Thisissand vs Pottery.ly 3D
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Thisissand
Create and share mesmerizing sand art with this therapeutic app. Watch vibrant sand layers form, relax to soothing sounds, and explore a variety of color tools to design unique sand pictures. Join a community of artists and showcase your creations.
- Sand art creation
- Relaxing soundscapes
- Color Palette tool
- Color Shifter tool
- Color Picker from camera
- Photo Sand feature
- Save custom colors
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Thisissand is an app for making and sharing pictures out of sand. Watch and listen to the sand piling into beautiful layers of sand on the bottom of your screen and get relaxed during the slow and therapeutic process. Once finished, share your creation and become a part of the community! • Free to download and free to play • Does not display ads • Offers you to sign-up, but does not require you to • Offers you to purchase a Toolkit of special features, but does not require you to - - - - - - - - - - Thisissand was created in 2008 as a website. It was a school project of a few art students, and to a surprise for the creators it attracted lots of visitors for years to come. In 2012 Thisissand was developed into an app and is still run by an original founder. Thisissand offers different kinds of tools for choosing the sand color. Originally and still at the moment on Thisissand website, only the essential Color Palette tool is available. For the app, we have developed a few special kinds of tools which we offer in the Toolkit in-app purchase. Just like on the website, the special tools are not at all necessary to enjoy the app, but they're pretty cool and we're happy and thankful for your support if you're willing to try them out! COLOR PALETTE: Use Color Palette to choose specific colors from a vast swatch of colors. You may choose a solid color, or multiple colors to variate between. Use the intensity slider to adjust how fast the colors change. You may also use the randomize button to get surprising color combos. COLOR SHIFTER: Color Shifter continuously changes the sand color subtly or dramatically depending on the intensity slider adjustment. Color Shifter often produces rainbow like hues. To set the initial Color Shifter color, choose a color with Color Palette and then select the Color Shifter tool. COLOR PICKER: With Color Picker, you may pick the sand color from around you using your device camera. It takes a little practice to point your camera and draw at the same time, but in return you get truly unique colors. Try adjusting the color change intensity low in the beginning to keep things under control! PHOTO SAND: Want to try making a sand version of one of your photos? Photo Sand picks the sand color directly from the photo you've chosen from your camera roll. Try it out and learn the tricks to make abstract and/or photorealistic representations! MY COLORS: Save your favorite colors in My Colors and access them quickly by long pressing the color button on the sand canvas. Try saving colors from around with Color Picker! - - - - - - - - - - We highly value your feedback and questions. Ideas and feature requests for example are warmly welcome, even though with our scarce resources we're unfortunately not able to fulfil them very quickly. So please do send us email if you're having trouble with the app or if you have anything else to share with us, thank you! :) support@thisissand.com - - - - - - - - - - Follow us twitter.com/thisissandapp instagram.com/thisissandapp facebook.com/thisissand
Pottery.ly 3D
Create unique ceramic art in a relaxing digital environment. Shape, texture, and decorate your virtual pottery. Share your masterpieces with a vibrant community or friends.
