Magnatiles VS Picasso Tiles: Honest Magnetic Tile Comparison

Are you in the market to purchase magnetic tiles and looking for information on the best ones out there for purchase? If so then you’ve come to the right place. This honest comparison of Magnatiles VS Picasso Tiles compares two of the top magnetic tile brands out on the market.

As an educator Mom of three we’ve purchased and gone through tons of different magnetic tile brands including Magnatiles, Picasso tiles, and two off brands as well. We’ve now used and purchased tons of different sets and almost all of our original ones are still going strong four years later.

Read on to find out what brand of magnetic tiles we’d recommend over the others and why as well as pros and cons of both, compatibility with each other, piece or set offerings, and more.

This post may contain affiliate links and as an Amazon Associate as well as a member of other affiliate programs, I may earn a small compensation from qualifying purchases. All opinions and recommendations are my own. 

Magnatiles or Picasso Tiles: Which Ones Are Better?

Overall this is a very tough comparison as both Magnatiles and Picasso tiles are similar and awesome toys for kids. While Magnatiles is the best quality and name brand magnetic tiles with tons of options for different sets, Picasso tiles are an awesome budget-friendly alternative and still great quality. In our family’s personal opinion, Picasso tiles are the best choice between the two.

While we have tons of different options, our Picasso tile original sets are by far our favorites of all the options we have. While we love the durability and sturdiness of the Magnatiles, the Picasso Tiles have still held up great and we are able to purchase more while paying less. This is what makes it our top pick when choosing between Picasso Tiles and Magnatiles.

As a Mom of three kids ages 6 and under we’ve purchased a lot of different magnetic tile options. We have hundreds of magnetic tiles in tons of different set options like animals, construction theme, large value packs, racing sets, and more.

We’ve combined all of our sets together and they make one of our kid’s favorite toys. Magnetic tiles are played with on a daily basis and our kids use them to make everything from tall towers that almost reach the ceiling to doll houses and dominos. We use them for learning games, entertainment, writing on (with dry-erase markers), and more.

Best of all, we love that Picasso Tiles and Magnatiles are interchangeable. We are able to purchase the set options that we want and add them together to make awesome structures and creations.

What are Magnetic Tiles?

Magnetic tiles are a kid’s toy that is typically used for building structures, cities, and more. They are colored tiles in a wide variety of shapes that use magnets to connect together. Each tile has strong magnets all around the outside of the plastic base so they can hook onto each other easily.

The traditional sets of magnetic tiles typically have large squares and small squares as well as large triangles, small triangles, and right angled triangles. They come in tons of different colors.

Magnatiles VS. Picasso Tiles Features

We were gifted the original set of Picasso tiles for Christmas and it quickly became our favorite toy. Our kids wanted to build larger structures so we found we were in the market for more. We then purchased the zoo animals Magnatiles brand. This set came with different tiles as well as four fun animals to play with.

When we brought our second set home we were happily surprised to see that the pieces fit together perfectly and they could be used interchangeably. We love both our magnatiles and Picasso tiles and while they work great together we found there to be some differences in the features.

Magnatiles are made with a food grade, non-toxic plastic. They have metal rivets all around the edges and a lattice design throughout the middle of the shapes to help keep them from cracking and magnets from coming out. You can see the magnets through each of the pieces around the outside of the shapes. They come in vibrant colors and the classic set of 100 comes with isosceles triangles, right triangles, equilateral triangles, large squares, and smaller squares.

Picasso Tiles are made with transparent ABS plastic. They have magnets all around the outside edges and have reinforced and smooth edges. The classic set has matching shapes that reinforce the middle (ie squares have a square shape, triangles have a triangle shape in the middle, etc…) and comes in isosceles triangles, right triangles, equilateral triangles, large squares, and smaller squares. Picasso tiles are just slightly thinner and a little lighter than magnatiles but it isn’t a huge difference.

Both Picasso Tiles and Magnatiles come with classic set and tile options as well as specialized set options. Magnatiles come with traditional sets, race car hill sets, animal and themed sets, travel sets, and more. Picasso tiles come in marble run sets, race tracks, traditional sets, mini sets, and more.

Magnatiles VS. Picasso Tiles	Magnatiles	Picasso Tiles
Materials	Compatible with most other magnetic tile brands (including Picasso tiles)	Transparent ABS Plastic
Reinforcements	-Rivets around the outside of each of the tiles -Plastic lattice design built into each tile to prevent cracking	Plastic covers around the magnets with shapes built in to help prevent cracking
Magnets	Small rectangular magnets around the outsides of each tile	Small rectangular magnets around the outside of each tile
Set Options	Classic Building Sets Themed Sets Travel Sets Race Car Sets	Classic Building Sets Race Track Sets Marble Run Sets Mini Diamond Tile Sets
Colors	6 classic colors in the traditional sets plus tons of additional colors in the other set options	Tons of colors in each of the different sets. Each set could come in different colors.
How to Purchase	Online or in many retail stores	Online or in many retail stores
Compatibility	Compatible with most other magnetic tile brands (including picasso tiles)	Compatible with most other magnetic tile brands (including Magnatiles)
Price	100 PC classic set: $119.99 Other set options range from $39.99-$129.99 *Very rarely do they offer sales but if you’re watching long enough you can find them. (Black Friday always a big one)	100 PC classic set: $49.99 Other set options range from $25.99-$99 *Easy to find sales for. Most sets go on sale often and you can usually find a promo code or sale on their site or Amazon.

