# Shade — user reviews

> 69 indexed App Store user reviews of Shade by Two Lives Left, rated 4.30/5 from 124 ratings.

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/shade/id1402522815/reviews
- App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/shade/id1402522815.md
- Rating breakdown: 5★ 89 · 4★ 9 · 3★ 11 · 2★ 3 · 1★ 12

## What do users think of Shade?

Overall sentiment: mixed

**Pros**

- ✨ Amazing app for shaders
- 💡 Commendable bringing shaders to iPad
- 👍 Intuitive and useful
- 🚀 Great for sketching shaders on the go
- 🌟 High quality visuals on iPad
- 🎨 Node-based shader editor
- 💰 No subscription required
- 📱 Works great on iPhone
- ✨ Great for prototyping and learning
- 💻 Good for 3D workflow integration
- 🎨 Elegant and readable interface
- 💡 Powerful node-based shader editor
- 📱 Great on iPhone and iPad
- 🚀 Well optimized for iPad
- 🤩 Stunning app quality
- 👍 Easy to use
- 💡 Useful for VFX
- ✨ Great for generative art

**Cons**

- 🔋 High battery consumption
- 🔥 Generates significant heat
- 💸 Requires payment to create/export
- ❓ Unclear pricing and trial information
- 📉 Export options limited
- 🤷 Difficult to use for beginners
- 🚫 No streaming camera texture support
- 💰 Pro version price is high
- 🐛 Crashes frequently
- 💸 App requires payment to create shaders
- 🤔 Lack of transparency on pricing
- 🗑️ Lost progress due to no auto-save
- 🚫 No free trial for export functionality
- 💸 Free version only for viewing
- 💸 Full functionality requires payment

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Curvature node crashes the program
- Closing function node crashes and saves incorrectly
- Failed to create new shaders
- iOS 17 crashes the app
- App crashes when opening most shaders
- Unable to report crashes with debug info
- No auto-saves leading to lost progress
- Internal error preventing shader opening after purchase
- Corrupted or version mismatch error when creating/opening shaders
- Cannot reactivate from Beta version after official release
- Exported shaders don't match in Unity
- App requires payment to create shaders

**Most requested features**

- Edit shader code manually
- Add Mac support
- Port Blender to iOS
- Add UE4 support
- Add light node (direction, position)
- Export to Metal/Blender
- Add experimental ray tracing option
- Add support for exporting ShaderGraph or ASE formats
- Add feature to change texture of the object
- Add support for Unreal Engine 4
- Add support for Godot
- Add support for camera/touch inputs
- Add more export options
- Add translation to Chinese
- Support manual shader compilation besides nodes
- Add basic PBR materials folder export
- Add unlit shader for output
- Add gyro, ALS, accelerometer, heart-rate inputs
- Add multi-select
- Adjust long hold-tap gesture time

## Newest reviews (15 of 69)

### 3/5 — Great app, though I almost immediately encountered a bug

*2025-04-09, version 1.3.2*

This app is amazing, heck even bringing shaders to iPad is commendable on its own. The only grievance I carry is that the curvature node has a bug that causes the program to crash when plugged into diffuse

### 4/5 — 希望有编辑shader代码的功能

*2024-09-01*

只能连线编辑，希望能有一个手动编辑代码的功能，我敢肯定，有这个功能后一定大卖。还有就是发热严重，掉电快

### 3/5 — Bug with function node

*2024-03-07*

When you close a shader while editting the function node, it will save the shader as the nodes in the function. Lost an hour or two of progress from the bug, please fix

### 4/5 — 可以把blender移植到ios上吗

*2024-02-16*

如题

### 3/5 — Can’t make new shadrers

*2023-10-20, version 1.3.1*

Failed to Create Document

iPhone 15 Pro

### 4/5 — iOS 17 crashes the app

*2023-10-01*

great tool; there's no contact info on the support link nor in app (at least i cant access it due to this bug) so im writing this here trying to open most shaders crashes the app in iOS 17

**Developer response:** Thank you for this report. We are currently working on a fix and should have it submitted shortly

