Comparison

Dot Lab vs iBeads

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

Head to head
About

Dot Lab

Create pixel art for NFTs, avatars, or fuse bead patterns with intuitive drawing tools and customizable palettes. Generate detailed patterns for crafts like perler beads and crochet, with options for efficient creation and sharing.

Highlights
  • Efficient drawing tools
  • Multiple canvas sizes
  • Rich color options and palette management
  • Automatic pattern generation for crafts
  • Workstation for secondary creations
  • Share and save artwork
  • Data backup and canvas lock
Features
Read full description

Welcome to "Dot Lab"! "Dot Lab" is a simple and user-friendly pixel art creation app, designed for both beginners and experienced artists. With our app, you can effortlessly create stunning works of art. It's the perfect tool for creating NFTs, pixel avatars, and fuse bead patterns. Key Features: - Efficient Drawing Tools: Includes bucket fill, continuous drawing, selection, move, mirror, and reference (guidelines) tools to help you create efficiently. - Multiple Canvas Sizes: Choose from various canvas sizes to suit different creative needs. - Canvas Zoom and Drag: Pinch to zoom or drag the canvas, allowing precise edits and easy drawing on mobile devices. - Rich Color Options: Access a wide range of built-in colors or customize your palette by selecting any color or inputting a Hex code. - Palette Management: Create or import palettes and quickly switch colors within a palette. When exporting, you can generate diagrams with corresponding color codes. - Share and Save: Share your artwork with one tap or save it directly to your gallery. - Batch Operations: Easily manage your creations by copying or deleting multiple works at once. - Share Source File: You can quickly share your pixel art work source files with friends or other devices. The source files can be opened directly with the Dot Lab app. - Data Backup: You can backup your data regularly to ensure data security. - Canvas Lock: Lock your canvas once a project is complete to prevent accidental edits. Premium Features: - Pattern Generation: Automatically generate patterns with grid numbers, color codes, and more—perfect for teaching pixel art or secondary creations like fuse beads, crochet, and cross-stitch. Also provides multiple options such as material count statistics, shadow, watermark, palette name, etc., allowing users to create personalized artwork customization. - Work Station The work station is designed to assist you in efficiently completing secondary creations after drawing, such as perler beads, crochet, beading, cross-stitch, and more. ·Highlight Same Colors: Quickly highlight areas with the same color to improve crafting efficiency. ·Get Pixel Position: Tap on a pixel to view its position, helping with precise alignment. ·Segmented Work: Break down a large canvas into smaller sections for easier handling, especially useful for perler beads, crochet, and beading projects. - Custom Canvas Sizes: Choose from popular aspect ratios like 1:1, 2:3, 3:4, 3:5, 4:5, and 9:16, or set a custom ratio to create canvases freely. - Advanced Drawing Tools (Symmetry, Move, Mirror, etc.): Powerful tools to help you complete or refine your creations efficiently. - Unlimited Palettes: Free users can create or import up to 3 palettes, while premium users can create or import an unlimited number. - Additional Premium Features in Development Join the "Dot Lab" community and unleash your creativity! As an independent developer, your support means the world to us. If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us at dotlab.app@gmail.com. Terms of Service: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

iBeads

Effortlessly transform photos into pixel art bead drawings with intelligent color scheme identification. Offers adjustable canvas sizes, precise bead count calculations, and advanced editing tools for pixel-level modification. Export high-definition patterns with color labels for various crafting projects.

Highlights
  • Photo to bead drawing conversion
  • Automatic color scheme identification
  • Adjustable canvas size (16x16 to 256x256)
  • Accurate bead color statistics
  • Manual pixel editing
  • Swatch management
  • High-definition drawing export (PNG/PDF)
Features
Read full description

[One-click to generate professional beads drawings] - Intelligently convert photos into beads pixel paintings, automatically identify the best color scheme - Adjustable canvas size (16x16 to 256x256 free zoom) - Accurate color number statistics function, automatically calculate the number of beads required for each color 【Advanced Editing Artifact】 - Multiple references to scaling canvas details, supports manual modification of each pixel point - Swatch management function: merge similar colors/delete redundant colors/replace the entire color scheme - Real-time original image comparison mode, refer to original images at any time when creating 【Exclusive tool for handicraft enthusiasts】 - Export high-definition drawings (supports PNG/PDF format, including color number labels) - Built-in popular bead brand color library 【Applicable scenarios】 - Handmade experts quickly make personalized beads patterns - Creative material generation of parent-child DIY activities - Pixel Art lovers’ creation tools - Auxiliary design for cross stitch/diamond painting and other handmade projects "From a newbie to a master, use iBeads to unleash your creativity!"

Screenshots

Dot Lab4 screens
iBeads4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Dot Lab at 96% against iBeads's 42%. Dot Lab also leads on rating (4.5 vs 3.7) and ads (none vs shown). iBeads's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs fortnightly). On price, ratings volume, 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. Dot Lab sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and iBeads sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Dot Lab holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 10 and 10 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 96% of Dot Lab's written reviews are positive against 42% of iBeads's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Dot Lab ships an update fortnightly, iBeads every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Dot Lab versus iBeads: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDot LabiBeads
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (10 ratings) — better3.7 (10 ratings)
Positive reviews96.4% of reviews — better42.4% of reviews
Number of ratings1010
Update frequencyFortnightlyEvery 3 days — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.0 — better15.5
Further details — not scored
Size80 MB244 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer桂华 冉杭州百塑科技有限公司

Customer experience

Dot Lab

All ratings10 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral20.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews28 reviews
Positive96.4%
Neutral0.0%
Negative3.6%

iBeads

All ratings10 ratings
Positive70.0%
Neutral10.0%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews66 reviews
Positive42.4%
Neutral15.2%
Negative42.4%

In-app purchases

5 purchases

Dot Lab

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly7 Days trial$1.991 Month
  • Yearly7 Days trial$9.991 Year
One-time3
  • Annual member$19.99
  • Lifetime$22.99
  • Lifetime$29.99
5 purchases

iBeads

One-time5
  • 42 Coins$0.99
  • 14 Coins$0.99
  • 224 Coins$4.99
Show 2 more
  • 448 Coins$9.99
  • 616 Coins$12.99

Questions

Is Dot Lab free?
Dot Lab is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is iBeads free?
iBeads is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Dot Lab or iBeads?
Dot Lab is rated higher. Dot Lab averages 4.5 out of 5 from 10 ratings, while iBeads averages 3.7 from 10 ratings.
Do Dot Lab or iBeads have ads?
iBeads shows ads; Dot Lab does not.
Which is updated more often, Dot Lab or iBeads?
Dot Lab ships an update fortnightly, and iBeads every 3 days. Most recently, Dot Lab was updated on September 23, 2026 and iBeads on September 22, 2026.

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