Comparison

iStopMotion vs Life Lapse Stop Motion

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

Head to head
About

iStopMotion

Create stop motion animations and time-lapse recordings with ease. This app allows users of all ages to tell stories frame by frame, making it a fun creative experience for families and an educational tool for classrooms. Features include camera overlays, instant playback, and audio import.

Highlights
  • Camera Overlay
  • Instant Playback
  • Timeline and Navigator
  • Import or Record Audio
  • Remote Camera Support
  • Flip Book Printing
Read full description

Join many thousands of iStopMotion fans and enjoy the excitement of creating stop motion animations (AKA claymation or stop action movies) and time lapse recordings with the highly-rated iStopMotion. You can be a master filmmaker, directing your own blockbuster animation movie. It's fun and easy for everybody from kids to grandparents to tell your story frame by frame, featuring your favorite toys. Turn the time spent with your children into a great creative experience and wow friends and family at your opening night. iStopMotion is also used in hundreds of classrooms all over the world in all disciplines, honing creativity, problem-solving and communication skills in students of all ages. KEY FEATURES AND BENEFITS Camera Overlay – Overlay the current live camera image with the previous one and see the changes unfold before your eyes. Animate more quickly and with a higher degree of accuracy. Instant Playback – Being able to play back your work at any time without a long wait leads to instant gratification. Beautiful Timeline and Navigator – Never get lost and quickly navigate through your movie, even if there are hundreds of frames. Import or Record Audio – Easily animate to a prerecorded sound track like the pros or dub your movie after shooting. A waveform view helps you recognize significant events in the sound track making it easy to match sound with the animation. Remote Camera – Position your camera more conveniently and avoid touching the camera device for capturing a frame with iStopMotion Remote Camera (download separately from the app store) - a free complementary app to iStopMotion! Theater – Be inspired by what other people create with iStopMotion or share your own masterpiece with the world. Flip Book Printing – Create a PDF that contains the key frames of your animation to print out and assemble into a nice flip book to show off to your friends and family. For more information, great examples, a forum and tech support go to boinx.com/istopmotion/ HIGH RATINGS FOR ISTOPMOTION "Once again, Boinx has done an excellent job…" – Steve Sande, TUAW.com "I was truly impressed with the quality of movies I could make with this software." – Derrick Story, TheDigitalStory.com *** Winner Macworld Best of Show 2013 *** *** Winner Macworld Best of Show 2012 and Mac Observer Editors Choice Awards ***

About

Life Lapse Stop Motion

Create captivating stop motion animations with ease using this intuitive app. Features include a 4K camera with ghost overlay, powerful editing tools, and built-in social media sharing. Perfect for beginners and professionals alike.

Highlights
  • 4K UHD stop motion camera with ghost overlay
  • Auto-stitching stop motion editor
  • Beginner-friendly interface
  • Stop motion tutorials
  • Blend stop motion with live action
  • 20+ one-click editing tools
  • Add music and sound effects
Features
Read full description

Stop Motion by Life Lapse lets you create your own stop motion movies and animations at home. - Create stunning stop motion animations with ease. - Download, share, and post to Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and other social media. - 4.8/5 from 35,000+ ratings in the App Store, App of the Day in 2024 and 2021. Unleash your creativity with Life Lapse: the ultimate EASY stop motion maker. Craft captivating animations, from mesmerizing stop motion to engaging social media content that will stop the scroll. Download Life Lapse now and experience stop-motion animation like never before. Our Features: ~ Stop Motion Camera: Shoot and film in 4K UHD resolution with our ghost overlay and hands-free tools like an interval timer ~ Stop Motion Editor: Life Lapse auto-stitches everything for you, making the stop motion process quick and easy ~ Easy to use + beginning friendly: Intuitive interface for all animators, even a beginner! ~ Stop Motion tutorials: dozens of tutorials to learn different stop motion techniques ~ Blend stop motion with live action from a single shot! Select "Life Lapse" project to shoot truly magical videos by using layers & masking. ~ Edit stop motion videos in seconds! 20+ Pro editing on-click stop motion tools (freeze, boomerang, reverse, filters and re-align after you've shot & more) ~ Easy to animate perfectly with our ghost/onion skin layer in camera. See your previous photo so you know how to move your animation next. ~ Add music and sound effects: Add and change the music soundtrack and sounds in your video. ~ Filters to make your video look amazing: Add video filters to control how your video looks and feels. ~ Easy to share on Social Media: Easily prepare your videos for Instagram or TikTok using our built-in guidelines. ~ Make your animations looks smooth and professional: Speed controls help make your animations smooth and silky! ~ Download to your phone: Save videos to your phone so you can send them to friends and family. Try PRO for Free: If you want to make more professional animations, experience the best stop-motion tool that is made for video content creators for FREE with a 7-day trial. After the 7 days is up, unless canceled before the 7 days, you will get access to Life Lapse with the annual subscription rate. Find us on Instagram/TikTok and share your work! See how others are using Life Lapse on Instagram at @LifeLapse_App or by searching #LifeLapse. We also feature Life Lapse video creators on our Instagram. For a chance to have YOUR stop motion videos featured share your Life Lapse video on Instagram & tag #LifeLapse or @LifeLapse_App. Send us your Feedback - support@lifelapseapp.com Have some feedback for us? Suggestions for new features? Or maybe just some questions on how to use the app? We’d love to hear from you! E-mail us at support@lifelapseapp.com with any questions and feedback you have and we’ll answer within 48 hours. Privacy Policy & Terms & Conditions: https://www.lifelapseapp.com/legal

