Comparison

Clip Studio Paint vs Pastela

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

Head to head
About

Clip Studio Paint

Create digital art with a vast array of brushes, textures, and colors. This app offers tools for drawing, painting, comic creation, and animation, with features like 3D models for reference and advanced layer options. It provides a free trial and subscription plans for full access.

Highlights
  • Unlimited custom brushes
  • Realistic color mixing
  • Artist-made materials
  • 3D model references
  • Comic creation tools
  • Animation features
  • Advanced layer editing
Read full description

Start drawing and painting in a free 30-day trial. ・Up to 3 months free with your first plan ・Subscribe for the time you want to use it. Get all the latest features, materials, and cloud storage (10 GB)! *Please note that after your trial, you will need to make an in-app payment to save and export. Clip Studio Paint makes drawing a piece of cake, in any style! Whether you are a beginner or a pro, Clip Studio Paint will improve your creative experience while helping you grow. Now with new, powerful features! Unlimited amount of brushes at your fingertips to recreate any style - Use brushes with the same textures as real art materials - Adjust details such as brush shape and paper quality to your liking - Make unique colors with realistic color mixing, like traditional paints - Draw with transparency to erase, so no need to switch brushes Countless artist-made materials - Level up your art with free materials, for backgrounds and more - Discover community-made brushes from creators worldwide - Add details with materials like frills and more Coloring made easy - Easily color even with line gaps using the magnetic lasso tool - Lock transparency to paint over layers without affecting other areas - Set light source and shadow position with Shading Assist - Instantly reference and apply colors from an image to your art using Color Match - Enhance your art with filters like Chromatic Aberration, Retro Film, Pencil, and more Learn alongside other creators - Loads of official tutorials and creator tips available - Watch tutorials on our YouTube channel, for step-by-step advice - Ask questions on the Clip Studio Ask community Create the perfect reference with 3D models - Use 3D drawing figures to help with drawing anatomy - Customize character face and body models with beginner-friendly tools - Attach 3D objects like hats and shoes to characters for more specific references - Use 3D shapes to draw perspective Adjust after you draw - Liquify to make adjustments to the balance of your illustrations - Mesh Transformation allows you to transform to different shapes - Change up the poses of your character drawings with Puppet warp - Non-destructive color adjustment layers to get your art just right - Gradient maps give color to your grayscale illustrations Stress-free layer features - Assign colors and make multiple columns of layers to browse them at a glance - Enjoy the freedom of masking and clipping on multiple layers to edit and move your work - Add various effects to apply to the layer in a non-destructive way The ultimate comic creation app - All the tools you need for comic creation, from storyboard to finishing touches - Panel frames, speech balloons, text, effect lines, and screen tones in an instant - Make data for prints, web comics, manga, or webtoons (6 GB+ memory recommended) - Manage multi-page projects Professional animation, on any device - Use all the same tools as animation studios - Unique features allow you to draw your frames as you like - Enjoy a pencil and paper look and feel, but digitally - Expand your drawings to 4K resolution without losing quality by saving it as vector data ●Grade features ・PRO: All the tools you need to create stunning illustrations & short animations ・EX: All the above + multi-page functionality for comic/manga artists and unlimited animation frames *Clip Studio account needed to buy a plan. ● Target Devices and Specifications ・Minimum free storage space: 3GB, 4GB recommended ・Recommended display size: 10.5"+ Please see the following for supported devices. https://support.clip-studio.com/en-us/faq/articles/20200153 Supported pressure-sensitive pens ・Apple Pencil ● In-app purchases ・Required to save the canvas and export it to various file formats on iPad. Note: You will be charged to the Apple ID used for subscription. Terms of Service https://www.celsys.com/en/information/csp/ https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Pastela

This app offers a seamless drawing and illustration experience with a spacious canvas, a wide variety of brushes, and cloud-based autosave. It features screen customization for iPad users and integrates with pixiv for easy sharing of your artwork.

