Comparison

RoughAnimator vs Sketch Pro

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

Sketch Pro

This professional art app offers advanced AI tools for digital painting, illustration, and animation. Create stunning artwork with custom brushes, text-to-image generation, and intelligent editing features. It's designed to streamline your creative workflow on iPads and iPhones.

Highlights
  • Customizable brushes
  • Text to Image AI
  • Sketch to Image AI
  • Magic Edit AI
  • Auto-Coloring AI
  • Animation Assist
  • Advanced Layer System
Features
Read full description

SketchPro, a professional art app available for iPads and iPhones, crafted with love by the Drawing Desk Team SketchPro is perfect for creative professional digital artists, including graphic designers, illustrators, comic, anime & manga book artists with a range of Drawing & advanced AI tools to upgrade their creative workflow SketchPro tools and features: Powerful Custom Brushes -A range of free specialized brush sets for sketching, painting, doodling, drawing and more. -Customisable brushes with adjustable radius, opacity, texture and more -Create brush sets -Maintain a list of your favorite brushes -Free Roller Brush with 100+ patterns Pro Digital AI Drawing tools -Create artwork effortlessly via Text to Image AI tool using simple prompts -Transform hand drawn sketches into images with advanced Sketch to Image AI tool using simple prompts -Revamp colors, textures & add or replace objects in your image with simple AI prompts via Magic Edit AI tool -Expand your digital canvas with AI. Seamlessly expand the artwork and fill it in with matching original content with no quality reduced to custom dimensions with expand artwork AI tool -Add color to sketches in seconds with Auto-Coloring AI tool or prompt color hints to sketches, drawings & complete coloring with Auto-Colorization AI tool -Remove objects, backgrounds in drawings with AI Object Remove and Pro BG Remove tools -Generate & extract Line art of any image and use in your drawings Animation Assist -Powerful interface and essential tools for creating impressive animations (Only for iPads). -Wide range of tools, including onion-skinning, instant playback, a visual timeline, and more. Essentials to accelerate the Creative Process -Smart Shapes feature for instant shape drawing -Free Symmetry Tool for easier drawing -Powerful Gradient tool with Linear and Radial options -Layer Transform Tool with Freeform, Uniform, Distort and Warp options -Magic Eraser -Assisted Drawing -Synchronization between iPad and iPhone Advanced Layer System -Free unlimited layers -Rasterize, Duplicate and Merge layers -Fill, Color Invert, Lock Alpha and Lock Layer options Advance Text Tool -Select from a full list of fonts or import your own -Customize fonts -Apply solid and gradient colors to text -A range colored font patterns, textures and designs Complete Color Palette -Full Color Wheel with adjustable color values and shades -Create unique themed color palettes for your drawing -Import colors from photos and images Extensive Shapes Library -15+ categories of free shapes, signs, and symbols -Favorites section for keeping track of frequently used shapes Other Essential Tools -Smudge Tool -Fill Bucket with solid colors -Filter options including Gaussian Blur, Motion Blur, Perspective Blur and more. -Convenient Cutter Tool -Import and Export functions -Custom Canvas option -AR Facepaint Organize and Save Your Work -Save every drawing automatically -Rename each saved artwork -Create folders for storing drawings methodically -Cloud syncing to secure and access artworks anywhere -Duplicate and Delete projects at any time -Time Lapse Playback -Dark Mode Unlimited access to all premium features & daily content updates during the subscription period Premium subscriptions with 1 week trial -Annual for 39.99/year You may cancel a subscription or free-trial anytime via the subscription setting through your iTunes account. This must be done 24 hours before the end of the free trial or subscription period to avoid being charged. The subscription will automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. No cancellation of the current subscription is allowed during the active subscription period. Any unused portion of a free trial period will be forfeited when the user purchases a SketchPro Unlimited subscription. Terms & Conditions : https://4axis.com/terms-of-use Privacy Policy : https://4axis.com/privacy-policy Reach us: hello@4axis

Screenshots

RoughAnimator1 screens
Sketch Pro4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Sketch Pro at Free against RoughAnimator's $7.99. Sketch Pro also leads on ratings volume (11K vs 2.9K). RoughAnimator's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 16) and ads (none vs shown). On rating, review sentiment, update cadence 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

