Dot Lab vs BeadNeko
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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/
BeadNeko
Transform your photos into detailed pixel bead patterns. Easily import images, adjust grid size, and match colors to a specific palette. Export your finished designs with all necessary details for your crafting projects.
- Generate bead patterns from photos
- Color matching to Mard palette
- Adjustable grid size and algorithm
- View grid with coordinates and color totals
- Export pattern with materials list
- Light, dark, or system appearance options
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Turn a favorite photo into a clear, editable bead pattern with BeadNeko. Import an image from your library or camera, crop it to a square, and generate a pattern matched to the built-in Mard palette. Adjust the grid size and pattern algorithm to make a design that fits your project. Create with confidence: • Generate bead patterns from photos • Match colors to the Mard palette • View a grid with coordinates and color usage totals • Zoom and move around the pattern while you work • Export a pattern with grid, color numbers, and a materials list • Choose light, dark, or system appearance BeadNeko Pro unlocks background removal, manual pattern creation, advanced editing tools, and more export options.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Dot Lab at 96% against BeadNeko's 40%. Dot Lab also leads on iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.6). BeadNeko's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.5). On price, ratings volume, update cadence 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
Both are free to download. Dot Lab sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and BeadNeko sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
BeadNeko holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 10 and 4 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 96% of Dot Lab's written reviews are positive against 40% of BeadNeko's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Dot Lab ships an update fortnightly, BeadNeko every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Dot Lab | BeadNeko |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (10 ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 96.4% of reviews — better | 40.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 10 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 9 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 80 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 桂华 冉 | 利龙 张 |
Customer experience
Dot Lab
BeadNeko
In-app purchases
Dot Lab
- Monthly7 Days trial$1.991 Month
- Yearly7 Days trial$9.991 Year
- Annual member$19.99
- Lifetime$22.99
- Lifetime$29.99
BeadNeko
- 拼豆猫 Pro$0.99









