Comparison

Simple Trace Pro vs AJ

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

Head to head
About

Simple Trace Pro

Practice drawing and illustration by tracing photos and images. Load pictures from your camera roll and use Apple Pencil to refine your line work. Save your traced creations as JPGs or transparent PNGs.

Highlights
  • Trace photos and pictures
  • Practice illustration and painting
  • Load images from camera roll
  • Apple Pencil support
  • Adjustable transmittance
  • Zoom functionality
  • Save as JPG or transparent PNG
Features
Read full description

Simple Trace makes it easy to trace photos and pictures by hand. The concept is to be able to practice painting. Once you've loaded the image from your camera roll, it's easy to get started with Apple Pencil. By tracing the original picture, you can practice basic drawing such as how to draw lines in the illustration. Feature - Change of transmittance - Zoom in and out of the drawing area - Images can be saved as jpg, Pro version can be saved as transparent png - No ads in Pro version

About

AJ

Create manga stories and series using AI. Plan your narrative, design characters, generate artwork, and lay out pages within a single workspace. Export your finished manga in various formats suitable for print or digital distribution.

Highlights
  • AI Story Assistant for drafting chapters and scenes
  • Generate manga art from prompts or photo references
  • Reuse characters, props, and environments for continuity
  • Organize characters, chapters, pages, and panels
  • Export in PDF, image sets, or webtoon strips
  • Sync projects across devices with iCloud
Features
Read full description

AJ-Manga is an AI-powered manga creation studio for building one-shots and series on iPhone and iPad. Plan your story, shape your cast, generate manga artwork, lay out pages, read your finished chapter, and export polished files from one workspace. With AJ-Manga you can: - Start a one-shot or series project with genre, format, reading direction, and art style controls - Use AI Story Assistant to draft chapters, scenes, dialogue, page breakdowns, and panel beats - Import photos from Photos, Files, or the iOS share sheet and turn them into manga-ready references - Reuse character likeness, poses, props, outfits, and environments across pages for better continuity - Generate panel art from prompts or photo references, then refine the result inside your project - Organize characters, chapters, pages, panels, and speech bubbles in a dedicated manga workflow - Read your manga in paged, spread, or scrolling modes with guided panel reading - Export as PDF, image sets, or webtoon strips, including print-oriented options for covers and page packages - Sync projects and preferences across devices with iCloud when available AJ-Manga includes a free tier and offers optional subscriptions, credit packs, and style packs for higher generation limits and premium creation tools. https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ https://jamsoftinc.com/ajmanga-priv

Screenshots

AJ4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: AJ at 100% against Simple Trace Pro's 0%. AJ also leads on price (Free vs $0.99) and rating (4.0 vs 3.0). Simple Trace Pro's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 9) and iOS requirement (14.5 vs 26.0). On ratings volume, update cadence, ads 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

AJ is free to download; Simple Trace Pro costs $0.99 up front. AJ sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Simple Trace Pro asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

AJ holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 3.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 0% of Simple Trace Pro's written reviews are positive against 100% of AJ's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Simple Trace Pro ships an update every 2 weeks, AJ monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Simple Trace Pro versus AJ: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSimple Trace ProAJ
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating3.0 (2 ratings)4.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews0.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings2 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS14.5 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB19 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKazuaki MatsudaJAMSoft Inc

Customer experience

Simple Trace Pro

All ratings2 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

AJ

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Simple Trace Pro

No in-app purchases

9 purchases

AJ

Subscriptions2
  • Creator$5.991 Month
  • Pro$12.991 Month
One-time7
  • Chibi Cute Pack$1.99
  • Horror Dark Pack$2.99
  • Shonen Action Pack$2.99
Show 4 more
  • Shoujo Romance Pack$2.99
  • 50 AI Generations$2.99
  • 200 AI Generations$6.99
  • 500 AI Generations$12.99

Questions

Is Simple Trace Pro free?
Simple Trace Pro costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is AJ free?
AJ is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Simple Trace Pro or AJ?
AJ is rated higher. Simple Trace Pro averages 3.0 out of 5 from 2 ratings, while AJ averages 4.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Simple Trace Pro or AJ have ads?
Neither Simple Trace Pro nor AJ shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Simple Trace Pro or AJ?
Simple Trace Pro ships an update every 2 weeks, and AJ monthly. Most recently, Simple Trace Pro was updated on November 3, 2026 and AJ on October 31, 2026.

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