Sketch Pro is free to download; RoughAnimator costs $7.99 up front. Sketch Pro sells 16 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per 7 days. RoughAnimator asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for RoughAnimator against 4.7 for Sketch Pro. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2.9K and 11K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 79% of RoughAnimator's written reviews are positive against 81% of Sketch Pro's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

RoughAnimator ships an update fortnightly, Sketch Pro every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 28, 2026 and September 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
RoughAnimator versus Sketch Pro: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterRoughAnimatorSketch Pro
Price$7.99Free — better
Rating4.6 (2.9K ratings)4.7 (11K ratings) — better
Positive reviews78.7% of reviews80.6% of reviews — better
Number of ratings2.9K11K — better
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#7 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Vision Pro — better
Requires iOS1313
Further details — not scored
Size31 MB350 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJacob KAFKA4Axis Technologies Pte Ltd

Customer experience

RoughAnimator

All ratings2,936 ratings
Positive92.5%
Neutral3.3%
Negative4.2%
Written reviews848 reviews
Positive78.7%
Neutral9.4%
Negative11.9%

Sketch Pro

All ratings11,463 ratings
Positive93.0%
Neutral3.4%
Negative3.6%
Written reviews686 reviews
Positive80.6%
Neutral5.8%
Negative13.6%

User reviews

RoughAnimator

From 2.9K 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

Sketch Pro

From 11K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Powerful drawing tools
  • 👍 Intuitive interface
  • 🎨 Extensive brush and material options
  • 💡 Customizable brushes
  • 🎨 Versatile for various art styles

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and freezing issues
  • 🔒 Concerns about subscription model and lifetime access
  • 🔍 Difficulty finding and adjusting certain features
  • 🔍 Steep learning curve for some advanced tools
  • 💰 Subscription fees for full functionality

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

Sketch Pro

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Drawings randomly deleted or lost
  • Inability to load or access previous artwork
  • Crashes when trying to import photos

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add liquify tool
  • Improve layer management and manipulation
  • Provide more default brushes
  • Implement undo/redo functionality
  • Add shape tools for perfect geometric shapes
Show 1 more
  • Improve performance and stability

In-app purchases

None

RoughAnimator

No in-app purchases

16 purchases

Sketch Pro

Subscriptions13
  • SketchPro Premium Weekly$0.997 Days
  • SketchPro Premium Monthly3 Months trial$1.991 Month
  • SketchPro Monthly Premium7 Days trial$4.991 Month
Show 10 more
  • SketchPro Premium Monthly7 Days trial$7.991 Month
  • SketchPro Premium Yearly7 Days trial$9.991 Year
  • SketchPro Yearly Premium$9.991 Year
  • SketchPro Premium1 Year trial$14.991 Year
  • SketchPro Yearly Premium7 Days trial$14.991 Year
  • SketchPro Yearly Premium$14.991 Year
  • SketchPro Premium Yearly7 Days trial$39.991 Year
  • SketchPro Premium Yearly1 Year trial$39.991 Year
  • SketchPro Yearly Premium7 Days trial$39.991 Year
  • SketchPro Premium Yearly7 Days trial$49.991 Year
One-time3
  • 100 Tokens$3.99
  • 200 Tokens$4.99
  • 500 Tokens$7.99

Questions

Is RoughAnimator free?
RoughAnimator costs $7.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Sketch Pro free?
Sketch Pro is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, RoughAnimator or Sketch Pro?
Sketch Pro is rated higher. RoughAnimator averages 4.6 out of 5 from 2.9K ratings, while Sketch Pro averages 4.7 from 11K ratings.
Do RoughAnimator or Sketch Pro have ads?
Sketch Pro shows ads; RoughAnimator does not.
Which is updated more often, RoughAnimator or Sketch Pro?
RoughAnimator ships an update fortnightly, and Sketch Pro every 3 weeks. Most recently, RoughAnimator was updated on September 28, 2026 and Sketch Pro on September 30, 2026.

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