Comparison

Strip Designer vs Comic Life 3

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

Head to head
About

Strip Designer

Create your own comic books using photos, text, stickers, and drawings. Design custom layouts, add speech balloons, and apply filters to tell your stories. Export your creations as high-quality PDFs or share them directly with friends.

Highlights
  • 100+ page templates
  • Custom panel layouts
  • Customizable speech balloons
  • 3D warped text
  • 150+ stickers
  • Photo filters and effects
  • Drawing and masking tools
  • PDF export
Features
Read full description

Create amazing comic books with your photos and share with friends and family. Tell exciting stories with balloons, stickers, drawings, and warped 3D lettering. Strip Designer offers the complete comic creation experience on iOS and macOS. And no in-app purchases -- Everything is included! You'll begin by selecting one of the many included comic book page templates or create your own custom layout. Next, you'll add photos from the camera, your album, or create a drawing. Apply filters, or even paint on and mask your photos for atmosphere, style and retouching. Add balloons and text anywhere you want and in any direction and size. Play with the colors and fonts until you get the perfect look. Add stickers like "Boom", "Splash", or "Bang" to spice up the action -- Even create your own library using photos from your photo-album and the built-in masking and drawing tools. Use 3D warped text with thick borders and gradient color-fill to give your comic the extra super-hero feel. Download and add additional free fonts easily within the app, to give your text a unique look! While you work, you can freely pan and zoom to control even tiny details. Once you have finished your masterpiece you can save it to your photo album or share it with your friends. Use PDF to share entire comic books in high-quality. -- All from within Strip Designer. Key Features: • More than a 100 page templates with 1 to 9 photo cells • Multipage books • Create your own panel layout with up-to 12 cells or use one of the standard layouts • Many balloon types with customizable tails and heads • Balloons can have multiple tails and be combined • Flexible text options with per-letter colors and fonts • Adjust ballon size, rotation, color, and transparency • Add text (3D, warped, and perspective) for a superhero vibe • Use any iOS font or install additional fonts for unique touch • More than 150 stickers to insert for additional impact • Page effects to give your pages old look • Dropbox and WebDAV download/upload support • Export to PDF to create real comic books • Import PDFs (for both cells and custom stickers) • Control scale, position, and rotation of photos • Integrated drawing and masking tools to create your own drawings, paint on photos, or make your own stickers • Auto mask and feather photos (to remove background) • Many different cell styles • Photo filters • Fluidly pan and zoom to manage even the smallest details • Insert maps for additional context • iCloud sync across devices • Support for iOS's third party document providers • Layers view to lock or reorder layers • Shared iPad (for education) setup through MDM configuration No in-app purchases -- Everything is included! - What the reviewers say - "Strip Designer is worth every penny it costs, and then some. I would pay a couple more bucks for Lifestrips. It's stable, it's easy, it's fun, and for all that I couldn't come up with anything witty for my comic text, I love the look of my comics. Someone with a better imagination than I apparently have could really do fabulous things with this app. I rate it a solid five stars out of five.", Pamela Flora, iPhoneography - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "We were simply blown away by this application and the detail that has gone into the editing options and templates. We enjoyed the fact that a comic can be created very easily with photos and simple text effects, however there is real opportunities to really drill down into the editing options where the user can explore the apps true potential. There are many comic strip applications available on the Appstore but this is by far one of the best and great value for money. This app comes highly recommended by The Educational Appstore.", - See more at: http://www.educationalappstore.com/app/strip-designer#sthash.2KqjbU5Q.dpuf" --------------------------

About

Comic Life 3

Create dynamic photo comics with a powerful and easy-to-use app. Add photos, customize text and graphics, and share your creations. Features include a script editor, image filters, and numerous templates.

Highlights
  • Integrated Script Editor
  • Next-generation image filters
  • Instant Alpha tool
  • Customizable templates
  • Speech balloons and lettering
  • Multi-page comic support
Features
Read full description

