | Battle Map and Premium described, refunds sent to Apple. No figure |
| App Store, description | The three tiers and a one-week Premium trial. No figure |
| App Store, Information row | Monthly Subscription $3.99, Yearly Subscription $24.99, Battle Map Support $10.99, Small, Medium, Large and Huge Tip $0.99, $2.99, $6.99, $8.99 |
| App Store, promoted purchase | None |
| Google Play | No listing |
Apple's list is short and every name on it matches a plan in QBIT's docs, so nothing on it needs guessing. Prices outside the US will differ, since the App Store sets them per country.
What each purchase unlocks
| Feature | Free | Battle Map, $10.99 once | Premium, $3.99 a month or $24.99 a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Library, encounter builder, initiative and hit points | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Campaigns, modules, import and export | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dice roller, roll tables, AirPlay player screen | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Maps, tokens, walls, lighting, fog of war | No | Yes, kept for good | Yes, while subscribed |
| Remote play in players' browsers | No | No | Yes (beta) |
| 3D dice, animated effects, weather | No | No | Yes |
| Early access to new features | No | No | Yes |
Battle Map or Premium
If maps are all you want, buy Battle Map. A year of Premium costs $24.99, about 2.3 times the one-time price, and the maps go away if the subscription ends (derived from Apple's list). QBIT's docs agree, and tell a subscriber who wants to keep the map after lapsing to buy Battle Map too.
| How you pay | First year | Two years | Maps after you stop paying |
|---|---|---|---|
| Battle Map, once | $10.99 | $10.99 | Kept |
| Premium, yearly | $24.99 | $49.98 | Gone |
| Premium, monthly | $47.88 | $95.76 | Gone |
Premium makes sense for a group that plays remotely, since players can open the map in a browser and move their own tokens. On the yearly plan it saves $22.89 against twelve monthly payments. The docs describe its main purpose as funding development, and say plenty of people run whole campaigns without it.
Some reviewers want the Premium extras for a one-time price. A four-star review from April 2026 asks for exactly that, and a two-star one from January 2023 calls the pairing of a purchase and a subscription double dipping. QBIT offers no lifetime plan on any surface we read.
Your content lives on one device
Encounter+ keeps everything in a local database, which is why it works with no network at all. The other side of that is in QBIT's FAQ: deleting the app deletes its whole folder, backups included, and reinstalling does not bring it back. Offloading the app or resetting the device does the same.
Version 5.0.0 arrived in February 2026. Of the 20 App Store reviews written on a 5.x version up to 15 October, 8 describe custom monsters, characters or pages missing after the update. One reviewer, on 27 February, later wrote that support helped get the data back. We could not test the upgrade ourselves. QBIT's advice is to export your content and keep the files somewhere else.
What we could not check
Nothing inside the app was opened. So we have not seen the subscription screen, and the listing offers the trial to “eligible subscribers” without saying who they are. Prices on Apple's list carry no billing period of their own; here the names say monthly and yearly, and the docs agree.
Other combat trackers, and how they price
| App | What Apple lists | Last iPhone update | Android |
|---|---|---|---|
| Encounter+ | Battle Map $10.99; Premium $3.99 a month, $24.99 a year; tips | 22 Oct 2026 | No |
| Game Master 5th Edition | Premium Version $2.99 | 24 Sep 2020 | Yes |
| Game Master’s Toolkit 5e | Premium Version $0.99 | 3 Oct 2026 | Not checked |
| Construct for 5e | Three tips, $0.99 to $9.99; nothing to unlock | 20 Jun 2026 | Not checked |
| Initiative Tracker: DM Tools (ours) | Nothing to buy; banner ad | 24 Oct 2026 | Yes |
None of the others has battle maps. Ratings, the browser trackers and Patreon prices are in apps like Game Master 5th Edition and the best initiative tracker apps.
What Encounter+ does better
- It has battle maps: walls, dynamic lighting, line of sight and fog of war, drawn with an Apple Pencil and shown on a TV. Initiative Tracker has a player view of the turn order and no map at all.
- It shows no ads. Apple's privacy panel for Encounter+ lists purchases, usage data and diagnostics as not linked to your identity. Ours carries a banner ad, and its panel lists data used to track you.
- It runs more than one game. Game systems are packages you install or write yourself, so fifth edition is one ruleset among several. Ours is built around the fifth-edition SRD only.
- It has been on the App Store since November 2016, has 570 ratings averaging 4.4, and ships often: 5.0.9 and 5.1.0 came out seventeen days apart this October.
- App Store — Encounter+ Virtual Tabletop, the description, version history, the App Privacy panel and the In-App Purchases row
- Apple — customer reviews feed for Encounter+, the 100 most recent
- Encounter+ — home page, the Pricing section
- Encounter+ — Terms of Use, Purchases
- Encounter+ Docs — Purchases
- Encounter+ Docs — Frequently Asked Questions
- App Store — Game Master 5th Edition, the In-App Purchases row and the App Privacy panel
- App Store — Game Master’s Toolkit 5e, the In-App Purchases row
- App Store — Construct for 5e, the In-App Purchases row
- App Store — Initiative Tracker: DM Tools, ours
- Google Play — Initiative Tracker: DM Tools, ours