Comparison

Image Tracing vs Tracer

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

Head to head
About

Image Tracing

Features
Read full description

Image Tracing turns your phone into a simple lightbox: point your camera at a surface, overlay any reference photo on top, and trace directly onto paper, canvas, or a screen — no tracing table, no window, no guesswork. FEATURES • Add any photo from your library as a reference image • Adjust image opacity to match your lighting and paper • See your live camera feed right through the image for precise placement • Pinch to zoom and drag to position your reference exactly where you need it • Lock the image in place, then pinch and pan to zoom into the frozen view for fine detail • Built-in flashlight toggle for tracing in low light

About

Tracer

Features
Read full description

Tracer turns your iPhone into a tracing tool. Pick any image, anchor it onto a real surface in augmented reality, and trace over it by hand — on paper, on canvas, or on a wall. No projector. No light box. No printing and taping. Your first 5 images are free. After that, Tracer unlocks with a Tracer Yearly subscription — $9.99/year, auto-renewing, cancel anytime in Settings. HOW IT WORKS Point your iPhone at the surface you want to draw on. Pick a reference image from your photos. Tap the surface to anchor it in place. The image stays locked to that exact spot in the real world while you draw. DIAL IN THE OPACITY Slide from barely-there to fully opaque. Keep it faint to check your proportions, or bring it up to follow every line. You see exactly what you're tracing, and exactly what you've already drawn. POSITION IT EXACTLY Pinch to scale, twist to rotate, drag to move. Once it's where you want it, lock it — your hand can rest on the phone without knocking the reference out of alignment. BUILT FOR LONG SESSIONS The screen stays awake while you trace, so it won't sleep mid-drawing. Close the app and come back later: Tracer remembers your reference, its position and your opacity setting, and puts everything back where you left it. Working in low light? There's a built-in flashlight. MADE FOR • Illustrators working from reference • Tattoo artists placing a stencil • Muralists scaling a design up to a wall • Lettering and calligraphy • Anyone learning to draw PRIVACY Tracer has no servers, no analytics, no accounts and no ads. The camera feed is processed on your device and never recorded. Your reference image never leaves your iPhone. Tracer doesn't even ask for photo library permission — it uses Apple's system picker, which hands over only the single image you choose. Requires an ARKit-capable iPhone running iOS 16 or later. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://tracer-privacy.vercel.app

Screenshots

Image Tracing4 screens
Tracer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Image Tracing at none against Tracer's 1. Tracer's advantage is ads (none vs shown). On price, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

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

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. Tracer sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $9.99 per year. Image Tracing asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard2 real differences Ā· 3 level
Image Tracing versus Tracer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterImage TracingTracer
PriceFreeFree
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS16.416.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size61 MB1 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperVLADISLAV SIDORENKOFacundo De Lima

In-app purchases

None

Image Tracing

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Tracer

Subscriptions1
  • Tracer Yearly$9.991 Year

Questions

Is Image Tracing free?
Image Tracing is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Tracer free?
Tracer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Image Tracing or Tracer have ads?
Image Tracing shows ads; Tracer does not.

Other comparisons