TrainDesign vs Årshjul
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
TrainDesign
Design and plan your model railroad tracks with ease. This app allows you to create custom layouts, modify track segments, and adjust curves to your specifications. Unleash your creativity and build intricate routes with intuitive touch controls.
- Plan model railroad tracks
- Create custom track lines
- Modify track segments (orient, stretch, shrink)
- Adjust curve width, angle, and radius
- Determine track altitude
- Intuitive touch controls
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TrainDesign is born with the purpose to plan your model railroad track. In a few minutes you can create lines of any kind. Using a set of tracks you can choose the type of binary-to-use, orient, stretch or shrink it. The curves can be modified to width angle and radius of curvature. TrainDesign stands out for its ease of use and the versatility, giving space for creativity. You will learn that it is very easy to edit lines, determine the altitude, change every single piece in an intuitive and simple manner. With only the use of your fingers, you can create small or large tracks, focus on building a single part using the touch or see the route as a whole.
Årshjul
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Plan a whole year, then explain it in ten seconds. Årshjul lays the twelve months out as a wheel, so the shape of the year is visible before anyone has read a word: the quarter that is overloaded, the empty stretch in July, the two campaigns landing in the same week. Built for consultants, project managers, marketing and communications leads, school and nonprofit teams, and anyone who has to walk a room through next year on an iPad and then look it up on an iPhone afterward. WHAT YOU CAN DO • Create tracks for projects, teams, or areas of responsibility, and place activities across the year • Switch between the wheel and a chronological list: the same plan, read two ways • Present straight from the iPad in the meeting, with no sign-in and no browser tab • Hand the plan over as a PDF or PNG for the board packet, the staff handbook, or the wall IMPORT AND EXPORT • Open versioned Årshjul files and JSON • Import and export CSV and iCalendar • Export to PDF and PNG • Warnings appear before an import changes your plan. Nothing is altered silently. FOURTEEN DAYS OF FULL ACCESS Everything is open from the first launch. No account, and no payment request before you have tried it. After fourteen days, creating and editing require a subscription. Reading and exporting your own wheels keeps working either way, so you never lose access to work you have already done. One subscription covers iPhone, iPad, and Mac. INSTEAD OF A BROWSER TOOL OR A TEMPLATE A browser-based year wheel wants an organization account and a login — in the meeting, from every colleague, every time. A PowerPoint or Miro template looks right once and then has to be redrawn by hand every time a date moves. Årshjul is a real app on all three Apple platforms: it opens immediately, needs no account, keeps the plan on your own device, and lets the same plan leave as CSV or iCalendar when someone else needs the dates. LOCAL FIRST No account. No tracking. Your plans stay on your device unless you choose to share them or save an export yourself. ACCESSIBILITY Dynamic Type, VoiceOver, and WCAG 2.2 AA. The plan can be read and understood without relying on color. LANGUAGES English, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, German, French, Spanish, Japanese, and Dutch. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://annualwheel.pages.dev/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Årshjul at Free against TrainDesign's $1.99. Årshjul also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 4 months) and device support (3 vs 1). TrainDesign's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2). On ads 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
Årshjul is free to download; TrainDesign costs $1.99 up front. Årshjul sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. TrainDesign asks for nothing beyond the download.
TrainDesign ships an update every 4 months, Årshjul fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 4, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | TrainDesign | Årshjul |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 2.4 (14 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 33.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 14 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 18.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 16 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Kind of Blue | Jesper Sachmann |
Bugs and requests
TrainDesign
Reported bugs
18 issues- App locks up after selecting first track
- Saving changes to existing layouts results in original disappearing
- Cannot move selected track
- Rotate icon greys out after one rotation
- App crashes on load
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- Editor does not work, cannot rotate pieces
- Cannot place track where desired
- Small graphics on black background make components hard to see
- Zooming is sketchy, losing track
- Cannot switch red dot to continue with different track
- Pinch gesture sends track work out of view, becomes unselectable
- Turntable not available as shown in demo
- App keeps freezing
- Switches are not calibrated correctly
- Layout limited to about 5’ X 5’ for movement
- Zooming in/out is problematic outside the 5x5 zone
- Flex track shaping is difficult
- Simple oval has misaligned track pieces
Requested features
11 requests- Add more track libraries (e.g., Rokuhan Z, Hornby, Lionel Fastrack, Realtrax, Fleishmann profi ho)
- Improve track connection and alignment
- Fix rotation and movement issues for track pieces
- Add a 'save as' function for layouts
- Include inch/feet measurement options
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- Add a tutorial or help screens
- Allow using track from multiple manufacturers in one plan
- Add models of coaches to visualize train appearance on curves
- Improve zooming and panning functionality
- Add print function for plans and parts lists
- Support for Mac
Årshjul
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
TrainDesign
No in-app purchases
Årshjul
- Annual Wheel Pro - Monthly$4.991 Month
- Annual Wheel Pro – Annual14 Days trial$34.991 Year









