Last updated on November 19th, 2025 at 06:50 pm
Colonist.io – Board Game Review
Colonist.io is a Board/Strategy game from Colonist LLC, first launched in 1st December 2022.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 2,367+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Colonist.io Stand Out
Colonist is an exciting multiplayer game. You take on the role of a Colonist by building settlements and expanding your territory while competing with opponents trying to do the same. Colonist combines extremely simple rules with tremendously deep gameplay. Use strategy, planning, and cunning negotiation to win.
You can train against bots, play with friends online, and even compete in our ranked modes for a spot on the leaderboards! We also offer a variety of fun custom maps to play on in addition to traditional expansions which add elements like ships and barbarians to the game. You can even play with more than 4 friends with our 5-6 and 7-8 player expansions.
In the store, you will find a wide array of custom colors and avatars that allow you to personalize your profile and show off. Pick a unique color and avatar combination to instill fear in your opponents!
This Board game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Colonist.io is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 16th August 2025
Recent improvements include:
- Bug fixes
- Users accidentally getting logged out
Download & Availability
Colonist.io is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
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:
In latest update we are no longer able to play in portrait mode on IPhone 13 because we are unable to see check mark to complete robbing of player, or in choosing resources to lose when 7 is rolled.
Good cause you can do 1v1 its free and a ranking system.
The screen dosent fit all buttons.
The new UI is awful! The cards in your hand are so tiny you can barely click them. This went from our most played game to least in one week. Please fix this terrible update or we are cancelling our subscription.
They have changed the free version to make it difficult to see and less easy to play. We assume the are encouraging pay to play.
Its hard to play when nothing loads properly – absolutely rigged dice (yes, statistically they make sense, but its clear the they use algorithms to punish players and spread the odds over games).
Game distorts when sending message on chat or editing trades.
When playing on our iPhone the resource cards randomly disappear from the screen and we have to close the app and reopen.
We now cant use dev cards. Cant choose who to rob either.
Over the past few releases, the developers have absolutely misaligned text and elements on both the landscape and portrait versions of the iOS application. We are a paid subscriber, but may quit as the developers have made the game nearly unplayable.
Its frustrating that the app automatically re-orients itself when we dont want it to, and the in-app buttons to change the game orientation do not work. Please fix this so that the game doesnt automatically orientate itself and that the in-app button actually work.
You could not ask for anything more from this game app. The creativity and freedom to customize your experience combined with a helpful support team make using this app an almost daily occurrence. If you are a fan of the board game you need to try it.
Just a bug report. In the post game view all of the icons get shifted around and become impossible to click. Think this cropped up in the last update. Seems like it happens once you click on stats. Sometimes the only way to leave the game is closing out the app and restarting.
Perfect just prefect bots trade and are equaled fairly no bots team the rank system is perfecto love the game amazing.
We love how much attention developers pay to the game. Our only complaint is that the app glitches when we attempt to login through Apple so now we cant access our account :(.
Portrait mode is AWFUL as a mobile experience. We used to love playing C&K on the app, but having to play it in portrait mode has absolutely ruined that experience to the point that we cant play it on our phone anymore. The portrait interface is a tedious and unpleasant. We understand the reasoning behind why theyve removed landscape mode, but it really was a mistake. We use the app 50% less at least and Im probably Going to cancel our subscription because its just not worth it anymore.
We HAAAAAAAAATE the new update!!!!! Its soooooo different and doesnt have the same features the old version had. We hate that we cant see the actions everyone has done while we play, or the chat. And when it is open, it takes up soooo much space on the opposite side of the screen and you cant even see the game board!! Also, we cant see how many points we are playing to simply by clicking on the points number below our house color, which is annoying because you sometimes miss a dice roll when looking through the settings to figure things out. It was so good before. Why change something that wasnt bad.
Major connectivity issues playing on iOS – the app freezes every couple of minutes with a reconnecting error until we close and restart. Sometimes restarting the app takes a minute or more. Makes gameplay choppy and hard to follow.
Im not as good as the other kids who dont have a life, dont touch grass, have no friends, and dont get off their phones and this game and social media, tik tok, Snapchat, Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, YouTube and Instagram. They dont play any sports and dont play any games that arent on their phones. You should make a limit on how long you can play this Game, so people dont grind and its not fun.
Im learning whether this game has random rolls or some strange algorithm. We find Catan fun, so we play this game. We will see if its made well.
With the length of these games we will sometimes get distracted and miss our turn id love a notification that it is our turn when playing.
You are simply uncultured, morbidly simple, or simply not even romotely sophisticated if you cannot fathom the genius of this game.
Great app and its free. Fun to play with people.
Colonist – you are a great game. If you get rid of landscape mode, we will stop playing. The UI is terrible in portrait mode.
Game is good, but every time you have over 10 cards the chances of you rolling a 7 is like 80% its ridiculous, and the rate that its rolled needs to be notched down.
App wont shut up about update when there aint one.
