Comparison

Paintstorm Studio Lite vs Drawing Pad

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

Head to head
About

Paintstorm Studio Lite

This app offers professional digital painting tools for artists of all levels. It provides extensive brush customization, stroke correction, and intuitive controls to enhance the mobile art creation experience. Discover new possibilities for digital drawing with advanced features and Apple Pencil support.

Highlights
  • Extensive brush customization
  • Stroke post-correction
  • Apple Pencil support
  • Dynamic interface
  • Mirror drawing
  • Standard tools pack
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 - Standard tools pack (Lasso, Magic wand, Crop, Fill, Gradient and etc) - Control of the random amounts - Apple Pencil support (Pressure, Tilt, Direction) Lite version restrictions: - It is not possible to load and save psd files - A watermark is added to the picture Upgrade to the full version and get rid of the limits!

About

Drawing Pad

Unleash your creativity with a versatile digital sketchbook. This app offers a wide range of drawing tools, customization options, and helpful features like grids and mirroring to enhance your artistic process. Easily share your creations with others.

Highlights
  • Pencil, brush, eraser, marker, pen tools
  • Customizable brush textures
  • Color fill bucket
  • Add text and shapes
  • Background customization
  • Mirror and grid drawing aids
  • Share drawings
Features
Read full description

Drawing Pad - Drawing Apps Main Features: - Drawing with Pencil, Brush, Eraser, Marker, Pen. - Customize Brushes with texture. - Fill color with bucket. - Adding Text on drawing. - Adding Shape on drawing. - Change drawing Background with color, texture and picture. - Speed up drawing with Mirror. - Easy drawing with Grid - Share drawing.

Screenshots

Drawing Pad4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Drawing Pad at 74% against Paintstorm Studio Lite's 24%. Drawing Pad also leads on rating (4.3 vs 4.0) and ratings volume (6.9K vs 267). Paintstorm Studio Lite's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ads (none vs shown). On price, update cadence and iOS requirement 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

Both are free to download. Drawing Pad sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Paintstorm Studio Lite asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Drawing Pad holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Drawing Pad has 6.9K ratings behind it against 267, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 24% of Paintstorm Studio Lite's written reviews are positive against 74% of Drawing Pad's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Paintstorm Studio Lite ships an update every 4 months, Drawing Pad every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Paintstorm Studio Lite versus Drawing Pad: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPaintstorm Studio LiteDrawing Pad
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.0 (267 ratings)4.3 (6.9K ratings) — better
Positive reviews24.1% of reviews73.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings2676.9K — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 2 months — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS13.112.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size103 MB21 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSergei KomarovMinh Nguyen

Customer experience

Paintstorm Studio Lite

All ratings262 ratings
Positive72.9%
Neutral7.3%
Negative19.8%
Written reviews141 reviews
Positive24.1%
Neutral13.5%
Negative62.4%

Drawing Pad

All ratings6,584 ratings
Positive81.8%
Neutral8.6%
Negative9.6%
Written reviews236 reviews
Positive73.7%
Neutral10.2%
Negative16.1%

User reviews

Paintstorm Studio Lite

From 267 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 💎 Excellent brushes and color mixing
  • 🎨 Sophisticated drawing tools
  • 🖌️ Advanced interface like desktop apps
  • 🖥️ Powerful features on par with desktop software

Room to improve

  • 🚧 Cluttered and confusing interface
  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and performance issues
  • 💦 Annoying watermark on exported artwork
  • 🔍 Lack of clear instructions and tutorials

Drawing Pad

From 6.9K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🎨 Variety of tools and features
  • 💡 Useful for beginners and artists
  • 🎨 Good for sketching and drawing
  • 👍 Responsive to Apple Pencil

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and glitches
  • 💰 Excessive ads and in-app purchases
  • 🔒 Limited functionality in free version
  • 🎨 Difficult to control precision of drawing

Bugs and requests

Paintstorm Studio Lite

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • App crashes when opening or switching between projects
  • Brush settings and color wheel disappearing unexpectedly
  • Inability to save or recover unsaved artwork

Requested features

4 requests
  • Remove watermark option
  • Ability to import photos and images
  • Better organization and customization of UI
  • More intuitive brush and tool controls

Drawing Pad

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Drawing not saving properly
  • Lag and delay when using certain tools
  • Incompatibility issues on older devices

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add layers for more complex drawings
  • Improve brush and color selection
  • Implement undo/redo functionality
  • Allow offline drawing without internet connection

In-app purchases

None

Paintstorm Studio Lite

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Drawing Pad

One-time1
  • Drawing Pad - Pro Version$3.99

Questions

Is Paintstorm Studio Lite free?
Paintstorm Studio Lite is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Drawing Pad free?
Drawing Pad is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Paintstorm Studio Lite or Drawing Pad?
Drawing Pad is rated higher. Paintstorm Studio Lite averages 4.0 out of 5 from 267 ratings, while Drawing Pad averages 4.3 from 6.9K ratings.
Do Paintstorm Studio Lite or Drawing Pad have ads?
Drawing Pad shows ads; Paintstorm Studio Lite does not.
Which is updated more often, Paintstorm Studio Lite or Drawing Pad?
Paintstorm Studio Lite ships an update every 4 months, and Drawing Pad every 2 months. Most recently, Paintstorm Studio Lite was updated on October 23, 2026 and Drawing Pad on October 29, 2026.

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