Comparison

Puppet Pals vs Felt Board

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Read full description

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.

About

Felt Board

Create scenes, dress characters, and invent stories with this digital felt board app. It's designed for imaginative play, storytelling, and learning, offering a vast collection of costumes, settings, and props. Save and edit your creations in a built-in gallery.

Highlights
  • Scene and character creation
  • Extensive costume and prop library
  • Storytelling and imaginative play
  • Save and edit designs
  • Educational resources (letters, numbers, shapes)
  • Fine motor skill development
Features
Read full description

Design scenes, dress up characters and let your imagination soar as you invent your own stories with Felt Board. Especially designed for imaginative play, storytelling and learning, Felt Board is perfect for children, families, teachers and therapists. Create characters by selecting skin color, hair and facial features. Choose from a wide variety of costumes, settings and props for hours of magical make believe play. And because it is an app, the pieces will never get lost. Recently updated with all new images, Felt Board now also includes a gallery to save and edit Felt Board designs.

 Whether used by children as a creative play set, or by adults as a storytelling resource and teaching aid, Felt Board offers a variety of benefits for children, including: - A simple user interface that allows independent exploration - A wide variety of characters and settings to encourage creativity and imaginative play - Fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination skills are developed while dragging, placing and pinching objects to scale - Colorful shapes, Letters and Numbers are included as an educational resource - Pattern block shapes that can be rotated to make geometric designs - Varied facial expressions to discuss emotions of characters - Community helpers characters and vehicles - Pieces for popular preschool and nursery songs, stories and rhymes including 5 Little Monkeys, Old MacDonald, Itsy Bitsy Spider, 3 Billy Goats Gruff and more Winner Best Kids Toy App, 2012 Best App Ever Awards

 –––––––––––––––––-----------------------––––––––––––––––––––---------––––––––––––––––
 KNOW WHAT'S INSIDE
 As a MOMs with Apps member, we follow the "Know what's inside" best practices for kids’ apps 
–––––––––––––––––––––––------------------------––––––––––––––––––––---------––––––––––

 Privacy: We do not collect or store personal information. Felt Board does not include ads, links to social media or in app purchase. 

What reviewers are saying: 

“One of my favorite apps for early learning.” – Childcareland 

“The kindergarten teacher in me is doing cartwheels and flips over my latest app find: Felt Board by Software Smoothie.” – The Orange County Register, OC Moms 

“We love the open-ended nature of this app with plenty of backgrounds to keep your child engaged.” – Kindertown

 “Felt Board is a lovely app for iPad, a charming simulated rendition of a traditional felt board…” – Giggle Apps 

“LOVE, love, love this app from Software Smoothie!” – The iPhone Mom 

“This app has a variety of benefits for children with Special Needs.” – Somewhere Over the Spectrum 

“Little kids and big kids alike will love this app..” – Four Monkeys 4 Me 

“The sky’s the limit with this brilliant app.” – Storytiming Flannel Friday 

“I see all sorts of uses for this app – It’s great for fine motor practice, imaginary play, as a stimulus speech practice and for storytelling, but above all it is fun and creative.” – The iMum 

“An excellent app to share with your loved ones…” – Apps 4 Moms 

“A rare gem in a sea of fool’s gold…” – Pre-K Pages

Screenshots

Puppet Pals4 screens
Felt Board4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Puppet Pals at Free against Felt Board's $2.99. Puppet Pals also leads on ratings volume (50 vs 8). Felt Board's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 3.8) and in-app purchases (none vs 10). On 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

Puppet Pals is free to download; Felt Board costs $2.99 up front. Puppet Pals sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Felt Board asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Felt Board holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Puppet Pals has 50 ratings behind it against 8, 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 98% of Felt Board's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Puppet Pals ships an update every 6 months, Felt Board every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on September 27, 2026 and July 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Puppet Pals versus Felt Board: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPuppet PalsFelt Board
PriceFree — better$2.99
Rating3.8 (50 ratings)5.0 (8 ratings) — better
Positive reviews71.0% of reviews98.1% of reviews — better
Number of ratings50 — better8
Update frequencyEvery 6 monthsEvery 5 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.010.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size77 MB640 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPolished Play, LLCSoftware Smoothie

Customer experience

Puppet Pals

All ratings50 ratings
Positive68.0%
Neutral8.0%
Negative24.0%
Written reviews210 reviews
Positive71.0%
Neutral7.6%
Negative21.4%

Felt Board

All ratings8 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews52 reviews
Positive98.1%
Neutral0.0%
Negative1.9%

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

Felt Board

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Puppet Pals

One-time10
  • Wild West$0.99
  • Political Par-tay$0.99
  • Monsters$0.99
Show 7 more
  • 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
None

Felt Board

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Puppet Pals free?
Puppet Pals is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Felt Board free?
Felt Board costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Puppet Pals or Felt Board?
Felt Board is rated higher. Puppet Pals averages 3.8 out of 5 from 50 ratings, while Felt Board averages 5.0 from 8 ratings.
Do Puppet Pals or Felt Board have ads?
Neither Puppet Pals nor Felt Board shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Puppet Pals or Felt Board?
Puppet Pals ships an update every 6 months, and Felt Board every 5 months. Most recently, Puppet Pals was updated on September 27, 2026 and Felt Board on July 9, 2026.

Other comparisons