Comparison

PuppetMaster vs Puppet Pals

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

Head to head
About

PuppetMaster

Create animated videos by acting out scenes or touching the screen. Record your voice to bring characters to life in real-time. Features motion capture, multi-touch control, and the ability to use custom puppets and backgrounds.

Highlights
  • Real-time animation
  • Motion capture
  • Multi-touch animation
  • Create custom puppets
  • Create custom backgrounds
  • Export and share videos
Read full description

PuppetMaster: Animate. Literally. Anything. This animation app lets you instantly bring to life anything you want, just by acting things out in front of the camera or touching the screen. Your voice is recorded as well. The result is your own animated video you can save and share! The app even has fun guided activities that kids can follow along and do, making arts and crafts and then animating them. Features include: * Real-time animation - you animate in the moment, while you talk, and your puppet comes to life in front of your eyes. * Motion capture - intuitively animate characters just by moving your body in front of the device camera. Use front or back camera. (Best results are usually with back camera of newer devices.) * Multi-touch - animate by touching and dragging the puppet and its body parts on the screen, even using both hands or working together with a friend. * Animate one or two puppets - you can have one puppet on its own, or two puppets where both can move and you can control which one is talking at any time. * Create your own puppets - bring to life your physical artwork, your favorite toys, a person or animal, random stuff like your snacks arranged as a character, really anything you like! * Create your own backgrounds - use a painting you made, a diorama, some interesting place, or anything else you want as your background. * Choose from our designs - the app comes with a bunch of cool puppets and backgrounds already in it, in a cute hand drawn style that you can mix and match with your own creations. * Export and share videos with audio - save a video of your puppet show, complete with the audio of your performance, locally and also to social media, cloud storage, or any other typical sharing method. * In-app streaming tutorials and activities - guiding kids through using the app for visual storytelling, and teaching them how to create various physical art pieces and animate them. On our website and social media you'll find more project ideas, educational support, and lesson plans for teachers and homeschooling parents. PuppetMaster was named one of the Best Apps for Teaching and Learning by the American Association of School Librarians. It's a great open ended creative activity for children, supports ISTE standards, and is a great way to integrate the arts into any academic subject for a more engaging class. (Teachers say they prefer it to stop motion animation because it's so much easier and faster.) See our privacy and terms here: https://www.shmonster.com/privacyterms/

About

Puppet Pals

This app provides a complete toolkit for students to create animated stories, ideal for educational projects like book reports and historical reenactments. It allows for custom character and backdrop creation using drawing or photos, and includes over 100 pre-loaded characters. The app is safe for schools with no online sharing or ads.

Highlights
  • Create animated stories
  • Draw custom characters and backdrops
  • Use photos as characters/backgrounds
  • Over 100 pre-loaded characters
  • Printable lesson plans and resources
  • Offline functionality
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

The complete classroom storytelling toolkit Puppet Pals helps students bring learning to life through animated storytelling. Create book reports, historical reenactments, science explanations, and more — all with the magic of puppet theater. Everything included. No subscriptions. No in-app purchases. Unlimited characters! DRAW: Students can draw unlimited custom characters and backdrops, bringing any story to life. PHOTO: Students can turn any photo into a character or background. INCLUDED: Over 100 pre-loaded characters NEW: Printable Lesson Plans & Resources Ready-to-use activities aligned to curriculum standards: English Language Arts — Story structure, character development, dialogue History — "Interview a Historical Figure" projects, timeline presentations Science — Explain-a-concept projects, hypothesis presentations Social-Emotional Learning — Conflict resolution, feelings identification World Languages — Vocabulary skits, conversation practice Assessment rubrics included to evaluate student storytelling projects. Safe for schools: No online sharing or social features No accounts required No advertisements Works completely offline Perfect for elementary and middle school classrooms, homeschool families, speech therapy, and special education settings.

Screenshots

PuppetMaster4 screens
Puppet Pals4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: PuppetMaster at Free against Puppet Pals's $6.99. PuppetMaster also leads on ratings volume (52 vs 13) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.0). Puppet Pals's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 6) and review sentiment (70% vs 39%). On rating, 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

PuppetMaster is free to download; Puppet Pals costs $6.99 up front. PuppetMaster sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Puppet Pals asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.0 for PuppetMaster against 4.1 for Puppet Pals. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 52 and 13 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 39% of PuppetMaster's written reviews are positive against 70% of Puppet Pals's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PuppetMaster ships an update monthly, Puppet Pals every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 20, 2026 and September 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
PuppetMaster versus Puppet Pals: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPuppetMasterPuppet Pals
PriceFree — better$6.99
Rating4.0 (52 ratings)4.1 (13 ratings) — better
Positive reviews39.5% of reviews69.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings52 — better13
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
Best chart rank—#197 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS13.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size415 MB75 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperShmonster LLCPolished Play, LLC

Customer experience

PuppetMaster

All ratings50 ratings
Positive70.0%
Neutral8.0%
Negative22.0%
Written reviews38 reviews
Positive39.5%
Neutral13.2%
Negative47.4%

Puppet Pals

All ratings13 ratings
Positive69.2%
Neutral7.7%
Negative23.1%
Written reviews33 reviews
Positive69.7%
Neutral6.1%
Negative24.2%

In-app purchases

6 purchases

PuppetMaster

Subscriptions4
  • Creative Kids' Activities7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Animation7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Creative Kids' Activities7 Days trial$24.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Animation7 Days trial$24.991 Year
One-time2
  • Animation$2.99
  • Animation$24.99
None

Puppet Pals

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is PuppetMaster free?
PuppetMaster is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Puppet Pals free?
Puppet Pals costs $6.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, PuppetMaster or Puppet Pals?
Puppet Pals is rated higher. PuppetMaster averages 4.0 out of 5 from 52 ratings, while Puppet Pals averages 4.1 from 13 ratings.
Do PuppetMaster or Puppet Pals have ads?
Neither PuppetMaster nor Puppet Pals shows ads.
Which is updated more often, PuppetMaster or Puppet Pals?
PuppetMaster ships an update monthly, and Puppet Pals every 3 weeks. Most recently, PuppetMaster was updated on September 20, 2026 and Puppet Pals on September 11, 2026.

Other comparisons