# Sprite Creator vs Sprite Pencil

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 (#85 vs unranked). On rating, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

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.

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 332 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.

Sprite Creator ships an update every 5 weeks, Sprite Pencil monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | Sprite Creator | Sprite Pencil |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | $3.99 | **Free** |
| Rating | [4.6 (332 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sprite-creator/id1078225966/reviews) | **[4.6 (61 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sprite-pencil/id1437835952/reviews)** |
| Number of ratings | **332** | 61 |
| Positive reviews | **80.8% of reviews** | 67.9% of reviews |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | **Monthly** |
| Monetization | **Free** | Paid |
| Best chart rank | **#85** | — |
| Size | 6 MB | 4 MB |
| Requires iOS | **18.6** | 26.0 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | **iPhone, iPad, Mac** |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Skyler Lauren](https://appshunter.io/developer/889907116) | [256 Arts](https://appshunter.io/developer/1437835951) |

## What reviewers say

### Sprite Creator

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sprite-creator/id1078225966)

**Currently charting:** #85 Top Paid · Graphics & Design (US App Store)

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:** macOS Compatibility, Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases:** none

**What reviewers like**

- 👍 Intuitive and easy-to-use interface
- 🎨 Great for pixel art and sprite creation
- ⚡ Quick to learn for beginners
- 🎬 Excellent animation features
- 📁 Layer system for organized editing

**What reviewers complain about**

- 🐛 Frequent crashes and stability issues
- 🔍 Poor scrolling and zooming functionality
- ❌ Onion skin feature doesn't work as expected
- 📤 Export functionality problematic
- 🎨 Limited color palette options

**Reported bugs**

- App crashes when exporting files
- App crashes when saving progress
- App crashes when opening certain projects
- Colors disappearing randomly
- Red pixels appearing unexpectedly

**Requested features**

- 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


### Sprite Pencil

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sprite-pencil/id1437835952)

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

**In-app purchases:** none


## Frequently asked 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 332 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 22, 2026 and Sprite Pencil on October 21, 2026.

---

*Compared by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/) from daily US App Store data. Review summaries are generated from verbatim App Store reviews.*