Comparison

Doodalive vs Simple Sketchbook

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Doodalive

Transform sketches into dynamic animations with intuitive tools. Bring drawings to life with animated strokes, create manga, and make notes engaging. Export creations as videos or images for sharing or professional use.

Highlights
  • Dynamic animated brushes
  • Create and animate manga
  • Image and model library
  • Custom sticker creation
  • Animated note-taking
  • Export as video or image
Features
Read full description

DOODALIVE: Reinvent the way to interact with your drawings! Transform your sketches into captivating animations with a simple brushstroke, thanks to dynamic and intuitive tools. Whether you are an amateur artist, a student or a professional looking for new forms of expression, Doodalive offers you a range of innovative tools to unleash your creativity. KEY FEATURES: Dynamic Brushes - Bring your drawings to life with a single gesture! - Various effects: movement, rotation, vibration, motion blur, brush to darken or lighten, scrolling, rain, and much more. - Each stroke is animated in real time, without technical skills required. Create and Animate Your Own Manga - Use Doodalive to draw and animate your manga characters and scenes. - Make your characters move, animate their expressions and create visually captivating stories in a few simple gestures. - Whether you are a manga fan or a budding mangaka, Doodalive makes it easy to create cartoons. Image Library - Access a collection of ready-to-use images to enrich your creations in the blink of an eye. Custom Stickers - Have you created a character or object that you want to reuse in other Doodalive scenes? Transform your drawings into stickers very simply. Your personalized stickers will appear in a single gesture in your library. Inspiring Models - Find inspiration with a selection of varied models, ready to be reproduced or personalized. - Use the tool to desaturate the image in order to draw on a layer over it and learn how to reproduce the drawings and improve your skills. Ultra-Intuitive Interface - Create and animate easily, with tools designed to make animation accessible to all. Animated Note Taking - Transform your traditional notes into interactive and engaging animations. -Perfect for students, teachers or professionals who want to make their notes more lively and memorable. Advanced Organization - Classify your scenes into folders for easy management of your projects. - Simply retrieve your exported creations in a dedicated directory in File Share your creations - Export your animated scenes as videos or images to use them in other projects or on social media. - Export your animations in image or video sequences to import them into professional tools like Adobe© Animate or After Effects Instant Results - Your ideas take shape and come to life immediately, for expressive and dynamic creations. Don't let your ideas be limited to simple sketches! With Doodalive, let your imagination run wild and experience the magic of animation. Only one limit, your imagination!

About

Simple Sketchbook

A digital sketchbook for iPad and iPhone that offers a clean, fast drawing experience without distractions. Create multiple sketchbooks with various paper styles, utilize layers, and import reference images. Export your work as high-resolution PNGs, PDFs, or timelapse videos.

Highlights
  • Distraction-free drawing interface
  • Multiple sketchbooks with custom paper styles
  • Multi-layer support with opacity and blend modes
  • Import reference images
  • Export pages as PNG or PDF
  • Generate timelapse videos of drawings
  • Face ID/Touch ID sketchbook lock
Features
Read full description

