Comparison

Pixen vs Pixel Painter

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

Head to head
About

Pixen

This native pixel art editor offers a comprehensive suite of tools for creating low-resolution raster art and animations. It supports high zoom levels, custom color palettes, and seamless iCloud sync across iOS and macOS devices. Ideal for game sprites and retro art.

Highlights
  • Pixel art creation tools
  • Animation editing
  • Customizable color palettes
  • High zoom levels
  • iCloud sync
  • Multiple export formats
  • Apple Pencil support
Read full description

Pixen is a native pixel art editor for iOS and macOS, designed for working with low-resolution raster art such as those 8-bit sprites found in old-school video games. Pixen packs all the tools pixel artists need in an intuitive, native interface including support for high zoom levels, animation editing, color palettes, and a lot more. PROJECTS GALLERY The Pixen experience starts in the projects gallery, which allows you to manage all of your creations in one place. You can import and export files in various file formats including PNG, JPEG, GIF, ICO, BMP, TIFF, SVG, and PSD. Files can be imported from your Photos library, the Files app, or the clipboard. Pixen for macOS users can take advantage of seamless iCloud sync. When you're ready, you can share your creations with friends. TOOLS AND APPLE PENCIL Leverage Pixen's wide array of tools when composing pixel art: Pencil, Eraser, Brightness, Text, Eyedropper, Zoom, Rectangular Selection, Magic Wand, Lasso, Move, Fill, Line, Rectangle, and Ellipse. All of Pixen's tools are fully compatible with Apple Pencil on iPad. You can take advantage of the double-tap gesture on Apple Pencil 2 to quickly switch to your last tool, switch to the eraser, or bring up the color picker. Pixen even has hover support when using Apple Pencil Pro, so you can see a preview of what you're about to draw before your Apple Pencil touches the screen. COLOR PALETTES With Pixen, you can add and organize commonly-used colors into palettes. Pixen can also import and export color palettes in the Adobe Color Table, Microsoft Palette, JASC Palette, and GIMP Palette formats. You can even perform palette operations such as sorting colors and removing duplicate colors directly in the app. ANIMATIONS Create and arrange image frames in the filmstrip view to piece together animations. Pixen can import animated PNGs, animated GIFs, and sprite sheets. It can export animations as animated GIFs, animated PNGs, movies, image sequences, and sprite sheets! GRID Take advantage of Pixen's grid and alignment tools and create pixel-perfect artwork. PATTERNS Define custom patterns to use while drawing with the Pencil, Line, or Eraser tool (instead of a single pixel). You can even import patterns from 1-bit images. PREVIEW While editing at high zoom levels, use the Preview feature to view the canvas scaled out. You can play back animations and tile small images, useful when working on repeated patterns. AND A LOT MORE... - Sync your creations with Pixen for Mac over iCloud and resume your work right where you left off, regardless of device. - Take advantage of the flexibility of layers and change opacities, blend modes, and more to compose creative effects. - Invert colors, convert to grayscale, apply sepia tone, remove alpha components, palettize, pixellate, adjust hue, exposure, brightness, contrast, and more. - Pixel Perfect mode removes extra pixels while drawing such that any drawn paths are at most 1 pixel in width. In other words, it removes the middle pixel of an L shape. - Pick a flat, striped, or checkered background to be drawn beneath the canvas, or set a reference image. - If you use your iPad with a keyboard, increase productivity with Pixen's wide array of keyboard shortcuts. - Export your artwork in PNG, JPEG, GIF, ICO, BMP, TIFF, SVG, and PSD file formats. - Share your creations quickly and easily via AirDrop, Messages, email, and more! - Adjust the size and position of Pixen's sidebars, customize the Apple Pencil 2 double-tap gesture, and more. Pixen is also available for macOS and is the only pixel art maker of its class that syncs projects with iCloud!

About

Pixel Painter

Create pixel art with a variety of tools and export options. Customize your creations with different pixel styles and built-in color palettes. The app features a scrollable canvas for easy pattern creation and selection tools for precise editing.

Highlights
  • Basic drawing and editing tools
  • Apply various pixel export styles
  • Erase mode for clearing colors
  • Selection and cropping tools
  • Scrollable canvas for patterns
  • Customizable color palettes
  • Downsample/Upsample pixel resolution
Features
Read full description

Create pixel art with various pixel styles.  Pixel Painter is an easy to use pixel art editor, with these main features: • Basic Tools: pencil tool, block tool, color bucket tool, selection tool, eyedropper tool, scroll tool. • Pixel Styles: apply a style to pixels when export, such as perler, circle, square. • Erase Mode: in this mode, pencil, block tool and color bucket tool are used to clear colors. • Selection: crop to selection, duplicate selected pixels, or remove selected pixels. • Scrollable Canvas: the canvas is scrollable, which allow you create repeatedly patterns more easier. • Color Palette: select a builtin color palette, then customize it if you like. • Downsample/Upsample pixels to get less/more pixels. If you have any questions, please contact me at email: arrowgraphics@icloud.com

Screenshots

Pixen4 screens
Pixel Painter4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Pixen at 67% against Pixel Painter's 0%. Pixen also leads on rating (4.7 vs 3.5) and monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). Pixel Painter's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs monthly) and iOS requirement (14.1 vs 18.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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

Both are free to download. Pixen sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Pixel Painter sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Pixen holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Pixen has 180 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 67% of Pixen's written reviews are positive against 0% of Pixel Painter's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pixen ships an update monthly, Pixel Painter every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on November 4, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Pixen versus Pixel Painter: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPixenPixel Painter
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (180 ratings) — better3.5 (4 ratings)
Positive reviews66.7% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings180 — better4
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS18.014.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size13 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFurnace Creek Software LLC光建 张

Customer experience

Pixen

All ratings180 ratings
Positive96.7%
Neutral1.7%
Negative1.7%
Written reviews51 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral3.9%
Negative29.4%

Pixel Painter

All ratings3 ratings
Positive66.7%
Neutral33.3%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

Bugs and requests

Pixen

Reported bugs

14 issues
  • App crashes
  • Cannot make anything else after one image
  • Cannot export
  • App crashes when exporting
  • Export as JPG without transparent background
Show 9 more
  • Artwork doesn't save latest edit
  • Crashes when undoing
  • Crashes when exiting artwork
  • Doesn't save
  • App won't open
  • Crashes on boot
  • Export in gif to photos bug
  • Cannot save images to camera roll (app crashes)
  • Crash on startup

Requested features

8 requests
  • Undo gestures
  • Gallery for artworks
  • Redo button
  • Keep animation preview screen up while working
  • Option to choose background color
Show 3 more
  • Spill bucket eraser
  • Larger button size option
  • Undo button on left side for left-handed users

Pixel Painter

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Pixen

One-time1
  • Pro: One Time Purchase$9.99
1 purchases

Pixel Painter

One-time1
  • Size Limits Removal$1.99

Questions

Is Pixen free?
Pixen is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Pixel Painter free?
Pixel Painter is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Pixen or Pixel Painter?
Pixen is rated higher. Pixen averages 4.7 out of 5 from 180 ratings, while Pixel Painter averages 3.5 from 4 ratings.
Do Pixen or Pixel Painter have ads?
Neither Pixen nor Pixel Painter shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pixen or Pixel Painter?
Pixen ships an update monthly, and Pixel Painter every 4 days. Most recently, Pixen was updated on November 4, 2026 and Pixel Painter on November 3, 2026.

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