Comparison

Bug Art vs Elmer’s Photo Patchwork

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

Head to head
About

Bug Art

Unleash creativity by designing animated bugs with various art tools and then race them in fun challenges. Explore vibrant environments, play mini-games, and learn to draw with interactive templates.

Highlights
  • Create animated bugs with paint, glitter, stamps, and stickers
  • Race custom bug creations against AI competitors
  • Interactive bug drawing templates to learn drawing
  • Explore playgrounds with mini-games and characters
  • Intuitive touch and tilt controls
  • Multiple user profiles
Read full description

CREATE Create artwork using paint, glitter, stamps, brushes, stickers, or snap a picture with your camera! Design a bug and transform it into an animated insect with the tap of a finger! Learn to draw using our interactive bug drawing templates. PLAY Use your very own bug creations to race against 13 uniquely designed competitors like “Sparky,” “Kicks,” and “Turbo” in Bug Race. Steer a butterfly, dragonfly, or bee through dandelion gates in the lush gardens of Butterfly Valley. Explore, meet funny characters, and play mini games in our special playgrounds for both ground and airborne bugs. FEATURES: • Designed for ages 4 and up. • Simple and intuitive touch and tilt controls. • Complete painting activity for whatever the mind dreams. • Advanced Bug designer activity (includes a disco floor for testing creations). • 20+ design tools, including camera and bug brushes that you can control! • 10+ backgrounds for fun art design. • 40+ stickers (position, rotate, and scale). • 7 Interactive learn to draw bug designs. • Multiple user profiles • NO In-Apps / NO third party advertising. • Parental Gate Localized for: English, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish. We want and appreciate your feedback! Email: support@littlebitstudio.com Instagram: @littlebitstudio Facebook: @littlebitstudio Twitter: @lilbitstudio

About

Elmer’s Photo Patchwork

Decorate elephants for a parade by taking photos of the world around you. Use your camera to capture colors, shapes, and textures to create unique patchwork patterns for each of the ten elephants. This app encourages creativity and helps children develop an eye for composition and design.

Highlights
  • Decorate elephants with custom photo patterns
  • Use camera to capture real-world textures and colors
  • Create unique designs for ten different elephants
  • Develop an eye for composition, color, and pattern
  • Save and share creations
  • Ideal for children aged 3-8
Read full description

It’s nearly time for Elmer’s Parade, and his elephant friends need your help to get ready. Get creative, take inspiration from the world around you and use your camera to decorate the elephants with your own bright, beautiful patchwork pattern. Have fun making each of Elmer’s friends unique and ready to take part in the parade. “This is a brilliant app for getting your children out and about in the real world...Ideal for exploration to find interesting colours and shapes in the outside world.” – The Guardian “Elmer deserves a place in everyone’s childhood.” – Angels & Urchins “A deserved favourite.” – Sunday Times FILL PATCHES WITH YOUR CAMERA Use your camera to take photos of interesting shapes, colors and textures and add them to your elephant’s patchwork pattern. Make every one of Elmer’s friends colorful and unique. Each of the ten elephants has four patchwork patterns to choose from – combined with the photos you take, your parade will be truly one-of-a-kind! TELL A STORY WITH PATCHWORK The only limit to each photo-patchwork is your imagination. Try telling the story of your day in a series of photos. Capture your trip to the park or your visit to the museum in an unforgettable way. This way, like Elmer, each one of your elephants will be different and special. CREATE YOUR OWN PARADE Once you’ve decorated Elmer’s friend, save your creation to your camera roll. Then you can share them with your friends and family, or print and keep your patchwork creation with you. You could even fill your room with parading elephants! PARENTS AND EDUCATORS This app is ideal for children aged 3–8. While your child is having fun with this app, they will naturally be developing a photographer’s eye for composition, color, pattern and texture. We made this app so that children could fall in love with patchwork and photography as we have, and see the world as a work of art and an endless source of inspiration.

Screenshots

Bug Art4 screens
Elmer’s Photo Patchwork4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Bug Art at 62% against Elmer’s Photo Patchwork's 14%. Bug Art also leads on rating (4.2 vs 3.5) and ratings volume (23 vs 2). Elmer’s Photo Patchwork's advantage is iOS requirement (12.0 vs 16.0). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model and device support 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

Bug Art costs $0.99 and Elmer’s Photo Patchwork $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Bug Art holds the better App Store score, 4.2 against 3.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bug Art has 23 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 62% of Bug Art's written reviews are positive against 14% of Elmer’s Photo Patchwork's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bug Art ships an update every 8 months, Elmer’s Photo Patchwork every 19 months. The most recent releases landed on September 18, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Bug Art versus Elmer’s Photo Patchwork: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBug ArtElmer’s Photo Patchwork
Price$0.99 — better$1.99
Rating4.2 (23 ratings) — better3.5 (2 ratings)
Positive reviews61.5% of reviews — better14.3% of reviews
Number of ratings23 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 8 months — betterEvery 19 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size128 MB66 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLittle Bit Studio, LLCNatureGuides Ltd.

Customer experience

Bug Art

All ratings23 ratings
Positive78.3%
Neutral8.7%
Negative13.0%
Written reviews78 reviews
Positive61.5%
Neutral7.7%
Negative30.8%

Elmer’s Photo Patchwork

All ratings2 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive14.3%
Neutral28.6%
Negative57.1%

Bugs and requests

Bug Art

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • App needs to be updated to be used on a new iPad
  • App does not work after updating to iOS 11
  • App no longer works
  • No audio
  • Download issues

Requested features

12 requests
  • More bugs to paint
  • Go inside the bee hive in playground game
  • Make a home for the bugs
  • Add praying mantis, swallow tail butterfly, grasshopper, snails
  • Add snail racing and hunting games
Show 7 more
  • Add racing snail stickers
  • Add racing clothing for bugs
  • Update for iOS 11
  • Name your bugs
  • Make ladybugs fly in butterfly valley
  • Hide scary insects like cockroaches
  • More bug brushes and colors

Elmer’s Photo Patchwork

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Bug Art

No in-app purchases

None

Elmer’s Photo Patchwork

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Bug Art free?
Bug Art costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Elmer’s Photo Patchwork free?
Elmer’s Photo Patchwork costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Bug Art or Elmer’s Photo Patchwork?
Bug Art is rated higher. Bug Art averages 4.2 out of 5 from 23 ratings, while Elmer’s Photo Patchwork averages 3.5 from 2 ratings.
Do Bug Art or Elmer’s Photo Patchwork have ads?
Neither Bug Art nor Elmer’s Photo Patchwork shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Bug Art or Elmer’s Photo Patchwork?
Bug Art ships an update every 8 months, and Elmer’s Photo Patchwork every 19 months. Most recently, Bug Art was updated on September 18, 2026 and Elmer’s Photo Patchwork on October 1, 2026.

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