Comparison

Sketchar vs Core Image Tools

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

Head to head
About

Sketchar

Learn to draw with augmented reality and AI-powered lessons. This app offers a comprehensive drawing tool, community contests, and personalized learning plans to enhance your artistic skills. Practice art to relieve stress and impress others with your creations.

Highlights
  • Augmented Reality drawing guidance
  • AI-powered personalized learning plans
  • 550+ drawing lessons
  • Comprehensive drawing toolset
  • Community contests and collaboration
  • Stress relief through art practice
Features
Read full description

Sketchar is for you if you want to improve your drawing skills, express yourself through art, impress friends and family with stunning artwork, collaborate with peers, relieve stress, or become a Pro. We have merged AR and AI together to speed up your learning experience and make it more entertaining.  Here are the unique features that can only be found on the Sketchar app:  1.COURSES 550+ drawing lessons based on characters you love. You can start with a beginner set or delve deeper into a specific topic to improve your artistic skills, for example, in creating portraits or anime.  2. PERSONALIZED PLAN Based on AI to speed up your creative growth 3. DRAWING TOOL Powerful toolset to create stunning art in minutes. 4.CONTESTS Join the community to collaborate with peers. 5. AUGMENTED REALITY for drawing  We invented that in 2012. Through your smartphone camera, you can see an AR sketch on the surface in front of you. Just take a pencil and follow the virtual lines on the paper step-by-step. This function is also employed by professional artists to scale sketches onto surfaces like walls. Use carefully and follow the video guide. and many other features.  Btw, practicing art helps relieve stress. Download Sketchar now and learn to draw like never before. ---  In-app purchases: Sketchar offers four paid auto-renewable subscription options that give you unlimited access to the app's premium content and features.  1-Week Subscription - $7.99 / Week 1 -Month Subscription – $14.99 / Month  1-Year Subscription with 3-Day Trial – $69.99 / Year  1-Year Special Offer Subscription – $34.99 / Year  Prices may vary across countries. Prices are equal to the value that Application Store Matrix determines as the equivalent of the subscription price in USD.  We are always interested in your opinion, so please email us at hi@sketchar.io.

About

Core Image Tools

This app offers over 100 image editing tools with a simple interface for various effects. Easily edit, enhance, resize, and apply filters to your photos across multiple devices. Its intuitive workflow allows for seamless, step-by-step image manipulation without complex file management.

Highlights
  • Over 100 image editing tools
  • Simple and intuitive user interface
  • Multi-platform support (Mac, iPhone, iPad, Vision)
  • Resize images with added pixels
  • Flip and mirror functionality
  • Various blur effects
  • Chroma-keying tools
Read full description

Over 100 powerful image editing tools, presented in the simplest user interface. Like most workshops, you use several tools to accomplish a task. Core Image Tools is a large toolbox to reach into, to accomplish many complex effects, one simple step at a time. Lightweight yet Powerful: Edit, enhance, resize, rotate, & add effects to your photos|images from the palm of your hand, while you're on the go, or also from your desktop|laptop. Multi-Platform: Use the same app across your devices - iPhones, iPads, Macs, & Vision. Super-Simple Workflow: Pick a Photos image, apply an effect, tap save - done! Want more? Pick that saved image, apply some other effect to it, tap save - done! Loop the image through as many edits|effects as desired & always have a hardcopy in Photos of each step along the way. Plus you'll always have your original, & never had to type in a single filename throughout the entire process. Resize Images: ACTUALLY resize images, not just crop them down or zoom in. Also, you can ADD color|transparent|semi-transparent pixels to any edge of an image to resize it, or offset it, using 'Border | Underlay'. Flip|Mirror: Quickly mask|mirror a brand name out of your selfie. Flip|mirror an image, horizontally and|or vertically, with one tap. Use 'Skew' to straighten, keystone-correct, zoom, mirror, & crop all at once. Smooth: Use 'Blur, Selfie Smoother' to iron out a few wrinkles, de-focus skin blemishes, or smooth out other unwanted details. Line|Edge Drawn: Make an image look as if it was drawn|sketched using an ink pen, pencil, charcoal, colored pencils, colored chalk, light-pen, watercolored, wax-scratched (scratch-art), or made entirely out of dots|square pixels|points|hex-pixels|or crystalized. Bump Distortion: Kids of all ages (Mom? Dad?) love to swell up, or shrink down, faces & parts of people - give dad a superhero chin, a sibling one big eye & one little one, a bubbled alien-forehead of a friend - endless fun. Wish you had a smaller nose - shrink it. Wish you had bigger biceps or shoulders - pump 'em up. Wonder what implants would look like - find out. Zoom in on, & bring attention to, any feature in an image, especially for technical uses, like highlighting a capacitor on a PCB, or a component of a wiring schematic. Overlay Images: Including resizing, repositioning, & rotating them. Overlay your logo or business card over an image. Also, you can make an entire image of a transparent, or semi-transparent color & overlay that over your image, adding a color filter effect to the entire image. Chroma-Keyers (6 types!): Remove red, green, or blue-screen, or any color. Maybe make transparent overlays out of them? Maybe use 'Polygon | Star' to make color-keyed shapes for transparency masks. Checkerboard: Make checkerboard designs - just pick your colors, including clear|transparent. Blurs: Gaussian Blur, Zoom Blur, Motion Blur, Glow|Bloom, & other blur effects. 3D|Graphics|Cube Images: Make your textures|shaders, tile them, rotate them, make normal|bump maps from them for enhanced lighting effects. Mirrored|seamless tiles, multicolored gradients (linear & radial, plus gradients scale perfectly & tile infinitely from one small image - very efficient). Use 'Alpha as Grayscale' to map out image transparencies for your texture|shader's opacity channel. The best skybox|cube image tools too! Color & Light Adjusters: Many options - brightness, contrast, saturation, exposure, gamma, vibrance, opacity. Try 'Dark Document Enhancer' on a dark document or a scan that you want to enhance. Grayscale Images: Select from 7 grayscale modes each honed for specific imaging challenges. Animated Image Player: Play, pause, slow down, speed-up, & reverse animated images. Kaleidoscopes: Do you like kaleidoscopes? Oh yeah! Gotcha covered there! Over a dozen types. Infinite possibilities just from one image, & the default image is of the most beautifully colored flowers. Developers: Make App Icons, Buttons, & Radio buttons.

