Comparison

Paintstorm Studio vs Zen Brush 3

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Paintstorm Studio

This app offers a professional digital painting experience on iOS devices, leveraging Apple Pencil for advanced control. It provides a vast array of customizable brushes, stroke correction, and intuitive tools for artists of all levels to create masterpieces on the go.

Highlights
  • Advanced brush customization
  • Stroke post-correction
  • Perspective-aware parameters
  • Dynamic and custom interface
  • Mask brush functionality
  • Photoshop PSD and ABR support
  • Apple Pencil integration
Read full description

Paintstorm Studio is the first iOS App designed not only for simple sketches, but professional digital painting of any level, genre and technique. Paintstorm helps you to discover the magnificence and unleash the full potential of Apple Pencil and brings you to a whole new level of drawing. Creating an art masterpiece has never been so mobile. A major feature of Paintstorm Studio is the array of brushes to choose from. We did our best so that you can easily and quickly adjust the brushes suitable to your painting style. Anyone who has ever painted knows it's hard to overestimate the painting tool and the importance of all the seemingly insignificant details. We tried not to miss any of them. Our goal was to create an intuitive, simple-to-use but at the same time functionally powerful tool that brings the process of digital painting to a new level, making it as comfortable as possible. - Full control of all brush options (Incredible possibilities for brush settings) - Bristle brushes of any form and kind - Stroke post correction (You can take an action on any option. Not only on the stroke thickness) - Parameters binding to the perspective - Dynamic interface (Global interface scale, panels scale, opacity, color) - Custom panels - Full controlled mask-brush (Each brush can work as mask for other brush) - Takes underlayer's color while blending - "Close gaps" function when you fill or select - Dirty brush mode - Stroke stabilizer - Usable color mixer - Different gradient strokes - Mirror drawing - Standart tools pack (Lasso, Magic wand, Crop, Fill, Gradient and etc) - Control of the random amounts - Photoshop PSD and ABR supported - Apple Pencil support (Pressure, Tilt, Direction)

About

Zen Brush 3

This app allows users to create beautiful East Asian ink art, including calligraphy and painting. It simulates an ink brush with adjustable water and color features, offering a rich expressive range for both beginners and experienced artists. Easily share and edit your creations with various export options and background templates.

Highlights
  • Simulated 3D ink brush drawing
  • Adjustable water and color effects
  • Layer functionality for flexible editing
  • Import photos for tracing or backgrounds
  • Rich background and paper templates
  • Export to JPEG, PNG, and transparent PNG
Features
Read full description

Zen Brush 3 is a drawing app focused on the strong yet beautiful feel of the East Asian ink brush which can be used to perform calligraphy, ink painting and more. The drawing system that brings to life a feeling of silky fluent and delicate painting now allows an even wider range of expression thanks to the addition of "water" and "color". Providing a new simple and intuitive user interface, this app is designed to be optimal for performing Zen art. Simply start the app and you are immediately ready to draw. Anyone, anywhere, can create superb Zen art with this app’s uniquely rich expressiveness. You can also easily share and edit your calligraphy and images with other apps using the Export functionality. Skillfully use the rich background style templates to create and share atmospheric artwork. - The drawing system simulates a 3D model of an East Asian ink brush to enable varied and natural styles of brush handling. - The adjustable amount of water makes it possible to create expressions ranging from powerful edge effects to "nijimi" (bleeding) and "bokashi" (blurring) where colors mix. - You can also enjoy creating colored-ink paintings as well as watercolor paintings by making use of 30 selected traditional Japanese colors. - The layer functionality allows more flexible editing. - Import photos to add text to them or use them as background images for tracing. - Create fascinating artwork with a rich assortment of background style templates. - Traditional Japanese paper templates provide an authentic feel. Features: - 5 main tools (ink brush, color brush, water brush, eraser, blotting paper). - 10 levels of thickness. - 5 levels of water (not applicable to blotting paper). - 10 levels of ink tone (not applicable to water brush and blotting paper). - Color palette with 30 colors. - 89 background style templates. - Drying functionality (fast dry, instant dry, adjustable natural dry). - Layers functionality (import image / color adjustment / move / rotate / scale / reverse left and right / white transparency / gradation effect). - Guide display (character guides / partition guides / grid guides). - Movable toolbar (top / bottom / left / right). - Canvas zoom (zoom in and out with pinch gestures). - Undo / redo (5 levels). - Export functionality (formats: JPEG, PNG, transparent PNG (no background)). - Support for Apple Pencil (1st and 2nd generation). - Support for 3D Touch (where available: iPhone 6S - XS). - Drawing tool selection (finger and stylus / stylus only). - Adjustable brush pressure sensitivity (5 levels, with supported stylus only). - Adjustable tilt sensitivity (5 levels, with supported stylus only). - Gesture functionality (pinch zoom and drag, zoom toggle with 2-finger tap). - 3D brush display (enable / disable). - Pointer display (enable / disable). - 5 levels of canvas resolution with a maximum of 3072 x 4096 pixels (the higher resolutions do not work on devices with lower specs).