- Shape ceramics with powerful yet simple tools
- Apply various textures
- Decorate with custom designs
- Share creations with friends
- Engage with an in-app community
- Relaxing and therapeutic gameplay
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Pottery.ly is a super relaxing pottery game that allows you to create your own unique ceramics. You can shape your ceramics anyway you like, and you can choose which texture you would want them to be in. But it’s not over yet, you can even draw on it to make it truly a one of a kind masterpiece. Creating an amazing looking ceramic is a very relaxing and satisfying process, and the result can be even more accomplishing. You can share your works with your friends, or you can even share it on the Pottery.ly community to inspire others! AWESOME FEATURES: - Simple but powerful tools: the tools are not only very easy to use, but also allow you to create pottery of any shape, texture, and pattern. - Awesome community: you can share your works or view others on the built in Pottery.ly community. Creativity is limitless! - Super relaxing gameplay: Pottery.ly offers a truly relaxing, therapeutic, and pleasant gameplay experience that you can share with your friends and family. Let’s play Pottery.ly now and start making your first ceramic masterpiece! SUBSCRIPTION INFO - Pottery.ly can be accessed for free. Free users have access to free content. The free version may include interstitial, banner, and native ads. - You can purchase a weekly, monthly, or yearly subscription to unlock all content and remove ads. - Payment will be charged to your Apple ID account at confirmation of purchase. - Subscriptions automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. The account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours before the end of the current period. - Subscriptions may be managed and auto-renewal may be turned off in your Apple ID subscription settings after purchase. Canceling trial or subscription You can cancel the subscription anytime in your Apple ID subscription settings. See https://support.apple.com/HT202039. When the current subscription period expires, access to Premium content will end. Contact: incolor.feedback@hotmail.com Terms of Service: http://incolor.cc/en/agreement.html Privacy Policy: http://incolor.cc/en/privacy.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Thisissand at none against Pottery.ly 3D's shown. Thisissand also leads on review sentiment (83% vs 69%) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 15). Pottery.ly 3D's advantage is update cadence (monthly vs every 2 months). On price, rating, ratings volume and in-app purchases 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. Thisissand sells 7 one-off in-app purchases and Pottery.ly 3D sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $4.49 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Thisissand holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1.5K and 2.9K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 83% of Thisissand's written reviews are positive against 69% of Pottery.ly 3D's.
Thisissand ships an update every 2 months, Pottery.ly 3D monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Thisissand | Pottery.ly 3D |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (1.5K ratings) — better | 4.3 (2.9K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 83.3% of reviews — better | 69.4% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1.5K | 2.9K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Monthly — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 15 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 47 MB | 196 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Beige Elephant | EYEWIND LIMITED |
Customer experience
Thisissand
Pottery.ly 3D
User reviews
Thisissand
From 1.5K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 💎 Relaxing and calming experience
- 🎨 Allows for creative expression
- 🔒 No ads or distractions
- 🤩 Satisfying sand effects
- 🤗 Supportive and friendly community
Room to improve
- 💰 Many features locked behind paywall
- 🐛 Occasional glitches and bugs
- 🔍 Difficult to find/access previous creations
- 🖌️ Limited color customization options
Pottery.ly 3D
From 2.9K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 💡 Endless creative possibilities
- 👍 Relaxing and calming experience
- 🚀 Smooth and responsive app
- 👍 Satisfying pottery-making process
- 👍 Ability to share creations with others
Room to improve
- 🔒 Subscription required for full access
- 🐛 Glitchy and buggy app experience
- 📺 Excessive and intrusive advertisements
- 👎 Limited free content and features
- 👎 Difficult to control and shape pottery
Bugs and requests
Thisissand
Reported bugs
4 issues- Screen going black after selecting photo sand
- Inability to post/share creations at times
- Inconsistent performance and loading issues
- Camera/microphone activation without user consent
Requested features
5 requests- Undo/erase functionality
- Ability to follow and comment on other users' creations
- More free color and sand options
- Improved search and organization of user content
- Save/resume unfinished creations
Pottery.ly 3D
Reported bugs
4 issues- Inability to like or comment on others' work
- Inconsistent behavior when using drawing tools
- Pottery shapes not matching user's input
- Ads not working or causing crashes
Requested features
5 requests- More customization options for pottery
- Ability to import own images and designs
- Offline mode for creating pottery
- Improved social features and community
- Better performance and stability
In-app purchases
Thisissand
- Color Palette$0.99
- HD Sand$0.99
- My Colors Expansion$0.99
Show 4 moreShow fewer
- Color Picker$0.99
- Color Shifter$0.99
- Toolkit (reduced price)$0.99
- Toolkit$1.99
Pottery.ly 3D
- weekly subscription7 Days trial$4.497 Days
- monthly subscription$8.991 Month
- yearly subscription$34.991 Year
- level1$5.99
- level2$10.99
- level3$21.99
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- level4$34.99









