Codea

Name: Codea
Rating: 4.5 (125 reviews)
Author: Two Lives Left

By: Two Lives Left

Creative coding

Features & Capabilities

Codea is the Garage-Band-for-coding on iPad, a touch-first Lua editor that makes it effortless to turn ideas into interactive visuals. It ships with a full 2D/3D renderer, live shader support, physics engines, accelerometer input, and a library of example projects to learn from.

Tap and tweak colors, images, and sounds directly in the editor, export finished projects to Xcode for real apps, and access inline reference docs for quick coding. It’s designed to be approachable yet powerful for creative coding, education, and game development.

User Growth & Download Statistics

App Programming Education Games Developer Tools Design

By:

Two Lives Left

Rating:

4.50

(125)

Version:

3.17 Last updated: 2026-05-05

Version code:

885280787

Creation date:

2011-10-26

Compatible devices:

Size:

217.24MB

URLs:

Website ,Privacy policy

Full description:

Source:

Apple Apps Store

Data ingested on:

2026-06-05

Compare stats and ranking:

Ranking

# 138,782 ▼ 51

Other rankings

#20 in coding keyword 7 ▲ 1

For Developers

Monetize with App Pass Boost with Extension Booster

Contact the developer

Chrome-Stats does not own this Apple app. Please use these information below to contact the Apple app developer.

Developed by:

Two Lives Left

Apple Apps Store

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/codea/id439571171

Website:

https://codea.io

User Reviews

Reviewers praise Codea as a unique, well-supported Lua IDE that runs on iPad with a near-end-to-end development workflow via Xcode export and App Store publishing, plus offline docs and examples. The app shines in editor quality, learning value, and community support. Recurring drawbacks include crashes and stability issues, a relatively steep upfront price, editing/Pencil UX changes that hinder selection and copy-paste, and a Lua-centric language focus that may limit alternatives.

Pros

End-to-end Lua development on iPad with Xcode export and App Store publishing capabilities.
Offline reference guide and rich set of example projects with solid documentation.
Active, supportive community and ongoing maintenance by the developers.
Powerful, capable editor/IDE with the ability to iterate and port to Mac/Xcode for full workflow.

Cons

Stability issues: multiple reports of crashes, including editor crashes and random crashes on updates.
High upfront price / perceived cost for the feature set.
Editor/Apple Pencil UX: loss of selection/copy-paste features and new writing-focused editing behavior.
Limited language support: Lua-centric; confusion about using Python or other languages.
Some iPhone polish/UI quirks noted by users.

Recent reviews

Good, just don't want to pay for more than 500 lines of code. I am making a Roblox like game and I need rounded corners, modified squares take up LOTS of code and might need to use thousands of lines of code. Still, Amazing if you are looking to build your own games for friends, family, or yourself! Also add a built in rounded corner please!

by Ra*****, 2026-03-18

I’ve owned Codea since at least 2017 and have made a lot of personal projects on it. Back then I spent hours searching for game development done completely on the iPad all by itself. Codea was just the strongest option back then. I’ve enjoyed scripting in lua these past 9 years. The games you can make are not as free as if it was not on an iPad but it’s still free enough for it to matter and make games. One day, the music() player stopped working and nobody what iPad I’m on I’m not able to actually play music from inside the app.

by IN*****, 2026-01-17

My initial review was deleted even though it clearly expressed my opinion of this product without unsupported hostility or unrelated tangents. When this application’s publisher restores my valid and warranted review, I will submit an update reflecting my thoughts after having used it,