Comparison

Sprite Creator vs Sprite Pencil

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

Head to head
About

Sprite Creator

Create pixel art for games or personal projects with this powerful yet easy-to-use drawing app. It supports sprite sheets, tile maps, and animated GIFs, with robust tools for editing, importing, and exporting your creations.

Highlights
  • Layer editing tools
  • Animation frame tools with onion skinning
  • Export to PNG, GIF, JPG, sprite sheets, and tile maps
  • Import sprite sheets, tile maps, and animated GIFs
  • Selection and transformation tools
  • Customizable color palettes
  • Up-scaling tool
Features
Read full description

Sprite Creator is a very powerful and easy to use pixel art drawing app. Create and import sprite sheets, tile maps, or even animated gifs. This app has been designed to be a simple and powerful tool for creating pixel art for games or for fun. Layer Editing Tools - Alpha sliders - Hide option to ignore layer - Copy - Merge down Animation Frame Tools - Onion skin - Onion skin alpha sliders - Live auto looping preview - Copy Exporting Features - png, gif, or jpg - Animated gifs - Sprite sheets and tile maps with full control over number of rows, columns, margin, and spacing - Single image series - Set Background Color (allows you to pick a specific background color for exporting) - Up scaling tool (increase the image size while keeping that pixel look) Importing Features - Import sprite sheets and tile maps and slice it into editable frames by setting width, height, margin and spacing. - Import animated gifs - Import png, gif, and jpg right from your camera roll Selection Options - Move - Flip - Rotate 90 degrees - Copy (copies a selected area for the selected layer) - Copy All (copies a selected area for all layers) - Paste (pastes whatever you have copied on a layer or even a new project's layer) Background options - Checkered - Color - Image Grid Options - On/Off Other Features - Save/Load right in the app - Create your own customized color palette with unlimited colors - RGBA and HSBA color sliders to find the perfect color - Create a new project at any size you want - Edit project size after creating it - Optional inspiration view (floating image from your camera roll for inspiration) - Tap and hold to load an image from your camera roll - Drag to move - Double tap to resize - Preview window to see your pixel art at a small size - Multiple brush sizes - Line, Square and Circle drawing tool - Hand Tool to make it easier to zoom and pan your canvas For more updates and to see Sprite Creator in action check out our Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/spritecreator/

About

Sprite Pencil

Create pixel art sprites easily on your mobile device. This app offers a powerful drawing engine with a simple toolset, supporting iCloud Drive and Apple Pencil. Edit existing pixel art files and share your creations with various scaling options.

Highlights
  • Pixel art sprite creation
  • iCloud Drive support
  • Apple Pencil support
  • Import and edit existing pixel art
  • Symmetric drawing mode
  • Automatic shading brushes
  • Share with scaling options
Read full description

Sprite Pencil enables you to create beautiful pixel art sprites on the go. Sprite Pencil has a simple set of tools, and a powerful drawing engine. Sprite Pencil allows you to open and edit pixel art images you may already have in Files. Sprite Pencil supports in-place file editing so you can use your own file organization. FEATURES: • iCloud Drive support • Apple Pencil support • Drawing engine built exclusively for Apple platforms • Handpicked color palettes • Import color palettes • Move, rotate, flip, fill, and posterize sprites • Easy outlines • Symmetric drawing mode • Automatic shading brushes • Share your pixel art with scaling options • Create pixel art stickers in the iMessage app • Display your sprites in a widget

Screenshots

Sprite Creator4 screens
Sprite Pencil4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Sprite Pencil at Free against Sprite Creator's $3.99. Sprite Creator's advantage is review sentiment (81% vs 68%) and chart position (#79 vs unranked). On rating, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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

Sprite Pencil is free to download; Sprite Creator costs $3.99 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 — 4.6 for Sprite Creator against 4.6 for Sprite Pencil. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Sprite Creator has 330 ratings behind it against 61, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 81% of Sprite Creator's written reviews are positive against 68% of Sprite Pencil's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Sprite Creator ships an update every 5 weeks, Sprite Pencil monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Sprite Creator versus Sprite Pencil: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSprite CreatorSprite Pencil
Price$3.99Free — better
Rating4.6 (330 ratings)4.6 (61 ratings) — better
Positive reviews80.8% of reviews — better67.9% of reviews
Number of ratings330 — better61
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
Best chart rank#79 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS18.5 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size6 MB4 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSkyler Lauren256 Arts

Customer experience

Sprite Creator

All ratings330 ratings
Positive91.2%
Neutral3.9%
Negative4.8%
Written reviews73 reviews
Positive80.8%
Neutral6.8%
Negative12.3%

Sprite Pencil

All ratings59 ratings
Positive91.5%
Neutral5.1%
Negative3.4%
Written reviews28 reviews
Positive67.9%
Neutral7.1%
Negative25.0%

Bugs and requests

Sprite Creator

Reported bugs

19 issues
  • App crashes when exporting files
  • App crashes when saving progress
  • App crashes when opening certain projects
  • Colors disappearing randomly
  • Red pixels appearing unexpectedly
Show 14 more
  • Zoom glitches and distortion
  • Freezing when pressing home button
  • Layers deleting unexpectedly
  • Image import deletes all frames
  • Cannot animate properly
  • Selection box doesn't allow moving without duplication
  • Hand/move tool not functioning
  • Onion skin causes grid to disappear
  • Background color not staying in place
  • Files won't open after updates
  • Export doesn't maintain transparency
  • White background instead of transparent on import/export
  • Accidental pixel drawing during pan/zoom
  • Palette colors not saving between sessions

Requested features

20 requests
  • Text tool for adding text to sprites
  • Ability to export more than 4 frames at once
  • Resize/scale tool for content on layers
  • Flip and rotate tools for selections
  • Static layer that doesn't animate
Show 15 more
  • Darken and lighten tools
  • Screen rotation support
  • Dithered gradients and outline edges
  • Redo button functionality
  • Copy and paste improvements
  • Auto-reverse animation layers
  • Palette import/save functionality
  • Color select tool for recoloring
  • Better file organization with folders
  • Transparency background support
  • True-size preview option
  • Hand/cursor tool for navigation
  • Cut option alongside copy/paste
  • In-app tutorial or guide
  • Apple Pencil support

Sprite Pencil

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Sprite Creator

No in-app purchases

None

Sprite Pencil

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Sprite Creator free?
Sprite Creator costs $3.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Sprite Pencil free?
Sprite Pencil is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Sprite Creator or Sprite Pencil?
Sprite Pencil is rated higher. Sprite Creator averages 4.6 out of 5 from 330 ratings, while Sprite Pencil averages 4.6 from 61 ratings.
Do Sprite Creator or Sprite Pencil have ads?
Neither Sprite Creator nor Sprite Pencil shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Sprite Creator or Sprite Pencil?
Sprite Creator ships an update every 5 weeks, and Sprite Pencil monthly. Most recently, Sprite Creator was updated on October 17, 2026 and Sprite Pencil on October 21, 2026.

Other comparisons