Comparison

Pixel Animator vs Stick Nodes Pro

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

Head to head
About

Pixel Animator

Create animated pixel art and GIFs from scratch or existing images. Easily edit frames, adjust animation speed, and export your creations in GIF format for broad compatibility. Share your animated masterpieces with friends.

Highlights
  • Create pixel art from scratch or photos
  • Animate sprites easily
  • Adjust GIF frames based on previous ones
  • Export animations as GIF
  • Edit existing GIF files
  • Share GIF animations
Features
Read full description

Pixel Animator: GIF Maker With Pixel Animator, you can do more than cool pixel art. Make your sprites moving is just like a piece of cake. Features: 1 Make your pixel art from scratch or based on an existing photo or cartoon. 2 Adjust next GIF frame picture based the previous picture which saves your lots of time. 3 Export your animation as a GIF format which is support by every version of browser no matter on the PC platform or the mobile platform. 4 Edit an existing GIF file. 5 Share your GIF Pixel Animation with your friends. Tips: The Paint Bucket is very useful. You can use it to change the color of a line or change the color of a closed area. If you think draw Avatar pixel by pixel is boring, you can download the DOODLE FUN. It makes avatars with lots of small parts. Simple tutorial To make a GIF with Pixel Animator, you should know 2 simple concepts. At first you should know what the current button is, the button that is working. The current button is blinking. The color is changing form normal to red and from red to normal repeatedly. The default current button is a pencil. You can change the current button by click the button on the right panel. The second concept is GIF frame. A GIF animation is made up of many single images, which is called frame. If you click the “add” button, a new frame will be added. If you click the “minus” button, the current frame will be deleted. Pay attention to the color of frame numbers. Red means the frame is added, green means it is the current frame and gray means the frame can be added but not added yet. For the free version of Pixel Animator, you can add as to 10 frames. Frame rate is the speed of the GIF animation. Large frame rate means quick animation. More tutorial can be found at: HYPERLINK "http://minikara.com/?p=100" http://minikara.com/?p=100 Key word: GIF, avatar, bitstrips, animator, pixel art Make your original GIF animation with fun.

About

Stick Nodes Pro

Create and export your own stickman animations as GIFs or MP4 videos. This app offers tools for drawing, animating, adding sound effects, and importing images. Join a large community of animators and share your creations.

Highlights
  • Create stickman animations
  • Export as GIF or MP4
  • Add sound effects
  • Import images for animation
  • Customizable frame-tweening
  • Movieclips for reusable objects
Features
Read full description

Stick Nodes is a powerful stickman animator app created with mobile devices in mind! Inspired from the popular Pivot stickfigure animator, Stick Nodes allows users to create their own stickfigure-based movies and export them as animated videos (GIF or MP4)! It is one of the most popular animation apps among young animators! ■ This is the PRO VERSION of Stick Nodes. Extra Pro features include ■ ◆ No startup ad ◆ No watermark on exports ◆ Add sound effects to frames ◆ Export to MP4 video (not just GIF) ◆ More stickfigure filters (blur, glow, and more) ■ Features ■ ◆ Import and animate images as well! ◆ Automatic customizeable frame-tweening, make your animations smoother! ◆ A simple camera to pan/zoom/rotate around the scene, similar to the "v-cam" in Flash. ◆ Movieclips allow you to create and reuse/loop animation objects within your projects. ◆ A variety of shapes, color/scale on a per-segment basis, gradients - create any "stickfigure" you can imagine! ◆ Textfields allow for easy text and speech in your animations. ◆ Add all kinds of sounds effects to make your animations epic. ◆ Apply different filters to your stickfigures - transparency, blur, glow, and more. ◆ Join stickfigures together to easily simulate holding/wearing objects. ◆ A large community full of all kinds of interesting people and other animators. ◆ Over 30,000+ stickfigures (and counting) to download from the website. ◆ Export to GIF (or MP4 for Pro) to share your animation online. ◆ Compatibility with pre-3.0 Pivot stickfigure files. ◆ Save/open/share your projects, stickfigures, and movieclips. ◆ And all the other typical animation stuff - undo/redo, onion-skin, background images, and more! * Please note, sounds, filters, and MP4-export are Pro-only features ■ Lanuages ■ ◆ English ◆ Español ◆ Français ◆ Japanese ◆ Filipino ◆ Português ◆ Russian ◆ Türkçe Stick Nodes has a thriving community where animators have a good time, help each other out, show off their work, and even create stickfigures for others to use! There are thousands of stickfigures (and more added daily!) over at the main website https://sticknodes.com/stickfigures/ As of one of the latest updates, Stick Nodes is also a Minecraft™ animator as it allows you to easily import Minecraft™ skins and animate them instantly! Search for "stick nodes" on YouTube to see just a few of the thousands of animations users have made with this stickfigure animation app! If you're looking for an animation creator or an animation maker app, this is it! ■ Stay Updated ■ New updates have been never-ending for Stick Nodes since it's original 2014 release. Keep up-to-date with the latest news and updates about your favorite stick figure animation app and join in with the community! ◆ Website: https://sticknodes.com ◆ Facebook: http://facebook.com/sticknodes ◆ Reddit: http://reddit.com/r/sticknodes ◆ Twitter: http://twitter.com/FTLRalph ◆ Youtube: http://youtube.com/FTLRalph Stick Nodes is *the best* simple animation app available on the iOS market! It's a great tool for learning animation, even in a school setting for students or newbies. At the same time, Stick Nodes is robust enough and powerful enough for even the most skilled animator to really showcase their skills! Thank you for trying out Stick Nodes! Leave any questions/comments below or on the main Stick Nodes website! Common questions are already answered on the FAQ page here https://sticknodes.com/faqs/

