| Staredit | SCXE Alternative | SCXE Base | SCXE Classic | SCXE P12 | SCXE Special | Scmdraft 2 | ||
| General Features (Interface) | ||||||||
| Zoom | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Open multiple maps | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Multiple map views | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Plugin support | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Mod support | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Profiles | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Overlay Locations | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Overlay Fog of War | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| General Features (editing related) | ||||||||
| Custom Grid | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Dual Grid | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Snap to (Custom) Grid | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Preview Fog of War | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Autosave | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Backups | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Backup Database | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Resize Map | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Change Tileset | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Save map image | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Terrain Layer | ||||||||
| Tile by Tile Terrain | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Subtile Terrain | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Isometric Terrain | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Rectangular Terrain | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Cut and Paste Terrain | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Brushes | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Remove illegal units | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes(*) | |
| Creep Displayed | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Doodad Layer | ||||||||
| Doodad Placing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Cut and Paste Doodads | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Brushes | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Illegal Doodads | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Location Layer | ||||||||
| Locations Any Size | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Locations Organized | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Unit Layer | ||||||||
| Unit Stacking | No | No | No | No | No | 1px | Yes | |
| Buildings Anywhere | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes(*) | |
| Cut and Paste Units | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Brushes | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Addons Anywhere | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Non-neutral Addons | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Link Nydus canals / Addons | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| View Pylon Aura | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| View Powered Buildings | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Detect badly placed Units | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | |
| Allow illegal placement | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes(*) | |
| Players above neutral | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Fog of war Layer | ||||||||
| Fog of War | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Sprite Layer | ||||||||
| Sprite Placement | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Sprite Properties | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Cut and Paste Sprites | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Brushes | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Trigger / Mission briefing / Misc. Properties | ||||||||
| Staredit like triggers | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Text based triggers | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Extended AI Scripts | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Raw string Editor/Viewed | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| No String limit | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes(***) | |
| Extended Unit Settings(HP2, Shields, 1/15, 0) | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Add Sounds | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Extract Sounds | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Sizeless Sounds | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
| 256 Player Colors | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
(*)Available as an option.
(**)Some functionality not available.
(***)Map format limit still exists.
Pre-release builds