The Most Powerful Photo Comic Creation App Available. "Of the comic book apps I’ve used, Comic Life, [...], has the most features and works best on an iPad because of the bigger screen... I love the way the app allows you to edit tiny details, from the shape and style of word bubbles to the size and placement of each story cell." - Kit Eaton, The New York Times - Introducing an integrated Script Editor*, next generation image filters and built in Instant Alpha tool. - New graphics features include speedlines, halftones, updated stroke options and more! - Dozens of fully customizable templates. - Everything you need at your fingertips: speech balloons, photo filters, comic lettering, templates, shapes, shadows and effects. Download Comic Life 3 to create dynamic comics with your photos. Packed with fonts, templates, balloons, captions, and lettering art, Comic Life is a fun, powerful and easy-to-use app that makes creating comics easier than ever. And now you can build your comics anywhere you like! Easily go from taking photos to creating full comics all on one device with full page templates and panel layouts. Create original stories with the integrated Script Editor then drag and drop your words to the comic page when you're done. Bring in photos from your photo library or access web photos via Flickr integration, and the app’s powerful editing and design tools to get exactly the look you want. When your work of art is complete, use the integrated reader to review pages on your device. Or share with your friends and family. Choose from Facebook, Twitter, email or open your comic in another app as a PDF. New Tools and Features in Comic Life 3 Script Editor* that recognizes elements as you type 17 Advanced parametric image filters Dozens of full templates with hundreds of panel layout options. Instant Alpha tool built in so you can knock out image backgrounds Speedlines, halftones, and textures Fully customizable fill and borders for balloons, lettering, captions, panels and shapes New balloon variety slider for even more customization Customizable gradient builder Draw shapes Over 60 font options Load photos directly from photo library Integrated camera feature to instantly add photos to your comic Supports multi-page comics Using Comic Life you can: - Read your comics with the integrated e-reader. - Create photo comics in the full featured comic editor. - Share your comics on Facebook, Twitter, via Mail, AirDrop and iTunes File Share. - Transfer your comics to Mac or Windows and keep working with Comic Life 3 on your desktop or laptop. - Send your comics to a printer on your wireless network. - Choose from full page layouts including panels, titles and captions along with complimentary styles for a high end look. - Drag and Drop elements anywhere in your comic page. - Easily add photos from your library with the Place Photo button in panels. - Curve and place balloon tails precisely with advanced tail controls. - Resize and rotate images, clip them in panels along with balloons, captions, and lettering. - Create multilayered color gradients to design the perfect style for lettering, captions or background. - Use smart shapes to add common shapes and the free form shape drawing tool to create any line or shape you can imagine. - Work without worry of losing your creation as documents are automatically saved whenever a change is made. * This feature is available on iPad only

Screenshots

Strip Designer4 screens
Comic Life 34 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Strip Designer at 4.9 against Comic Life 3's 4.3. Strip Designer also leads on review sentiment (88% vs 64%) and price ($3.99 vs $4.99). Comic Life 3's advantage is ratings volume (239 vs 73) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 15). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

Strip Designer costs $3.99 and Comic Life 3 $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Strip Designer holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 73 and 239 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 88% of Strip Designer's written reviews are positive against 64% of Comic Life 3's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Strip Designer versus Comic Life 3: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStrip DesignerComic Life 3
Price$3.99 — better$4.99
Rating4.9 (73 ratings) — better4.3 (239 ratings)
Positive reviews87.8% of reviews — better64.2% of reviews
Number of ratings73239 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS1511.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size97 MB97 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperVivid Appsplasq LLC

Customer experience

Strip Designer

All ratings73 ratings
Positive97.3%
Neutral1.4%
Negative1.4%
Written reviews337 reviews
Positive87.8%
Neutral4.7%
Negative7.4%

Comic Life 3

All ratings239 ratings
Positive84.1%
Neutral4.6%
Negative11.3%
Written reviews187 reviews
Positive64.2%
Neutral12.3%
Negative23.5%

User reviews

Strip Designer

From 73 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🚀 Intuitive interface
  • 💡 Customizable fonts and stickers
  • 👍 Versatile for various projects
  • 🚀 Consistent updates

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes or bugs
  • 🐛 Issues with saving/loading projects
  • 🐛 Problems with image quality or resolution
  • 💡 Lack of advanced features (e.g., motion lines, more stickers)

Comic Life 3

From 239 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🚀 Intuitive interface
  • 💡 Versatile for various purposes
  • 🎨 Helpful for creating comics and graphics
  • 👍 Great for students and educators

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and glitches
  • 🔍 Difficult to navigate and find features
  • 🔍 Unintuitive controls and menus
  • 🔍 Limited customization options
  • 🔍 Lack of advanced features compared to desktop version

Bugs and requests

Strip Designer

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes when trying to change comic name
  • Issues with photo import and orientation
  • Problems with text resizing in speech bubbles

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to create and save custom templates
  • Option to organize projects into folders
  • More advanced drawing/editing tools
  • Improved navigation for browsing past projects
  • Wireless printing or export options

Comic Life 3

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Frequent crashes and data loss
  • Issues with placing and resizing elements
  • Inconsistent behavior when adding or editing content
  • Problems with syncing and opening projects across devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • Improved stability and reliability
  • More customization options for text, layouts, and templates
  • Ability to import and use custom fonts
  • Better integration with cloud storage (e.g., iCloud, Dropbox)
  • Streamlined export and sharing options

In-app purchases

None

Strip Designer

No in-app purchases

None

Comic Life 3

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Strip Designer free?
Strip Designer costs $3.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Comic Life 3 free?
Comic Life 3 costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Strip Designer or Comic Life 3?
Strip Designer is rated higher. Strip Designer averages 4.9 out of 5 from 73 ratings, while Comic Life 3 averages 4.3 from 239 ratings.
Do Strip Designer or Comic Life 3 have ads?
Neither Strip Designer nor Comic Life 3 shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Strip Designer or Comic Life 3?
Strip Designer ships an update every 2 months, and Comic Life 3 every 2 months. Most recently, Strip Designer was updated on October 18, 2026 and Comic Life 3 on October 19, 2026.

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