LipsUp vs Liply: which lip preview app should you use?

Liply details taken from its own App Store listing, checked September 2026. Star ratings are deliberately left out: both apps have too few to compare meaningfully. Pricing changes, so check the current listing.

The honest summary

These two apps answer different-sized questions.

Liply is a general cosmetic try-on. Lips are one of several things it previews, alongside teeth and hair. If you are curious about more than one change, or you are exploring rather than deciding, that breadth is real value and this comparison should end with you downloading Liply.

LipsUp is narrow on purpose. It previews lips, at two levels of fullness, and nothing else. If lips are the only thing you are weighing up, narrow is the point.

Where the difference actually bites

Breadth versus depth

Liply covers more ground. LipsUp goes deeper on one thing: two defined levels of fullness rather than one try-on, so "a bit more" and "noticeably more" are separate results you can hold next to each other and judge.

That matters more than it sounds. The most common regret in this category is not "I did not get enough", it is "it looks like someone else's mouth". Seeing a subtle version next to a stronger one is what stops that, and it is the specific thing a single try-on cannot do.

One payment versus a subscription

This is the sharpest practical difference.

Liply runs on a subscription: $2.99 weekly, $6.99 monthly, or $29.99 yearly. LipsUp is a one-time in-app purchase from $3.99, with no recurring charge and nothing to cancel.

If you are going to use a try-on regularly across several treatments, a subscription can be the cheaper shape. If you are answering one question before one appointment, paying weekly for it is the wrong shape, and forgetting to cancel is how that gets expensive.

What happens to your photo

Both make a privacy claim and both claims are reasonable. They are not the same claim.

Liply's developer states that photos are never stored and are discarded immediately after processing.

LipsUp's is narrower: your full selfie never leaves the device at all. Your lips are located on the phone, and only a small crop of the lip area is sent to be rendered. That crop is not stored afterwards, and because there is no account, nothing links an image to a person.

The difference is what gets transmitted, not just what gets kept. Read both privacy labels on the App Store and decide what you are comfortable with. Ours is spelled out in the privacy policy.

Choose Liply if

• You want to preview more than just lips
• You are exploring several possible changes rather than deciding on one
• You will use it often enough for a subscription to make sense

Choose LipsUp if

• Lips are the only thing you are deciding
• You want two levels of fullness rather than one result
• You do not want a recurring charge
• You would rather your full photo stayed on your phone
• You do not want to make an account

The wider field

Liply is the closest comparison, but it is not the only option. The lip filler simulator comparison covers YouCam Makeup, AirBrush and FaceApp as well, and YouCam Makeup vs AirBrush goes into the two big beauty editors specifically.

If you have not settled the treatment question yet, what will lip filler look like on me is about the decision rather than the tools.