GridCraft vs Tiled

GridCraft is a tile map editor for game developers, available in a browser and as a desktop app. It lets users paint tiles of different sizes from one atlas onto a map. Editing tools include brush, terrain, flood fill, shape, selection, stamp and object tools. GridCraft opens and saves Tiled.tmx and.tmj maps, with export targets including Godot 4, GameMaker, Defold, LDtk, LOVE2D, Lua and CSV. Live collaboration displays teammates’ cursors, selections and edits, synchronized through CRDT. The desktop app supports GitHub and GitLab for map-file commits, pushes and pulls. It can expose an open map to MCP clients for AI-agent access, but the server is off by default, binds to the local machine and does not yet edit infinite chunked maps. The free web editor includes all 19 tools and export formats without an account. Free accounts include three cloud maps, 25 MB total storage, one bound desktop device and collaboration for up to three people per map. Paid options include Cloud at $3.99 a month, Team at $13.99 a month and the desktop app at $19.99, paid once.

Tiled is a free 2D level editor for game content, especially tile maps, with support for free image placement and annotations. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. Map layers support rectangular, isometric, staggered isometric, staggered hexagonal and oblique projections. Tile-layer tools include a stamp brush, line and circle drawing, selection, automatic terrain transitions and pattern matching. Object layers can hold rectangles, points, ellipses, polygons, polylines and tile objects that can be scaled or rotated. The editor also includes tile animation and collision editing. Its TMX map format supports multiple tilesets per map, and the documentation lists libraries and game frameworks that can read or render TMX and JSON maps. Plugins can add map or tileset formats, and JavaScript can extend the editor. The maker describes Tiled as free software that users may use, modify and redistribute under the same terms. Listed 64-bit downloads require Windows 10, macOS 13 or Ubuntu 22.04 or an equivalent distribution. The manual says much of it still needs to be written.