Comparison

ElfYourself® vs Elf Studio

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

Head to head
About

ElfYourself®

Personalize holiday videos by adding your face to dancing elves. Create custom videos with up to five faces and choose from various dances. Share your festive creations as greetings or on social media.

Highlights
  • Personalized elf dance videos
  • Add up to 5 faces
  • Dozens of dance options
  • Automatic video creation
  • Social media sharing
  • Send holiday greetings
Features
Read full description

The most popular app of the Holiday Season 14 years running is back with great new dances and features! This holiday tradition lets you "Elf Yourself" and star in dozens of personalized videos with your face on dancing elves. Add up to 5 faces, then select a dance and the app automatically creates your video! Share your dancing skills on social media - or message a super fun holiday greeting to your friends and family. It's as easy as pie! ElfYourself is FREE to download and enjoy, some dances are free, but most require purchase to unlock. You can purchase dances individually or get our Season Pass to access all content and remove ads for 12 months! Subscription Details Choose our Season Pass to subscribe for 12 months. Your iTunes account will be charged the listed annual fee until you cancel. Cancellation is easy through your iTunes settings. When you confirm your purchase, payment will be charged through your iTunes account. Your subscription will automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period. Don't want to auto-renew? Manage your account and renewal settings in your user Account Settings. Cancel your subscription anytime through your Account Settings. No cancellation fee. Privacy Policy: https://www.elfyourself.com/?page=privacy Terms of Use: https://www.elfyourself.com/?page=tos Happy Elfing!

About

Elf Studio

Create magical videos and photos of Santa and his elves visiting your home using augmented reality. Place characters in any environment, customize their appearance and animations, and record your own festive scenes.

Highlights
  • Add Santa Claus and elves
  • Unlimited elves and recording time
  • Create custom elves with Elf Workshop
  • Customize elf outfits and accessories
  • Elves with walking and dancing animations
  • Pre-plan or perform animations
  • Customize lighting, shadows, and camera filters
Features
Read full description

Welcome to Elf Studio! The latest technological marvel to come from the Software Elves here at the North Pole Command Center (Creators of Speak to Santa)! Elf Studio gives you the tools create video or photographic proof of Santa & his elves visiting your house! Using the power of Augmented Reality, you can now place elves & Santa Claus into any environment (as long as it's flat)! After setting your elves down, start recording! It's that simple! Your elves can dance, skip, run, stumble, breakdance, jump, moonwalk and even perform the Thriller dance! Check out these features: - Add Santa Claus as well as his elves to your scenes! - No limit to number of elves that can be placed in a scene, 1, 10, 100, it's up to you! - No recording limits, record for 10 minutes if you want! - Take pictures of your elves as well as recording them on film! - Create your own elves with the Elf Workshop! Thousands of different elf creations are possible! - Completely customise your elf outfits with up to 60 different colours! - Now with Elf Glasses! Add some funky sunglasses, or some nice reading glasses to your elf creations! - Walking elves! Place down some candy canes and your elf will follow them! Endless possibilities when combined with other elves! With tons of different walking animations to choose from! - Standing elves! Place down elves that can perform an action, or just idle with over 200 animations to choose from! - Dancing elves! Place down elves that can perform one of over 50 different dances! From breakdancing to Gangnam Style! - Intuitive system to either preplan animations with candy cane waypoints before recording starts, or perform an animation once recording has already started! - Customise lighting and shadows! Make your elves blend into any environment by changing the lighting direction, lighting colour and brightness! - Camera filters! Its so simple! Scan an environment like a living room, garden, bedroom! Add some elves, set up your lighting and shadows, hit record! Once recording choose more animations to play! Made by the software elves here at the North Pole Command Center!