We dont know if its only us who faced the issue, sometimes it wont let us build settlements , or start development it shows only roads, where other people gets to build everything . It happens in multiplayer with bots also. We have to exchange atleast 4 cards, Eventough we built a settlement at port with which we can exchange 2:1 with ore, sheep, and 3:? It wont even allow to use it. Its just waste to built a settlement . Eventough we have enough cards in our hand to exchange at 2:1 sometimes we have to pay 4:1 to bank. We dont get it. And 7 dont even talk about it. Where ever we have more than 10 cards immediately we get 7 everytime, and always in our turn.
This game is a very good interpretation of Catan. Gameplay is good, and Ive become a better player playing this game. Unfortunately, there are two problems. First, as others have mentioned, dice rolls need a better randomizer. Sevens appear much more frequently than real games. Second, and much more important, the game is a battery hog. Im on a 2nd gen iPad Pro, 12.9, running iOS 17.7. At 100%, a single game will use between 15 and 20%. If our battery is at 40% or lower, we will not be able to finish a game without a charger. Easily uses more battery than any other app In use.
If it ain't broke don't fix it…. The change is literally horrible for the UI, it's confusing to understand, and we can't see anywhere where a single person asked for this. Why not just make it optional?? We don't even want to play the game till this is fixed.
We love catan and this game but this app crashes ALL THE TIME or will not even open.
Its fun but to get access to the extra maps its extremely expensive compared to the actual Catan app. The only thing it does better is the variety of layouts it has and bigger maps than the Catan app offers.
The way the checkbox is situated you prematurely end your turn. Its happened enough times to make us angry using the game.
The dice seems rigged. Favors the player in lead. The bots are horrendous. If a player leaves, the bot substitutes the player and after that the game is dead. Even if youre one point ahead of the strongest player, the bot keeps stealing from you making the game torturous to play.
We love this game. It is amazing. We love playing with family and friends. You dont really need to do anything to make it better. Its already amazing but if you want, you can make new update updates.
If u want an addiction this mf game.
Please stop changing the display. Its frustrating. Thank you, Karma.
Ive been playing the web version for years. Its really fun and well done. Ive been keeping track of when the bot rolls a seven. Its almost always right after we make an action: build a road, settlement, city or buy dev cards. What we will do each game is track how many times A) the bot gets a seven after we make a move or B) if the bot rolls a seven after us making no move. Its stunning how the bot will roll a seven after we make a move. Its consistently 80-90% of the time and oftentimes 100% for several consecutive games. Very rarely is it ever under 50%. So we play the game with that in mind. Buying robber cards is the way to counteract that programming. And the bots will get on a wild streak of buying dev cards so you have to be ahead there too.
Would love for there to be an option to make a one time in-app purchase for individual maps. The subscription ends up being very expensive and not worth it.
The game and the app are pretty good, especially for something free to play, but it feels like half the time playing 1v1 we get matched with someone whos just rude and mean in the chat. It takes a lot of fun out of what should be a fun simple competitive game. If we wanted to get cussed out by immature slobs, Id fire up the Xbox and play call of duty.
If you like P2w games, you definitely love this one. So much skins to choose from.
Game does a good job of giving us this feeling that is happiness. What we would say is that we like it. What we wouldnt say is that we dont like it. 2 things we said, both kinda similar but kinda different. Ill go as far as to say that when Im playing it, we feel better than when Im not. Ask yourself whats stopping you from downloading this game. Do you not want to feel good? Reflect on yourself if you dont want this game. Honestly like its good and its fun and Ive said it since the start. Good stuff man, good stuff. Alright guys take it easy.
Ive been playing on Colonist since the site was in beta, and we love it. We appreciate the regular improvements and updates. The site is dynamic and easy to use. Thanks for great game play.
Infinite replayability? — check Great balance? — check Flexible single or multiplayer? — check.
The dev team has done a fantastic job on the execution of this game. They also have brought the base game to the public for free! We think the only downside is that their prices for almost all dlc is too expensive.
If you love catan. This is for you. 1v1 is amazing.
Free app, no ads, full Catan game to play with friends, strangers or bots. Consistent updates to improve the UI and experience.
This is the best catan game. Constant updates, great gameplay, awesome community! Must play.
Thanks for mobile optimizing the app.
We loooove this game and this app EXCEPT the dice algorithms are very predictable and uneven. 7s are not distributed properly, meaning one person will roll every 7 while the other gets none. Depending on the times of the month or something idk what it is but the numbers rolled often change and stay changed until the next cycle? Idk how your system works. Each game whatever numbers are selected to be rolled over and over will completely shatter the other player. Last game we played 8 and 6 were rolled over 10 times while numbers 9,3,10 were only rolled 2 or 3 times. This makes the games completely unfair. Please level out the dice more so one player cant powerhouse every game thank you <3.
Make it rotate-enabled for tablets and ipads.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.2.2
- Size: 30.41 MB
- iOS: 13.4 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Contests
- Developer: [Colonist LLC]()
Last updated: 16th August 2025 | Genre: Board, Strategy | Developer: Colonist LLC