Comparison

Layerz App Designer vs Ed

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

Head to head
About

Layerz App Designer

Design interactive, functional app prototypes using real native components. Define data, behavior, and API connections visually. Offers templates and a design system for rapid creation and customization.

Highlights
  • Interactive native iOS component design
  • Data definition and manipulation
  • Action Flow for app behavior
  • Live API integration
  • Design System with themes
  • Reusable components
  • Genre and app templates
Features
Read full description

Layerz — Design Your App Layerz is a visual design tool for creating interactive, working iOS app designs — made of real native components. Define design, data, behavior, media, and live API connections in one place. Made for Creators - Designers creating interactive designs that actually work - Developers prototyping ideas fast - Makers bringing app ideas to life visually Design Native Design with real iOS components, not lookalikes. - Actual native components — buttons, lists, maps, web views, video, Lottie, link previews - Charts — bar, line, area, point, and pie, drawn from your data - Real Auto Layout, responsive on every screen size - Design System — color & typography tokens grouped into themes; switch a theme to re-skin your whole app - Turn any design into a reusable component Make It Stand Out Rich styling, ready in a tap. - Shapes — stars, blobs, waves, hearts, polygons, or your own SVG — and clip any view to a shape - Gradients with many colors and any angle, on backgrounds, text, and borders — plus slowly drifting mesh gradients - Layered shadows and glows, grain texture, blend modes, and one-tap style presets - Motion in the preview: appear animations with stagger, press effects, and SF Symbol effects - Bottom sheets, long-press context menus, smooth corners, letter spacing and line height - Import your own fonts Start fast: pick a genre template in one of three styles, then compose screens from ready-made sections and patterns. An interactive tour teaches the building blocks hands-on, right in the editor. Or open an interactive app design template — chat, banking, streaming, food delivery, language learning, focus timer, habits and more — preview it, then make it yours. Media & Services Bring your app to life beyond the screen. - Lottie animations, video, and audio assets — imported once, used anywhere - Services react to timers, battery, and connectivity: run an Action Flow or write readings straight into your data Design with Data Create and manage your own data directly inside Layerz. - Define custom data schemas, enums, and dates - Filter and sort lists with live conditions - Bind comparisons (true/false) for conditional UI like selection highlights - Reshape API data to fit your UI model with Data Transformers - Save data to disk — it's restored on the next run When data changes, UI updates automatically. Action Flow Action Flow lets you define how your app behaves. - Navigate between screens - Manipulate data and call APIs - Branch on conditions — if this, then that - Loop over arrays with For Each, and stop early with Guard - Control video, Lottie, and web views - Alerts, input prompts, sharing, sounds, haptics Connect Action Flows to events (button tap, screen load, etc.) — plus menus and enum-bound controls that write straight to your data. API Integration Connect your app to the real world. - Configure HTTP endpoints (GET, POST, and more) - Import OpenAPI / Swagger specs from a file or URL - Authentication, retries, and per-status responses - Bind responses straight to your UI Your prototype talks to real data. Cross-Platform Design across all your Apple devices. - iPhone - iPad Work seamlessly wherever you are. Free & Pro Start free: open any template and edit it, and keep one project — with everything inside: every design feature and theme, data, Action Flows, APIs, services, and the live preview. Pro (subscription) adds unlimited projects in Files and iCloud, and export: screen images and PDF, preview videos, design tokens, and project files. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://is.gd/hYxRSE We always welcome feedback. support@layerz.app

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

Layerz App Designer4 screens
Ed4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Layerz App Designer at Free against Ed's $14.99. Ed's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and iOS requirement (14.2 vs 18.1). On review sentiment, update cadence, ads and device support 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

Layerz App Designer is free to download; Ed costs $14.99 up front. Layerz App Designer sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Ed asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

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

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Layerz App Designer versus Ed: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLayerz App DesignerEd
PriceFree — better$14.99
Rating—4.7 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—3 — better
Update frequencyFortnightlyFortnightly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS18.114.2 — better
Further details — not scored
Size71 MB164 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLayerz Corp.Chilling Moose

Customer experience

Layerz App Designer

Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Ed

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Layerz App Designer

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly$9.991 Month
  • Annual7 Days trial$69.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime$99.99
None

Ed

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Layerz App Designer free?
Layerz App Designer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Ed free?
Ed costs $14.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Layerz App Designer or Ed have ads?
Neither Layerz App Designer nor Ed shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Layerz App Designer or Ed?
Layerz App Designer ships an update fortnightly, and Ed fortnightly. Most recently, Layerz App Designer was updated on November 2, 2026 and Ed on November 6, 2026.

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