Sketch 3D vs ModelPlay
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Sketch 3D
Create and animate 3D models with intuitive touch controls. Import various file formats, apply video textures, and capture animations. Share your creations with a community of designers.
- Design 3D models with touch
- Apply video as model texture
- Create 3D model animations
- Import various 3D file formats
- Capture movie from 3D scenes
- Use True Depth Camera for face models
- Share designs with community
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Sketch 3D is a tool for designing 3D models from your fingertips. You could download models from others, and could also share your great designs with other users by saving models in Public space. New Feature: Integrated MaterialX library into the app. Mesh object can be applied with materialx documents. When Saving and Loading with material, the document relative path is stored as a diffuse map entry, similar to the way of handling movie textures. Other features like material adjustment and graph editing are not supported yet. User could download free material documents from public websites and import those zip files with this app, using ShareTo or AirDrop. Feature: Use True Depth Camera to capture face model. Feature: Support using video as model texture. You could use video clips from Photo Album, or from Internet URL (YouTube URL not supported), and then apply it onto a model as texture map. Feature: Capture movie from the 3D scene. Note! If your device could not capture movie, then, could try out a smaller output resolution (by tapping the control pane). However, arbitrary output size may stop capturing prematurely. Feature: Design 3D model animation with skeleton structure. You could design a skeleton structure by placing bones in hierarchical relation. Attach model to the skeleton, and then moving the bones to define different poses. Each pose represented as a keyframe in the timeline view. And animation sequence is produced by playing interpolation between the keyframes. Features: - Import 3D content directly from browser or email, either in .zip, .rar, .7z. - Support formats: Collada DAE, OBJ, 3DS, STL(for 3D printing), and others. - Import/export to iCloud drive, via iTune File Sharing, or to Public area via Apple CloudKit Service. - Supports AirDrop. - Support Quad faces. - Smooth surfaces using Subdivision. - Mirroring editing. - 2-fingers vertex movement, 3 or 4-fingers planar shape creation. - Versatile multi-touches drag-through-space gestures to support editing and changing viewing angle at the same time. - Flexible face strip drawing. - Stitching boundary faces. Stitch triangle soap into connected faces. Stitch over edge or vertex to form a larger face. - Stitching Triangles to Quads. - Loop Cut faces. - Bevel edges. - Extrude faces or edges. - Revolve (Spin). - Vertex Smoothing. - Vertex Slide along edges. - Crease Editing after mesh subdivision. - Split mesh from, or Join mesh to the editing one. - Support hierarchical mesh node structure. - Direct vertex color editing when texture map is not used. - Edit texture map UV coordinates, include atlas generation. - 3D Text generation. - Scene interaction with your created shape. - Design Animation with skeleton structure. - Capture movie from the 3D scene. - Support using video as model texture map.
ModelPlay
Easily view and customize 3D models without needing professional knowledge. Import, export, and categorize various file formats, then personalize lighting, backgrounds, materials, and animations for stunning visual effects.
- Import/export GLB, FBX, OBJ, STL, PLY, 3MF
- Categorize models with folders
- Customize lighting and backgrounds
- Adjust model materials and textures
- Play and control 3D animations
- Set model position and camera angles
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ModelPlay supports 3D model classification and viewing, 3D model import and export, and users can personalize each 3D model and save the settings. When using ModelPlay, users don't need to have professional 3D knowledge, just through simple operation, you can get very stunning 3D effects. -3D Model Import and Export Supports import and export of many common 3D format files such as GLB, FBX, OBJ, STL, PLY, 3MF, and so on. -3D Model Categorization Categorize 3D models through folders, support both list and grid display, sorting and editing, and setting image size. -3D Model Lighting Settings Support to set the lighting of the scene where the 3D model is located: support preset lighting combination settings, light color, light intensity, light shadow settings, ambient light color settings, and halo intensity settings. You can create colorful lighting effects through multiple combination settings. 3D Model Background Settings Supports setting the background of the scene where the 3D model is located: supports solid color background and sky box background. You can set “whether to show the ground” to get different scene atmosphere effects. 3D Model Material Settings Support to set the material of 3D model: support default texture material, line material, metal material, transparent material and other material switching. Support to view the original material and texture. -3D Model Animation Settings Support 3D model skeleton display, support animation play and pause, support auto rotate, support dynamic skeleton, support multiple animation clips switch play. -3D Model Position Setting Support 3D model position offset and rotation setting. Support camera view angle setting, you can set different optimal display view angles for different 3D models. -3D Model Mesh Settings Count the number of sub-mesh and mesh vertices of the 3D model, support whether the sub-mesh is visible or not setting, support component separation, and support putting the sub-mesh as the center. -3D Model Cover Settings The 3D model cover will be automatically generated when the 3D model is opened for the first time, support to modify the cover. Note: Updates and Feedback ModelPlay will make continuous updates to provide more 3D setting effects in the subsequent releases. Feel free to provide suggestions to ModelPlay via comments!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: ModelPlay at Free against Sketch 3D's $2.99. ModelPlay also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 3 months). Sketch 3D's advantage is ratings volume (443 vs 8) and review sentiment (48% vs 27%). On rating, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
ModelPlay is free to download; Sketch 3D costs $2.99 up front. Sketch 3D sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and ModelPlay sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 2.9 for Sketch 3D against 3.0 for ModelPlay. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Sketch 3D has 443 ratings behind it against 8, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 48% of Sketch 3D's written reviews are positive against 27% of ModelPlay's.
Sketch 3D ships an update every 3 months, ModelPlay every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Sketch 3D | ModelPlay |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 2.9 (443 ratings) | 3.0 (8 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 47.9% of reviews — better | 27.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 443 — better | 8 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #116 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 187 MB | 255 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Victor Ng | 俊卿 吴 |
Customer experience
Sketch 3D
ModelPlay
Bugs and requests
Sketch 3D
Reported bugs
3 issues- Crashes when trying to load or save projects
- Texture and color issues when importing models
- Unresponsive controls and buttons
Requested features
4 requests- In-app tutorials and video guides
- Improved user interface and controls
- Support for importing custom 3D models
- Ability to save and load projects reliably
ModelPlay
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Sketch 3D
- Unlimited Keyframe Editing$1.99
- Unlimited Video Capturing$1.99
ModelPlay
- ModelPlay Pro$9.99









