Comparison

REC vs Layacut

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

REC

This app offers advanced video and audio controls for professional-quality recordings. It provides extensive camera settings, stabilization, resolutions, frame rates, and audio options. Features like timecode synchronization and intuitive manual controls help creators achieve precise results.

Highlights
  • Advanced camera settings
  • Manual focus and exposure control
  • Timecode synchronization
  • Multiple resolutions and frame rates
  • External microphone support
  • ProRes format support
  • External storage support
Features
Read full description

Elevate your video capturing with REC! Tailored for creators, it provides extensive video and audio options for professional-quality production effortlessly. Choose from a range of camera settings, stabilization options, resolutions, frame rates, and more to capture the perfect video every time. And with intuitive controls and an easy-to-read heads-up display, you can adjust focus, exposure, and more with just a tap. Plus, with REC's timecode feature, you can easily synchronize footage from multiple devices for seamless, multi-angle videos. Choose from "Time of Day" timecode or use Bluetooth sync with Tentacle Sync devices for precise, one-frame resolution synchronization. And with seamless management options, including preview, watch, and send directly to your photo library or favorite editing app, you can create and share professional-quality videos with ease. Here's a quick summary of REC's plethora of video options: - Camera: Front, Telephoto, Wide, Ultra-Wide (As available on your device.) - Camera Stabilization (As available by device and camera selection.) - Resolution: Open Gate, 4K, 1080p, 720p (As available by device.) - FPS: 240, 120, 60, 50, 48, 30, 29.97, 25, 24, 23.98 (As available by device and camera selection.) - Bit Rate: Normal, High, Max - Dynamic Range: 8 Bit, 10 Bit, 10 Bit HDR (As available by device and other selections.) - Format: HEVC, H.264, ProRes 422 HQ, ProRes RAW HQ (As available by device and other selections.) - Lock Exposure and White Balance when recording begins. - Apple Log and Apple Log 2 support when recording in ProRes. - External storage support for iPhone 15 to 17 Pro using USB-C, Audio Here's a quick summary of REC's extensive audio options: - Microphone: Front, Back, Bottom, External (As available on your device.) - Microphone Gain control - Microphone Polar Pattern control: Choose omni, subcardioid, cardioid or stereo pickup depending on what best fits your usage. (As available by device and microphone.) - Sample Rate: 24Khz, 44.1Khz, 48Khz - Format: AAC, PCM Lot of options! But REC gives you simplicity along with flexibility, you'll never be able to select a combination that doesn't work with your device. Captivating Controls REC's floating buttons put pro level controls at your fingertips, and keeps them out of the way while you're focusing on what's important, shooting your video! A single tap brings up any of the control menus where you can adjust the white balance, shutter speed, ISO, EV, and focus manually. Or, use our intuitive touch controls to specify precisely where in your frame focus on and expose to. Quickly swap between the Wide, Ultra-Wide, Telephoto, or Front cameras and different formats with a flick of your finger, and your selection is always available at a glance. Optionally overlay a grid, and zoom in or out to help you frame the perfect shot every time. Terrific Timecodes REC provides two Timecode methods. The first one is "Time of Day", which simply records your device's clock information alongside the video. In order for it to work, just make sure all your devices are set to the same time. For really accurate and extremely simple synchronization, REC also provides Bluetooth sync using Tentacle Sync devices. Using Tentacle Timecode, REC is able to synchronize your iPhone footage with high accuracy. You can find more about the Tentacle Sync solutions at https://tentaclesync.com. Marvelous Management REC saves all of your videos seamlessly to the built-in manager that lets you quickly and easily preview your creations. Watch your shots at different speeds, and preview them without sound if you're trying to find the right shot to share in a sensitive environment. Sending a video to your photo library or favorite editor is just a tap away. Or if you'd prefer, send videos directly to the Photo Library and enjoy its seamless integration with any app that supports video. Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Layacut

