Comparison

RoughAnimator vs Cascadeur

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

Head to head
About

RoughAnimator

Create traditional hand-drawn, frame-by-frame animations on your iPad. This app offers professional-grade tools like unlimited layers, onion skinning, and audio import, making it suitable for both beginners and experienced animators. Export your work in various formats or import it into professional animation software.

Highlights
  • Timeline with unlimited layers
  • Onion skinning
  • Audio and video import
  • Custom brushes
  • Apple Pencil support
  • Export to video, GIF, image sequence
  • Import to professional software
Read full description

A fully featured hand drawn animation application for iPad. Made by an animator, for animators. Powerful enough for professionals, simple enough for beginners. Everything you need to create traditional hand drawn frame-by-frame animation, anywhere you go! Features: - Timeline with unlimited layers and easily adjustable exposure length of individual drawings, for pose-to-pose or straight-ahead animating - Onion skinning - Preview playback - Scrub along timeline - Import audio for lip syncing - Import video for rotoscoping animation - Custom brushes - Supports Apple Pencil, Logitech Crayon - Control framerate and resolution - Export animation to Quicktime video, GIF, or image sequence - RoughAnimator projects can be imported to Adobe Flash/Animate, After Effects, and Toon Boom Harmony - Also available on desktop See a short film animated with RoughAnimator: https://youtu.be/vaHuJNNPoMM

About

Cascadeur

Create professional 3D animations with AI and physics assistance. This app simplifies posing, generates in-between frames, and adds realistic motion. Import video references and utilize augmented reality for a more immersive animation workflow.

Highlights
  • AI-assisted posing
  • Physics-based motion generation
  • AI inbetweening
  • Secondary motion controls
  • Video reference import
  • Augmented reality integration
Features
Read full description

Cascadeur is a 3D app that lets you create keyframe animation. Thanks to its AI-assisted and physics tools you can now easily animate on your mobile device and get high quality results. It is also possible to import and export your scenes in the mobile app (via Cascadeur desktop) EASY TO POSE WITH AI AutoPosing is a smart rig powered by neural networks that helps you create poses easier and faster. Cascadeur's easy interface is ideal for touch screens. Move the control points and let the AI position the rest of the body automatically resulting in the most natural pose HANDY CONTROLLERS FOR FINGERS Control fingers with intelligent AutoPosing controllers. Dramatically ease the process of animating hand behaviour and gestures GENERATE ANIMATION WITH AI Create animation sequences based on your keyframes with our AI inbetweening tool EASY TO PHYSICS AutoPhysics allows you to achieve realistic and natural motion, while altering your animation as little as possible. The suggested animation is displayed on a green double of your character ADD LIFE WITH SECONDARY MOTION Adjust the slider to add shakes, bounces and overlaps to make your animation come alive. Very useful for idles, action moves, etc. VIDEO REFERENCE Import videos into your scenes with one click and use them as a reference for your animation EXPERIMENT WITH AR Use AR to position your character in the real world. Or even edit your animation right on your workdesk ENJOY A FULL RANGE OF ANIMATION TOOLS Cascadeur offers a vast variety of animation tools e.g. Trajectories, Ghosts, Copy Tool, Tween Machine, IK/FK Interpolation, Lights Customization and many more! Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

RoughAnimator1 screens
Cascadeur4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Cascadeur at Free against RoughAnimator's $7.99. RoughAnimator's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and rating (4.6 vs 4.3). On 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Cascadeur is free to download; RoughAnimator costs $7.99 up front. Cascadeur sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month. RoughAnimator asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

RoughAnimator holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: RoughAnimator has 3K ratings behind it against 315, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 79% of RoughAnimator's written reviews are positive against 64% of Cascadeur's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

RoughAnimator ships an update fortnightly, Cascadeur monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 27, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard9 real differences · 2 level
RoughAnimator versus Cascadeur: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterRoughAnimatorCascadeur
Price$7.99Free — better
Rating4.6 (3K ratings) — better4.3 (315 ratings)
Positive reviews78.6% of reviews — better64.2% of reviews
Number of ratings3K — better315
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#7 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS13 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size31 MB657 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJacob KAFKANekki Limited

Customer experience

RoughAnimator

All ratings2,936 ratings
Positive92.5%
Neutral3.3%
Negative4.2%
Written reviews852 reviews
Positive78.6%
Neutral9.4%
Negative12.0%

Cascadeur

All ratings303 ratings
Positive80.2%
Neutral4.3%
Negative15.5%
Written reviews123 reviews
Positive64.2%
Neutral13.0%
Negative22.8%

User reviews

RoughAnimator

From 3K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🚀 Smooth animation
  • 💡 Useful features like camera and audio
  • 👍 Intuitive interface
  • 👍 Great for beginners

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes when importing video/audio
  • 🐛 Laggy performance with larger projects
  • 🐛 Pixelated/blurry drawings when playing animation
  • 🐛 Onion skin not working
  • 🐛 Brush issues like splotchy lines

Cascadeur

From 315 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to animate
  • 🚀 Smooth animation
  • 🎨 Good for early development

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes
  • 🔒 Lack of import/export options
  • 🔒 Limited character and scene options
  • 🐛 Issues with AI-generated animations

Bugs and requests

RoughAnimator

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Crashes when importing audio
  • Onion skin not working
  • Pixelated drawings when playing animation
  • Laggy performance with larger projects

Requested features

8 requests
  • Add transparency support for exports
  • Implement a text tool
  • Provide more brush options and customization
  • Add a ruler/shape tool
  • Improve audio handling (record, import, sync)
Show 3 more
  • Implement a tween/animation feature
  • Add layer grouping and organization tools
  • Provide a dark mode option

Cascadeur

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes after short usage
  • Incorrect character model generation from photos
  • Glitches with character movements and positioning

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add more character models
  • Implement import/export for custom models and animations
  • Add scene editing tools (backgrounds, objects, etc.)
  • Improve AI-generated animations

In-app purchases

None

RoughAnimator

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Cascadeur

Subscriptions2
  • Cascadeur Pro Monthly7 Days trial$7.991 Month
  • Cascadeur Pro Yearly7 Days trial$49.991 Year

Questions

Is RoughAnimator free?
RoughAnimator costs $7.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Cascadeur free?
Cascadeur is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, RoughAnimator or Cascadeur?
RoughAnimator is rated higher. RoughAnimator averages 4.6 out of 5 from 3K ratings, while Cascadeur averages 4.3 from 315 ratings.
Do RoughAnimator or Cascadeur have ads?
Neither RoughAnimator nor Cascadeur shows ads.
Which is updated more often, RoughAnimator or Cascadeur?
RoughAnimator ships an update fortnightly, and Cascadeur monthly. Most recently, RoughAnimator was updated on October 26, 2026 and Cascadeur on October 27, 2026.

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