Verithiathe honest score on any app
Updated July 2026 · real, multi-region App Store reviews
Head-to-head

FlipaClip vs Animation Desk® Draw & Animate

FlipaClip 4.6★ · Free + IAP 70
Winner FlipaClip
Animation Desk® Draw & Animate 4.2★ · Free + IAP 45

FlipaClip is the better choice for animation, offering a more stable and user-friendly experience despite its aggressive monetization, while Animation Desk struggles with critical bugs and a less intuitive interface.

Full reviews: FlipaClip · Animation Desk® Draw & Animate

FlipaClip generally offers a smoother animation experience, though users frequently complain about excessive ads and paywalls for essential features. Animation Desk, while praised for its free aspects, is plagued by severe glitches, including project deletion and inverted frames, making it unreliable for serious work.

Head to head

Features edge: FlipaClipR3R4R8R9
FlipaClip FlipaClip offers a good range of animation tools, with users appreciating its ease of use for creating animations. However, many essential features like adding sound, more than three layers, and certain brushes are locked behind paywalls or ads R3R4R9R12. Recent updates have also made some features, like changing FPS, less intuitive for some users R8.
Animation Desk® Draw & Animate Animation Desk provides basic animation functionality, with some users finding it simple and effective . However, crucial features like different brush types, colored onion skinning, and the ability to move selections are often behind paywalls or simply missing . The app also has limitations on importing audio, often only allowing iTunes music .
Ease of Use edge: FlipaClipR11R12R16R19
FlipaClip Many users find FlipaClip easy to use and beginner-friendly, even on phones R11R12. However, recent UI changes have made the app harder to navigate for some long-time users R16R19.
Animation Desk® Draw & Animate Animation Desk is described as simple and easy to use by some . However, others find it hard to understand or navigate, particularly with its UI .
Reliability & Performance edge: FlipaClipR6R10R32R39
FlipaClip FlipaClip users report issues with lag R6, crashing R32, and bugs preventing animation or photo/video import R39. Some users also experience problems with purchased premium features not working . The app is also criticized for wasting storage space and deleting projects R10.
Animation Desk® Draw & Animate Animation Desk suffers from significant reliability issues, with numerous reports of crashes R68, projects not saving or being deleted R66R69, and frames getting corrupted or flipped upside down R68R70. Users also mention lag and glitchy markers .
Price/Value & Monetization tieR1R3R4R7
FlipaClip FlipaClip is free with in-app purchases, but users are highly critical of its aggressive monetization. Many essential features are paywalled (e.g., sound, more layers, brushes, longer animations) or require watching frequent, disruptive ads R3R4R7R9. Some users who paid a one-time fee for no ads found ads reappearing after updates R1.
Animation Desk® Draw & Animate Animation Desk is also free with in-app purchases, but users complain about having to pay for basic tools like different brushes, and even to save or start animating . Ads are present but generally described as less frequent than FlipaClip . However, the app's severe glitches undermine any perceived value .
Pick FlipaClip if

You are a beginner animator looking for a relatively easy-to-use app and are willing to tolerate frequent ads or pay for a subscription to unlock features and remove ads R11R12.

Pick Animation Desk® Draw & Animate if

You prioritize an animation app with fewer ads in its free tier and are comfortable with a more basic toolset, provided you don't encounter the severe glitches reported by many users .

Evidence note: FlipaClip has a significantly higher number of reviews and a better lifetime rating, but recent reviews are heavily skewed negative due to monetization changes. Animation Desk has fewer reviews and a lower lifetime rating, with many recent reviews highlighting critical bugs. The free vs. paid asymmetry is notable, as much of FlipaClip's negativity stems from free-tier friction (ads, feature limits) from non-paying users, while Animation Desk's issues are more fundamental to its functionality.

Frequently asked

Does FlipaClip have a free tier, and what are its limitations?
Yes, FlipaClip has a free tier, but it comes with significant limitations including frequent, disruptive ads, restricted access to features like adding sound, more than three layers, and certain brushes, and a limit on animation length R3R4R7R21.
Are there any known critical bugs in Animation Desk?
Yes, Animation Desk has numerous critical bugs, including projects being deleted or not saving, frames getting randomly flipped upside down or duplicated, and the app crashing frequently R66R68R69R70.
Can I import my own audio into FlipaClip or Animation Desk?
In FlipaClip, importing your own audio typically requires a premium pass or watching an ad, and some users report issues even then R12R27R31R33. Animation Desk has limitations, often only allowing music from iTunes, which frustrates users who want to import other audio files .

