Comparison

Layer vs Lineova

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

Head to head
About

Layer

Features
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Layer Art- is a studio for layered paper art. Choose a colour, place a shape, and watch a shadow fall exactly where it should. Every piece you place is remembered. When you're finished, play the whole build back as a stop-motion film β€” pieces springing into place, sliding into position, the artwork assembling from a blank page. It isn't a screen recording. Nothing is captured while you work, so there's no quality loss and no wasted space. The film is drawn fresh from your artwork, which means it's razor sharp at any size and you choose the pace afterwards. Save it, share it, or just watch it. Pick a piece up again next week and the film keeps growing with it. REAL DEPTH, NOT A DROP SHADOW Layer Art works because of light. Every shape you place sits at its own height above the page β€” measured in millimetres, like foam tape behind real card. β€’ One light source for the whole piece, so nothing ever looks pasted on β€’ A soft depth shadow and a tight contact shadow, the way paper actually behaves β€’ Move the sun and every shadow in the artwork turns to follow it β€’ Three depth styles: Soft, Crisp and Flat β€’ Fine control over shadow size, distance and opacity when you want it HUNDREDS OF SHAPES Nearly 400 pieces to cut from, all vector, all recolourable, all sharp at any size. Ferns, leaves, split leaves, grass, tendrils, branches β€’ Trunks, sticks, logs, driftwood β€’ Flowers, clover, mushrooms β€’ Mountains, hills, pebbles β€’ Clouds, suns, moons β€’ Waves, fish, whales β€’ Birds, butterflies, cats, owls, bunnies β€’ Arches, frames, rings β€’ Stars, blobs, hearts, sparkles WORDS, CARDS AND MESSAGES The full alphabet and numbers, cut from paper in two styles. Not typed text β€” real letterforms you colour, rotate, layer and lift like any other piece. Which makes something rather good possible: build a card, spell a message, and the timelapse becomes the reveal. The words appear one letter at a time. BUILD FROM A PHOTO Bring in a photo two ways. Trace mode sits it faintly underneath as a guide and never appears in the export. Frame mode makes it part of the artwork, so you can build a paper frame around a photo you love. A GALLERY WORTH SCROLLING Your work lives on a wall, not in a list. Cards keep each piece's real proportions and carry the same paper shadow the artwork does. Tap one and it grows into full screen, where the background takes on that artwork's own colour. THE WALL, USER SHOWCASE Users can submit there artwork for display on the wall, All artwork submitted is moderated for approval before going on the wall, all images uploaded, are kept 100% private and never shared anywhere besides inside the App. Users can report images, all reports are moderated as well, and reviewed. Then action taken. Users can also add there social media link, if maybe they are doing creative tutorials, any form of art channels. Users may wish have a look. Artwork in the Showcase, can be tapped and then watched how that user put it all together. Showcase is designed for showing of created artwork and also a great way for other users to see how it was made. PRIVACY All artwork images , created in the App stay on your device, only exception is if you choose to have your work displayed in the show case then that is submitted to a secure database as a file not an image, all images are sent by file and encrypted. For privacy. MADE FOR MAKING β€’ Curated tonal palettes, because five greens beat five hundred β€’ Merge pieces into one and move them together β€’ Layers you can drag, lock, reorder and unlock β€’ Snapping to centre lines and angles, switchable β€’ Full undo and redo β€’ Autosaves constantly β€” nothing is ever lost β€’ Send an artwork to a friend as a file they can open and keep building β€’ Export a picture or a film straight to your photos

