8th Wall vs Elysium

8th Wall provides tools for building 3D experiences and WebAR for web browsers or self-hosted projects. Its XR Engine includes World Effects, Absolute Scale, Image Targets, Face Effects, and Sky Effects, and is designed to work with A-Frame, Three.js, Babylon.js, and PlayCanvas. 8th Wall Desktop is an XR game engine with a visual editor; downloads are available for Apple Silicon Mac, Intel Mac, and Windows x64. Projects can be deployed and hosted wherever a developer needs. The Free plan costs nothing, with no login required. The engine binary is closed source, cannot be modified or reverse engineered, and is subject to a limited-use license; other listed tools and example projects use MIT licenses. The distributed binary omits Niantic Spatial VPS, Lightship Maps, and Hand Tracking. Native export is coming soon, and export through the retired hosted platform is no longer available. Projects exported before February 28, 2026 can be moved to local or self-hosted use. Hosted projects are scheduled to remain live through February 28, 2027, when hosting is due to be decommissioned.

Elysium is a no-code studio and player application for creating interactive augmented reality experiences tied to real places. Creators can build geo-located worlds for exploration, discovery and storytelling, placing images, audio, video and 3D assets using a mobile device. Physical markers, including 2D images, can anchor scenes, and creators can preview interactions in real time before publishing. Players can interact with 3D objects, while directional spatial audio changes with proximity. Leveling and points can make player activity affect experiences over time. A feature linking digital assets to physical electronic devices and triggering hardware responses is in development. The free Personal plan includes one private world, unlimited private scenes, three public scenes and 10 GB of asset storage. Although Elysium is listed for iOS and web, the maker says it is currently available only on iOS devices. Using the app requires an account through a supported external sign-in service such as Google or Apple.