Screenshots

ElfYourself®4 screens
Elf Studio4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Elf Studio at none against ElfYourself®'s shown. Elf Studio also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs fortnightly). ElfYourself®'s advantage is review sentiment (66% vs 45%) and ratings volume (28K vs 3.7K). On price, rating, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

Both are free to download. ElfYourself® sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per year and Elf Studio sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for ElfYourself® against 4.7 for Elf Studio. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ElfYourself® has 28K ratings behind it against 3.7K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 66% of ElfYourself®'s written reviews are positive against 45% of Elf Studio's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ElfYourself® ships an update fortnightly, Elf Studio every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on September 28, 2026 and September 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
ElfYourself® versus Elf Studio: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterElfYourself®Elf Studio
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (28K ratings) — better4.7 (3.7K ratings)
Positive reviews65.7% of reviews — better45.5% of reviews
Number of ratings28K — better3.7K
Update frequencyFortnightlyEvery 3 days — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.013.0
Further details — not scored
Size102 MB228 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMagic Mirror LLCNorth Pole Command Centre Limited

Customer experience

ElfYourself®

All ratings27,739 ratings
Positive94.7%
Neutral2.0%
Negative3.3%
Written reviews1,141 reviews
Positive65.7%
Neutral9.4%
Negative24.9%

Elf Studio

All ratings3,737 ratings
Positive90.9%
Neutral3.2%
Negative5.9%
Written reviews99 reviews
Positive45.5%
Neutral6.1%
Negative48.5%

User reviews

ElfYourself®

From 28K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🤩 So much fun!!!
  • 😂 Funny and entertaining
  • 👍 Great for family and friends
  • 💖 Brings back good memories

Room to improve

  • 💰 Paid options are too expensive
  • 🤖 AI filters make videos look abnormal
  • 🤔 Confusing subscription model
  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs

Elf Studio

From 3.7K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🎅 Elf-themed game
  • 👍 Fun for kids
  • 💡 Ability to create elf scenes

Room to improve

  • 💰 Many features locked behind paywall
  • 🐛 Glitchy performance
  • 🚫 Limited free functionality

Bugs and requests

ElfYourself®

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Videos not saving properly
  • Black screen issue on certain devices
  • Purchased content disappearing

Requested features

4 requests
  • More free dances and songs
  • Ability to change elf outfits
  • Easier sharing options
  • Improved video quality for paid version

Elf Studio

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Unable to scan surfaces for elf placement
  • Crashes and freezes when trying to use app

Requested features

3 requests
  • More free customization options
  • Ability to save and share created scenes
  • Improved surface detection for elf placement

In-app purchases

9 purchases

ElfYourself®

Subscriptions1
  • ElfYourself® Season Pass 2020$6.991 Year
One-time8
  • Disco Dance$0.99
  • 80s Dance$0.99
  • Classic Dance$0.99
Show 5 more
  • HipHop Dance$0.99
  • All Dances$4.99
  • All Dances2 variants$5.99
  • All Dances$6.99
  • All Dances$7.99
10 purchases

Elf Studio

Subscriptions4
  • Unlock Elf Studio$1.991 Month
  • Elf Studio™ - Monthly$2.991 Month
  • Unlock Elf Studio$3.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Elf Studio™ - Annual$6.991 Year
One-time6
  • 50+ Elf Dance Animations$0.99
  • 1 Credit - Pro Price$1.99
  • 5 Credits - Pro Price$5.99
Show 3 more
  • 10 Credits - Pro Price$9.99
  • Elf Studio - Lifetime Pass$19.99
  • 25 Credits - Pro Price$22.99

Questions

Is ElfYourself® free?
ElfYourself® is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Elf Studio free?
Elf Studio is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, ElfYourself® or Elf Studio?
ElfYourself® is rated higher. ElfYourself® averages 4.8 out of 5 from 28K ratings, while Elf Studio averages 4.7 from 3.7K ratings.
Do ElfYourself® or Elf Studio have ads?
ElfYourself® shows ads; Elf Studio does not.
Which is updated more often, ElfYourself® or Elf Studio?
ElfYourself® ships an update fortnightly, and Elf Studio every 3 days. Most recently, ElfYourself® was updated on September 28, 2026 and Elf Studio on September 25, 2026.

Other comparisons