# Adobe Photoshop API vs Layerre (slim)

> Layerre scores 57.6 (C) to Adobe Photoshop's 44 (E) for design templates. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-photoshop-api-vs-layerre.md (~4,550 tokens) · this version ~2,630 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-photoshop-api-vs-layerre.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-photoshop-api-vs-layerre
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
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Layerre scores 57.6 (C) on agent readiness against Adobe Photoshop API's 44 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Adobe Photoshop API leads on reliability and security & auth. Both do design templates.

- Adobe Photoshop API: E 44, rank #1218 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/adobe-photoshop-api.min.md
- Layerre: C 57.6, rank #785 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/layerre.min.md
- Adobe Photoshop API, good for Enterprise creative operations already on Adobe that automate PSD templating, actions and retouching at volume. Ahead on Reliability, 55 against 42; Security & auth, 62 against 48.
- Layerre, good for Bulk image and PDF variants from Canva designs a team already has. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 87 against 70; Agent ergonomics, 69 against 36; Payments & pricing, 25 against 0; Maintenance & community, 78 against 42. Also Runs on your own machine; No incidents deducted, where Adobe Photoshop API loses 4 points for them.

| Category | Adobe Photoshop API | Layerre |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 55 | 42 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 70 | 87 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 36 | 69 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 62 | 48 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 0 | 25 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 42 | 78 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 60 | 63 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Adobe Photoshop API | Layerre |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Adobe | Layerre |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://photoshop-api.adobe.io` | `https://api.layerre.com/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| Licence | none | MIT for the MCP server. The Layerre API is a closed service under terms last updated 13 August 2026 |
| Tools exposed | none | 13 |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `com.layerre/layerre` |
| Last release | 2026-09-08 | 2026-10-29 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-10-24 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 498 npm/wk | 119 npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 1.5/5 (2) | none |

