Backyard Safari vs CubePaintAR
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Backyard Safari
Explore wildlife in your own environment using augmented reality. Interact with animals by moving and rotating them, then capture memorable photos. A free tiger is included, with more animals available for purchase.
- Augmented reality animal viewing
- Interactive animal manipulation
- Pose and photograph animals
- Free tiger included
- Additional animals available for purchase
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This fun app allows you to view wild animals through the lens of your iPhone with Augmented Reality. You can move an animal around by dragging it with your finger and rotate it with a two finger rotate gesture. When you are ready pose and take some pictures with it. Amaze your friends and your kids. This app comes with the Tiger for free and additional animals are available with a small one time purchase. Currently we offer the following animals: • Bear • Crocodile • Elephant • Gazelle • Giraffe • Hippo • Jaguar • Lion • Rhino • Tiger • Zebra
CubePaintAR
This augmented reality coloring book lets you bring 13 different animals to life in real space. Scan a special cube with your device, choose an animal, and paint it with your finger. The animated creatures can be recorded and shared.
- Color 13 different animals
- Augmented reality integration
- Animated animal models
- Adjustable brush size
- Record and share creations
- Requires Merge Cube
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PLEASE NOTE: This app requires a Merge Cube. To find out how to get a Merge Cube and to learn more, visit www.mergevr.com/cube CubePaintAR ist a Coloring Book for kids and adults. You can choose 13 different animals and color them in real space. 1 Select the animal you want to color. 2. Put the Merge Cube on the table or elsewhere. 3. Scan the Merge Cube with your smartphone camera until you can see an animal which you have previously chosen. 4. Choose the desired color with the color palette and start to paint with your finger. 5. You can also adjust the size of the brush for more detailed painting. 6. The animals are animated. Watch them in action if you want. 7. When you are ready, record your result and share your animal with other users on the Everyplay platform.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Backyard Safari at 4.3 against CubePaintAR's 2.1. Backyard Safari also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 2 months) and review sentiment (33% vs 10%). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Backyard Safari sells 12 one-off in-app purchases and CubePaintAR sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Backyard Safari holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 2.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 13 and 18 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 33% of Backyard Safari's written reviews are positive against 10% of CubePaintAR's.
Backyard Safari ships an update weekly, CubePaintAR every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on June 1, 2026 and June 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Backyard Safari | CubePaintAR |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (13 ratings) — better | 2.1 (18 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 33.3% of reviews — better | 10.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 13 | 18 — better |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 | 10.3 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 102 MB | 160 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | MPV Software, LLC | highlewelt GmbH |
Customer experience
Backyard Safari
CubePaintAR
In-app purchases
Backyard Safari
- TigerFree
- Bear$0.99
- Crocodile$0.99
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- Elephant$0.99
- Giraffe$0.99
- Hippo$0.99
- Jaguar$0.99
- Lion$0.99
- Rhino$0.99
- Zebra$0.99
- Gazelle$0.99
- All Animals$2.99
CubePaintAR
- Animals$1.99
