Glow Doodle vs Glow Drawings
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Glow Doodle
Create vibrant, glowing drawings with a unique neon effect. This app is praised by educators and parents for its art, educational, and fine motor skill development benefits. It offers a simple yet engaging interface with carefully curated colors and a magical "glow" button.
- Razor sharp light glow effect
- Harmonious doodle colors
- Auto-hiding toolbar
- Erase previous stroke
- Save drawings to photo albums
- Apple Pencil support
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A Top 5 Best Selling App^ - The original Glow Doodle. Glow Doodle is thankfully the choice of many teachers worldwide who embrace educational technology to their classroom for art, math, language lessons and fine motor skill activities^^. Glow Doodle has all it takes to make a doodling app a Top 5 App among hundred thousands of Apps: - Originality: Glow Doodle was the first to bring razor sharp neon effect from the hands of professional designers to the fingertips of everyone of every age. It lit up iPhone users' Christmas & winter nights with a magical mood like never before when Glow Doodle was introduced in winter 2009 - Quality-over-quantity & painstaking effort behind the simple to use App: While we could have allowed users to pick millions of random colors & line thickness, instead, we spent tedious effort to fine tune a few in order to maintain a harmonious & less confusing user experience for all ages. - Support from quality users: It was the overwhelming support from our users propelled Glow Doodle to TOP 5 Best Selling Paid App in the US and UK App Stores. We are grateful to our quality users including teachers, elementary teachers around the world who brought Glow Doodle to their classrooms with a creative mind & respect for originality, an invaluable message to our creative children. - Special Needs Friendly: Parents & professionals including pediatric OTs taking care of kids with special needs such as autism have also found Glow Doodle useful. In addition to the simple user interface, Glow Doodle takes the approach of "magic" button which provides cause & effect experience to enhance visual sensory & fine motor skills developments. The moment when you press the "GLOW" button, you will be amazed how a seemingly ordinary drawing turns into truly stunning Glow Doodle effect. It's a unique original experience that sets Glow Doodle apart from others who follow suit. Now updated with Nordic Ice Blue color (available via IAP) and option to draw with Apple Pencil only so that you can unleash your glowing creativity to the next level. KEY FEATURES: * Razor sharp Light Glow Effect * Harmonious Doodle Colors: Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Orange, Pink, White, Magenta * Auto-hiding toolbar (auto-hide while drawing) * Erase the previous stroke (by pressing the counter-clockwise arrow button) * Motivational Glowy Rocket may suddenly turn up * Save drawing to Photo Albums to share EDUCATION FRIENDLY SETTING: * Option to hide In-App Purchase button via Settings app APPLE PENCIL FRIENDLY SETTING: * Option to allow drawing with Apple Pencil only via Settings app NORDIC ICE BLUE EDITION (Available via In-App Purchase): * Unlocks Nordic Ice Blue color * Unlocks Rocket Sure Launch - Instead of appearing once in a while, motivational Glowy Rocket launches every time you light up your drawing * Hides IAP button ADVANCED DRAWING TIPS: You can make part of your drawing "glow" (e.g. the flame of a rocket) while other part of the drawing doesn't "glow" (e.g. the rocket body). For example, (1) draw the flame of the rocket first; (2) then press the "GLOW" button to make it glow; (3) continue to draw the rocket body without pressing the "GLOW" button. REMARKS: ^US & UK App Store; Jan 2010; Overall Paid Chart & Entertainment Paid Chart SHARE & FOLLOW: Follow us or Share with us on: Twitter https://twitter.com/GlowDoodle Pinterest http://pinterest.com/oodot/ Facebook http://www.facebook.com/CrossDisciplineTechnologyLimited Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/cdtapps/ ^^Sharing by teachers & schools: http://www.pinterest.com/oodot/glow-doodle-in-classroom-learning/
Glow Drawings
Easily create vibrant drawings by tapping colors and painting with your finger. Save your artistic creations directly to your device's photo library for sharing or safekeeping.
- Finger painting
- Color selection
- Save drawings
- Intuitive interface
- Digital art creation
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Create beautiful drawings with this app! Just tap a color and paint with your finger. You can save the drawing into your photo library.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Glow Drawings at Free against Glow Doodle's $0.99. Glow Drawings also leads on rating (4.4 vs 2.9) and in-app purchases (none vs 1). Glow Doodle's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 3 months vs every 11 months). On device support and iOS requirement 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
Glow Drawings is free to download; Glow Doodle costs $0.99 up front. Glow Doodle sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Glow Drawings asks for nothing beyond the download.
Glow Drawings holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 2.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Glow Drawings has 124 ratings behind it against 10, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 67% of Glow Doodle's written reviews are positive against 78% of Glow Drawings's.
Glow Doodle ships an update every 3 months, Glow Drawings every 11 months. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Glow Doodle | Glow Drawings |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 2.9 (10 ratings) | 4.4 (124 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 67.4% of reviews | 77.8% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 10 | 124 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months — better | Every 11 months |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Ad-supported — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 13.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 7 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | +4 |
| Developer | Y Lau | FBF Sistemas LTDA |
Customer experience
Glow Doodle
Glow Drawings
Bugs and requests
Glow Doodle
Reported bugs
3 issues- App crashes on launch
- Saved images lose glow effect
- Drawing toolbar interferes with usage
Requested features
4 requests- More color options
- Ability to draw on photos from library
- Brush size and eraser tool
- Ability to save glowing images accurately
Glow Drawings
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Glow Doodle
- Nordic Ice Blue Edition$0.99
Glow Drawings
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Glow Doodle free?
Is Glow Drawings free?
Which has better reviews, Glow Doodle or Glow Drawings?
Do Glow Doodle or Glow Drawings have ads?
Which is updated more often, Glow Doodle or Glow Drawings?
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