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 120 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

  1. [R3] FlipaClip 3/5 · US Not fair: Why do you make all the helpful and nice things cost money? I’m 9 going on 10 and i cant even add the sound i want without the app trying to force me to pay for premium and also the adds arev very disruptive. I am disappointed that i thought it would be diffrent
  2. [R4] FlipaClip 2/5 · US Ads, greedy.: If you want a simple animation it does the job but it’s exetremely annoying because you have to pay money just to add sound. You could buy the whatever it is and you’ll just get what you’d expect to be free. They really don’t need that much money, they’re just greedy asf and want more. And the every time I want to play my animation it shoves an ad that I’ll never buy a product from i
  3. [R8] FlipaClip 4/5 · US The new update changed my flipaclip experience: It’s a really good update, but also it seems like everything is all across the screen, and I still don’t know how to change the fps. I do like how you can change it back to the old flipaclip. Great app and I think it’s the best anamation app that I have used!
  4. [R9] FlipaClip 3/5 · US Okay app: It pretty good at animating but you pretty much have to pay cause there too many adds and brushes lock behind a paywall
  5. [R11] FlipaClip 5/5 · US My review: It really helped me and from the start I could animate with this app it was really helpful. Also I saw it in a viyaura YouTube video
  6. [R12] FlipaClip 3/5 · US Pretty Good, just a couple of things that make it annoying: Flipaclip is amazing. Super easy to use, even on my phone.I can understand why this is a thing but it stills frustrates me, the fact that I can’t use my own music in my animation without the pass. I get it of course, but it still makes it tedious for me to use other editing software so I don’t have to spend any money doing a hobby I enjoy
  7. [R16] FlipaClip 1/5 · US Why…: I love this app but why did yall change that layout now it so hard for me to use! And it annoying so I stop using the app until yall fix that im use it again
  8. [R19] FlipaClip 1/5 · US Nah: New ui is actually trash💔
  9. [R6] FlipaClip 3/5 · US Not my fav but still good!: It’s a good app I didn’t like it was too laggy tho but it may of been my internet but the app is really good! Actually my first drawing/animating app!
  10. [R10] FlipaClip 1/5 · US Nope: Too much storage wasted
  11. [R32] FlipaClip 5/5 · US Why is it crashing so much?: I am trying to make a animated series on YouTube and for some reason it keeps crashing every time I open it and I deleted a few things to make more storage and yet it still crashes I have freed around 76.3 MB and it still crashing FlipaClip please help me out here.☹️☹️☹️
  12. [R39] FlipaClip 3/5 · US Good but many bugs 👾👾👾: It would be five stars if not the bugs one time it just would not let me animate and that bug has been here for like a few days now but yeah pretty good if you ask me
  13. [R1] FlipaClip 1/5 · US What’s happened..: It was 2019. I was happily animating with this app for the first time. It felt so free. I could use anything any time. After a while, I got tired of ads. I purchased a one time fee promising me that I would never have to watch ads again. It was a simple price- $8.00. I kept on animating a ton. It went on for years. Then 2023 came. I got on the app after installing one update- an
  14. [R7] FlipaClip 1/5 · US Ads, bugs, GREED.: This app was beautiful, wonderful even, until the “New FlipaClip” update… there are ads everywhere, when I try importing audio and videos into the studio it tells me to wait for an ad, WHICH DOESN’T EVEN LOAD???? Like yeah, I understand the greed. Hustlers gotta hustle. But come on… the fact that you heartlessly give us users an ad that doesn’t even work shows that you don’t eve
  15. [R21] FlipaClip 3/5 · US Read this please!!!: Honestly its asking for to much whenever I do something, I go to add more onion that suddenly costs money, I do more than six seconds cost money, I cant even do anything without paying so thats 3 stars and flipaclip used to be better than this, you guys are acting money hungry and asking for to much!! Also your app is awesome but I don’t know if you can help me out because I c
  16. [R66] Animation Desk® Draw & Animate 3/5 · US Doesn’t Save???: This app was good but while I was in the middle of animating it randomly exits me out and deletes some frames of my work. Idk what’s happening, but maybe fix it?
  17. [R68] Animation Desk® Draw & Animate 4/5 · US It’s good but it’s not all that: Hey y’all so the app is good but there are some bugs it’s minor but annoying. First when I zoom in and when I try to get back out I can’t I have to exit the app and go back in. Next is like a toca boca glitch if you work on it for a while you get kicked out it happened to me and when I went back in my animation I was working on was gone. So yeah if you can fix that
  18. [R69] Animation Desk® Draw & Animate 3/5 · US 2 Hours of work, GONE!: I was working hard on an animation that I really wanted to be one of my best. I had been drawing for 2 hours straight. 120 frames or so. I really loved it so far. And then, the screen froze. The app force closed and when I re-entered all of my work had erased. I was devastated. This app has done this 3 times now, and my i-Pad is never slow. Be prepared to lose your artwork.
  19. [R70] Animation Desk® Draw & Animate 1/5 · US Just a bunch of glitches: I can’t go 3 slides without project destroying glitches
  20. [R27] FlipaClip 3/5 · US Adding music: When I try to add an audio for free it says something went wrong and I’ve tried deleting the app and download it again but it still doesn’t work, unless someone else knows what to do idk.
  21. [R31] FlipaClip 1/5 · US Money hungry.: I used to be in love with this app as a child, i downloaded it again to attempt and animate like i used too but now the app is completely money hungry. I cant import audio with an AD anymore this is ridiculous
  22. [R33] FlipaClip 3/5 · US Yikes: good in every way but it costs money to import audio and videos over 6 seconds

Synthesized from 120 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store