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

Animation Desk® Draw & Animate vs Drawing Desk:Learn How to Draw

Animation Desk® Draw & Animate 4.2★ · Free + IAP 60
Winner Animation Desk® Draw & Animate
Drawing Desk:Learn How to Draw 4.4★ · Free to download 40

For users prioritizing animation creation, Animation Desk is the better choice despite its stability issues, while Drawing Desk is primarily a drawing tutorial app with a heavy paywall.

Full reviews: Animation Desk® Draw & Animate · Drawing Desk:Learn How to Draw

Animation Desk offers dedicated animation features, but users frequently report critical bugs like work deletion and inverted frames. Drawing Desk focuses on drawing tutorials, but its free functionality is severely limited, with most content locked behind a subscription.

Head to head

Features (Animation vs. Drawing Focus) edge: Animation Desk® Draw & AnimateR2R3R4R5
Animation Desk® Draw & Animate Animation Desk is designed for animation, offering tools like onion skinning and frame-by-frame drawing, though some advanced features are paywalled R3R5. Users appreciate its core animation capabilities . However, there are complaints about limited brush types in the free version R2R4 and issues with importing audio .
Drawing Desk:Learn How to Draw Drawing Desk is primarily a drawing tutorial app, guiding users step-by-step . Users find it helpful for learning to draw . However, most drawing content and categories, including lessons for specific styles like anime, are locked behind a premium subscription R61R63R64.
Ease of Use tieR32R42R46R53
Animation Desk® Draw & Animate Some users find Animation Desk easy to use for simple animations R32R53. However, others describe the UI as horrible and the app itself as hard to use R42R46.
Drawing Desk:Learn How to Draw Drawing Desk is praised for its step-by-step guidance, making it easy for beginners to learn . However, the constant paywall interruptions make the user experience frustrating and difficult to navigate .
Reliability & Performance edge: Drawing Desk:Learn How to DrawR1R6R8R9
Animation Desk® Draw & Animate Animation Desk suffers from significant and frequent glitches. Users report work being deleted or frames disappearing R6R8R9, inverted or duplicated drawings , app crashes R8, and freezing R9. Importing videos can also be slow or fail R1.
Drawing Desk:Learn How to Draw Drawing Desk has fewer specific mentions of technical glitches, though one user notes the check button is glitchy and another mentions parts of drawings being deleted after an update . One review broadly refers to 'too many glitches' .
Price & Value edge: Animation Desk® Draw & AnimateR2R3R4R5
Animation Desk® Draw & Animate Animation Desk is free to download but has numerous in-app purchases and paywalls for essential features like brushes, onion skinning, and saving R2R3R4R5. Ads are also present . Users feel they have to pay for 'everything' R16.
Drawing Desk:Learn How to Draw Drawing Desk is free to download but is heavily monetized, with most drawing lessons and content locked behind a subscription or 'Pro' version R61R63R64. Users express strong frustration about the extensive paywall, feeling misled by the 'free' download R64.
Pick Animation Desk® Draw & Animate if

You want an app specifically for animation and are willing to tolerate significant bugs and paywalls for advanced features R3R5R6R9. You prioritize animation creation over drawing tutorials .

Pick Drawing Desk:Learn How to Draw if

You are looking for step-by-step drawing tutorials and are prepared to pay for a subscription to access most of the content R63.

Evidence note: Many positive reviews for both apps are short and unspecific (e.g., '5 stars', 'I love this'), making detailed comparison on positive aspects challenging. Recent reviews for Animation Desk are heavily skewed negative due to severe glitches. The 'free vs paid' asymmetry is very strong for Drawing Desk, where almost all negative reviews stem from the paywall.

Frequently asked

Is Animation Desk truly free to use?
Animation Desk is free to download and offers basic animation functionality, but many essential features like different brush types, colored onion skinning, and certain saving options are locked behind paywalls or subscriptions R2R3R4R16.
What are the main issues with Animation Desk?
The main issues with Animation Desk are critical glitches that lead to work being deleted or frames disappearing R6R9, drawings being inverted or duplicated , frequent app crashes R8, and slow or failed video imports R1.
Is Drawing Desk a good app for learning to draw for free?
Drawing Desk is not a good app for learning to draw for free, as nearly all drawing lessons, categories, and content are locked behind a premium subscription or 'Pro' version, with only a very limited number of free daily lessons available R61R63R64R69.