Screenshots

Zen Brush 34 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Zen Brush 3 at $4.99 against Paintstorm Studio's $12.99. Zen Brush 3 also leads on chart position (#79 vs unranked) and device support (3 vs 1). Paintstorm Studio's advantage is ratings volume (381 vs 58). On rating, review sentiment, update cadence and ads 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

Paintstorm Studio costs $12.99 and Zen Brush 3 $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.4 for Paintstorm Studio against 4.4 for Zen Brush 3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Paintstorm Studio has 381 ratings behind it against 58, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 60% and 60% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Paintstorm Studio ships an update every 4 months, Zen Brush 3 every 3 months. Both last shipped on October 29, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
Paintstorm Studio versus Zen Brush 3: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPaintstorm StudioZen Brush 3
Price$12.99$4.99 — better
Rating4.4 (381 ratings)4.4 (58 ratings) — better
Positive reviews59.9% of reviews — better59.8% of reviews
Number of ratings381 — better58
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 3 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
Best chart rank—#79 — better
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS13.113.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size103 MB226 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSergei KomarovPSOFT

Customer experience

Paintstorm Studio

All ratings368 ratings
Positive84.2%
Neutral4.3%
Negative11.4%
Written reviews282 reviews
Positive59.9%
Neutral10.6%
Negative29.4%

Zen Brush 3

All ratings55 ratings
Positive81.8%
Neutral5.5%
Negative12.7%
Written reviews117 reviews
Positive59.8%
Neutral12.0%
Negative28.2%

User reviews

Paintstorm Studio

From 381 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Powerful desktop-class features
  • 🎨 Excellent brush engine and blending
  • 📚 Highly customizable interface
  • 💻 Seamless desktop-to-iPad experience
  • 🖌️ Realistic painting simulation

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and stability issues
  • 🔍 Cluttered and confusing UI
  • 🔋 Performance and memory issues
  • 🔒 Lack of cloud/online integration
  • 📁 Limited file management and export options

Zen Brush 3

From 58 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🎨 Realistic brush simulation and ink blending
  • 💧 Innovative water simulation and wet ink effects
  • 🎯 Natural brush stroke behavior and responsiveness
  • 🌈 Color palette addition in version 3
  • 📄 Multiple paper textures and backgrounds

Room to improve

  • 🔄 Significant downgrade from version 2 in brush feel
  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and app instability
  • 🔋 Excessive battery drain and device heating
  • ❌ Limited undo functionality (only 5 levels)
  • 🎨 Mushy brush strokes at default resolution

Bugs and requests

Paintstorm Studio

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Crashes on startup or when using certain tools
  • Brush lag and performance issues with large canvases
  • Unreliable autosave and file management
  • Unresponsive or glitchy UI elements
  • Incompatibility with older iPad models

Requested features

5 requests
  • Improved brush customization and management
  • Seamless canvas rotation and zooming
  • Expanded layer and selection tools
  • Better text and typography support
  • Integrated cloud/online sync and sharing

Zen Brush 3

Reported bugs

14 issues
  • App crashes when setting maximum resolution
  • Crashes when adding layers or importing images
  • Crashes during high-resolution JPEG export
  • iPad Pro M2 overheating and battery drain
  • Apple Pencil input not recognized
Show 9 more
  • Finger pressure detection not working
  • Brush lag and motion prediction issues
  • Dithering too large at default resolution
  • Support link returns blank screen
  • Cannot delete saved works
  • Import from Zen Brush 2 not functional
  • iMessage function removed without explanation
  • App closed unexpectedly with PSOFT MOBILE message
  • Pressure sensitivity inconsistent across devices

Requested features

23 requests
  • Canvas rotation with two-finger gestures
  • Increased undo/redo levels (more than 5)
  • Grid or guide line display for practice
  • Custom color wheel/palette picker
  • Instant erase without animations
Show 18 more
  • Larger grid options for quadrant practice
  • Brush size slider with fine-grained control
  • Drawing correction/smoothing adjustment
  • Layer blending modes (multiply, etc.)
  • High DPI and vector export options
  • Sketch import for tracing/reference
  • Text tool with adjustable sizing
  • Cross-device cloud synchronization
  • Trial/demo period before purchase
  • Subscription model with regular updates instead of new app versions
  • Larger UI elements and palette buttons
  • Tutorial or guided introduction
  • Gold and silver color options
  • Batch character/kanji saving and arrangement
  • Community sharing feature or official gallery
  • Customizable drawing correction levels
  • Disable finger optimizations for stylus users
  • Motion prediction control for faster strokes

In-app purchases

None

Paintstorm Studio

No in-app purchases

None

Zen Brush 3

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Paintstorm Studio free?
Paintstorm Studio costs $12.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Zen Brush 3 free?
Zen Brush 3 costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Paintstorm Studio or Zen Brush 3?
Zen Brush 3 is rated higher. Paintstorm Studio averages 4.4 out of 5 from 381 ratings, while Zen Brush 3 averages 4.4 from 58 ratings.
Do Paintstorm Studio or Zen Brush 3 have ads?
Neither Paintstorm Studio nor Zen Brush 3 shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Paintstorm Studio or Zen Brush 3?
Paintstorm Studio ships an update every 4 months, and Zen Brush 3 every 3 months. Most recently, Paintstorm Studio was updated on October 29, 2026 and Zen Brush 3 on October 29, 2026.

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