Comparison

Jolly Lights vs Annotable

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

Head to head
About

Jolly Lights

Add festive holiday lights to your photos or create original illuminated art. Customize bulb size, color, and placement, and enhance your creations with frames and text. Share your animated light designs as videos or GIFs.

Highlights
  • Holiday light decoration
  • Customizable bulb editor
  • Themed photo frames
  • Text overlays
  • Light animation timers
  • Video and GIF export
Features
Read full description

Decorate your favorite photos with strands of holiday lights, or create free-form lighted works of art! * Change bulb sizes, colors, spacing, placement, and more with our innovative Jolly Lights editor. * Enhance your photo or drawing with a holiday themed frame. * Add text overlays to communicate your message. * Choose one of two timers to animate your lights. * Share 10-second videos, animated GIFs, and single frame photos with friends and family. [Some frames require an In-App Purchase.] [Text mode requires an In-App Purchase.] Jolly Lights and Wrinkle-free Games are trademarks of Wrinkle-free Games, LLC.

About

Annotable

This app provides a comprehensive suite of tools for annotating and marking up images. It offers a wide range of customization options for common annotation elements and unique features like text highlighting on screenshots. The app supports various iOS system integrations for a seamless user experience.

Highlights
  • Common annotation tools (rectangles, text, arrows)
  • Customizable colors, sizes, and fonts
  • Blur and pixelation for obscuring information
  • Spotlights and Loupes for highlighting
  • Text highlighting on screenshots
  • High-resolution output
  • Support for all image types
Features
Read full description

Annotable is the most full-featured all-in-one image annotation tool. Featured by Apple in many places: ● Best of 2016 ● New Apps We Love ● Best Apps to Edit Your Photos ● Best Productivity Apps ● Best Utilities "I’ve finally found the best all-in-one image annotation tool for iOS – Annotable for iPhone and iPad." —— Federico Viticci of MacStories Features (many are free, some are unlocked with purchases): ◉ All the expected common tools: rectangles, ovals, arrows, lines and texts. ◉ Fully customizable: colors, sizes, outlines, fonts… ◉ Stylishly obscure private information with Blur and Pixelation. ◉ Or on the contrary, highlight something with Spotlights. ◉ If you really want to focus on a particular spot use a Loupe. ◉ You can even highlight text on screenshots of apps like Notes, Twitter, and Safari. It feels like magic, and can really save the day when you want to share a web page screenshot with some words highlighted but forgot to select the words when you took the screenshot. ◉ Fully support Action Extension, Photo Editing Extension, Edits Sync via iCloud Photo Library, URL Schemes, 3D Touch, Wide Color…Annotable utilizes your powerful iOS system to the extreme. Distinctions from many other similar Apps: ◆ All the results are high-resolution images. ◆ Not only screenshots but all images are supported. ◆ Large images can be directly annotated and do not have to be cropped.

Screenshots

Annotable4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Annotable at every 2 months against Jolly Lights's every 9 months. Annotable also leads on rating (4.6 vs 4.4) and ratings volume (894 vs 49). On price, review sentiment, 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

Both are free to download. Jolly Lights sells 4 one-off in-app purchases and Annotable sells 8 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Annotable holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Annotable has 894 ratings behind it against 49, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 79% of Jolly Lights's written reviews are positive against 75% of Annotable's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Jolly Lights ships an update every 9 months, Annotable every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Jolly Lights versus Annotable: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterJolly LightsAnnotable
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (49 ratings)4.6 (894 ratings) — better
Positive reviews79.2% of reviews — better75.3% of reviews
Number of ratings49894 — better
Update frequencyEvery 9 monthsEvery 2 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.0 — better16.6
Further details — not scored
Size68 MB9 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperWrinkle-free Games, LLC凌 王

Customer experience

Jolly Lights

All ratings49 ratings
Positive85.7%
Neutral2.0%
Negative12.2%
Written reviews24 reviews
Positive79.2%
Neutral4.2%
Negative16.7%

Annotable

All ratings885 ratings
Positive91.8%
Neutral3.2%
Negative5.1%
Written reviews190 reviews
Positive75.3%
Neutral5.8%
Negative18.9%

Bugs and requests

Jolly Lights

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Annotable

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Blur broken ios26
  • Can't save edits on iPad Pro, 14.5.1
  • In-App Purchases do not work
  • Loss of work
  • App freezes occasionally on iPad

Requested features

15 requests
  • Open the app directly to the camera
  • Save images to the app, not to my phone or make a specific folder to save Annotated images
  • Make a Mac version
  • Add insert photo option
  • Add flexible pointers lines
Show 10 more
  • Add an eraser
  • Add undo/redo action buttons
  • Add crop
  • Add a way to adjust transparency of fonts for watermarking
  • Add rotate image
  • Add a way to draw solid boxes with a color of your choosing
  • Add a way to adjust text size
  • Add a way to center the text
  • Add a way to insert and resize images
  • Add a way to make shapes a solid color in addition to outline

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Jolly Lights

One-time4
  • Holiday Pack #1$1.99
  • Unlock Text Mode$1.99
  • Holiday Pack #2$1.99
Show 1 more
  • Holiday Pack #3$1.99
8 purchases

Annotable

One-time8
  • Color Customization$1.99
  • Text Highlighter & Redaction Tool$1.99
  • All Obscuration Styles$1.99
Show 5 more
  • Blur Tool$1.99
  • Spotlight Tool$1.99
  • Loupe Tool$1.99
  • All Text Styles & Fonts$1.99
  • All Features$9.99

Questions

Is Jolly Lights free?
Jolly Lights is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Annotable free?
Annotable is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Jolly Lights or Annotable?
Annotable is rated higher. Jolly Lights averages 4.4 out of 5 from 49 ratings, while Annotable averages 4.6 from 894 ratings.
Do Jolly Lights or Annotable have ads?
Neither Jolly Lights nor Annotable shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Jolly Lights or Annotable?
Jolly Lights ships an update every 9 months, and Annotable every 2 months. Most recently, Jolly Lights was updated on October 16, 2026 and Annotable on October 17, 2026.

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