Hello everyone!
I’m new in the AR world and I’m sure this is a really stupid question but what’s the difference between ZapWorks and 8th Wall??
Thank you!!
Roberto
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I don’t use 8th Wall but from just looking at it they look kinda the same. Zappar has web tools like Widgets and Designer that are very easy to use. They then have Zapworks Studio that I have been using for over 3 years now and love!
There is the Zappar app and new the WebAR. From what I can see it looks like 8th Wall only has the WebAR.
Next the price. WOW! I think I would stay with Zappar just because of it. You get so much more here.
Steve
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Thank you very much for your answer Steve!
The price is definitely a big issue, it clearly doesn’t fit my use case (one dev playing and doing cool personal projects), it seems you’re going to see me around here more often!!
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Hi Robby, more over, Zappar web AR has the face tracking while 8th wall doesn’t have it.
8th wall has already the world tracking, but for Zappar web AR is just a matter of time to have also this feature. Cheers!
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Hi @robby2023
@stevesanerd and @zappar1 have done a great job at outlining some of the benefits of ZapWorks.
With ZapWorks you have full hosting and serving of content and full content development environments (Studio, Designer).
Another thing to add is that we’re really proud of our documentation site and support team which help users get the most out of our tools.
So to recap, ZapWorks has:
- Transparent pricing and different tiers for different sized businesses
- Face tracking for WebAR
- Thorough documentation and a helpful support team
- Fully hosting and serving of content
- Full content development environments (Studio, Designer etc)
- World tracking for WebAR on the way
- Lots of other great stuff but we don’t want to come across as “blowing our own trumpet” too much
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I love the documentation and videos they have!!
Steve
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If I might also add that 8th Wall costs a fortune and is nowhere near as good as Zap Studio. Along with the documentation and tutorials, it’s a bit of a no brainer. Having said that, at the moment the vast majority of companies are asking for 8th Wall instead of Zappar…
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Hi @luisdegan10,
World tracking (ARKit/ARCore) doesn’t currently work when launching into the web, however, Instant World Tracking does.
Instant World Tracking allows content to be placed on a horizontal surface in the world (no specific markers or image targets required) and maintains the position of that content in the world as the user moves. It is the tracking type used in the experience below:
I’d recommend heading over to the thread below, where you can find out more information and how to download it:
George
Having used 8th Wall, I can also add that the performance of the app when using world tracking is poor. 8th Wall’s benefits are not needing a ARCore / ARKit device to run the apps, but a 3 year old Android device will get 8-15 FPS out of the box with the 8th Wall world tracking.
@George Instant Tracking only works through the beta website right now. There isn’t a way to switch the QR code to use the beta website, is there? Would make presentation of instant tracking (for its beta transition) more clean.
Hi @sascha,
That’s interesting to hear, I’ve not personally used 8th Wall so I can’t comment. What I can say is that we get a lot of compliments towards our world tracking (ARKit and ARCore) and our instant world tracking (bespoke tracking technology).
Our aim here at Zappar/ZapWorks is to democratise AR. As a company we’ve been around for a decade using much the same technology. This means that our AR tech works across a large variety of devices, old and new without taking too much of a performance hit.
Regarding instant tracking and the Beta site - we’re still working hard to improve this tracking type and therefore it’s still in a Beta state. We do have client projects that are live using this tracking type and they work flawlessly but are launched into a custom site. If you would like more information about this, please get in contact with us at support@zappar.com.
You can also manually create a dynamic QR code that links to the specific URL and the project ID, something like - https://beta.zappar.app/?zid=z/… (replace … with the project deep-link ID found on my.zap.works).
We can’t guarantee the stability of the instant tracking API while it’s in beta which is why we suggest having a custom WebAR site when using instant world tracking for a live project. If you have a custom WebAR site we’ll guarantee not to change that site without coordination with you, whereas beta.zappar.app gets updates earlier so it’s not as ‘roadtested’.
Let me know if you have any further questions about this.
George
Hi George,
thanks for the extra info. I will look into your suggestions and get into contact with support. I’m personally a big fan of the instant tracking solution, but have problems convincing my peers who want it to behave like actual world tracking, but in Web
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Hey, I developed my projects in several frameworks, the last is 8th wall.
I am considering moving to zapworks only because the price is 3rd than 8th wall.
I don’t understand why their price list for commercial uses is missing a price for small business that is just trying to see if AR technology serves our marketing goals.
I like to work in 8th wall, one feature that I didn’t find in other frameworks is the ability to place a transparent 3d object with full opaque, this feature is important for me because I want to reveal 3d objects that come out from a real coffee mug.
I wonder, does zapworks has this ability?
Thanks
Another question about zapworks, does it have the ability to have a single QR code for multiple image trackers, when every image tracker starts a different function/scene?
Hi @yaniv,
Yes, you’ll be happy to know that you are indeed able to include transparent 3D objects that occlude in ZapWorks Studio and also the Universal AR SDK with your development language of choice! 
You can also have a single QR code for multiple image targets; however, if you’d like to do this we’d recommend the Universal AR SDK rather than ZapWorks Studio (it’s not officially supported in Studio). This is because you can have more control over your anchors - we actually have an example of two targets on our documentation site here which you may find helpful.
Please remember that the more targets you have, the less performant your experience will be. Therefore, if you have quite a lot of targets you’d like to use, we’d recommend deep linking through experiences.
Hopefully that’s helpful!
All the best,
Francesca 