Comparison

Art Set 4 vs Looom

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

Head to head
About

Art Set 4

Experience hyper-realistic digital art creation with advanced tools for painting and drawing. Explore a vast array of brushes, fluid simulations, and 3D paint effects. This app offers a customizable workspace and professional features for artists of all levels.

Highlights
  • Hyper-realistic art tools
  • Fluid watercolor simulation
  • 3D paint effects
  • Customizable workspace
  • Time-lapse video recording
  • PSD export
  • Layer masks
Features
Read full description

Art Set has been No.1 iPad app in over 30 countries around the world. Now completely re-written with some of the most advanced artistic digital painting and drawing tools ever created! An 'App of Day', this giant new version has tools with incredible levels of realism and many professional features. Exclusive artistically created brushes, from real world art mediums through to the purely digital for all styles of artwork. Watch fluid Watercolor flow and run as you paint. Express your strokes in 3D giving thick gloopy paint you can even etch back into. It's also a must for any Apple Pencil owner! Art Set brushes have many additional expressions that come into play, some deeply integrated, with new levels of sensitivity you may have never experienced before! It's now free to download for the first time ever! INCLUDED FOR FREE : HYPER-REAL TOOLS - Oil Paint, Watercolors, Oil Pastel, Pencil, Biro Pen, Marker, Wax Crayon, Blenders and more! - Fluid dynamic simulation for Watercolor - 3D Paint - Custom blending achieving rich deep color - Art Set keeps track of where the canvas is wet, dry when needed - Turn on Slow Draw for drawing to lag your stroke. Create smooth curves and lines; great for calligraphy! - Blur Filter with localised quick masking - Color Wheel - User Editable Palette - Metallic Colors - Time-lapse Video Recording; share how you made your artwork stroke by stroke. - PSD Export UI - Fully customizable workspace; have just a single brush or tools on every side of your screen. - Zoom, Pan and Rotate the canvas for fine detail - Light low contrast or Dark high contrast mode - Minimalist UI for less interference with your artwork WORKFLOW - Latest graphics technology written entirely in METAL 2 - Supports the iOS Files app to manage or or transfer documents - iTunes File Sharing - Auto save - Split Screen Multitasking - use a reference image whilst you draw side by side - Export to your photo album, email, AirDrop or social networks etc. - In-depth User Guide in the app complete with video - Import photos and images at screen resolution PREMIUM PRO FEATURES - Single Upgrade Unlocks everything : 200 ADVANCED BRUSHES - Wide variety of extra hyper-real Paints, Pens, Pencils, Inks, Chalks, Pastels, Charcoal, Wet media, Stamps, Splatters, Form, Graphics, Patterns, Fabric, 3D Texture, Neon to basic Pixel and Flat Digital - You can try out all premium brushes on a test area before upgrading! DRAWING - Flood fill - Symmetry - Pixel Art - Shape primitives for Ellipse, Circle, Square, Rectangle and Line in any brush - Echo shapes for special FX - Erase mode - use any brush as an eraser - Adjust brush Size, Opacity, Flow, Grain, Loading and Dynamics LAYERS - Layer Masks - Transform, move, rotate and scale - Flip - Adjust Opacity - Layer maintains resolution whilst transformed - Blend Modes - Alpha lock - Cut, Copy and Paste, to and from other documents or other Apps - Drag and drop layers from other apps - Import from your photos CUSTOM HIGH-RESOLUTION CANVASES - Choose any resolution canvas size, the highest being dependent on your device capabilities - Set DPI and canvas dimensions in millimeters, inches or Points and Pixels - Great for pixel art or tens of millions of pixels - if device allows - Papers and Canvases from old cardboard, raw canvas, graph, squared and isometric paper COLOR - Display P3 WideColor on supported devices - Auto Color Sample, allows you to easily turn photos into paintings - Color picker - Toolbar placable HSB and RGB sliders ADJUSTMENTS - Localized adjustments, allow you to tweak all or just part of your image via quick masking - Change Hue, Saturation, Brightness, Recolor, Invert, Contrast and Blur WORKFLOW - Auto backup, saves snapshots - iOS Pasteboard or Drag and Drop to or from other apps - Import photos and images and high resolution Art Set is a wonderful creative addition to any iPad!

About

Looom

Create hand-drawn animations with a playful, instrument-like interface. This robust app focuses on loopable animation, offering a dynamic, non-destructive workflow for both beginners and professionals. Explore lines, shapes, and colors in a delightful environment designed for learning and experimentation.

Highlights
  • Hand-drawn animation creation
  • Loopable animation focus
  • Musical interface inspiration
  • Dynamic non-destructive workflow
  • Fluid time control
  • Infinite canvas
  • SVG native file format
Features
Read full description

A new way to create hand-drawn animation. So playful you’ll think it’s a toy, but it's secretly a robust app with a reimagined UI for animators and creators. Taking inspiration from music creation tools, using Looom feels more like playing an instrument than operating software - exploring lines, shapes and colors through loopable time and rhythm. Looom is all about looping animation with a smile. It was designed for professionals and beginners of any age and is already being used by some influential indie animators. A delightful environment to learn, experiment, practice and create drawn animation. Wonderfully musical, Next-gen dynamic non-destructive workflow. FLUID TIME No first frame or last. Looom’s threads are independent in length and speed, always tweak-able. INFINITE CANVAS Lets you go as deep or as far as you want thanks to a completely resolution-independent vector engine. OPEN-ENDED Looom uses SVG as it’s native file format. Your work can be viewed in browsers and opened in desktop animation software.