Screenshots

Sketchar4 screens
Core Image Tools4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Core Image Tools at 100% against Sketchar's 33%. Core Image Tools also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.2) and in-app purchases (none vs 15). Sketchar's advantage is price (Free vs $0.99) and ratings volume (9.8K vs 3). On update cadence and ads 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

Sketchar is free to download; Core Image Tools costs $0.99 up front. Sketchar sells 14 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per 7 days. Core Image Tools asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Core Image Tools holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Sketchar has 9.8K ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 33% of Sketchar's written reviews are positive against 100% of Core Image Tools's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Sketchar ships an update every 3 weeks, Core Image Tools every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard9 real differences · 2 level
Sketchar versus Core Image Tools: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSketcharCore Image Tools
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating4.2 (9.8K ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews33.4% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings9.8K — better3
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
Best chart rank#128 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro — better
Requires iOS16.0 — better18
Further details — not scored
Size227 MB60 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperSketchARLino Bailey

Customer experience

Sketchar

All ratings9,830 ratings
Positive79.7%
Neutral5.6%
Negative14.7%
Written reviews1,294 reviews
Positive33.4%
Neutral12.1%
Negative54.5%

Core Image Tools

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Sketchar

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • AR tracking frequently loses paper
  • App crashes and resets progress
  • Ads disrupt drawing and cause loss of work
  • Brightness/lighting issues affect performance

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add more free drawing lessons and content
  • Improve AR tracking and stability
  • Allow drawing without full page detection
  • Add more drawing tools and brushes for free users
  • Improve organization and navigation of lessons

Core Image Tools

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

14 purchases

Sketchar

Subscriptions13
  • 1 Week$3.997 Days
  • 1 Week$7.997 Days
  • Sketchar PRO$10.991 Month
Show 10 more
  • 1 month$17.991 Month
  • 1 Year$29.991 Year
  • 1 Year$34.991 Year
  • SketchAR PRO$39.993 Months
  • 1 Year$42.991 Year
  • 1 Year1 Year trial$44.991 Year
  • 1 Year3 Days trial$69.991 Year
  • SketchAR PRO$69.991 Year
  • Sketchar: Learn to Draw7 Days trial$69.991 Year
  • 1 Year3 Days trial$79.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime$149.99
None

Core Image Tools

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Sketchar free?
Sketchar is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Core Image Tools free?
Core Image Tools costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Sketchar or Core Image Tools?
Core Image Tools is rated higher. Sketchar averages 4.2 out of 5 from 9.8K ratings, while Core Image Tools averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do Sketchar or Core Image Tools have ads?
Neither Sketchar nor Core Image Tools shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Sketchar or Core Image Tools?
Sketchar ships an update every 3 weeks, and Core Image Tools every 2 weeks. Most recently, Sketchar was updated on October 20, 2026 and Core Image Tools on October 8, 2026.

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