Last updated on January 17th, 2026 at 04:14 pm
Catanerator – Map Generator – Utilities Game Review
Catanerator – Map Generator is a Utilities/Board/Strategy game from Kelsey Regan, first launched in 25th May 2011.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 239+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Catanerator – Map Generator Stand Out
The #1 competitive board generator for Settlers of Catan. With countless configurations, including adjacent reds, max dots per intersection, fair ports, and much more. Upgrade your app for the Expansion packs and Sea Farers.
Settlers of Catan is an exciting, strategy, social board game which is played around a randomly generated board. Players collect resources, including wood, brick, sheep, wheat and ore, to trade or build new roads and settlements. First person to 10 points wins.
Catanerator is a tool used to generate a board which distributes the odds in a fashion that allows a customizable balance. Now you can play Settlers of Catan with a board which does not give unfair advantages to certain players.
Check it out and let us know what you think or what you'd like to see!
NOTE: The difference between Catanerator Pro and this is that Pro comes with some of the in app purchases by default.
Enjoy!
This Utilities game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Catanerator – Map Generator is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 24th October 2017
Recent improvements include:
This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon.
Lots of people think this is the full game and are rating 1 star :(
If you're not one of those people, we'd appreciate any feedback!
This is a minor update to fix a couple animations and the rate button.
Download & Availability
Catanerator – Map Generator is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Catanerator – Map Generator on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
This app is exactly what it is described as and is very useful at getting different catan boards every time you play.
Catan lovers must have…we hope someday they add 6p expansion to sea farers.
It would be great to track the rolls we make without having to roll with the app. Have used a few scenarios from the 5-6 player in-app purchase and have been pleased.
We originally gave the app one star because we thought check marking adjacent reds allowed adjacent reds but it appears to be the opposite. As long as it continues to work this way then its a good app. We paid the 2 dollars for the expansion.
We use this app literally every time we play catan now.
Works well, does what its supposed to. Thanks, Devs.
This is a balanced map generator for the board game at home. It works great. If you want to be able to set up advanced maps, you have to pay. Why should these guys work for free? The app works perfectly and adds an advanced wrinkle to your home Catan games. No more purely dominant intersections.
Any game night, this app is always used. Its great for randomizing the setup of the Catan board. Even better if the dice roll function, which can be used for any game youre playing that needs two regular dice. Not enough open space on the table? Just put the kids to bed and need to play quietly? This solves those problems.
This app works just as youd expect it! We just wish there was a way to get back to the main menu without closing the whole app. Besides that, this has pretty much everything you need for a fair and balanced catan game.
What resource is each color? Green = sheep Dark brown = wood Etc. Thanks.
Nice app that saves time searching for or trying to create your own maps. For future updates we would love to see the ability to generate 5-6 player seafarers maps as that is what we normally play. Fog/treasure islands would be fantastic as well. Not sure how to work in fog islands with keeping the board setup unknown to the players laying out the board using an app. Maybe just provide the number of resource tiles and tokens to be used and the players can shuffle those face down and place at random? A variety of maps of the 5-6 seafarers size would be a helpful starting point.
We just started using the app, so so cant give a full review, but we have screenshots showing boards with adjacent red numbers when that option is not checked.
This app deserves 5 stars, once some important things are fixed and functional. To the developers, please see those suggestions as direct input to make a well balanced and great application out of this! – there is no info about what is what or how this interface works. It took us quite some time to guess which colour stands for which resource. After a while we think we figured it out, but it stays a guessing game. – once you start a game, there is no obvious to get back to the menu. We Had to close the app completely and reopen it to get to the menu. Only after some time we found a button which brings us directly back. This is not very obvious intuitive. – the button to dice could be bigger. Players need to press many times to finally hit it right – the random port sometimes are right next to each other or present on the same hex. It would be nice if they get distributed with at least one hex in between. – sometimes, certain numbers are not present at all in the board. Imagine playing a game without a single 6. What happens if you dive a 6?? This must be an obvious mistake that need immediate fixing. Other than that the app works very nice, makes plying very enjoyable and has a nice design. Please keep optimising it.
We are having trouble with figuring out how to set up the ports the way the generated map calls it out. It would be useful if the ports were grouped together the way the physical board pieces are. This way, you could tell which order to place the pieces. Most of the time, we try to configure the border pieces with the ports in the locations indicated on the map, but theres just no way to do it, so we just use the default 1-1, 2-2, etc. Also, we see most of the time that the resources are grouped together pretty heavily (all the wood in one section of the board, etc). And even without the option to have reds together, we see reds together. (8, 8, 6 all on adjacent tiles). The map also resets when you switch from portrait to landscape view. We just want to generate a quick, fair map that we can use to quickly set up the board and get to playing without having to spend a half hour worrying about it being unbalanced. Otherwise, the interface is slick and maybe Id pay for the extra features if the free ones were a little better.
Not really cool that you have to pay so much for each additional expansion.
This app is okay. It functions, but the UI is very ugly and it has minor annoyances like the tab buttons being unresponsive, being unable to generate a new map without restarting the app, and requiring payment to generate 6 player maps. The deal-breaker however, is that it doesnt balance the locations of resource tiles, only the numbers. For an app that claims to generate competitive and balanced boards, this is very disappointing.