Features
Read full description

Point Layacut at your clips and a song. It cuts a finished reel. Not a rough cut, and not a template with your footage poured into it. Layacut reads your camera's own telemetry, watches the footage, listens to it, and cuts the best of it to the beat. HOW IT CUTS It reads. G-force, speed, and the moments you tagged on the camera, read straight out of the file. Faces, subjects, framing and movement, read out of the picture. Voices and real sounds, read out of the audio. It cuts. The reel plays your day in the order it happened. What changes is the pace: shots hold where the reel should breathe and quicken where it should drive. Every cut lands on a beat, within a frame. It finishes. Color matched shot to shot. Music leveled, and pulled back under anything worth hearing. It fades out with the music and it is done. ANY CAMERA A GoPro writes its own record of the ride. A DJI writes a flight log beside the clip. An iPhone records scene light and the faces it saw. Layacut reads all of it, and where a camera says nothing, on-device vision finds the moments in the pixels instead. No ecosystem, no lock-in. YOU STEER IT Tell it what the reel is for and it changes what counts as a good moment: the people, the story, the action, or the place. Choose a style, set the length, and move one slider from subtle to dramatic. Open any shot and pick the part you meant. The reel re-cuts around what you touched and leaves the rest of your work alone. AND THEN IT FINISHES IT Captions transcribed on device from what was actually said. Live gauges from your camera's own telemetry. Your logo over the reel. Transitions measured off real reels rather than invented. Export at 16:9, 9:16, 1:1 or 4:5, and drag the tall frame to say which part of a wide shot to keep. EVERYTHING ON YOUR IPHONE OR IPAD No cloud, no account, no upload bar. The analysis, the decisions and the render all happen on your own iPhone or iPad. Your footage stays in Photos, found by its own bytes and never copied. A reel saved to iCloud Drive opens anywhere Layacut runs, the same reel, the same app. Layacut has no servers and collects nothing. REQUIREMENTS An iPhone or iPad running iOS 26 or iPadOS 26 or later. Apple Intelligence makes the cut smarter where it is on, and Layacut still cuts without it. FREE AND PRO Layacut is free to use and free to export at 720p, with a small Layacut mark on the reel, and you can cut the same footage as many times as you like. Every style pack and every gauge is free too. Layacut Pro is an annual subscription that adds 1080p, 4K and 8K export, turning the Layacut mark off, and your own closing card in place of the Layacut one. One subscription, on your iPhone, iPad and Mac. From laya, meaning rhythm, flow, and the merging of one thing into another. Terms of Use (EULA): https://layacut.com/terms.html Privacy Policy: https://layacut.com/privacy.html

Screenshots

REC4 screens
Layacut4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is device support: Layacut at 3 against REC's 1. On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. REC sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Layacut sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $59.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
REC versus Layacut: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterRECLayacut
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.8 (70 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews55.1% of reviews—
Number of ratings70 — better—
Update frequencyMonthlyMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS26.026.0
Further details — not scored
Size25 MB518 MB
Age rating+44+
DeveloperLateNiteSoft S.L.Pritesh Chauhan

Bugs and requests

REC

Reported bugs

23 issues
  • No audio after iOS update
  • ProRes recording errors
  • Footage not saved
  • App freezes during recording
  • App crashes when choosing ProRes
Show 18 more
  • App crashes when connected to audio interface
  • Video flickers when enabling autofocus
  • Stabilization not working
  • Black screen on iOS 16
  • Timecode not working (elapsed time only)
  • External mic button not touchable
  • App automatically starts recording
  • Gallery part of the app is malfunctioning
  • Cannot save to Photos (storage error)
  • Focus gets stuck at minimum distance
  • Recorder won't save recordings
  • Tools sometimes freeze
  • Stabilization not working at start/end of shots
  • Cannot monitor audio with EarPods
  • External stereo mic records in mono
  • Image stabilization not as good as native app
  • App crashes when opening gallery
  • App doesn't launch

Requested features

31 requests
  • Add pause and resume functionality
  • Add log profile for iPhone 15
  • Add LUT option
  • Add 50/60 kHz fix for framerates
  • Add focus loop
Show 26 more
  • Add focus peaking
  • Add zebra stripes
  • Add false colors
  • Add more resolution options
  • Add bitrate control
  • Add 59.94p frame rate option
  • Add offset option for frame rates
  • Add Apple Watch companion app for monitoring
  • Add log profile support
  • Add Slog3 support
  • Add German language support
  • Add remote control with preview for Apple Watch
  • Add 4K 60fps enablement
  • Add HDR 10bit 4K60fps support
  • Add manual zoom slider and buttons
  • Add support for iPad
  • Add stereo recording with external mics/interfaces
  • Add image stabilization improvement
  • Add automatic video saves to camera roll
  • Add manual mic audio adjustment
  • Add ability to disable microphone when needed
  • Add flash during video recording
  • Add user guide or documentation
  • Add zoom function
  • Add ability to switch to Camera+2 quickly
  • Add presets and ability to save/switch between them

Layacut

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

3 purchases

REC

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Yearly7 Days trial$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • One-Time Purchase$49.99
1 purchases

Layacut

Subscriptions1
  • Layacut Pro$59.991 Year

Questions

Is REC free?
REC is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Layacut free?
Layacut is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do REC or Layacut have ads?
Neither REC nor Layacut shows ads.
Which is updated more often, REC or Layacut?
REC ships an update monthly, and Layacut monthly. Most recently, REC was updated on November 2, 2026 and Layacut on November 6, 2026.

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