Colonist vs CATAN Universe vs Board Game Arena vs Hearthsea: the best way to play Catan online

Which is the best way to play Catan online?

It depends on who you play with. Colonist is the pick for ranked games against strangers in a browser, CATAN Universe for the official rules and expansions, and Board Game Arena for groups that already play other games there. Hearthsea, our own Catan-style game, is the pick for friends on phones, for five or six players, and for bots that trade on every map.

We make Hearthsea, so read its column with that in mind. Every fact about the other three comes from their own websites, store pages or announcements, checked on 11 October 2026, and the links are listed under Sources at the end. Where we could not confirm something, the table says “not verified” instead of guessing.

This page compares four platforms in depth. For a wider list that also covers Landover and HexaColony, see our guide to games like Catan you can play online.

Colonist, CATAN Universe, Board Game Arena and Hearthsea compared

The first rows are the ones where Hearthsea differs most from the other three. The rows after them are where the others are stronger: crowd size, official status and the official expansions.

What does Hearthsea do that the other three don’t?

Hearthsea adds a whole mode of its own, keeps its bots trading on every map, seats six without an expansion, and runs on a phone without an app. It is an independent hex-island trading game, not affiliated with CATAN GmbH, so it has no Cities & Knights and its Seafarers maps are our own take on sailing.

• Highlands is a mode none of the other three has. Its six maps have cliffs that you climb by building a mountain pass for one brick and one ore. Copper mines on the high ground pay out any resource you pick, and a yeti wanders up there too.
• The bots trade on every map. Settler, Merchant and Veteran make offers and answer yours in Classic, Seafarers and Highlands alike. Colonist’s store lists bot games as not supported yet in its Cities & Knights expansions. Our guide to the three bot levels explains how each one plays.
• Five or six players need nothing extra. Every table seats 2 to 6. Colonist sells 5 and 6 player games as part of its membership, and Board Game Arena’s CATAN table stops at four.
• No app and no ads. A phone browser is enough, and you can add Hearthsea to your home screen like an app. Colonist’s free tier shows ads.
• Friends in the same room join by scanning a QR code on the same Wi-Fi, or you pass one phone around. On Board Game Arena, same-location play is a Premium feature.
• There is plenty to do alone: a 15-island campaign at Medium, Hard and Brutal, a weekly challenge, and clans of up to 30 members from level 10.

Pricing, plainly: a free account plays 3 games a day against bots or pass-and-play on the Standard, Balanced, New Shores and The Peaks maps, and can join a friend’s room. The Classic Pass is $3.99 a month, the Seafarers and Highlands Passes $4.99 each, and the All-modes Pass $8.99 a month for all three. A pass adds every map of its mode, online rooms, quick match and no daily limit. The full list is on the pricing page.

Pricing, plainly: every mode and all 46 maps are free with an account, online rooms and quick match included, with no daily limit. We sell cosmetics such as dice, frames, house themes and pets, and none of them change the rules. The pricing page lists them.

Where Hearthsea is behind: it is new, so quick match has far fewer people waiting than Colonist does at any hour. It isn’t the official game, and it doesn’t have Cities & Knights. If either of those matters most, one of the next three is the better choice.

Is Colonist the best way to play Catan online?

For ranked games against strangers, Colonist is the strongest of the four. Its home page showed 6,393 people online and 212,973 games played that day when we checked, so finding a match is quick.

Without paying, you can play the Beginner mode, a 4-player game and Colonist Rush against bots at Easy, Medium or Hard. Ranked 1v1, 4-player, Rush and Cities & Knights games need a login. The free tier shows ads.

The membership comes in three tiers at $6.99, $14.99 and $19.99 a month when billed yearly ($83.88, $179.88 and $239.88 a year). The store lists the month-to-month prices as $8.99, $18.99 and $24.99. Every tier removes ads and adds fullscreen, premium matchmaking, all player colours and the right to host every expansion and map: Seafarers, Cities & Knights, the combined Seafarers and Cities & Knights, 5 and 6 players, 7 and 8 players, Colonist Rush and fun maps such as Gold Rush, Volcano and Black Forest. The first tier adds basic replays, the other two full replays. The store also says that “to play with your friends only 1 player needs a Membership.”

Two limits are worth knowing before you pay. The store marks bot games in Cities & Knights and in Seafarers with Cities & Knights with “Bot logic not supported (coming soon)”, so those expansions are for human tables for now. And Colonist is not the official game: its iOS app describes itself as “Catan Inspired”.

Pick Colonist if you want ranked play, a big crowd, or tables of seven or eight. Look elsewhere if you mostly play against bots on expansion maps.

Is CATAN Universe worth it?

CATAN Universe is worth it if you want the official game and the official expansions in one account, and you don’t mind an app and an in-game currency. It is free to download; the free match always uses the standard map, and the rest is unlocked with CATAN Gold.

