Comparison

ElfYourself® vs Video Call Santa

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

Video Call Santa

Experience the magic of Christmas with a personalized video call from Santa Claus. Choose your Santa, schedule a call, and let him greet your child by name. Capture precious moments and discover wish lists through interactive conversations.

Highlights
  • Choose American or British Santa
  • Schedule calls or connect instantly
  • Incoming or outgoing calls
  • Personalized greetings by name
  • Santa asks about behavior and wish list
  • Record and save video conversations
  • Passcode-protected parent recordings
Features
Read full description

No 1 Overall in the US, UK, Ireland, and Australia The original Video Call Santa is back with our biggest update! “This Genius Video Call Santa app will keep the Christmas magic alive.” - GoodtoKnow “Get your child to behave over the festive period by scheduling an interactive video call from Father Christmas.” - The Sun “Video Call Santa is a free app that offers a ton of options for creating a personalized call from him.” - NBC News “Video Call Santa is a special app that will give you a direct line to Santa whenever you need it.” - ABC Action News “Santa? Is that you? Believe it or not Santa has gotten pretty tech-savvy over the years. He does it all and now he can video chat.” - WFAA-TV ABC “Santa asks your child their name, if they have been good and what’s on their wish list. This is a must-try as you watch your child’s face light up.” - News 6 at Nine, WKMG-TV CBS “Want to call Santa? There’s an app for that. Video Call Santa lets your kids chat with Santa on your iPhone, and you can save a video of the conversation.” - The Mac Observer “Wouldn’t it be great knowing what your children or grandchildren want for Christmas without having to ask them directly?” - Kim Komando “In the smartphone age, kids can now have a quick video chat with jolly old St. Nick with the Video Call Santa app.” - CNET “Instead of writing a letter to Santa your kids can actually talk to him through a video call through this new app called Video Call Santa” - Cambridgeshire Live “Do you want me to ring Santa about that? … He knows who I am. You can set it up for the kids!” - Today “Thank heavens this app popped up, and not only was it adorable, it worked like a charm. Thanks, Santa!” - Southshore Moms “iPhone users can get their own video call from Santa with the help of the Video Call Santa app.” - Good Housekeeping “A great tool to have in your back pocket when the little one begins to act up. Santa is always at your fingertips.” - Hot 107.9 “He wasn't listening to me so I asked him if he wanted me to call Santa. Now he's being an angel #ThankMeLater” - Julia, a makeup artist mom Check out how our app has been delivering happiness to our users: https://www.facebook.com/VideoCallSanta FEATURES • Choose your Santa: American or British • Connect with Santa right away or set up a time you want to start a video call • Choose to have your calls as incoming (Santa calls you) or outgoing (you call Santa) • Choose your Episode 46 Episodes to choose from • Let Santa greet your child by name Choose from 7,000+ popular names • Santa asks a series of questions including, “Have you been naughty or nice?” and “What do you want for Christmas?” • Each conversation is captured on video, allowing parents to save precious moments to their camera roll and easily share them on social media • Parents can check out video recordings protected by passcodes to find out what their kids want this Christmas • Use Face ID or Touch ID for Parents Only page • Siri Shortcuts Connect with Santa or check your call reservation status without even opening the app • Offers Apple Watch App for iPhone Check your reservations and recordings at a glance • Offers iMessage App for iOS Share your video recordings with just one click PLEASE NOTE Video Call Santa is free to download and use. Our app is entertaining enough to use without paying, however, some in-app items can be purchased to make your experience a little more personalized. You can disable in-app purchases in your device settings. Prices are in USD. Pricing in other countries may vary. ————————————————————— PHOTO LICENSE Kids by gemteck1 (CC BY-SA 2.0) PREVIEW CREDITS Shared by real users. For full versions, visit https://www.facebook.com/VideoCallSanta

Screenshots

ElfYourself®4 screens
Video Call Santa4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: ElfYourself® at fortnightly against Video Call Santa's every 6 weeks. Video Call Santa's advantage is ratings volume (160K vs 28K). On price, rating, 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

Both are free to download. ElfYourself® sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per year and Video Call Santa sells 22 one-off in-app purchases. 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 Video Call Santa. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Video Call Santa has 160K ratings behind it against 28K, 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 62% of Video Call Santa's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ElfYourself® ships an update fortnightly, Video Call Santa every 6 weeks. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
ElfYourself® versus Video Call Santa: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterElfYourself®Video Call Santa
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (28K ratings) — better4.7 (160K ratings)
Positive reviews65.8% of reviews — better62.3% of reviews
Number of ratings28K160K — better
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterEvery 6 weeks
AdsYesYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS13.012 — better
Further details — not scored
Size102 MB308 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMagic Mirror LLCDualverse, Inc.

Customer experience

ElfYourself®

All ratings27,758 ratings
Positive94.7%
Neutral2.0%
Negative3.3%
Written reviews1,143 reviews
Positive65.8%
Neutral9.4%
Negative24.8%

Video Call Santa

All ratings152,554 ratings
Positive91.5%
Neutral2.9%
Negative5.6%
Written reviews464 reviews
Positive62.3%
Neutral4.5%
Negative33.2%

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

Video Call Santa

From 160K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Fun and engaging app
  • 🎅 Realistic Santa interaction
  • 💝 Brings joy to kids
  • 🎄 Personalized with child's name

Room to improve

  • 🤖 Repetitive/scripted responses
  • 💰 Paid features/upgrades required
  • 🔇 Audio/recording issues
  • 🕰️ Short call duration

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

Video Call Santa

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Calls getting dropped or not connecting
  • Paid features not working as expected
  • Compatibility issues with certain devices

Requested features

4 requests
  • Ability to have longer/more interactive calls
  • More customization options for call content
  • Support for multiple children in one call
  • Improved audio/recording quality

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
22 purchases

Video Call Santa

One-time22
  • Aaliyah$1.99
  • Aarav$1.99
  • Aaron$1.99
Show 19 more
  • Aarush$1.99
  • Abby$1.99
  • Abdul$1.99
  • Abdullah$1.99
  • Abel$1.99
  • Abigail$1.99
  • Emma$1.99
  • Ava$1.99
  • Olivia$1.99
  • Christmas Day Episode$2.99
  • Nice Episode$2.99
  • Naughty Episode$2.99
  • Sleep on Time Episode$2.99
  • Christmas Eve Episode$2.99
  • Premium$3.99
  • VIP Package from All Episodes$5.99
  • All Episodes$9.99
  • VIP Package from Premium$10.99
  • VIP Package$14.99

Questions

Is ElfYourself® free?
ElfYourself® is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Video Call Santa free?
Video Call Santa is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, ElfYourself® or Video Call Santa?
ElfYourself® is rated higher. ElfYourself® averages 4.8 out of 5 from 28K ratings, while Video Call Santa averages 4.7 from 160K ratings.
Do ElfYourself® or Video Call Santa have ads?
Both ElfYourself® and Video Call Santa show ads.
Which is updated more often, ElfYourself® or Video Call Santa?
ElfYourself® ships an update fortnightly, and Video Call Santa every 6 weeks. Most recently, ElfYourself® was updated on October 24, 2026 and Video Call Santa on October 24, 2026.

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