About

Lineova

Features
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Lineova is a professional drawing and painting studio for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Sketch with natural brushes, ink crisp line art with a true vector pen, paint textures directly onto 3D models and bring your characters to life with frame-by-frame animation β€” all in one app that feels at home on every screen. BRUSH STUDIO β€” 40+ HAND-TUNED BRUSHES β€’ Sketching: Sketch Pencil, HB Technical, Charcoal, Pastel, Chalk β€’ Inking: Ink, Dry Ink, Technical Pen, Ballpoint, Chisel Tip, Contour β€’ Drawing: Felt Pen, Highlighter, Tile Brush, Comb β€’ Painting: Watercolor, Oil Paint, Acrylic, Gouache, Flat Brush, Dry Brush, Palette Knife, Soft Blender β€’ Airbrushing: Soft Airbrush, Hard Airbrush, Spray Can, Splatter β€’ Texture & abstract: Rough Canvas, Concrete, Noise, Sparkle, Rainbow β€’ Retouching: Smudge, Soften, soft and hard erasers β€’ Build your own: pressure, tilt, speed, scatter, grain, jitter and wet color mixing; organize favorites in My Brushes DRAW & PAINT β€’ Stroke stabilization and quick shape snapping β€’ Fill, gradient, liquify, smudge and precise selection tools β€’ Color wheel, harmonies and palettes generated from any photo VECTOR PEN β€’ Editable nodes and handles for clean, scalable line art β€’ Ready-made shapes: rectangle, ellipse, triangle, star, arrow β€’ Boolean operations: unite, subtract, intersect, exclude β€’ Dashed and dotted strokes, round or flat caps β€’ Export editable SVG 3D TEXTURE PAINTING β€’ Open OBJ and USDZ models, or start from a sphere, cube, cylinder, cone, torus or capsule β€’ Paint color, roughness, metallic and height channels β€’ Project any image onto the model, paint on the surface or on the UV map β€’ Export USDZ or GLB (glTF) with embedded textures LAYERS & COLOR β€’ Layers, groups, masks, clipping and 25+ blend modes β€’ 16-bit color in linear light with Display P3 β€’ Print gamut warning and color profile proofing COMICS, MANGA & ANIMATION β€’ Comic and manga page templates with panel layouts β€’ Frame-by-frame animation with onion skin β€’ Export animated PNG and a time-lapse of your process BUILT FOR EVERY SCREEN β€’ iPad: Apple Pencil pressure, tilt and hover, docking panels β€’ Mac: full menu bar, keyboard shortcuts, ⌘K command search, right-click menus β€’ iPhone: a one-handed tool dock within thumb reach β€’ Documents sync across your devices with iCloud Drive EXPORT & COMPATIBILITY β€’ PNG, JPEG, HEIC, TIFF, WebP, PDF, APNG and SVG β€’ Layered PSD and OpenRaster β€” open your work in other pro tools β€’ Import PSD files with their layers Whether you draw anime characters, comics, concept art, fantasy illustrations or print-ready posters, Lineova gives you a studio that grows with your ideas. LINEOVA PREMIUM β€” START WITH A 3-DAY FREE TRIAL Every feature in Lineova β€” all pro brushes, unlimited layers, the vector pen, 3D painting, animation, effects, filters, AI upscaling and PSD/SVG/PDF/TIFF export β€” is included with Lineova Premium. Choose a monthly or yearly auto-renewable subscription, each starting with a 3-day free trial, or a one-time lifetime purchase. Payment is charged to your Apple Account when the trial ends. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period; manage or cancel them in your App Store account settings. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://maliksari.github.io/lineova-privacy/privacy.html

Screenshots

Layer4 screens
Lineova4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Lineova at Free against Layer's $1.99. Layer's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2). On update cadence, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

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

CostPrice Β· In-app purchases Β· Ads Β· Monetization

Lineova is free to download; Layer costs $1.99 up front. Lineova sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $60.00 per year. Layer asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Layer ships an update every 3 weeks, Lineova every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and October 26, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences Β· 4 level
Layer versus Lineova: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLayerLineova
Price$1.99Free β€” better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 2 weeks β€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo β€” betterYes
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac β€” better
Requires iOS18.617.0 β€” better
Further details β€” not scored
Size13 MB15 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developeradam roganMalΔ±k SARI

In-app purchases

None

Layer

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Lineova

Subscriptions1
  • Yearly Premium3 Days trial$60.001 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime Premium$49.99

Questions

Is Layer free?
Layer costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Lineova free?
Lineova is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Layer or Lineova have ads?
Neither Layer nor Lineova shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Layer or Lineova?
Layer ships an update every 3 weeks, and Lineova every 2 weeks. Most recently, Layer was updated on October 31, 2026 and Lineova on October 26, 2026.

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