Screenshots

iStopMotion4 screens
Life Lapse Stop Motion4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Life Lapse Stop Motion at Free against iStopMotion's $9.99. Life Lapse Stop Motion also leads on rating (4.8 vs 3.8) and ratings volume (9.5K vs 23). iStopMotion's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 6) and chart position (#168 vs unranked). On review sentiment and ads 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

Life Lapse Stop Motion is free to download; iStopMotion costs $9.99 up front. Life Lapse Stop Motion sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per 7 days. iStopMotion asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Life Lapse Stop Motion holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Life Lapse Stop Motion has 9.5K ratings behind it against 23, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 63% of iStopMotion's written reviews are positive against 69% of Life Lapse Stop Motion's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

iStopMotion ships an update every 2 months, Life Lapse Stop Motion every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard9 real differences · 2 level
iStopMotion versus Life Lapse Stop Motion: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteriStopMotionLife Lapse Stop Motion
Price$9.99Free — better
Rating3.8 (23 ratings)4.8 (9.5K ratings) — better
Positive reviews62.9% of reviews68.9% of reviews — better
Number of ratings239.5K — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#168 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS11.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size35 MB241 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBoinx Software International GmbHBolandia Creative Inc.

Customer experience

iStopMotion

All ratings23 ratings
Positive65.2%
Neutral13.0%
Negative21.7%
Written reviews175 reviews
Positive62.9%
Neutral5.1%
Negative32.0%

Life Lapse Stop Motion

All ratings9,509 ratings
Positive94.7%
Neutral2.3%
Negative3.0%
Written reviews488 reviews
Positive68.9%
Neutral7.8%
Negative23.4%

User reviews

iStopMotion

From 23 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Great for stop motion animation
  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🔍 Useful onion skinning feature
  • 📱 Ability to use iPhone as remote camera

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and freezes
  • 🔒 Compatibility issues with newer iOS versions
  • 🔒 Doesn't work on iPad 1
  • 🔒 Remote camera feature not reliable
  • 🔒 Inability to reorganize frames

Life Lapse Stop Motion

From 9.5K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Easy to use
  • 👍 Intuitive interface
  • 🎨 Allows for creative videos
  • 🤖 Helpful tutorials
  • 💡 Unique features like merging video and stop motion

Room to improve

  • 💰 Expensive subscription
  • 🔒 Restricted free version
  • 🐛 Crashes and bugs
  • 🔍 Difficult to find certain features
  • 🎵 Music/audio features locked behind paywall

Bugs and requests

iStopMotion

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Frames disappearing or showing as black screens
  • Exported videos not saving properly
  • Remote camera connection issues
  • App crashing on launch or during use

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add ability to import images from camera roll
  • Implement voice recording and audio editing
  • Add option to loop animations
  • Improve focus and exposure controls
  • Implement frame reordering and editing

Life Lapse Stop Motion

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • App crashes when trying to preview/download videos
  • Issues with importing external photos/videos
  • Freezing and performance problems
  • Inconsistent behavior across devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add more free music/audio options
  • Improve stability and reduce crashes
  • Allow more customization in free version
  • Add support for external photo/video import
  • Improve iPad optimization

In-app purchases

None

iStopMotion

No in-app purchases

5 purchases

Life Lapse Stop Motion

Subscriptions4
  • Stop Motion Pro Weekly$6.997 Days
  • Stop Motion Pro Monthly$8.991 Month
  • Stop Motion Pro7 Days trial$49.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Life Lapse Pro7 Days trial$79.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime Access2 variants$129.00

Questions

Is iStopMotion free?
iStopMotion costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Life Lapse Stop Motion free?
Life Lapse Stop Motion is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, iStopMotion or Life Lapse Stop Motion?
Life Lapse Stop Motion is rated higher. iStopMotion averages 3.8 out of 5 from 23 ratings, while Life Lapse Stop Motion averages 4.8 from 9.5K ratings.
Do iStopMotion or Life Lapse Stop Motion have ads?
Neither iStopMotion nor Life Lapse Stop Motion shows ads.
Which is updated more often, iStopMotion or Life Lapse Stop Motion?
iStopMotion ships an update every 2 months, and Life Lapse Stop Motion every 2 weeks. Most recently, iStopMotion was updated on November 6, 2026 and Life Lapse Stop Motion on November 9, 2026.

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