Makerly vs PreQuilt
Short version: PreQuilt is a design-only web app for sketching blocks, testing fabric swatches on a layout, and generating coloring pages. Makerly is the full quilting workflow: design plus math, stash, help, and community, on the web and on native phone apps. Here is the honest breakdown.
Side by side
| Feature | Makerly | PreQuilt |
|---|---|---|
| Block & quilt layout design | ✓ Designer + block editor | ✓ |
| Audition real fabric swatch images | ✓ From your own stash photos | ✓ |
| Coloring pages from designs | — | ✓ |
| Seven calculators + cut list | ✓ Backing, batting, binding, borders, on-point, yardage, cut list | Design-linked estimates |
| E2E pantograph preview | ✓ | — |
| Fabric stash inventory | ✓ Photos, tags, yardage | Swatches for design use |
| Expert Helper Hub | ✓ | — |
| Community & local shop directory | ✓ | — |
| Native iPhone & Android apps | ✓ Plus full web app | — Browser only |
| Pricing model | 14-day free trial, then $9.99/mo | Free tier with paid plans |
PreQuilt details reflect its public feature list as of mid-2026. Check their site for current specifics.
What PreQuilt covers
- Design at the desktop: layout sketching, swatch auditioning, and coloring-page output, with a free tier.
- And that is the scope: it stops at design, so the math, shopping, and everything at the machine happen elsewhere.
Where Makerly wins
- The other 80% of quilting. Design is the fun part; backing, batting, binding, borders, on-point triangles, and a printable cut list are the parts that cost money when you get them wrong. Makerly runs all of them from one set of quilt numbers.
- It leaves the desk. Native iPhone and Android apps with camera tools: photograph stash at the store, pull a palette from anything, keep the cut list at the machine.
- Stash that is really yours. A true inventory with yardage, not just design swatches, so you know what you own.
- Help and people. The expert Helper Hub for mid-project trouble, plus community boards and a verified local shop directory.
Pick PreQuilt if: desktop design sketching is your only need and you handle the math and shopping elsewhere. Pick Makerly if: you want design and the whole rest of the quilt, math, stash, help, community, in one app that follows you to the machine and the store.
Common questions
Is Makerly or PreQuilt better for designing quilts?
PreQuilt focuses on design work at a desktop: sketching layouts, auditioning fabric swatch images, and producing coloring pages. For the full quilting workflow, design plus seven calculators, cut lists, fabric stash, help, and community, on the web and native phone apps, Makerly covers far more of the process.
Does PreQuilt have a mobile app?
PreQuilt is a web application you use in the browser. Makerly runs on the web too, and also ships native iPhone and Android apps with camera tools, so your quilts, stash, and calculators travel to the sewing room and the fabric store.
Design a real quilt free for 14 days.
Every Makerly feature unlocked, in your browser or on your phone, with no charge during the trial. Or start with our free quilting calculators, no account needed.