Puppet Pals vs FishyPaint
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Puppet Pals
Bring your stories to life by creating animated shows in real time. Choose actors and backdrops, then record your movements and voice to produce unique performances. Unleash your creativity with endless storytelling possibilities.
- Real-time animation recording
- Create actors from photos
- Use photos as backdrops
- Zoom and rotate characters
- Downloadable creative characters
- Director's Pass for all content
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Create your own animated shows in real time! Pick your actors and backdrops, drag them onto the stage, and tap record. Your movements and voice are captured live, ready to play back, save, and watch again. Act out a pirate adventure on the high seas, a spooky monster showdown, or a Wild West escape — and mix any characters and scenes however you like. Your shows are only limited by your imagination. FREE FEATURES - A stage full of characters and backdrops to perform with - Turn a photo into a character or a backdrop - Record shows with live animation and audio - Zoom, rotate, and flip characters as you perform - Save shows and watch them anytime CREATIVE CLUB (optional subscription) Join the Creative Club to unlock the full show: - Imagine any character or backdrop, describe it, and watch AI bring it to life - Every character and scene pack included - Record shows up to 10 minutes long - Draw your own characters and backdrops - Export your shows as videos - Widescreen stage and full control over the end-of-show outro Choose your plan, monthly or annual: - Essentials — includes 40 AI creations per month - Unlimited — includes up to 1,000 AI creations per month SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage or cancel your subscription anytime in your App Store account settings. Any unused portion of a free trial is forfeited when you purchase a subscription. Privacy Policy: https://www.polishedplay.com/puppetpals1/privacy Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Puppet Pals is fully usable without a subscription — the Creative Club just adds more magic.
FishyPaint
Bring your drawings to life as animated fish that swim and interact in a vibrant underwater world. Personalize your experience by adding your own artwork or photos as fish and even become the diver exploring the scene. Record and share your aquatic adventures with custom soundtracks.
- Animate custom drawings as fish
- Interactive underwater world
- Personalize with own photos
- Selfie diver integration
- Video and audio recording
- Customizable fish shapes
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Your own artwork comes alive and swims with you in FishyPaint! Watch hand painted fish swim among the coral in this beautiful underwater world. Add your own fish by photographing any drawing, painting, or anything you want to use as a fish. Watch it come alive and swim inside the app! Featuring a diver - snap a selfie to see yourself as the diver, swimming alongside your own creations! Perfect for kids' artwork - realistic or abstract, anything can come to life and be a fish in FishyPaint. Touch the screen to see how the fish react and touch-drag to affect the diver too. Record video and audio too - you can tell a story about your fish, maybe sing a song, and a video of your scene is recorded to your Photo Library with that soundtrack! Features: * Animated fish swim, hide in the coral, and respond to screen touch. * Add anything as your own custom fish - a drawing you made, a toy, a photo of a real fish, or even a person. Why not? Use your imagination! * Photograph yourself to be the diver, or maybe a drawing, a friend, even your pet. Have fun with it! * Record video of your scene, with audio from the microphone. * Comes with colorful fish already in app. * Guideline of fish shape offers a starting point for custom fish, but you can also paint the shape of the fish yourself. Make it your own! * Hand painted look that mixes nicely with kids' artwork. How to use FishyPaint: Main underwater scene - Watch fish swim, and touch the screen to see them react. To add a custom fish - Tap Add Fish button. Snap a photo or import an image from your device. Your photo appears with a suggested fish cutout. Areas with blue overlay will not be part of your fish. You can move, scale, rotate, and flip your image. You can paint and erase the blue areas and create the exact fish shape you want, to fit the picture you're using. To add a custom diver - Tap Diver button. Snap a photo or import an image from your device. Your photo appears as the face of the diver. You can move, scale, or rotate your image to position it nicely within the diver's helmet. To record a video - Tap Record button. Now everything is being recorded, including audio through the device microphone. You can talk and make noise and touch the screen to affect the fish. Tapping Record button again stops the recording and saves this video to your Photo Library.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Puppet Pals at 3.8 against FishyPaint's 2.0. Puppet Pals also leads on ratings volume (50 vs 1) and review sentiment (71% vs 50%). FishyPaint's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 10) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 6 months). On price, 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
Both are free to download. Puppet Pals sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. FishyPaint asks for nothing beyond the download.
Puppet Pals holds the better App Store score, 3.8 against 2.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Puppet Pals has 50 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 71% of Puppet Pals's written reviews are positive against 50% of FishyPaint's.
Puppet Pals ships an update every 6 months, FishyPaint every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and September 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Puppet Pals | FishyPaint |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.8 (50 ratings) — better | 2.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 71.0% of reviews — better | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 50 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 7.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 77 MB | 82 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Polished Play, LLC | Shmonster LLC |
Customer experience
Puppet Pals
FishyPaint
Bugs and requests
Puppet Pals
Reported bugs
3 issues- Crashes when trying to export videos
- Saved videos not playing back properly
- Issues with using own photos and characters
Requested features
4 requests- Add more characters, backgrounds, and themes
- Allow exporting and sharing of videos
- Improve video editing and recording features
- Add sound effects and background music options
FishyPaint
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Puppet Pals
- Wild West$0.99
- Political Par-tay$0.99
- Monsters$0.99
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- Talk Shows$0.99
- Pirates$0.99
- Fairytale$0.99
- Zombie Attack$0.99
- On the Farm$0.99
- Christmas$0.99
- Director's Pass$3.99
FishyPaint
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Puppet Pals free?
Is FishyPaint free?
Which has better reviews, Puppet Pals or FishyPaint?
Do Puppet Pals or FishyPaint have ads?
Which is updated more often, Puppet Pals or FishyPaint?
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