Comparison

DRAWNIMAL vs The Monsters by Tinybop

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

Head to head
About

DRAWNIMAL

This app combines drawing and learning the alphabet by having children draw animals around a device. It encourages creative thinking and offers a fun, interactive way to practice letters with animations and audio.

Highlights
  • Draw and animate animals
  • Learn the alphabet creatively
  • Interactive drawing experience
  • Supports 35 animals
  • Available in 5 languages
  • No internet or ads
Features
Read full description

Draw funny animals! Learn the alphabet! Expand your device with pen and paper! DRAWNIMAL is a unique app where kids draw adorable animals while learning the alphabet. With your phone or tablet placed on paper, kids select an animal face from the alphabet menu and draw around the device. The app then instructs how to draw the rest of the animal body. The digital screen is inventively extended with a simple physical interaction, which encourages kids to think outside the box. Hilarious and delightful animations motivate to keep learning. Our primary goal with the app was to expand your device by using simple tangible tools like pen and paper. Features: + Play with up to 35 animals + Get the first 5 animals (A-E) for free + Draw animals and see them come alive with animation + Practice the alphabet in a creative and interactive way + Switch between 5 languages + Lively animations and impressive audio + No failing, no goal, no wrong or right + Supports all iPads and iPhones with iOS 16 or later + No internet access needed! + No advertisements! Available in 5 languages with full voice acting: English, Spanish, German, French and Italian! Learn more about YATATOY: yatatoy.com Contact us for assistance or to give feedback: https://yatatoy.com/info/ MADE BY YATATOY

About

The Monsters by Tinybop

Transform shadows into unique, imaginative creatures. Customize their features, bring them to life with emotions, and interact with them through play, sound, and even selfies. This open-ended building app encourages creativity for children.

Highlights
  • Create unique monsters from shadows
  • Customize monster features and appearance
  • Animate monsters with emotions
  • Feed monsters and make them sing/dance
  • Take monster selfies
  • Explore different rooms and play areas
  • Record custom monster sounds
Features
Read full description

Turn shadows on the wall into wild and wooly creatures. Give them googly eyes, tiny arms, too many horns, spotted tails, or sparkly fur — any assortment of fantastical features that you like. Bring your monsters to life! Make them happy or sad, nervous or bad, lovely or mad. Feed them radioactive snacks and make them sing and dance. Take a monster selfie and decorate with stickers. Make the monsters of your dreams! “Weird, but in a good way” — Geeks with Juniors "A wonderful aesthetic experience" — Warren Buckleitner, Children's Technology Review The Monsters is the third app in Tinybop’s Digital Toys, a series of open-ended building apps that let kids ages 4+ create, play with, and collect whatever they can imagine. The second is The Everything Machine, an App Store Editors’ Choice and Children’s Technology Review Editor’s Choice. The first, The Robot Factory, is a Parents’ Choice Gold Award winner and the iPad App of the Year. FEATURES + Make monsters! Turn shadows into the creatures of your dreams...or nightmares. Millions of monsters are possible. + Give your monsters lots of arms and legs. Stretch or shrink their limbs as you like. + Add all kinds of eyes, mouths, and horns to your monsters. Give them scales or fur, feathers or hair. + Paint your monster with different colors, sparkles, spots, scales, and more! + Make happy, sad, scared, or mad monsters. What will yours be like? + Explore different rooms. In the closet, turn shadows into monsters. Keep and play with all your creations in a haunted hall. + Pop into the photo booth and take selfies with your monsters. + Have a monster battle! + Make your monsters speak. Explore the sound library or record your own monster sounds. + Intuitive, safe, and kid-friendly design. + Multi-user system: each child can create and save their own monsters. + Entertaining for kids and adults alike. + No in-app purchases or 3rd party advertising. + Original artwork by Tianhua Mao. + Original sound design. Privacy Policy We take your and your child’s privacy seriously. While none of our apps collect personally identifiable information, Monsters does not collect any analytics data, including usage data. We do not include third-party advertising or have in-app purchases in this app. If the camera, microphone, and other services are used in an app, your information is not collected or distributed outside of your device. The images are not transmitted to us, Tinybop has no access to them. Read our complete privacy policy at tinybop.com. About Tinybop is a Brooklyn-based studio of designers, engineers, and artists. We make toys for tomorrow. We’re all over the internet. Visit us: www.tinybop.com Follow us: twitter.com/tinybop Like us: facebook.com/tinybop See us: instagram.com/tinybop We love hearing your stories! Reach out: hi@tinybop.com. Psst! It's not Tiny Bop, or Tiny Bob, or Tiny Pop. It's Tinybop.