Screenshots

Looom4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Art Set 4 at Free against Looom's $9.99. Art Set 4 also leads on rating (4.6 vs 3.8) and update cadence (every 6 days vs every 4 months). Looom's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and chart position (#7 vs unranked). On review sentiment, ads and iOS requirement 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

Art Set 4 is free to download; Looom costs $9.99 up front. Art Set 4 sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Looom asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Art Set 4 holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Art Set 4 has 26K ratings behind it against 122, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 63% of Art Set 4's written reviews are positive against 62% of Looom's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Art Set 4 ships an update every 6 days, Looom every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Art Set 4 versus Looom: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterArt Set 4Looom
PriceFree — better$9.99
Rating4.6 (26K ratings) — better3.8 (122 ratings)
Positive reviews63.1% of reviews — better61.7% of reviews
Number of ratings26K — better122
Update frequencyEvery 6 days — betterEvery 4 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
Best chart rank—#7 — better
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS12.4 — better13.0
Further details — not scored
Size158 MB43 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLOFOPIIORAMA AB

Customer experience

Art Set 4

All ratings25,885 ratings
Positive90.2%
Neutral4.3%
Negative5.5%
Written reviews1,703 reviews
Positive63.1%
Neutral10.9%
Negative26.0%

Looom

All ratings122 ratings
Positive68.9%
Neutral9.8%
Negative21.3%
Written reviews180 reviews
Positive61.7%
Neutral12.8%
Negative25.6%

User reviews

Art Set 4

From 26K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🎨 Realistic paint and brush simulation
  • 👍 Intuitive and easy to use
  • 🎨 Excellent oil paint and watercolor tools
  • 🎨 Wide variety of art tools and materials
  • 👍 Responsive and smooth performance

Room to improve

  • 💰 Many features locked behind paywall
  • 🐛 Occasional crashes and bugs
  • 🔒 Lack of layer management and export options
  • 🔒 Limited brush size and customization options in free version
  • 🔒 Confusing UI and hidden features

Looom

From 122 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 💡 Innovative and unique animation interface
  • 🎨 Intuitive drawing experience once learned
  • 🎬 Real-time animation playback while drawing
  • 📱 Works seamlessly on iPad and iPhone
  • 🎯 Simple and minimalist design approach

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes losing user work
  • 😕 Non-intuitive UI despite minimalist design
  • 🎨 Limited to single color per layer/thread
  • 🖌️ Only one basic brush option available
  • 📤 Extremely cumbersome export process

Bugs and requests

Art Set 4

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Crashes when opening color palette or blending
  • Unexpected loss of work and canvas resets
  • Inability to resize canvas or change aspect ratio
  • Brush size and settings not preserved when switching tools

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add more free brushes and tools
  • Improve layer management and export options
  • Allow more brush size and customization options in free version
  • Provide better documentation and tutorials
  • Add undo/redo gesture support
Show 1 more
  • Improve color management and palette tools

Looom

Reported bugs

12 issues
  • App crashes mid-animation causing work loss
  • Grey screen on launch preventing app opening
  • Drawing not registering properly
  • Frame navigation swiping goes wrong direction
  • Accidental marks appearing from sensitive touch controls
Show 7 more
  • Eraser functionality not working on some devices
  • Zoom controls triggering timeline instead
  • Disappearing artwork when switching frames
  • Export controls not grabbable on iPad Pro
  • Accidental deletion of projects with no recovery option
  • Non-Apple Pencil input not recognized without settings change
  • Performance issues and stuttering

Requested features

23 requests
  • Better export options (GIF, video, SVG with proper formatting)
  • Increase frame limit beyond 24 frames
  • More than 5 layers/threads
  • Multiple colors and brush sizes per layer
  • Frame duplication and copy-paste functionality
Show 18 more
  • Undo/redo gesture support (two-finger tap)
  • Shape tools (circles, rectangles, lines)
  • Background image import for reference tracing
  • Hex color input and color picker tool
  • Partial eraser (erase parts of lines, not entire lines)
  • Double-tap Apple Pencil to toggle eraser
  • Layer naming and hiding capabilities
  • Adjustable frame rate and FPS control
  • Sound/audio support
  • Ability to rearrange frame order
  • Onion skin customization (forward and backward)
  • Static/pinned layers
  • Higher resolution export options
  • Video import for rotoscoping
  • Pressure sensitivity support
  • Animation scene management
  • Seamless looping export
  • Left-hand mode accessibility

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Art Set 4

One-time1
  • Unlock All$12.99
None

Looom

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Art Set 4 free?
Art Set 4 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Looom free?
Looom costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Art Set 4 or Looom?
Art Set 4 is rated higher. Art Set 4 averages 4.6 out of 5 from 26K ratings, while Looom averages 3.8 from 122 ratings.
Do Art Set 4 or Looom have ads?
Neither Art Set 4 nor Looom shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Art Set 4 or Looom?
Art Set 4 ships an update every 6 days, and Looom every 4 months. Most recently, Art Set 4 was updated on September 25, 2026 and Looom on September 23, 2026.

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