If you are here, SpellTable is probably not broken for you. It still works, it is still free, it is still run by Wizards. It has also been sitting in Beta for years while the pods using it collect small grievances: the loading screen that never resolves, card recognition that gives up in bad light, the fact that nothing about the game is written down anywhere.
Before the list, a disclosure: one of the tools below (EDHMat) is mine. I have tried to write this page so that it is still useful to a pod that ends up picking something else, because for plenty of pods something else is the right answer.
First decide: real cards or digital cards?
Every remote-Commander tool falls on one side of this line, and the line matters more than any feature comparison.
Real cards and a camera. You own the decks, you shuffle them, you point a webcam at your playmat. This is what SpellTable is. It preserves the physical game, including the parts that are hard on a camera: reading a card someone is holding up, tracking a board of forty permanents, and everyone needing decent light and decent upload.
Digital cards in a shared window. Everyone sees the same board, rendered from card images. Nobody needs to own the cards, nothing depends on your lighting, and the board state is unambiguous because it is data. What you give up is the feel of the physical game.
Pods that already own paper decks and mostly want to see each other should stay on the camera side. Pods spread across time zones, testing brews, or playing with cards they do not own are better served by digital cards. Most of the frustration I have seen with "SpellTable alternatives" comes from trying a tool on the wrong side of this line.
If digital cards are what you want, you can find out in about a minute — no install, no account. Open a table in one click →
If you want to keep using your real cards
Convoke
The closest like-for-like replacement for SpellTable, and the one most pods migrating over neglect end up on. Same premise: webcams pointed at real cards, card recognition, a shared view of the table. It is actively developed, which is precisely the complaint people have about SpellTable.
Choose it if: you like SpellTable's model and just want it maintained.
A plain video call
Not a joke. A pod that already runs Discord video and a life-tracker app is doing most of what SpellTable does, minus card recognition. Zero setup, zero accounts, and nothing to go down. Plenty of long-running pods never used a dedicated tool at all.
Choose it if: your pod is three or four people who know each other's decks and mostly want the table talk.
If you want digital cards in a browser
This is the category that has grown fastest since 2024, and it is now crowded. All of these load in a browser, deal digital cards, and expect you to know the rules yourself.
EDHMat
Mine, so apply the appropriate discount. Free, open source, no account of any kind, up to six seats, decklists pasted from Moxfield, Archidekt or Arena. Two things separate it from the rest of this list. Every action goes into an append-only log you can scroll back through, which is the answer to "wait, when did that get there?". And you can run the whole thing yourself from one Docker container, so your pod's games never have to touch anyone else's server.
Choose it if: you want a no-friction table that keeps a record, or you want to own the server.
Do not choose it if: you want the app to enforce the rules. It does not, on purpose.
TableCommander
Free, browser-based, guest play, decklist import from Moxfield and Archidekt, 2–6 players, and explicitly not a rules engine. The nearest thing to a direct competitor to EDHMat in both pitch and feature set.
Kiku.gg
Browser-based, no download and no account, deck import, and supports larger tables than most — useful if your pod regularly runs more than six.
Playgroup Live
Heavier and more opinionated: a browser table wrapped in playgroup tooling — stat tracking, pod management, game history. It asks for a free account, which is either the point or the dealbreaker depending on your pod.
untap.in
One of the oldest browser tabletops still running. The free tier caps you at four players; it has been serving pods for years and it is stable.
If you want the computer to know the rules
Everything above leaves the rules to you. Two tools do not, and if that is what you are looking for, take these over anything above — including mine.
XMage
Full rules enforcement, free, open source, huge card pool. It is a desktop client, it looks like a desktop client from 2009, and the learning curve is real. But it plays real Magic: the stack works, and triggers happen whether or not anyone remembers them.
Forge
Also free, also rules-enforcing, also a download. Strong single-player and AI support, which none of the browser tools have — the best option on this page if you want to goldfish against something that fights back.
Tabletop Simulator
A physics sandbox on Steam rather than a Magic client, so it costs money and every player needs a copy. What you get is total freedom — any card, any layout, any house rule — at the cost of the fiddliest setup here.
Side by side
| Cards | Account | Install | Rules enforced | Seats | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SpellTable | Real | Wizards account | No | No | 2–6 |
| Convoke | Real | Yes | No | No | 2–6 |
| EDHMat | Digital | None | No | No | 6 |
| TableCommander | Digital | Guest play | No | No | 2–6 |
| Kiku.gg | Digital | No | No | No | Up to 8 |
| Playgroup Live | Digital | Free account | No | No | 2–6 |
| untap.in | Digital | Yes | No | No | 4 free |
| XMage | Digital | Server account | Yes | Yes | 2+ |
| Forge | Digital | No | Yes | Yes | 2+ |
| Tabletop Simulator | Digital | Steam | Yes (paid) | No | Many |
What I'd pick, by pod
- Your pod owns the decks and likes seeing each other play them → Convoke, or just a video call.
- You want a shared board in ten seconds with nobody signing up → try EDHMat, TableCommander and Kiku.gg, in whatever order. They are close enough that the one your pod likes the look of is the right one.
- You want the game tracked, or you want to host it yourself → EDHMat. Nothing else on this list is self-hostable.
- You want the rules enforced → XMage or Forge. Do not use a manual tabletop and then be annoyed that it is manual.
If the specific thing that pushed you off SpellTable was the March 2026 voice-moderation change, that is a different question with a different answer — see SpellTable's AI voice moderation and where to play instead.
Frequently asked questions
Is SpellTable shutting down?
No. As of August 2026 SpellTable is live at spelltable.wizards.com and still labelled Beta. People search for alternatives because of neglect, outages and the March 2026 AI voice-moderation pilot, not because of a shutdown announcement.
What is the closest thing to SpellTable?
For webcam play with your real cards, Convoke is the closest like-for-like replacement. For digital cards in a browser, EDHMat, TableCommander and Kiku.gg all give a pod a shared table in a couple of clicks.
Do any SpellTable alternatives work without an account?
Yes. EDHMat has no accounts at all, and TableCommander and Kiku.gg offer guest play. Playgroup Live and untap.in ask you to register.