Pluma vs iPuppet
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pluma
This app enhances impression boards with advanced AI for text and drawing recognition. It offers seamless integration with various third-party apps and devices, enabling new routines and providing a powerful yet user-friendly experience.
- Advanced AI text and drawing recognition
- Multiple impression board support
- Earworm and PeekSmith integration
- Offline text recognition
- Apple Watch app with covert mode
- Bridge & Inject integration
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Pluma is a fresh take on an impression board app, connecting to the boards you may already own. It offers dramatically better text recognition and powerful features, whilst simultaneously being dramatically better designed. Together, it's more powerful yet easier to use than the core apps offered by most impression boards. It also connects with my suite of apps as well as many third party apps, devices and services, enabling brand new routines never before possible. Features include: ** Advanced AI Text and Drawing Recognition Pluma AI offers best-in-class AI recognition, which can detect handwritten text AND drawings, in any orientation. ** Multiple Board support (beta) Receive peeks from up to four impression devices simultaneously! ** Earworm Integration Make a prediction in the YouTube app on your spectator's phone. Then, have your spectator write the name of any song on the impression pad. Pluma AI integrates with Earworm to do the rest: they just turn up the volume on the spectator's phone to find the chosen song playing in their YouTube app! ** Supports Multiple Board Types Currently supports boards from Lumen Pro, Iarvel, Pitata, Ultra Sharpie, Ultra Sharpie Neo, Oblivious Engage, PMA and Wave, with more brands added over time. ** Offline Text Recognition For times when there's no signal, Pluma includes excellent realtime offline AI text recognition at no extra charge. ** PeekSmith Integration Pluma connects directly to PeekSmith, letting you get your peek during performance. ** Lumen Duo Integration Pluma also connects directly to Lumen Duo, letting you get your peek even more covertly. ** Earpiece Support Pluma can automatically speak the recognised text to your covert earpiece. ** Apple Watch App Get your peek on the custom built Apple Watch app, with optional covert mode. ** Notifications Compatible with any Bluetooth peek device that supports third party notifications. ** Bridge & Inject Integration Automatically send your peek to the Bridge or Inject apps, which integrates Pluma with many magic apps, services and devices. ** Powerful Features, Easy To Use Pluma brings multiple, advanced innovations from my previous apps (such as Touch To Peek and app integration via polling), whilst simultaneously built to be easy to use and understand. ** Much More Pluma offers features to automatically scale, automatically send peek data and automatically clear. It offers per-board calibration settings, AI optimisation settings, intuitive history features, auto-save to photos, board battery indicatiors, and much, much more. Notes A physical impression board is required. Pluma currently supports Iarvel and Pitata boards, with more brands to be added over time. Pluma works in multiple languages, including Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese Online AI recognition features require the use of in-app credits (with some provided on purchase), or you can provide your own API key. Offline AI text recognition is included for free. No yearly subscription or device fee needed for either Pluma is offered for entertainment purposes only.
iPuppet
Transform your phone into a dynamic puppet with this digital companion. It features expressive animated characters that react, blink, and talk in sync with your performance, offering a unique interactive experience for entertainers.
- Expressive animated characters
- Real-time sync with performance
- Customizable button layout
- Seven expressive character states
- Finger-tracking eyes
- Upload custom photos for character appearance
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iPuppet "Digital Ventriloquist Companion" Turn your iPhone into a living puppet. iPuppet puts an expressive, animated character right on your screen, one that blinks, looks around, reacts, and talks in perfect sync with your performance. No wires, no hand puppet, no rehearsed animatronics. Just you, your phone, and a character that feels alive. Built for real performance, not just for show! iPuppet was designed with working performers in mind: ventriloquists, magicians, and anyone who wants a genuinely interactive digital character. Every feature exists because it solves a real problem on stage. Faint, performer only touch zones. Trigger expressions with barely visible circles positioned exactly where you want them. You'll know where to tap. Your audience won't have a clue. Fully customisable button layout. Drag and drop every control exactly where you want it. Left-handed? Move everything to suit you. No fixed layouts, no compromises. Seven expressive character states. Normal, Happy, Angry, Love, Dizzy, Star Struck, and Crying, each with its own animated eyes, brows, and mouth. Fluffy Angry comes with blazing red eyes and a proper shake. Star-struck and dizzy get a mesmerising "ooooh" mouth. Crying has real falling teardrops. Finger-tracking eyes. Drag your finger across the screen and watch the character's eyes follow, adding another layer of lifelike presence to your act. Two characters in one app Choose the classic animated face, picking from expressive eye and mouth styles on a bold colour background, or unlock Fluffy Character mode, iPuppet's signature trick. Upload a photo of your own phone's home screen, and a soft, fluffy character appears to magically pop up right out of your app icons. Position it, resize it, recolour its fur to any shade you like, and place your control buttons anywhere on screen. It's a genuine "wait, what?" moment the first time someone sees it. Make it yours! Custom fur colours with quick presets or full custom sliders Drag-and-drop face layout, positioning the eyes and mouth exactly where you want them on the character Save multiple character presets and switch between them instantly Ten background colours for classic mode Adjustable talk speed and idle animation behaviour Why performers choose iPuppet This isn't a novelty filter or a one-trick gimmick. iPuppet was built from the ground up by a working performer who understands that on stage, timing and invisibility matter more than flashy menus. Every control is designed to be silent, precise, and completely under your command, because the moment the audience sees you operating something, the illusion breaks. Whether you're a professional ventriloquist looking for a genuinely responsive digital companion, a magician wanting a fresh piece of visual comedy, or a performer who just wants their phone to come alive with personality, iPuppet gives you a character that reacts instantly, looks great close up, and puts you fully in control. No internet connection required. No accounts, no subscriptions to use the core character. Your character, your control, your performance. Download iPuppet and bring your puppet to life
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: iPuppet at $4.99 against Pluma's $99.99. iPuppet also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1). Pluma's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 2 weeks) and chart position (#42 vs unranked). On ads, monetization model, device support and iOS requirement 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
Pluma costs $99.99 and iPuppet $4.99 up front. Pluma sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. iPuppet asks for nothing beyond the download.
Pluma ships an update weekly, iPuppet every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 28, 2026 and September 27, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pluma | iPuppet |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $99.99 | $4.99 — better |
| Rating | 5.0 (10 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 10 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #42 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 — better | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 36 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Marc Kerstein | JAMES BUCHANAN COWAN |
Customer experience
Pluma
iPuppet
In-app purchases
Pluma
- 100 Pluma AI Credits$6.99
iPuppet
No in-app purchases