App Description Simple Sketchbook is a distraction-free sketchbook for iPad, designed around the Apple Pencil but will also work with your finger. No subscription. No social features. Just a clean, fast place to draw. Create as many sketchbooks as you like, each with its own paper style — blank, lined, grid, dotted, or a range of specialty templates. Every sketchbook fills your screen edge to edge, and the canvas stays fixed in space when you rotate your iPad, so your drawing never moves out from under your hand. There is no zoom by design on iPad (iPhone users can double-tap to zoom), just a regular sketchbook page in digital space. Layers, done simply Each page supports multiple layers with individual opacity, blend mode, and visibility controls. Bring in photos from your library or drag and drop images directly onto the canvas to use as reference or compose with your work. Reposition, scale, and rotate images freely before committing them to the page. Export your work Export any page as a high-resolution PNG — with or without the background — or export an entire sketchbook as a PDF. Generate a timelapse video of your drawing process, perfect for sharing how a piece came together. Your sketchbooks, backed up Back up any sketchbook to a single file and restore it on any of your iPads. Backups scale automatically to fit the screen, so moving from an iPad mini to an iPad Pro keeps everything looking right. Lock individual sketchbooks with Face ID or Touch ID. Simple Sketchbook is a distraction-free drawing notebook for iPad and iPhone, built for the feel of putting pencil to paper, with just enough digital magic to make every page more useful than a physical one. Draw naturally A slim, always-out-of-the-way tool strip puts your pen, sizes, opacity and colours one tap away, no picker popovers, no hunting through menus. Double-tap or squeeze your Apple Pencil to switch tools instantly, or rest two fingers on the page to pull up the full tool grid without ever putting your pencil down. Layer it up Sketch, ink, and shade on separate layers. Drop in a photo and arrange it (move, scale, rotate) right on the canvas. Add a storyboard frame template for comic panels and animatics. Blend, reorder, and merge layers exactly like a design tool, but built for a sketchbook workflow. Paper that feels right Choose plain, lined, grid, dotted, or textured paper for every notebook, whatever the page is for, to structured notes. Watch your drawing come to life Every stroke is quietly recorded as you draw. Export a timelapse video of any page, or a whole run of pages, and watch a sketch build itself from first line to finished piece. Say what you're thinking Record a voice reflection on any page, your process, your intent, what you'd change next time, and Simple Sketchbook transcribes it on-device, completely privately. Reflections play back alongside your timelapse, or export as Markdown for a portfolio or journal. Yours, and only yours Lock any notebook with Face ID or Touch ID. Back up and restore your entire sketchbook library whenever you like. Nothing leaves your device unless you choose to share it. Whether you're a student building a visual journal, an artist studying your own process, or just someone who likes to draw — Simple Sketchbook gets out of your way and lets the page do the work.

Screenshots

Doodalive4 screens
Simple Sketchbook2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Doodalive at Free against Simple Sketchbook's $1.99. Doodalive also leads on ratings volume (16 vs 3) and iOS requirement (16.0 vs 26.0). Simple Sketchbook's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 16) and ads (none vs shown). On review sentiment 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Doodalive is free to download; Simple Sketchbook costs $1.99 up front. Doodalive sells 16 one-off in-app purchases. Simple Sketchbook asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Simple Sketchbook holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Doodalive has 16 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Doodalive ships an update every 2 months, Simple Sketchbook every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard9 real differences · 2 level
Doodalive versus Simple Sketchbook: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDoodaliveSimple Sketchbook
PriceFree — better$1.99
Rating4.0 (16 ratings)4.3 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings16 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 9 days — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank—#74 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size104 MB53 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKiwisAppDuncan Pollock

Customer experience

Doodalive

All ratings13 ratings
Positive84.6%
Neutral0.0%
Negative15.4%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Simple Sketchbook

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

16 purchases

Doodalive

One-time16
  • SnowFree
  • ChristmasFree
  • New Year PackFree
Show 13 more
  • Jack o'lanternFree
  • Paper planeFree
  • No Ads$0.99
  • Magic$0.99
  • Candle$0.99
  • Petals$0.99
  • Halloween Spells$2.99
  • Dia de muertos$2.99
  • In classroom$2.99
  • New year, new challenges$2.99
  • Chalk$2.99
  • Fire$2.99
  • Pixel Art$9.99
None

Simple Sketchbook

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Doodalive free?
Doodalive is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Simple Sketchbook free?
Simple Sketchbook costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Doodalive or Simple Sketchbook?
Simple Sketchbook is rated higher. Doodalive averages 4.0 out of 5 from 16 ratings, while Simple Sketchbook averages 4.3 from 3 ratings.
Do Doodalive or Simple Sketchbook have ads?
Doodalive shows ads; Simple Sketchbook does not.
Which is updated more often, Doodalive or Simple Sketchbook?
Doodalive ships an update every 2 months, and Simple Sketchbook every 9 days. Most recently, Doodalive was updated on October 24, 2026 and Simple Sketchbook on October 25, 2026.

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