Comparison

ARStain vs Ed

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

Head to head
About

ARStain

Features
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Create together with ARStain, an AR drawing experience for children and parents. Choose a Bird or Car and place it in the live AR view. Move and resize it to explore. For Birds, move the colorful AR Bird aside to reveal its sketch. The sketch guides your drawing; the color Bird gives you a visual reference. Switch to Draw and make your picture with a finger. Return to AR to check the sketch or color reference, then keep drawing. When you're ready, save your drawing to Photos. The saved image contains only your drawing, not the camera view, AR objects, or app controls. Hummingbird and all Cars are free. A one-time, non-consumable Premium in-app purchase unlocks nine additional Birds; it is not a subscription. If you purchased Premium before, open a locked Bird and choose Restore Purchases.

About

Ed

Design and prototype tile-based games with a powerful level editor. Import sprites, define terrain rules, and manage multiple levels. Export your creations in various formats, including Unity.

Highlights
  • Sprite sheet import and slicing
  • Terrain bit mask rules
  • Custom tile definitions
  • Rule and auto brushes
  • Random tile selection
  • Multi-level project management
  • Export to Unity and JSON
Read full description

Ed is a cross-platform prototyping tool and level editor for tile-based games. The tablet version of the app comes with the full feature set including: - Import your sprite sheets and automatically slice them into sprites, - Set terrain bit mask rules for different sprites and export them to brushes that automatically detect and draw terrain corners appropriately, - Create Tile Definitions (TileDefs) that have custom tile sizes, animations, background colors and more, - Rule Brushes: Define rules with which the editor automatically picks and chooses tiles based on criteria you set, - Auto Brushes: Whitebox your levels and define auto brush regions to automatically transform whiteboxed tiles into polished areas, - Pick tiles randomly based on assigned probability weights, - Manage multiple levels per project (world), - Draw on multiple boards on each level, - Set parallax parameters per board, - Draw colliders using a brush and craft secret areas, - Export to an intuitive and easy to parse text format, as integer, hex, or char grid, - The file format is ZIP containing images and pure JSON, ready to be imported into your code, - Go back and forth between the desktop and tablet versions and create your game on the go or at your desk! - Built-in support to export to Unity - Create Enums, Classes and other data structures. Built-in support for MonoBehaviours. The iPhone version of the app allows you to open your projects and edit levels in a more compact user interface, optimized for the smaller device form factor. While the environment is compatible with the full version, the iPhone app has a more limited feature set.

Screenshots

ARStain4 screens
Ed4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: ARStain at Free against Ed's $14.99. Ed's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and update cadence (fortnightly vs every 36 months). On ads, device support and iOS requirement 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

ARStain is free to download; Ed costs $14.99 up front. ARStain sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Ed asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ARStain ships an update every 36 months, Ed fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 4, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
ARStain versus Ed: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterARStainEd
PriceFree — better$14.99
Rating—4.7 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—3 — better
Update frequencyEvery 36 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
Monetization—Paid
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS15.114.2 — better
Further details — not scored
Size85 MB164 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperOlexandr ProdanChilling Moose

In-app purchases

1 purchases

ARStain

One-time1
  • Premium Birds$0.99
None

Ed

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is ARStain free?
ARStain is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Ed free?
Ed costs $14.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do ARStain or Ed have ads?
Neither ARStain nor Ed shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ARStain or Ed?
ARStain ships an update every 36 months, and Ed fortnightly. Most recently, ARStain was updated on October 4, 2026 and Ed on October 19, 2026.

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