Comparison

Swift Pixels vs Designgraphik

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

Head to head
About

Swift Pixels

Create pixel art with a unique color palette and diverse rendering options. Save your creations as PNGs with transparency or high-resolution images to share. Import photos from your library or camera to use as a base for your designs.

Highlights
  • Unique color palette with universal categories
  • Render pixels as squares, 3D boxes, beads, towels, or hexels
  • Save images as PNG with transparency
  • High-resolution export and sharing
  • Import photos from library or camera
Features
Read full description

Simple and easy to use drawing application to create pixel art. Features: * Unique color palette based on universal color categories. Each color category expands a continuous gamut for that color. * Render pixels as simple squares, 3D boxes, beads, a towel, or as hexagons (hexels). * Save small images as PNG images with transparency (alpha/mask), or save them in hi-res and share them with the world :) * Load and import pictures from your Photo Library, or directly take a picture from your camera.

About

Designgraphik

Explore a curated collection of innovative digital art from a renowned designer. This app showcases high-resolution works in a custom gallery, offering a unique artistic experience.

Highlights
  • High-resolution artwork display
  • Custom gallery presentation
  • Curated digital art collection
  • Exploration of online design boundaries
  • Artist's proprietary creative environment
Features
Read full description

Designgraphik is Michael Paul Young. His innovative work has been exhibited worldwide, from the 500,000 LED pixels of U2’s 360° Tour to a 70-foot tall projection on Richard Meier’s The Hague City Hall. He has won awards including the Clio and the Cannes Gold Cyber Lion and has spoken at the world’s most renowned design conventions and festivals. At the turn of the millennium, Young found himself needing a place to explore and test the boundaries of online digital art, resulting in his creation of the Designgraphik name and website. Whether on the web at that site and others like Submethod and Vir2l, in print, or on various hard media, his goal was always the exploration and testing of boundaries, under presentation circumstances that he controlled, in environments that were his own proprietary creations. The work helped to shape online design throughout the late 90s and early 00s, and was nominated for and won numerous multimedia and online design awards until Young retired the Designgraphik name in 2010. In 2020, as we enter the fourth decade of life online, nothing is proprietary. Online art is democratized and sanitized, cropped, compressed, formatted, influenced, ranked, rated and ultimately forgotten in a dark corner of a corporate data center. And so Young has re-launched the Designgraphik name and ethos, once again in presentation circumstances under his control, in an environment that is his own proprietary creation. The ultimate expression of that concept is this app, designed to present Young's work as Designgraphik in high resolution, in a custom gallery, for free.

Screenshots

Swift Pixels4 screens
Designgraphik4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Designgraphik at monthly against Swift Pixels's every 5 months. Designgraphik also leads on chart position (#164 vs unranked). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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

Swift Pixels costs $1.99 and Designgraphik $1.99 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 — 4.7 for Swift Pixels against 4.7 for Designgraphik. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 14 and 15 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 60% of Swift Pixels's written reviews are positive against 67% of Designgraphik's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Swift Pixels ships an update every 5 months, Designgraphik monthly. Both last shipped on September 21, 2026.

Scorecard2 real differences · 9 level
Swift Pixels versus Designgraphik: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSwift PixelsDesigngraphik
Price$1.99$1.99
Rating4.7 (14 ratings)4.7 (15 ratings)
Positive reviews60.0% of reviews66.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1415 — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
Best chart rank—#164 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, MaciPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV
Requires iOS14.713.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size3 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDavid GavilanMichael Paul Young

Customer experience

Swift Pixels

All ratings14 ratings
Positive92.9%
Neutral0.0%
Negative7.1%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive60.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative40.0%

Designgraphik

All ratings15 ratings
Positive93.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative6.7%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative33.3%

In-app purchases

None

Swift Pixels

No in-app purchases

None

Designgraphik

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Swift Pixels free?
Swift Pixels costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Designgraphik free?
Designgraphik costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Swift Pixels or Designgraphik?
Swift Pixels and Designgraphik are both rated 4.7 out of 5 on the App Store, from 14 and 15 ratings respectively.
Do Swift Pixels or Designgraphik have ads?
Neither Swift Pixels nor Designgraphik shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Swift Pixels or Designgraphik?
Swift Pixels ships an update every 5 months, and Designgraphik monthly. Most recently, Swift Pixels was updated on September 21, 2026 and Designgraphik on September 21, 2026.

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