Comparison

Paintstorm Studio vs FocalPaint

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

FocalPaint

This app offers a unique brush engine for realistic paint simulation, pigment mixing, and canvas textures. It allows for custom brush and layer creation using Metal GPU or Javascript code, with advanced features like spectral color models and Apple Pencil Pro support.

Highlights
  • Realistic paint and pigment mixing
  • Custom brush and layer creation
  • Transparent ink simulation
  • Apple Pencil Pro support
  • Spectral color model
  • Open source shader code library
Features
Read full description

FocalPaint's unique brush engine simulates thick paint and real pigment mixing with accurate physics models. Features: - Realistic color blending behaves like real paint! - Real canvas texture and paint thickness - Transparent Ink simulation - Open Source GPU shader code library for reference and customization - Write your own custom brush with Metal GPU or Javascript code - Write your own custom layer modes with Metal GPU code - Apple Pencil Pro support with hover - 16 channel "spectral" color model (256 bits per pixel) - Wide color gamut (P3) Please note: Apple A12 GPU or newer is required Terms of Use: https://www.focalpaint.com/p/terms-of-use.html Privacy Policy: https://www.focalpaint.com/p/privacy.html Special Thanks to: Scott Allen Burns Troy James Sobotka & Friends colour-science.org python library MyPaint painting software team Anna Timm (@anti-art)

Screenshots

FocalPaint1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: FocalPaint at $4.99 against Paintstorm Studio's $12.99. FocalPaint also leads on update cadence (monthly vs every 4 months) and review sentiment (79% vs 60%). Paintstorm Studio's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and ratings volume (368 vs 13). On ads, monetization model and device support 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 FocalPaint $4.99 up front. FocalPaint sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Paintstorm Studio asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Paintstorm Studio holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Paintstorm Studio has 368 ratings behind it against 13, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 60% of Paintstorm Studio's written reviews are positive against 79% of FocalPaint's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Paintstorm Studio ships an update every 4 months, FocalPaint monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 6, 2026 and August 15, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Paintstorm Studio versus FocalPaint: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPaintstorm StudioFocalPaint
Price$12.99$4.99 — better
Rating4.4 (368 ratings) — better4.2 (13 ratings)
Positive reviews59.6% of reviews78.6% of reviews — better
Number of ratings368 — better13
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidPaid
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS13.1 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size103 MB557 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSergei Komarovbrien dieterle

Customer experience

Paintstorm Studio

All ratings368 ratings
Positive84.2%
Neutral4.3%
Negative11.4%
Written reviews178 reviews
Positive59.6%
Neutral9.0%
Negative31.5%

FocalPaint

All ratings13 ratings
Positive84.6%
Neutral0.0%
Negative15.4%
Written reviews14 reviews
Positive78.6%
Neutral0.0%
Negative21.4%

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

FocalPaint

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Paintstorm Studio

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

FocalPaint

One-time3
  • Generous Tip$0.99
  • Big Tip$4.99
  • Huge Tip$9.99

Questions

Is Paintstorm Studio free?
Paintstorm Studio costs $12.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is FocalPaint free?
FocalPaint costs $4.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Paintstorm Studio or FocalPaint?
Paintstorm Studio is rated higher. Paintstorm Studio averages 4.4 out of 5 from 368 ratings, while FocalPaint averages 4.2 from 13 ratings.
Do Paintstorm Studio or FocalPaint have ads?
Neither Paintstorm Studio nor FocalPaint shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Paintstorm Studio or FocalPaint?
Paintstorm Studio ships an update every 4 months, and FocalPaint monthly. Most recently, Paintstorm Studio was updated on September 6, 2026 and FocalPaint on August 15, 2026.

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