Circular Tiny Planet Editor vs Formulas
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Circular Tiny Planet Editor
Transform your photos into unique circular images with advanced editing tools. Add professional effects like lens flares, celestial bodies, and customizable center objects to create miniature worlds. Supports 360-degree photos for immersive edits.
- Circular image creation
- 360-degree photo support
- Adjustable zoom, rotation, and invert-mode
- Professional effects (lens flares, sky objects, centers)
- Filters and lens textures
- Center object placement
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Now supports 360 degree photos! - A new twist on photo editing. Turn your photos into amazing circular images with Circular+. Circular+ is a fun app with powerful new features never seen before in this type of app. You can easily zoom in and out of your circular image to get it just right. Once you're happy with your image, add professional effects such as lens flares and sky objects like the sun, moon, planets, and birds. REVIEWS "My favorite iPhone app for this purpose is Circular+" - Joanna Stern, Wall Street Journal "I've tried them all and Circular is by far the best "tiny planet" app. You get more controls and fun effects like lens flares and moons. Having a blast with this app!" - Customer Review "I tried different Tiny planet apps, but this is really the best. Love that I can put different things inside the picture ... Thanks for the great work." - Customer Review This app does so much more than just turn your image into a tiny planet. It has all kinds of effects you can add and you have a lot of control over how it twists your image. - Customer Review VIDEO: http://vimeo.com/brainfevermedia/circular Another really cool feature is a collection of "center" objects. These include spheres, planets, and geometric shapes to place at the center of your image circle. This turns your image into a mini world. FEATURES - Super fast and responsive editing - Adjust image zoom, rotation, invert-mode, and repeats - Professional effects: lens flares, sky objects, and centers. The lens flares are the same as the pro desktop app, LensFlare Studio - Filters and Lens Textures - Fun sample images to get your started Tag your photos with #CircularApp for a chance to be featured!
Formulas
Apply unique, multilayered photo effects and custom frames to your images. Features include vintage emulations, artistic styles, and textured finishes. An intuitive interface and one-tap auto adjust make professional editing easy.
- Custom multilayered photo effects
- Vintage film emulations
- Textured and artistic styles
- Dozens of custom frames
- One-tap auto adjust tool
- Intuitive UI
- Photo editing extension
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*** App Store Best of 2015 *** MIAN FEATURES: Dozens of custom, multilayered photo effects unlike anything available on the App Store, ranging from basic color and tonal to authentic vintage film emulations, textured finishes, and painterly and artistic styles. Built with scientific precision by some of the most talented artists in the mobile photography community, these effects truly deserve the “Formula” accolade. Each is meticulously constructed from components that are expertly-crafted by renowned photographer Dirk Wuestenhagen and that themselves are fully-fledged effects in the traditional sense including textures, filters, gradients, adjustments, and much more. Each formula goes through a vigorous testing process to ensure compatibility with a wide range of scenes, subjects, and editing styles from landscapes and cityscapes to street photography and portraits. Dozens of custom frames expertly-crafted by renowned photographer Dirk Wuestenhagen, which include high quality scans of vintage paper, worn fabric, weathered stone, and a multitude of other materials and substrates that are then refined, blended, and fine-tuned to perfection in an arduous post-processing regimen aimed at exposing naturally occurring character lines, blemishes, and impurities. Moreover, a great deal of attention is given to specific color tones within an overall limited spectrum of earthy hues that are deemed to work best with images. One-tap Auto Adjust tool that automatically analyzes color and tonal levels in an image and makes adjustments accordingly, thereby producing professional results with no effort whatsoever. Beautifully designed and streamlined UI that is intuitive and easy to navigate. A lot of thought and effort went into making the UI appealing to and accessible by users of all skill levels. PHOTO EDITING EXTENSION: Edit your photos right from within your photo library with a fully-fledged photo editing extension that not only provides access to the full functionality of the main app, but also preserves your sessions, allowing you to pick up right where you left off the next time you edit the image. STACKABLES: Think you’ve got what it takes to create your own formulas? Download Stackables from the App Store and start experimenting today. TECHNICAL INFO: High resolution support up to 16MP (4,000 x 4,000 px) on newer devices (iPhone 5 and later, iPad 3 and later). Support for JPEG, lossless PNG, and lossless TIFF formats. URL Scheme "formulas://". SUPPORT: Experiencing issues? Have comments or suggestions for future updates? Please contact us at support@formulasapp.co.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Circular Tiny Planet Editor at 4.7 against Formulas's 4.2. Circular Tiny Planet Editor also leads on chart position (#99 vs unranked) and ratings volume (650 vs 114). Formulas's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 3 months) and price ($2.99 vs $4.99). On review sentiment, ads, in-app purchases 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
Circular Tiny Planet Editor costs $4.99 and Formulas $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Circular Tiny Planet Editor holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Circular Tiny Planet Editor has 650 ratings behind it against 114, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 71% and 72% positive.
Circular Tiny Planet Editor ships an update every 3 months, Formulas every 3 weeks. Both last shipped on October 16, 2026.
| Parameter | Circular Tiny Planet Editor | Formulas |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | $2.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.7 (650 ratings) — better | 4.2 (114 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 71.4% of reviews | 72.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 650 — better | 114 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #99 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 | 8.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 106 MB | 262 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | James Grote | Tinkerworks Apps |
Customer experience
Circular Tiny Planet Editor
Formulas
Bugs and requests
Circular Tiny Planet Editor
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Formulas
Reported bugs
11 issues- App crashes on iPhone iOS 26
- Crashes when tapping camera icon
- Cannot save to camera roll
- Crashes frequently during use
- Non-functional icons marked as forbidden
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- App won't run on iPad Pro despite optimization claim
- Photos extension not working properly
- Broken external links (App Store, Instagram, websites)
- In-app purchase system not connecting to App Store
- Lost access to previously purchased add-ons after update
- Stackables app crashes repeatedly
Requested features
11 requests- Update app for current iOS versions
- Add landscape mode support
- Increase number of filter options
- Separate color and texture controls
- Adjust opacity independently for colors and textures
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- Add more texture options (peeling paint, fresco, plaster)
- Improve Photos extension functionality
- Restore Stackables app availability
- Add layering/stacking capabilities
- Include tutorial videos
- Add brightness and contrast adjustment controls
In-app purchases
Circular Tiny Planet Editor
No in-app purchases
Formulas
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Circular Tiny Planet Editor free?
Is Formulas free?
Which has better reviews, Circular Tiny Planet Editor or Formulas?
Do Circular Tiny Planet Editor or Formulas have ads?
Which is updated more often, Circular Tiny Planet Editor or Formulas?
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