The official FAQ says you unlock the base game, the expansions, Rise of the Inkas and Rivals for CATAN by buying CATAN Gold. On Steam, the free part is “basic game free matches against two other human players” plus the Duel introduction, and playing alone against the AI opens once you finish the “Arrival on Catan” tutorial. Seafarers and Cities & Knights each seat up to six.

It runs on iOS, Android, Steam and in Chrome or Firefox, with one account across devices, and it plays offline against the AI. The iOS app is 944.6 MB.

On iOS, Gold packs run from $2.99 for 200 up to $26.99 for 3,000. We could not confirm from an official 2026 source how much Gold the base game and each expansion cost, so check inside the app before you buy a pack.

Reviews are the weak spot. Steam rates it Mixed, with 46% of 11,688 English reviews positive, and Mostly Negative recently, at 33% of 106. The iOS rating is 3.8 from 31,000 ratings. There is also a separate CATAN Console Edition for PlayStation, Xbox and Switch.

Pick CATAN Universe if official rules, Cities & Knights and offline play matter more to you than price clarity.

Is Catan on Board Game Arena official, and who has to pay?

Yes, it is licensed. CATAN GmbH announced CATAN on Board Game Arena in June 2022, and it is a Premium game: anyone with a free account can join a table, but only a Premium member can create one.

BGA’s game page lists CATAN for 3 or 4 players, about 35 minutes a game, and catan.com says BGA also has Cities & Knights and the New Energies stand-alone. The site as a whole lists 10,853,000 players, 1,403 games and 8,950,000 games played each month.

BGA’s Premium page explains the rule: Premium games “require at least one player in the game to have a Premium Membership”, that member creates the table, and they can invite anyone. Playing in the same location is also Premium only. The last price BGA announced on its forum was 5 €/$ a month or 36 €/$ a year from 1 June 2023. The Premium page shows no price when you are logged out, so check it while signed in.

Pick BGA if your group already plays other games there, or if one person will pay for a membership that covers CATAN and every other Premium game on the site. Skip it for five or six players.

Which is cheapest for a group of friends?

Colonist and Board Game Arena both need just one paying player at a friends’ table, and Hearthsea needs at most one, the host. That makes the price of one membership the number to compare.

For every map for a year, Hearthsea’s All-modes Pass is $64.99 for the host. Colonist’s cheapest membership is $83.88 a year for the one member. BGA’s last announced price, 36 €/$ a year, is the lowest and covers every Premium game on the site, but its CATAN table seats four at most. If your group only plays the classic island, Hearthsea’s Classic Pass is $29.99 a year. CATAN Universe sells content with Gold, and we couldn’t verify whether one player’s purchase covers a friends’ match.

Hearthsea is the cheapest: every mode and map is free with an account, so nobody at the table pays. Colonist’s cheapest membership is $83.88 a year for the one member who hosts the expansions. BGA’s last announced price, 36 €/$ a year, covers every Premium game on the site, but its CATAN table seats four at most. CATAN Universe sells content with Gold, and we couldn’t verify whether one player’s purchase covers a friends’ match.

Who should pick which?

Choose by the game night you actually have.

• You play with five or six friends, mostly on phones, and nobody wants to install anything: Hearthsea. Our guide to five or six player games shows how the bigger islands work.
• You want a mode you haven’t played a hundred times, or bots that trade on every map: Hearthsea, with Highlands and the Veteran bot.
• You want ranked games and a match within seconds at any hour: Colonist.
• You have seven or eight players: Colonist, with a membership.
• You want the official rules, Cities & Knights from the publisher, or a game on a plane: CATAN Universe.
• Your group is three or four and already plays other games on BGA: Board Game Arena.

All four let you play something without paying, so the quickest test is one game on each. Whichever you keep, our strategy guide applies to all of them, and the Hearthsea rules cover the differences in our maps.

Questions people ask

Sources

Facts about Hearthsea come from the game itself and its rules and pricing pages. Facts about the other three come from their own sites, store pages and announcements, all checked on 11 October 2026.

1. Colonist home page: free modes, bots, ranked play and players online
2. Colonist store: membership tiers, prices, expansions and bot support
3. Colonist on Google Play
4. CATAN Universe FAQ: free download, CATAN Gold, platforms
5. catan.com: CATAN Universe
6. CATAN Universe on Steam: free content, player counts, reviews
7. CATAN Universe on X: the free match uses the standard map
8. CATAN Universe on the App Store: Gold prices, rating, size
9. catan.com: digital games, Console Edition and BGA content
10. CATAN GmbH: CATAN now available on Board Game Arena
11. Board Game Arena: CATAN game page
12. Board Game Arena: Premium membership
13. Board Game Arena home page: players and games
14. Board Game Arena forum: Premium price from June 2023

Keep reading

• Games like Catan you can play online in 20266 min read
• Playing against AI bots: Settler, Merchant or Veteran?5 min read
• How to play a Catan-style game with five or six players6 min read

CATAN is a registered trademark of Catan GmbH. Hearthsea is an independent game and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Catan GmbH or its publishers. Other game names belong to their owners and are used here only to describe and compare.