Comparison

MIXIMAL vs The Monsters by Tinybop

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

Head to head
About

MIXIMAL

Create unique, silly animals by mixing parts or syllables. This app offers a tactile and creative experience with handcrafted animations and analog sounds, inspired by classic flipbooks. It's designed for open-ended exploration with no pressure or goals.

Highlights
  • Mix between 11 animals
  • Create new animals using syllables
  • Combine full animals for surprise animations
  • Switch between 8 languages
  • Lively animations and impressive audio
  • No failing, no goals
Features
Read full description

Mix animals! Mix syllables! Filled with handcrafted animations and sound. MIXIMAL is an entertaining game based on traditional flipbooks we all know from our childhood. Kids create new silly animals and discover their names. We took this classic concept and constructed wonderful handcrafted animations and sounds to complement it. Each animation is created frame-by-frame to provide a warm and organic aesthetic. The sounds originate from analog sources. Our aim with the app is to offer a highly tactile experience, as we think our kids should play with quality toys. Features: + Mix between 11 animals + Make up new animals using syllables + Combine a full animal for a surprise animation + Switch between 8 languages + Lively animations and impressive audio + No failing, no goal, no wrong or right + Supports all iPads and iPhones with iOS 14 or later + No internet access needed! + No advertisements! Available in 8 languages with full voice acting: English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese! Learn more about YATATOY: yatatoy.com Contact us for assistance or to give feedback: https://yatatoy.com/info/ MADE BY YATATOY

About

The Monsters by Tinybop

Transform shadows into unique, imaginative creatures. Customize their features, bring them to life with emotions, and interact with them through play, sound, and even selfies. This open-ended building app encourages creativity for children.

Highlights
  • Create unique monsters from shadows
  • Customize monster features and appearance
  • Animate monsters with emotions
  • Feed monsters and make them sing/dance
  • Take monster selfies
  • Explore different rooms and play areas
  • Record custom monster sounds
Features
Read full description

Turn shadows on the wall into wild and wooly creatures. Give them googly eyes, tiny arms, too many horns, spotted tails, or sparkly fur — any assortment of fantastical features that you like. Bring your monsters to life! Make them happy or sad, nervous or bad, lovely or mad. Feed them radioactive snacks and make them sing and dance. Take a monster selfie and decorate with stickers. Make the monsters of your dreams! “Weird, but in a good way” — Geeks with Juniors "A wonderful aesthetic experience" — Warren Buckleitner, Children's Technology Review The Monsters is the third app in Tinybop’s Digital Toys, a series of open-ended building apps that let kids ages 4+ create, play with, and collect whatever they can imagine. The second is The Everything Machine, an App Store Editors’ Choice and Children’s Technology Review Editor’s Choice. The first, The Robot Factory, is a Parents’ Choice Gold Award winner and the iPad App of the Year. FEATURES + Make monsters! Turn shadows into the creatures of your dreams...or nightmares. Millions of monsters are possible. + Give your monsters lots of arms and legs. Stretch or shrink their limbs as you like. + Add all kinds of eyes, mouths, and horns to your monsters. Give them scales or fur, feathers or hair. + Paint your monster with different colors, sparkles, spots, scales, and more! + Make happy, sad, scared, or mad monsters. What will yours be like? + Explore different rooms. In the closet, turn shadows into monsters. Keep and play with all your creations in a haunted hall. + Pop into the photo booth and take selfies with your monsters. + Have a monster battle! + Make your monsters speak. Explore the sound library or record your own monster sounds. + Intuitive, safe, and kid-friendly design. + Multi-user system: each child can create and save their own monsters. + Entertaining for kids and adults alike. + No in-app purchases or 3rd party advertising. + Original artwork by Tianhua Mao. + Original sound design. Privacy Policy We take your and your child’s privacy seriously. While none of our apps collect personally identifiable information, Monsters does not collect any analytics data, including usage data. We do not include third-party advertising or have in-app purchases in this app. If the camera, microphone, and other services are used in an app, your information is not collected or distributed outside of your device. The images are not transmitted to us, Tinybop has no access to them. Read our complete privacy policy at tinybop.com. About Tinybop is a Brooklyn-based studio of designers, engineers, and artists. We make toys for tomorrow. We’re all over the internet. Visit us: www.tinybop.com Follow us: twitter.com/tinybop Like us: facebook.com/tinybop See us: instagram.com/tinybop We love hearing your stories! Reach out: hi@tinybop.com. Psst! It's not Tiny Bop, or Tiny Bob, or Tiny Pop. It's Tinybop.

Screenshots

MIXIMAL4 screens
The Monsters by Tinybop4 screens

Verdict

The call

MIXIMAL and The Monsters by Tinybop both sit at 4.5 stars, but that hides the real split: 87% of MIXIMAL's written reviews are positive against 75% of The Monsters by Tinybop's. MIXIMAL also leads on ratings volume (368 vs 62). The Monsters by Tinybop's advantage is price ($2.99 vs $4.99) and iOS requirement (9.0 vs 14.0). On rating, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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

MIXIMAL costs $4.99 and The Monsters by Tinybop $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for MIXIMAL against 4.5 for The Monsters by Tinybop. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: MIXIMAL has 368 ratings behind it against 62, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 87% of MIXIMAL's written reviews are positive against 75% of The Monsters by Tinybop's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MIXIMAL ships an update every 5 months, The Monsters by Tinybop every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 26, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
MIXIMAL versus The Monsters by Tinybop: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMIXIMALThe Monsters by Tinybop
Price$4.99$2.99 — better
Rating4.5 (368 ratings)4.5 (62 ratings) — better
Positive reviews86.5% of reviews — better74.6% of reviews
Number of ratings368 — better62
Update frequencyEvery 5 months — betterEvery 6 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS14.09.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size122 MB175 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperYATATOYTinybop Inc.

Customer experience

MIXIMAL

All ratings366 ratings
Positive86.3%
Neutral6.6%
Negative7.1%
Written reviews52 reviews
Positive86.5%
Neutral7.7%
Negative5.8%

The Monsters by Tinybop

All ratings62 ratings
Positive82.3%
Neutral9.7%
Negative8.1%
Written reviews63 reviews
Positive74.6%
Neutral6.3%
Negative19.0%

Bugs and requests

MIXIMAL

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • App won't load after iOS upgrade
  • Sound does not work
  • Crashing in iOS 13
  • App keeps cutting out

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add more animals and sounds
  • Implement a selector for animals
  • Allow screenshots without UI elements
  • More animal combinations

The Monsters by Tinybop

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

MIXIMAL

No in-app purchases

None

The Monsters by Tinybop

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is MIXIMAL free?
MIXIMAL costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is The Monsters by Tinybop free?
The Monsters by Tinybop costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, MIXIMAL or The Monsters by Tinybop?
The Monsters by Tinybop is rated higher. MIXIMAL averages 4.5 out of 5 from 368 ratings, while The Monsters by Tinybop averages 4.5 from 62 ratings.
Do MIXIMAL or The Monsters by Tinybop have ads?
Neither MIXIMAL nor The Monsters by Tinybop shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MIXIMAL or The Monsters by Tinybop?
MIXIMAL ships an update every 5 months, and The Monsters by Tinybop every 6 months. Most recently, MIXIMAL was updated on October 22, 2026 and The Monsters by Tinybop on October 26, 2026.

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