### 3/5 — 不能导出SRP

*2021-11-09*

导出到unity不支持hlsl，是cg的，建议支持导出shadergraph或者ASE格式，方便再次修改

### 5/5 — Shader to unity

*2021-07-25*

正在学习中,导出到unity中很方便。希望继续更新完善

### 5/5 — Wow just wow

*2021-07-10, version 1.2.8*

Thanks so much this has helped me I love it all beacuse of you I’ve finally got 1k Views this is just amazing definitely get the app and rate it if I could ild give u 10,000 rateing

### 3/5 — Great but

*2021-04-26*

Can you add the feature to change the texture of the object
Example: you can change the material of the object

### 3/5 — IT SAYS I NEED TO PAY.

*2021-04-22*

Hello, I just wanted to say that for me I need to pay... I can’t do anything without paying, not even make a new document. You make the app free, but for me I can’t make a shader document, if you see this, please read it.

**Developer response:** Thank you for your review, sorry for the confusion!

Shade has a 14-day free trial you can activate to test all the Pro features for 14 days. After this, Shade will revert to read-only mode. You will not be charged. There is no subscription

You can then choose to purchase Shade Standard or Shade Pro for a one-off payment (not a subscription)

### 5/5 — Unbelievably good

*2021-04-13, version 1.2.8*

After playing with this app for a while, it’s absolutely floored me. I never thought there would be a shader authoring experience this great on iOS, that both looks and feels native but also has just enough pro functionality to fit nicely into my 3D workflow.

The ability to export to Unity and SceneKit materials are the killer feature for me, but the user experience in general is so intuitive, fun and rich that I’m starting to prefer using Shade to hand-authoring. Huge respect to the developers for taking on such a Herculean task and pulling it off so flawlessly. If I had a few more feature requests it would be exporting directly to Metal and/or Blender, but with the new export plugins and the already great GL/HLSL functionality, porting those shaders over manually isn’t too taxing.

P.S. If that’s not good enough, unlike ever other remotely pro-usable app out there it doesn’t even require a monthly subscription. I appreciate the devs even more for not going full Adobe on us.

### 5/5 — Thank you

*2021-03-22*

I was looking for this for the past years, and I looked again and it was here ! A powerful node based shader editor ! Thank you ! Everything you need is in there, even node based ray marching (actually never saw that before) ! The interface may be better on iPad but on iPhone the pleasure is real. And the “trial” thing don’t charge you a thing so go ahead. Would love to see what’s coming next and I don’t even have ideas to share with you because the app is already majestic !

**Developer response:** Thank you for your great review!

### 3/5 — I need help @-@

*2021-03-22, version 1.2.8*

I downloaded, then started the free trial. I’m not sure I want to keep the app, so I went to cancel the trial but it’s not there. Anyone know how to cancel it? Thanks :))

### 5/5 — Great app

*2021-03-13, version 1.2.8*

I have been missing out never having had an iPad this app is so good I can hardly believe that game devs are not screaming it from the roof tops that it exists...

## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated)

### 1/5 — How do you even use the app?

*2022-05-12, version 1.3.1*

This episode is Grace it doesn’t even give you any options and I don’t even know how to use it!!! This is really bad it doesn’t give you any other options!

### 1/5 — Only Free to download

*2021-12-20, version 1.2.8*

Without try out on trail version, this app is nothing more than a “File” App of your iPhone. Beware before downloading.

### 1/5 — Pour crée, faut payer

*2021-06-03*

Il aurait pu mettre de la pub, ou autre mais non des le debut il faut payer, payer, payer toujour payer je suis sûr que cela pourrait être un super application mais sérieux....

### 1/5 — The Real Price

*2021-04-28*

So the real price of this app, at the time of writing, is $15 for the ability to create shaders at all and $50 to export them. Not a terrible price all things considered. However the lack of transparency about this on the app’s store page makes me pretty uncomfortable about the business practice here. If you’re really just trying to pull off a ‘demo’ without having free and paid versions of the app, be more open about that. As it stands, this feels like a dupe.

