What are the differences between a UIView and a CALayer?

Question

Both have most of the same attributes, both support different kind of animations, both represent different data. What are the differences between a UIView and a CALayer?

Answer 1

UIView is a container for CALayers. Using UIKit.

CALayer where we draw the contents. Using CoreGraphics

If you work with custom control like features it would be great to go ahead with single view containing more layers for accurate native rendering. Since CALayers are weightless than UIView.

To create common skeleton for Mac and iOS, follow the design for your app using CALayers. Since it is available in both platform.

UIView having feature like touch events achieved using delegates -(void)touchesEnded:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event, tochesStart like events and other UIKit features.

To work with CALayers use Core Graphics knowledge.For any simple view rendering UIView is enough.