Screenshots

DRAWNIMAL4 screens
The Monsters by Tinybop4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: DRAWNIMAL at Free against The Monsters by Tinybop's $2.99. DRAWNIMAL also leads on update cadence (every 3 months vs every 6 months). The Monsters by Tinybop's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 4) and rating (4.5 vs 4.2). On ratings volume, ads, monetization model 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

DRAWNIMAL is free to download; The Monsters by Tinybop costs $2.99 up front. DRAWNIMAL sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. The Monsters by Tinybop asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

The Monsters by Tinybop holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 138 and 62 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 64% of DRAWNIMAL's written reviews are positive against 75% of The Monsters by Tinybop's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

DRAWNIMAL ships an update every 3 months, The Monsters by Tinybop every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 26, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
DRAWNIMAL versus The Monsters by Tinybop: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDRAWNIMALThe Monsters by Tinybop
PriceFree — better$2.99
Rating4.2 (138 ratings)4.5 (62 ratings) — better
Positive reviews63.9% of reviews74.6% of reviews — better
Number of ratings138 — better62
Update frequencyEvery 3 months — betterEvery 6 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationPaidPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.09.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size69 MB175 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperYATATOYTinybop Inc.

Customer experience

DRAWNIMAL

All ratings135 ratings
Positive77.8%
Neutral8.1%
Negative14.1%
Written reviews449 reviews
Positive63.9%
Neutral6.9%
Negative29.2%

The Monsters by Tinybop

All ratings62 ratings
Positive82.3%
Neutral9.7%
Negative8.1%
Written reviews63 reviews
Positive74.6%
Neutral6.3%
Negative19.0%

Bugs and requests

DRAWNIMAL

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Crashes on launch
  • Unable to progress past letter C
  • Swipe gesture not working as expected
  • Compatibility issues with newer iOS versions

Requested features

5 requests
  • Expand content to full alphabet
  • Allow in-app drawing without physical paper
  • Add more animal options
  • Improve audio consistency across languages
  • Introduce a 'sounds' mode to focus on letter sounds

The Monsters by Tinybop

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

4 purchases

DRAWNIMAL

One-time4
  • Letter Pack 1$2.49
  • Letter Pack 2$2.49
  • Letter Pack 3$2.49
Show 1 more
  • All letter packs$4.99
None

The Monsters by Tinybop

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is DRAWNIMAL free?
DRAWNIMAL is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is The Monsters by Tinybop free?
The Monsters by Tinybop costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, DRAWNIMAL or The Monsters by Tinybop?
The Monsters by Tinybop is rated higher. DRAWNIMAL averages 4.2 out of 5 from 138 ratings, while The Monsters by Tinybop averages 4.5 from 62 ratings.
Do DRAWNIMAL or The Monsters by Tinybop have ads?
Neither DRAWNIMAL nor The Monsters by Tinybop shows ads.
Which is updated more often, DRAWNIMAL or The Monsters by Tinybop?
DRAWNIMAL ships an update every 3 months, and The Monsters by Tinybop every 6 months. Most recently, DRAWNIMAL was updated on October 23, 2026 and The Monsters by Tinybop on October 26, 2026.

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