Artstudio Pro vs DraftIt
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Artstudio Pro
This powerful app offers advanced drawing, painting, and photo editing tools for creative professionals and enthusiasts. It features a robust engine, flexible layer system, and an advanced brush engine for realistic strokes. Users can also create animations and import/export various image formats.
- GPU accelerated ArtEngine
- Unlimited layers and large canvas sizes
- Advanced brush engine with 150+ brushes
- Flexible layer system with groups and masks
- Professional photo editing tools
- Animation creation and export
- Import/Export ABR/TPL brush and pattern formats
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Introducing Artstudio Pro, the most powerful painting and photo editing app available for both iOS and macOS. The successor to our famous ArtStudio app has been redesigned bringing many new features and improvements taking full advantage of the latest technologies Metal, iCloud Drive, Apple Pencil, and optimized for 64-bit multi-core processors to achieve the smoothest possible workflow. Powerful engine App is based on the powerful GPU accelerated ArtEngine developed by Lucky Clan. It allows working with multiple documents, supports large canvas sizes and an unlimited number of layers. Incredible optimization ensures smooth work even with large canvases. • Realistic Color Pigment Blending • Canvas size up to 64Mpix • Unlimited layers • Multiple open documents • 27 tools: Move, Select, Crop, Eyedropper, Paint, Wet Paint, Eraser, Bucket/Pattern/Gradient Fill, Smudge, Dodge, Burn, Sponge, Text, Heal, Clone, and more • Full iCloud integration Flexible layer system Artstudio Pro introduces a new layer system with grouping, non-destructive layer effects, and adjustment layers. • Groups • Masks, clipping masks • Adjustment Layers • 9 layer effects: Bevel/Emboss, Stroke, Inner Shadow, Inner Glow, Outer Glow, Color/Gradient/Pattern Overlay, Drop Shadow • Text layers Advanced Brush engine Perfectly optimized, lag free mechanism generating smooth, real looking strokes, making the most of Apple Pencil. • Brush size up to 4000x4000 • 64-bit painting with pattern, double stamp, wet brush, dynamics • Brush editor with over 100 customizable settings • Over 150 built-in brushes divided into multiple groups: Pens, Pencils, Oil Painting, Inking, Charcoals, Airbrushes, Watercolor and many more • Symmetric painting Professional photo editor Photo editing options developed in cooperation with professional photographers. Each feature was tested in several scenarios and light conditions. • 15 adjustments available as non-destructive layer or simple adjustment: Brightness/Contrast, Levels, Curves, Exposure/Gamma, Shadows/Highlights, Vibrance, Hue/Saturation, Color Balance, Temperature/Tint, Black and White, Gradient Map and more • 4 auto adjustments: Auto Contrast, Levels, Lightness, Saturation • Transform: Basic, Perspective, Warp • Dozens of filters with realtime preview and the ability to generate seamless patterns • Inpaint, Elastify (Liquify) • Retouching tools: Heal, Dodge, Burn, Sponge and more • Image resize, Canvas resize • Crop and Trim Animation Create animation from layers or groups and finally export it to one of the most popular animation format • Scrollable timeline view with Play/Pause • Onion skin • Customizable Frame duration • Always visible layers • Export to MP4, HEVC, Animated GIF/PNG Import/Export We have implemented many parsers from the most popular assets/images formats and we are especially proud of our ABR/TPL parser which not only reads brush stamps and patterns, but also most settings which are converted to Artstudio Pro brush engine values. Import • Images - PNG, JPEG, PSD, HEIC, TIFF, GIF, PDF, most raw formats • Brushes - ABR, TPL • Color swatches - ASE, ACO • Patterns - PAT • Gradients - GRD • Fonts - TTF, OTF Export • Images - PNG, JPEG, PSD, TIFF, PDF Other features • Floating panels for Colors, Layers, Brushes etc • Screen recording • Customizable Quick menu • Customizable Shortcuts • Snapping to guidelines, dynamic guidelines, grid • Perspective grid assist • Mirror (flipped) view • Support of iPad Drag and Drop, Split View, Sharing Extension, Open In, Clipboard Free version limitations: • locked Saving • canvas size limited to device screen size • layers count limited to 3 • export only to jpg • locked animation export Minimum System Requirements Artstudio Pro for iOS requires iPhone or iPad running iOS 15.0 or above Privacy policy: https://luckyclan.com/privacy-policy Terms of use: https://luckyclan.com/terms-use
DraftIt
This drawing app uses creative constraints and a ticking clock to help users overcome creative blocks and keep moving forward on their canvas. It encourages intuitive creation by silencing analytical thought and motivating the creative mind. Hesitation can lead to lost progress, pushing users to act decisively.
- Creative constraints and ticking clock
- Overcome creative blocks
- Intuitive right-brain motivation
- Progress loss on hesitation
- iPad and Apple Pencil optimized
- Pro subscription for extended features
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DraftIt leverages creative constraints and a ticking clock to motivate you to get out of your head and keep moving forward on the canvas. The race against time helps silence your analytical left-brain and motivates your creative right-brain to take the wheel. Hesitate too long, and risk losing all progress. It's not the last drawing app you'll need. But it's the first. Designed for iPad and Apple Pencil. We’re always looking to improve. So let us know if there’s anything you’d like to see in future updates using the in-app “Feedback” button. In-app subscriptions to DraftIt Pro include: • Longer session time options (10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 45) so you can keep the creative fire burning. • Infinity Mode removes the time pressure but keeps the app’s focus (one tool, one color, no erasing). • Beast Mode intensifies the pressure! Drafts will begin to fade sooner when a user hesitates and progress will be lost after 4 seconds. • App Themes allow you to customize the look of the app and the tool color. • App Icons to customize the look of the app on your home screen. • DraftIt Pro subscriptions help support the maintenance and development of new features, tools, and technologies to help you focus and create. A single in-app subscription enables features on all of your devices. Monthly and Yearly subscriptions will renew automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage your subscription in-app. Canceling has never been easier! — Privacy Policy https://mechanicalanimals.org/privacy.html Terms of Use https://mechanicalanimals.org/terms.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: DraftIt at every 4 days against Artstudio Pro's monthly. Artstudio Pro's advantage is ratings volume (4K vs 15). On price, rating, review sentiment 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
Both are free to download. Artstudio Pro sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.49 per year and DraftIt sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for Artstudio Pro against 4.6 for DraftIt. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Artstudio Pro has 4K ratings behind it against 15, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 74% and 75% positive.
Artstudio Pro ships an update monthly, DraftIt every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Artstudio Pro | DraftIt |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (4K ratings) — better | 4.6 (15 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 74.2% of reviews | 75.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 4K — better | 15 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 385 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Lucky Clan | Mechanical Animals |
Customer experience
Artstudio Pro
DraftIt
Bugs and requests
Artstudio Pro
Reported bugs
4 issues- Gradient tool not working as expected
- Brush settings not saving properly
- Unexpected canvas resizing and cropping
- Layers disappearing or not rendering correctly
Requested features
6 requests- Add custom brush creation
- Improve canvas resizing and previewing
- Implement better layer and mask management
- Add more blending and color adjustment tools
- Introduce keyboard shortcuts and gesture support
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- Provide a comprehensive user manual or tutorials
DraftIt
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Artstudio Pro
- Yearly Subscription3 Days trial$3.491 Year
- Lifetime License$14.99
DraftIt
- DraftIt Pro7 Days trial$0.991 Month
- DraftIt Pro7 Days trial$4.991 Year
- lifetime of DraftIt Pro$2.99