Why the edge:
- Maintenance & community, Layerre +36: Adobe Photoshop API 42 (Adobe publishes no dated release notes, so we used the public spec. New v2 capabilities (layer effects, nested group export) were merged on 2026-09-08 and remove background was restored to the spec on 2026-09-21 (30). No releases or dated changelog entries in the last 90 days, only docs commits (5). Support goes through an Adobe customer success manager. The docs repo is active but has no public changelog (5). The official JavaScript SDK was last tagged on 2025-06-24 and targets v1 only (0). The SDK repo has CI workflows but no commits since June 2025 (2).); Layerre 78 (@layerre/mcp-server 0.1.0 published to npm on 29 October 2026, 8 days before this check (30). MCP server commits from 19 to 24 October, the registry entry of 29 October, and What's New entries dated 21 August and 18 October in the sitemap (20). The repository is a week old with no issues to judge; support by email and in-app chat (5 of 25). com.layerre/layerre is in the official MCP registry under a domain-verified namespace (15). CI runs the vitest suite on push and pull requests to main on Node 22 (8 of 10). 30 + 20 + 5 + 15 + 8 = 78.)
- Agent ergonomics, Layerre +33: Adobe Photoshop API 36 (Every call returns a job and outputs go to your own storage, so responses stay small, but a full document manifest can be large (12). Little to page or filter beyond manifest options (8). Error codes defined, with Adobe's own caveat about unhelpful messages (8). No idempotency key. Retry guidance limits retries to 5xx and the status GET is safe to poll (8). The only official SDK, @adobe/photoshop-apis 2.0.1, calls only v1 /pie/psdService paths, which reached end of life on 2026-07-31, and every call needs a token exchange, two headers and pre-signed URLs (0).); Layerre 69 (13 MCP tools (15 for 11 to 30), with no toolsets or read-only subset (15). Template and variant lists take `skip` and `limit`, and templates filter by `tag` and `q` and can leave out layers (16 of 20). 422 validation bodies and a JSON 429 with `retry_after` (17 of 20). Every tool is annotated, read tools with readOnlyHint and idempotentHint, updates idempotent, no tool destructive, and the server has no delete tool. The REST API has no idempotency keys for variant creation (16 of 20). Few required fields, but no official SDK; a Postman collection and the MCP package only (5 of 15). 15 + 16 + 17 + 16 + 5 = 69.)
- Payments & pricing, Layerre +25: Adobe Photoshop API 0 (No x402, MPP or L402 in the docs or the OpenAPI spec (0). No public price, enterprise contract through Adobe sales per the 30 September check (0). No free tier (0). A person has to negotiate a contract before any credentials exist (0).); Layerre 25 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices are public with render counts, and one import or one variant is one render, so the price a render follows from the plan (about $0.03 on Starter, $0.005 on Pro) without being published per unit (15 of 20). Free plan of 50 renders a month with API access; the pricing page doesn't say whether a card is needed (10 of 20, half as with an unstated card rule). A person signs up and creates the key, or approves OAuth in a browser (0). 0 + 15 + 10 + 0 = 25.)
- Schema & documentation, Layerre +17: Adobe Photoshop API 70 (OpenAPI 3.0.1 spec for v2 in the public AdobeDocs/ffs-photoshop-API repo, 8 operations (25). No llms.txt found, but the docs include a Markdown 'LLM migration reference guide' written for AI assistants (5). Five of the eight operations have a summary and no description in the spec, though the guides are long and specific (12). 94 enums, required fields and 32 examples in the spec (13). Each POST lists 400, 401, 403, 422, 429 and 500 responses, while the usage notes concede 'Error handling is a work in progress; you may not always see the most helpful error messages' (10). Versioned /v2 paths, but the release notes page is a heading with no entries (5).); Layerre 87 (Public OpenAPI 3.1 at layerre.com/openapi.json with 16 operations, and zod schemas on all 13 MCP tools in the open-source server (25). llms.txt, auth.md and Markdown mirrors of the pricing, FAQ and integration pages (10). Every operation has a description, and tool descriptions note costs such as 'an expensive operation that may take 10-30 seconds', without saying when not to use a tool (15 of 20). Layer properties have minimums, maximums and enums such as `text_align`, and list calls cap `limit` at 1,000 (14 of 15). 88 examples in the spec, and 404, 422 and 429 responses documented on most operations (13 of 15). Versioned /v1 paths and dated What's New pages, read from the sitemap since the pages are drawn by script; the API itself is version 0.1.0 (10 of 15). 25 + 10 + 15 + 14 + 13 + 10 = 87.)
- Security & auth, Adobe Photoshop API +14: Adobe Photoshop API 62 (OAuth server-to-server credentials from the Developer Console, exchanged for 24-hour tokens. The scopes (openid, AdobeID, read_organizations) aren't per operation (25). Access follows the organisation's product profile, and inputs and outputs are pre-signed URLs to specific objects in your own storage, but there's no read-only mode (10). Returns renders and manifests of your own files (10). No per-call audit log found (0). security.txt is PGP-signed and valid until 2027-07-30, with a PSIRT address and an Intigriti bug bounty. We didn't check certifications for Firefly Services in this run (17).); Layerre 48 (OAuth 2.1 with PKCE for MCP through a Supabase authorisation server, and revocable `lyr_` API keys with rotation in the dashboard. No scopes documented for either, and auth.md says the REST API has no OAuth yet (22 of 30). The MCP server cannot delete templates, change billing or manage API keys, but there is no read-only key or endpoint (12 of 20). Tools return the user's own templates and renders; template import fetches a Canva link the user gives (10 of 15). The open-source server emits audit log lines for each tool call for whoever runs it, and nothing per call is documented for the hosted service (4 of 15). No security.txt (the path returns the site's HTML shell), disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification (0). 22 + 12 + 10 + 4 + 0 = 48.)
- Reliability, Adobe Photoshop API +13: Adobe Photoshop API 55 (status.adobe.com exists but renders only with JavaScript, so we couldn't confirm a Firefly Services or Photoshop component (10) or read its history (5). Per-organisation limits documented, POST 300 a minute soft and 320 hard, GET 300 every 3 seconds, remove background 2 POSTs every 3 seconds, masking 60 a minute and 9,000 a day (15). The usage notes say to read retry-after on 429, retry only 5xx, back off exponentially over three attempts, and that the service itself retries 429, 502, 503 and 504 three times (15). No SLA. A benchmarking page says its figures are 'not a performance SLA' (0). v2 is GA (10).); Layerre 42 (Hosted lines, for the REST API and the hosted MCP server. No status page found on the site, in llms.txt or in the docs (0). No readable incident history (5). Rate limits published as 10 requests a second, a 20-request burst and 600 a minute per IP address (15). A 429 carries Retry-After and a `retry_after` field, and the docs give retry code samples. No idempotency key or safe-retry note for variant creation, which spends renders (12 of 15). No SLA found (0). Neither surface is labelled beta, though both are at version 0.1.0 (10). 0 + 5 + 15 + 12 + 0 + 10 = 42.)