Sketchbook® vs GoAnimate
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Sketchbook®
This app provides a professional-grade drawing and painting experience for artists and illustrators. It offers a natural drawing feel with customizable tools, layers, and guides for precision. Unlock advanced features like custom brushes and canvas resizing with an optional premium purchase.
- Full complement of brush types
- Highly customizable brushes
- Guides, rulers, and stroke tools
- Layers with blend modes
- Clean and unobtrusive interface
- Custom brush creation (premium)
- Canvas resizing (premium)
Read full descriptionHide full description
From quick sketches to fully finished artwork, Sketchbook goes where your creativity takes you. Sketchbook is an award-winning sketching, painting, and drawing app for anyone who loves to draw. Artists and illustrators love Sketchbook for its professional-grade feature set and highly customizable tools. Everyone loves Sketchbook for its elegant interface and natural drawing experience, free of distractions so you can focus on capturing and expressing your ideas. • A full complement of brush types: pencils markers, airbrushes, smear and more that look and feel just like their physical counterparts • Brushes are highly customizable so you can create just the look you want • Guides, rulers and stroke tools support precision when you need it • Layers with a full complement of blend modes deliver the flexibility to build up and explore drawings and color • Purpose-built for sketching, the interface is clean and unobtrusive so you can focus on drawing Purchase the Premium Bundle to unlock more... • Import and export brushes • Create your own custom brushes • Resize your canvas or image • Set canvas resolution in px/inch or px/cm • Clipping masks • Additional layer adjustments including blur, sharpen, brightness/contrast, greyscale, and invert • Additional color harmonies • Additional custom gradients • Select color from reference images • Extract color palettes from images • Import and export color palettes • Layer grouping • Layer masking Blend Modes • Draw Outline tool • Lasso Fill tool • Export to PDF • plus more to come!
GoAnimate
Easily create stunning GIF animations with frame-by-frame drawing tools. Customize your animations with various brushes, colors, and aspect ratios. Save and share your animated masterpieces with friends and family.
- Frame-by-frame animation drawing
- Variety of drawing tools and colors
- Customizable canvas aspect ratio
- Adjustable frames per second
- Save animations as GIF
- Suitable for all ages
Read full descriptionHide full description
Get ready to create amazing GIF animations with GoAnimate! Our animation creator app allows anyone to easily draw frame-by-frame and create their own stunning animated GIFs. Whether you're a professional artist or a beginner, our app offers easy drawing tools that make it simple to bring your ideas to life. Here's what you can expect from our animation creator app: *** - Draw cool animations: With GoAnimate, you can create a wide range of animations, from simple stick people to complex and detailed cartoons. Whether you want to create a short and sweet animation or a longer masterpiece, our app has you covered. *** - Use a variety of drawing tools: Experiment with different tools like our felt-tip pen, paint gum, stickers, and a wide range of colors to create the perfect look for your animation. With endless possibilities, you can create unique and eye-catching animations. *** - Customize your animation: GoAnimate allows you to customize your animation to your heart's content. Choose the canvas aspect ratio that best suits your animation and select the number of frames per second to create the perfect speed for your animation. You're in control! *** - Draw frame-by-frame: Our app allows you to draw frame-by-frame, creating smooth and seamless animations that look professional and polished. You'll be amazed at how easy it is to create stunning animations with this powerful feature. *** - Save your animations as a GIF: Once you're happy with your animation, you can save it as a GIF to easily share with friends and family. With just a few clicks, your animation will be ready to share on social media or via email. *** - Perfect for all ages: GoAnimate is the perfect app for all ages! Whether you're a pro or just getting started with drawing animation, our app offers easy-to-use tools that are perfect for kids and adults alike. Try GoAnimate today and start creating your very own animated masterpieces with our powerful animation tools and frame-by-frame animation. Let your creativity take flight, and watch your ideas come to life! https://sites.google.com/view/scelcunovairina/Privacy-Policy https://sites.google.com/view/scelcunovairina/terms
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Sketchbook® at 77% against GoAnimate's 25%. Sketchbook® also leads on rating (4.8 vs 3.8) and ratings volume (220K vs 27). GoAnimate's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1). On price, update cadence, ads 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
Both are free to download. Sketchbook® sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. GoAnimate asks for nothing beyond the download.
Sketchbook® holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Sketchbook® has 220K ratings behind it against 27, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 77% of Sketchbook®'s written reviews are positive against 25% of GoAnimate's.
Sketchbook® ships an update every 6 weeks, GoAnimate every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Sketchbook® | GoAnimate |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (220K ratings) — better | 3.8 (27 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 76.6% of reviews — better | 25.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 220K — better | 27 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Every 5 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #41 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 14 | 14.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 142 MB | 14 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Sketchbook, Inc | Irina Scelcunova |
Customer experience
Sketchbook®
GoAnimate
Bugs and requests
Sketchbook®
Reported bugs
4 issues- Layers randomly deleted or corrupted
- Freezing when using certain tools like the eyedropper
- Saving issues leading to loss of progress
- Incompatibility with newer iPad Pro devices
Requested features
7 requests- Add blurring and clipping mask tools
- Improve gallery and canvas rotation functionality
- Allow custom font import
- Add effects like glow, stroke, and drop shadow
- Implement layer grouping and organization
Show 2 moreShow fewer
- Add real-time collaboration features
- Improve time-lapse recording and saving
GoAnimate
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Sketchbook®
- Premium Bundle$2.99
GoAnimate
No in-app purchases