Highlights
  • Spacious canvas
  • Variety of brushes
  • Cloud-based autosave
  • iPad screen customization
  • Pixiv integration
  • Detailed brush customization
Read full description

− Enhance your drawing experience, day by day.− With a spacious canvas, a variety of brushes, and cloud-based autosave, Pastela has everything you need for a smooth illustration process. Draw freely, anytime, anywhere. ____ Pastela features ■ An experience tailored for iPad users - Screen customization options that suit your dominant hand - Move panels to fit your creative style ■ A wide range of illustration tools - An extensive collection of brushes, including pencils, G pens, round pens, watercolors, sprays, markers, and more - Detailed brush customization options - Bucket tool: fill closed path, lasso fill - Easily set layer names from a list with one tap - Many filters including chromatic aberration and Gaussian blur ■ Cloud storage (*1) - Automatically save your work to the cloud - Restore data to any previous version - 1 GB of cloud storage included * To learn more about Pastela, please check out the official website. ■ pixiv account integration (*2) - Post your work directly to pixiv - With Pastela Plus (*3), you can even update your pixiv posts with new versions of your art. (*1) To use cloud sync, you need to log in with your pixiv account. (*2) To post your work from Pastela to pixiv, you need to log in with your pixiv account. (*3) To learn more about Pastela Plus, please check out the official website.

Verdict

The call

Clip Studio Paint and Pastela both sit at 4.7 stars, but that hides the real split: 87% of Pastela's written reviews are positive against 46% of Clip Studio Paint's. Pastela also leads on update cadence (every 10 days vs every 3 weeks). Clip Studio Paint's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and ratings volume (15K vs 100). On price, rating, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Clip Studio Paint sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $4.89 per month and Pastela sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Clip Studio Paint against 4.6 for Pastela. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Clip Studio Paint has 15K ratings behind it against 100, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 46% of Clip Studio Paint's written reviews are positive against 87% of Pastela's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Clip Studio Paint ships an update every 3 weeks, Pastela every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on November 13, 2026 and November 4, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Clip Studio Paint versus Pastela: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterClip Studio PaintPastela
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (15K ratings) — better4.6 (100 ratings)
Positive reviews46.0% of reviews86.8% of reviews — better
Number of ratings15K — better100
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 10 days — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPadiPad
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size583 MB203 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCELSYS,Inc.pixiv Inc.

Customer experience

Clip Studio Paint

All ratings13,919 ratings
Positive92.1%
Neutral2.4%
Negative5.6%
Written reviews954 reviews
Positive46.0%
Neutral11.6%
Negative42.3%

Pastela

All ratings98 ratings
Positive92.9%
Neutral4.1%
Negative3.1%
Written reviews174 reviews
Positive86.8%
Neutral9.8%
Negative3.4%

Bugs and requests

Clip Studio Paint

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Inability to save work without subscription
  • Laggy performance with large files
  • Unreliable auto-save and recovery
  • Issues with brush and tool responsiveness

Requested features

4 requests
  • One-time purchase option
  • Improved file management and cloud integration
  • Simplified interface for casual users
  • More animation and 3D tools

Pastela

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Clip Studio Paint

Subscriptions10
  • PRO Monthly$4.891 Month
  • PRO Monthly Single-Device Plan3 Days trial$4.891 Month
  • PRO Monthly Single-Device Plan3 Months trial$4.891 Month
Show 7 more
  • PRO Monthly Dual-Device Plan3 Days trial$7.991 Month
  • EX Monthly3 Months trial$9.691 Month
  • EX Monthly Single-Device Plan3 Months trial$9.691 Month
  • EX Monthly Single-Device Plan3 Days trial$9.691 Month
  • EX Monthly Dual-Device Plan3 Days trial$13.491 Month
  • PRO Annual Single-Device Plan3 Days trial$28.901 Year
  • PRO Annual Single-Device Plan3 Months trial$28.901 Year
4 purchases

Pastela

Subscriptions4
  • Light plan$3.991 Month
  • Standard plan$7.991 Month
  • Advanced plan$15.991 Month
Show 1 more
  • Deluxe plan$23.991 Month

Questions

Is Clip Studio Paint free?
Clip Studio Paint is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Pastela free?
Pastela is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Clip Studio Paint or Pastela?
Clip Studio Paint is rated higher. Clip Studio Paint averages 4.7 out of 5 from 15K ratings, while Pastela averages 4.6 from 100 ratings.
Do Clip Studio Paint or Pastela have ads?
Pastela shows ads; Clip Studio Paint does not.
Which is updated more often, Clip Studio Paint or Pastela?
Clip Studio Paint ships an update every 3 weeks, and Pastela every 10 days. Most recently, Clip Studio Paint was updated on November 13, 2026 and Pastela on November 4, 2026.

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