Durability

As far as durability goes Magnatiles are the clear winner. Magna tiles cost a lot more but their hard durable plastic with a lattice design makes them super durable and sturdy.

If you push on the middle of both of the different brands of tiles you can feel the Picasso Tiles bend ever so slightly while the magnatiles hold strong.

In our three years of having both Magnatiles and Picasso Tiles, we’ve never had a Magnatile break. We have had just one of our Picasso tiles break. Two or three additional ones have cracked but can still be used.

*The broken Picasso Tile did break open and the small magnets came out so you have to be super careful with any of these popular tile brands if you have small kids who put things in their mouths still. However, it took a lot of use for our tile to break and if you toss one at the first sign of a crack you should be good.

Overall the durability of both is very good and they are a long lasting toy that shouldn’t need replacing often if any.

Set Options

Both Magnatiles and Picasso Tiles offer tons of different set options to choose from.

The Magnatiles classic 100 PC set includes 50 squares, 4 large squares, 20 equilateral triangles, 11 right triangles, and 15 Isocelets triangles. The Picasso Tiles classic 200 PC set includes 8 large squares, 46 small squares, 20 small triangles, 12 medium triangles, and 14 tall triangles.

Both Magnatiles and Picasso tiles have options to purchase smaller and larger sets with their classic pieces as well. You can also purchase more of a certain type of tile (IE just squares) from their sites if needed.

On top of their classic sets Magnatiles also offers themed sets. Some of their themed sets include a castle, space, construction, racing, forest animals, farm animals, dinosaur, jungle animals, safari animals, arctic animals, glow in the dark tiles, cars, roads and more. They also offer mini magnatiles called micromags that are perfect for travel.

On top of their class sets, Picasso Tiles also offers plenty of other options. These include magnetic race car sets that go along a track, marble run tracks, and their standard tiles with a diamond design in the middle. They also offer tons of different themed options. Some of their themed sets include construction theme, Pete the Cat, aquarium, mermaid, safari, castle, dinosaurs, and travel sized mini tiles as well.

Head over to their websites to check out all of the different options that both Magnatiles and Picasso Tiles offer.

Magnatiles and Picasso Tiles Price Comparison

While Magnatiles and Picasso Tiles are a very similar toy there is a very large price difference between the two. For the 100 PC classic Magnatiles set the original price is $119.99 while the Picasso Tiles 100 PC classic set costs $49.99.

It is also very rare for Picasso Tiles to not be running a sale. Most times you can go on Amazon and they will be an additional 20% off or have a 20% off clickable. You can also purchase them on sale with easy-to-find promo codes through their website (or use the code AFF20%OFF if you are having a hard time finding one that works) very often as well.

Magnatiles will run sales but they are rare and you have to look often throughout the year to catch them. They usually do a Black Friday sale every year. While it is also hard to find them on sale at many retailers you can occasionally find coupons like $10 off a $50+ toy purchase at Target that you can apply towards purchasing the Magnatile sets.

Picasso Tiles VS. Magnatiles

As a big non-stimulating toy family we absolutely love both Magnatiles and Picasso Tiles. Magnetic tiles are an amazing STEM toy for kids and help to foster creativity, fine motor skills, and more. Kids of all ages love them (they’re a hit with our 2, 4, and 6 year olds) and there are so many fun options.

We love that you can use both Magnatiles and Picasso Tiles interchangeably and probably have added a total of at least 7 sets to our collections. Our kids love making towers to the ceiling, doll houses, castles, using them like dominos, building in the sunshine with them, building 2D pictures with them, using the themed sets for pretend play, and more. The options are endless.

If choosing between the two our favorites are the Picasso Tiles only because you can get so many more pieces with your money. However, the Magnatiles are the best quality between the two sets. We love having a mix of both to play with and it opens up the possibilities of even more sets to use.

We would highly recommend this fun STEM toy for anyone with children of any ages (and sometimes husbands too). It is our most played with and used toy and our kids still love using them even after four+ years. Head over to Magnatiles, Amazon, or Picasso Tiles to check out all of the options and purchase this awesome toy!

Magnetic tiles are an amazing resource and can be used for so many fun activities. Be sure to check out some of the fun ways we like to use them below and head over to this post to see how we used them in a fun search and find activity. If you have more favorite ways to use them or a recommendation for a favorite set be sure to share it in the comments below!