Comparison

drawnal vs Dottie

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

Head to head
About

drawnal

A minimalist digital sketchbook for capturing quick ideas with simple sketches and notes. Animate your drawings, create collages, and export them in various formats. It's a private space for creative expression without social pressure.

Highlights
  • Quick sketching
  • Add notes to drawings
  • Frame animations
  • Visual diary
  • Collage creation
  • Export as PNG, GIF, SVG, MP4
  • Overlay drawings on photos/videos
Features
Read full description

drawnal is a tiny drawing journal for quick ideas between places. Draw simple sketches, add a short note, and bring your drawings to life with frame animations. Keep a small visual diary, rearrange your drawings, create little collages, and export them as PNG, GIF, SVG, or MP4. You can also place your drawings on photos or videos before sharing. drawnal is intentionally minimal: no feeds, no pressure, just a quiet place for small drawings.

About

Dottie

Features
Read full description

Dottie is a pixel art editor for game sprites, small illustrations and short animations. Start from a template, change the colors and make it your own. START WITH A TEMPLATE Choose from 6 original pixel art templates. A short creation guide takes you through choosing a color, drawing and exporting a PNG. Templates and the guide work within the free limits. DRAW AND REFINE Use pencils, fill, shapes and dithering. Keep colors consistent with palettes, then move, copy, flip or rotate a selection. Symmetry and zoom help with the finishing touches. ADD LAYERS AND MOTION Edit backgrounds and characters on separate layers. Duplicate frames, make small changes and play your animation. Onion skin shows the previous frame as a guide. WORK FROM A REFERENCE Import an image and adjust its position, size and rotation. Assign reference images to individual frames to guide poses and compositions. BACK UP AND RESTORE YOUR PROJECTS Back up all projects or just selected ones to a file, then restore them on another device. Review the contents before restoring; existing artwork is kept. Basic backup and restore are free. This is manual file transfer, not automatic cloud sync. Premium purchases are restored separately through the store where you purchased them. EXPORT YOUR ART Export PNG images and editable project files. Premium also includes animated GIF, PNG sequence, sprite sheet and tile image exports. WHAT CAN I MAKE FOR FREE? Create up to 5 projects, with canvases up to 64 ร— 64 pixels, 3 layers per frame and 3 frames. The free version displays ads. WHEN YOU NEED MORE ROOM Premium is a one-time purchase that removes ads and expands project, canvas, layer and frame limits, plus export options. You can also complete a rewarded ad to try Premium for 24 hours. Purchases and rewarded ads require an internet connection. Device memory and other limits still apply to project size. No account registration is required. Artwork is saved on your device. Keep a backup file of important projects outside the app. Advertising and purchases use external services. Available in English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Spanish.

Screenshots

drawnal4 screens
Dottie4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: drawnal at none against Dottie's shown. drawnal also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs weekly). Dottie's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. drawnal sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Dottie sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

drawnal ships an update every 2 days, Dottie weekly. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences ยท 5 level
drawnal versus Dottie: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterdrawnalDottie
PriceFreeFree
Positive reviews100.0% of reviewsโ€”
Update frequencyEvery 2 days โ€” betterWeekly
AdsNo โ€” betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesโ€”
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod โ€” better
Requires iOS17.015.0 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size2 MB31 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPascal MonacoHiroyuki Yamamoto

In-app purchases

1 purchases

drawnal

One-time1
  • Unlock Forever$1.99
1 purchases

Dottie

One-time1
  • Dottie Premium$3.99

Questions

Is drawnal free?
drawnal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Dottie free?
Dottie is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do drawnal or Dottie have ads?
Dottie shows ads; drawnal does not.
Which is updated more often, drawnal or Dottie?
drawnal ships an update every 2 days, and Dottie weekly. Most recently, drawnal was updated on October 31, 2026 and Dottie on October 31, 2026.

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