App seems to have some great features and custom settings, but after hitting the Catanerate button, it seems impossible to return to the home page/main menu without killing the app and reopening. Another annoying aspect is that when viewing the generated game board, the whole map completely resets/randomizes again when we rotate our phone from portrait to landscape mode. This is extremely frustrating, especially if you havent finished setup before accidentally rotating (and thus resetting the generated board, requiring you to complete restart setup).
Wish we could just make our own tile arrangements and save them. This was just sadness.
Horrible generator. Once downloaded you have to pay money for anything besides the basic map. You dont find this out until after the app is downloaded. If you want a legit and FREE catan map generator with tons of options. Then Get the HEX ISLE MAP and you will be very pleased. This is NOT what your looking for.
Our first generated board, pitted two 6s together.
The most obviously missing feature is balancing starting positions so that less experienced players are guided into the game. Randomizing the board is an easy task, finding balanced positions for all 6players is not.
Should be programmed to not have the same numbers appear next to each other (even if they arent red) or have it as an option in settings. Color blind setting should not be just adding small text to the tiles. Different shades would be way more helpful. Red/green colors used are indistinguishable.
Terrible boards generated by this. All the 8s and 6s are grouped together with each other, and the random board setting creates terribly uneven boards. You have to pay money to get 5/6 player expansion boards. Not worth our or anyone elses money.
Great if you play with only the small map. Does not provide large maps with expansion players.
We have an iPhone 7 and it it is not formatted to view well – paid for it and wasted our money.
This app sorely needed an update, and this totally delivered.
We use this app at least once a week, it's great. We've purchased the expansion maps in-app and use them often too. Last version, although a bit outdated in its design, was an awesome tool. The design is the most obvious change in this version, it looks pretty and all, but functions far less effectively in our opinion. The color distinction is not intuitive and number legibility is low and impossible to decipher without zooming in and around the map. Please bring back a map screen that is clear and legible when viewing it in its entirety, like in the previous versions. We don't mind the flat esthetic at all, but it mandates high clarity to be part of the design as well because it is so minimal. So basically we'd like to be able to put our phone on the table and reference it while we assemble the map, without having to do anything more than glance at it. Please? Again this is a great tool regardless. Still recommend it.
Really cool app we used to use. Presently, it crashes every time we try to open it.
It's cool how there are settings for the board simulations to help keep the board fair. Any extensions are extra though. And with the extension we bought, half of it doesn't work.
They have a lot features but you can only use them if you pay.
Updated and app just crashes immediately. Had this app for years. Terrible update.
Save your time and don't download. If you're looking for anything other than the normal set up (and who can't do that?) you have to pay. Feels tricky.
To you morons who think this was the actual game, LEARN HOW TO READ. You people are the downfall of America. Great app, and very handy.
Great Catan generator. Use it all the time and it has NEVER failed to deliver a great enjoyable map for all players, no matter how many.
This isn't a game. This is downright awesome we wouldn't know what to do with our life if it weren't for this app.
Excellent app for what it does: randomly generate catan maps on the go, throw dice, generate statistics and more.
Read the description guys. This is a tool to generate random boards for the board game Catan. It is not a standalone game. It does the job and it does it well. We would like to see an update for the iphone5 screen size, but as that does not the function of the app we still give it 5 stars.
This is great if your friends or bros don't like your random board set-up this is the app it's really awesome Give this guy credit for this cuz this would not be easy too program.
Hey, we think the app is great and makes setting up the game. The only thing missing is the update for the expansion pack.
Not sure what the others are talking about. This app works great to make expansion seafarers balanced with 5 or 6 players. We wish they would update to allow the bigger board that has 7 or 8 hexes along the side.
You don't play the game on the app. You should really read the description before asked dumb questions. The app does what it does and it helpful. Five stars for sure.
Great app to go with playing the board game. Sets up a fair board for you.
This is a great app for what it says it does. Generating map layouts to play catan. The description obviously says its not the actual game. Great compliment to a great board game.
We have not upgraded from the older version because we prefer the old design. If it's not too much trouble, would love a setting to choose the old style. Other than that, this app is indispensable for playing Catan. Thanks.
For all the idiots giving this app a poor rating because it is not playable, this app is NOT THE GAME!! And it is not advertised as such. This wonderful app helps generate boards for people wanting the best, most fair setups possible. Do not expect to play the game, and don't complain about not playing the game.
This is a good helper app for people who play catan. If someone has written review the looks like it was written by a five-year-old you shouldn't pay attention to it, they don't know what they are talking about. This isn't a game, it's a helper app.
This is a map generator for people who play the game. Not the game itself. And it's great at what it does. More explanation is needed, though.
It does what it says it's supposed to do. Our biggest complaint is that you have to pay to unlock more variants, even if it is just a 5 or 6 player game, without Seafarers or the other special expansions.
Can this be upgraded for iPhone 6. Not all the features are showing only phone. Can see the words but not the sliders.
This app is worse than the band Nickelback. If that's not enough info, we don't know what is.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 4.1
- Size: 8.33 MB
- iOS: 8.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: [Kelsey Regan]()
Last updated: 24th October 2017 | Genre: Utilities, Board | Developer: Kelsey Regan