**Developer response:** Thanks for your review. Sorry you felt duped! That was definitely not our intention

We'll add information about Shade being a free trial to the App Store description. We certainly didn't intend to mislead you. Sometimes, something obvious about our own product is not obvious to everyone else, and we don't explain it well enough. Thanks for pointing that out

### 1/5 — Instead of paying it put ads instead

*2021-04-03*

At first I thought it would be cool if I can make 3D models but NO 
We need to pay monthly or yearly expenses!?!?!
You can make it all free by putting ads thus making it more better than it can be very famous more ads=more money so yea

**Developer response:** Thanks for your review

Shade is not a monthly or yearly purchase. It is a once-off purchase that lasts forever once it is unlocked. It also has a 14-day free trial so you can see if you like it 

We're sorry for the confusion but Shade is certainly NOT a subscription product, and if you choose to pay once, you own it forever. It is free for viewing shaders and has a once-off trial (with no recurring payments!) to allow people to evaluate whether they like it

### 1/5 — Idk

*2020-12-02, version 1.2.7*

Idk how to use this cause I just don't cause I looked everyone it is like it brought me to notes

### 1/5 — Money

*2020-07-13, version 1.2.4*

Can’t use in any shape or form without paying. A waste of download...

### 1/5 — Not for making shaders

*2019-10-17, version 1.0.2*

It costs $15 to make shaders. You can only look at them with the free version. Just make the app $15 so I don’t download it in the first place.

### 1/5 — In app payments

*2019-03-23, version 1.0.1*

Doesn’t specify it cost $15 to actually use the app. Which is ridiculous

### 2/5 — Frage!

*2021-02-09*

Wenn ich meine 14 Tage hatte kann ich dann sofort kündigen?

**Developer response:** It is not a subscription so there is no need to cancel

You will not be charged after 14 days

## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated)

### 5/5 — 什么时候能适配Mac

*2023-07-16*

非常棒的App，就是发热量太大了，非常耗电，不过还是很喜欢这种轻便实用的工具，希望以后也能在Mac上体验到这款App。

**Developer response:** 非常感谢您的好评！的确，Shade会消耗较多电量，但我们很高兴您喜欢它。目前您可以在配备苹果硅芯片的Mac上运行Shade（作为iPad应用程序从App Store下载）。我们认为它在macOS上运行得相当不错。

### 5/5 — Please continue development

*2023-04-13*

This app is great. In theory and in some of it’s delivered features. 
I would love to use this app to develop shaders for my game while traveling. Be it water shaders or some Kind of Aura… Whatever. I started using this App today and it crashed twice. There was no way to report the crash with debug info. I just worked a lot with the mix nodes. Altogether about 40 nodes or so. My progress was completely lost sadly because there are no auto saves? Please make this more stable and maybe add nodes like fresnel like in Unity. Examples and more complex nodes would be awesome too! Thank you so much for the hard work. Have a nice day!

**Developer response:** Thank you for your kind review. We're sorry about the crash and loss of progress, that must be frustrating. We have tried to improve auto save, and will continue to work on stability. There is a fresnel example shader included, you could potentially convert that into a function for re-use across other shaders

### 5/5 — Rich features. Astonishing !

*2022-08-26, version 1.3.1*

Very intuitive and useful

### 5/5 — Very great app!

*2022-07-17, version 1.3.1*

It’s so cool best app

### 5/5 — 求能写shader代码

*2022-06-26*

能写代码就更好了

**Developer response:** 感谢您的好评。Shade能够导出代码，而且导出器本身可以像插件一样进行编辑和编写。不过，这并非易事，但确实可行。

### 5/5 — This is cool

*2022-03-30*

I’ve never seen this stuff work on a iPad before and it’s so high quality

**Developer response:** Thank you for your wonderful review!

### 5/5 — Just insanely good

*2022-01-30, version 1.3*

Sketching out shaders on the go seemed like a dream, insane that it’s now this easy!

### 5/5 — Nice

*2022-01-26*

Good as blender

**Developer response:** Wow that's high praise. Thank you!

### 5/5 — Äußerst nützlich

*2021-12-25*

Sehr nützlich, nun sogar deutlich günstiger! Funktioniert zuverlässig, einwandfreier Funktionsumfang! Die Pro-Version hatte ich für Unity-Export gekauft, aber bisher noch nicht getestet - war mir auf die Schnelle etwas unübersichtlich.

**Developer response:** Thank you!

### 5/5 — Add a experimental ray tracing option

*2021-08-12*

The title lol and options for the well option

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-09.*