Screenshots

Pixel Animator4 screens
Stick Nodes Pro4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Pixel Animator at Free against Stick Nodes Pro's $3.99. Pixel Animator also leads on iOS requirement (8.0 vs 14.0). Stick Nodes Pro's advantage is rating (4.8 vs 3.8) and review sentiment (91% vs 50%). On 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

Pixel Animator is free to download; Stick Nodes Pro costs $3.99 up front. Pixel Animator sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Stick Nodes Pro asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Stick Nodes Pro holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Stick Nodes Pro has 6.7K ratings behind it against 888, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 50% of Pixel Animator's written reviews are positive against 91% of Stick Nodes Pro's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pixel Animator ships an update every 6 months, Stick Nodes Pro every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 12, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard10 real differences · 1 level
Pixel Animator versus Stick Nodes Pro: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPixel AnimatorStick Nodes Pro
PriceFree — better$3.99
Rating3.8 (888 ratings)4.8 (6.7K ratings) — better
Positive reviews49.8% of reviews91.5% of reviews — better
Number of ratings8886.7K — better
Update frequencyEvery 6 monthsEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
Best chart rank—#13 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS8.0 — better14.0
Further details — not scored
Size77 MB129 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer熙亮 徐ForTheLoss Games, Inc

Customer experience

Pixel Animator

All ratings887 ratings
Positive67.6%
Neutral10.9%
Negative21.4%
Written reviews285 reviews
Positive49.8%
Neutral18.2%
Negative31.9%

Stick Nodes Pro

All ratings6,584 ratings
Positive95.3%
Neutral1.8%
Negative3.0%
Written reviews1,080 reviews
Positive91.5%
Neutral3.6%
Negative4.9%

User reviews

Pixel Animator

From 888 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🚀 Great for creating pixel art
  • 🎨 Useful for making animations
  • 😊 Fun and enjoyable app

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes when trying to export GIFs
  • 🔒 Limited features without paying
  • 🔍 Difficult to draw with precision
  • 🔀 Confusing controls and UI

Stick Nodes Pro

From 6.7K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Top two animation software
  • 🚀 Very fun and highly recommended
  • 👍 Highly recommend for beginners and pros
  • 👍 Recommended for animating without drawing
  • 👍 Worth the money

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes when saving
  • 🐛 Sounds not working
  • 🐛 Glitch with importing custom files
  • 🐛 App crashes when opening project
  • 🐛 Glitch with movie clips and tweening

Bugs and requests

Pixel Animator

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • App crashes when trying to export GIFs
  • Saved animations not showing up in camera roll
  • Undo/redo functionality not working as expected
  • Paid features not working properly

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add more frame options
  • Implement a color wheel
  • Allow zooming and panning
  • Fix GIF export functionality
  • Add ability to save animations to camera roll

Stick Nodes Pro

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Stick figure demon jumpscare
  • Glitch where downloaded stickfigures don't show up
  • Crashing when trying to select background images

Requested features

16 requests
  • Auto save feature
  • Ability to tint stickfigure without affecting outline
  • Option to import custom sounds
  • Layering for individual segments
  • More onion skin frames
Show 11 more
  • Ability to record own voice and sounds
  • 3D/360 mode
  • Speed up mode
  • Ability to copy/paste stickfigure effects
  • Folders to organize imported files
  • Ability to view animation layers
  • Option to make custom tweened frames
  • Ability to change frames per second
  • Ability to import background videos for reference
  • Multiplayer collaboration
  • Ability to draw custom shapes and props

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Pixel Animator

One-time4
  • AD Remover$1.99
  • Remove Frame Limit$1.99
  • Unlock Limited Tool$1.99
Show 1 more
  • Full version$3.99
None

Stick Nodes Pro

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pixel Animator free?
Pixel Animator is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Stick Nodes Pro free?
Stick Nodes Pro costs $3.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Pixel Animator or Stick Nodes Pro?
Stick Nodes Pro is rated higher. Pixel Animator averages 3.8 out of 5 from 888 ratings, while Stick Nodes Pro averages 4.8 from 6.7K ratings.
Do Pixel Animator or Stick Nodes Pro have ads?
Pixel Animator shows ads; Stick Nodes Pro does not.
Which is updated more often, Pixel Animator or Stick Nodes Pro?
Pixel Animator ships an update every 6 months, and Stick Nodes Pro every 2 weeks. Most recently, Pixel Animator was updated on November 1, 2026 and Stick Nodes Pro on November 12, 2026.

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