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. [R2] Animation Desk® Draw & Animate 5/5 · US Absolutely FANTASTIC: It’s so fun and there are almost NO adds im NOT exaggerating. Only thing I DONT like is that you have to pay for the different brush types that’s the only thing so if the developers could update that it’ll be like a million stars
  2. [R3] Animation Desk® Draw & Animate 3/5 · US Decent enough: I feel like it’s so hard for a single animation app to actually include all the things that I feel like should come with it. Colored onion skinning and being able to move around things in a selection should be a basic essential and not behind a gamble or nonexistent!
  3. [R4] Animation Desk® Draw & Animate 2/5 · US It could be better: I would have liked it if I didn’t have to pay for everything. I could only use one brush ( and the brush sucked) also it was kinda glitchy. So if you are planning on getting this app I would not recommend it. Developers please make this app more free!! It would be sooooo much better!
  4. [R5] Animation Desk® Draw & Animate 4/5 · US I love it but…: I love this I have made comics and stuff but you do have to pay for certain stuff # a lot. But I still really love it.
  5. [R32] Animation Desk® Draw & Animate 4/5 · US Pretty cool: It was super cool to use, simple, but effective, and I really love the fact that when you’re animating, it looks like you’re doing it with an actual animation desk. Though, if you’re making a story time animation, it only lets you import music from iTunes. Still pretty good.
  6. [R42] Animation Desk® Draw & Animate 3/5 · US Ugh really hard: This was really hard
  7. [R46] Animation Desk® Draw & Animate 1/5 · US SOS: So, I got this app, and I can’t make an animation. I’ve tried everything. Please help. I’d love to be able to use this app. Thanks! -CozyFox26
  8. [R53] Animation Desk® Draw & Animate 5/5 · US Easy: Easy to use app and it’s very appropriate to use her children and adults
  9. [R1] Animation Desk® Draw & Animate 2/5 · US Wasn’t very satisfied: This app seems good, but I waited half an hour for a video to import, and it didn’t even show at all. Do I just need to wait for it to load, or is it not working? It made me really sad, by the fact that it wasted my time. Please fix :(
  10. [R6] 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?
  11. [R8] 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
  12. [R9] 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.
  13. [R16] Animation Desk® Draw & Animate 1/5 · US ABSOLUTELY GARBAGE: HORRIBLE. YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR EVERY FREAKING THING SEPARATELY YOU HAVE TO PAY TO START PLAYING. YOU HAVE TO PAY TO USE A PENCIL AND YOU HAVE TO PAY TO SAVE IT. HONESTLY VERY STUPID. DEFINITELY WOULD NOT RECOMMEND
  14. [R61] Drawing Desk:Learn How to Draw 1/5 · US U HAVE TO GET PRO: I try to pick a picture but every single picture has to have pro…WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OLD DRAWING DESK
  15. [R63] Drawing Desk:Learn How to Draw 3/5 · US Little drawings: There are too little drawings and for the others you need to buy premium which some people don’t want to buy. Furthermore many categories which include how to draw anime for example needs premium, so you aren’t learning anything.
  16. [R64] Drawing Desk:Learn How to Draw 1/5 · US 1 stars you know why?: So here’s the thing I’ve seen a lot of drawing apps and they have been fake! Fake I tell u and I feel like finally something that is normal so I look and I say “here it comes just one sec” and zero dollars then I click the button and it says for me to subscribe to them I’m like well here I hope you guys can understand me
  17. [R69] Drawing Desk:Learn How to Draw 3/5 · US 🚫💲🤑💰⭐️⭐️⭐️3️⃣: This game is so fun! But it makes you pay for it. What if kids just want to play their game and parents just don’t have any money to spare. The only way I can play this game is if I play the daily lessons. But, I don’t like the daily lessons sometimes. So, thats why I am writing this to tell you about my experience. Thanks! 😊

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