Comparison

Sprite Pencil vs Pixel Diffusion

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

Head to head
About

Sprite Pencil

Create pixel art for games and icons with a focused set of tools. Features automatic shading brushes, symmetry mode, and easy palette management. Save and share your creations as crisp PNG files.

Highlights
  • Pencil, eraser, and fill tools
  • Automatic highlight and shadow brushes
  • Symmetry mode for mirrored strokes
  • Dithering for classic patterns
  • Handpicked and importable color palettes
  • Save as crisp PNG files
Features
Read full description

Pixel art, made simple and made to feel great. Sprite Pencil is a focused pixel-art editor for sprites, icons, and game assets. A small set of carefully chosen tools and a drawing engine built exclusively for Apple devices make every pixel land exactly where you meant it, whether you draw with a finger or with Apple Pencil. Draw • Pencil, eraser, and fill tools • Highlight and shadow brushes that shade automatically • Symmetry mode to mirror strokes as you draw • Dithering for classic checkered patterns • Flip, rotate, and outline a whole sprite in a tap • Full undo and redo Color • Handpicked palettes, plus seasonal picks • Building Bricks colors • Import any palette from Lospec Your Files, Your Way • Sprites are plain PNG files, so any app can open them • Edit images in place wherever they live, including iCloud Drive • Share your art scaled up so it stays crisp Show It Off • Pin a favorite sprite to your Home Screen with a widget • Draw and send pixel-art stickers right in Messages

About

Pixel Diffusion

Transform text prompts into unique pixel art with AI. This tool generates authentic pixel art using fixed color palettes and offers post-generation editing options like resizing and color quantization. Share your creations with others.

Highlights
  • AI art generator from text prompts
  • Authentic pixel art generation
  • Fixed color palettes
  • Post-processing: resize, quantize colors
  • Save and share artwork
  • Inspiration for further editing
Features
Read full description

Pixel Diffusion turns words into awesome pixel arts. Bring your imagination to reality by entering a prompt, and Pixel Diffusion will create pixel perfect pixel arts with fixed palettes. 【 PIXEL ART GENERATOR FROM PROMPT】 AI art generator is converting your text to the art in seconds. No style clarification required. 【 PIXEL PERFECT】 Pixel Diffusion creates real pixel arts, not "in pixel art style" as other app do. 【 FIXED PALETTES】 Pixel Diffusion uses fixed palettes to make sure that you get high quality pixel arts. 【 POST PROCESSING】 After pixel art is generated, you can resize it, quantize (reduce) colors and apply any built-in palette . 【 SAVE & SHARE IT】 Once you have your completely unique, original artwork; feel free to share it with friends to WOW them. 【 GET INSPIRED 】 Use pixel arts generated as a basis to edit and improve in any pixel art editor.

Screenshots

Sprite Pencil4 screens
Pixel Diffusion3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Sprite Pencil at 4.6 against Pixel Diffusion's 2.0. Sprite Pencil also leads on review sentiment (69% vs 33%) and in-app purchases (none vs 2). Pixel Diffusion's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 27.0). On price, monetization model 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. Pixel Diffusion sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Sprite Pencil asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Sprite Pencil holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 2.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Sprite Pencil has 61 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 69% of Sprite Pencil's written reviews are positive against 33% of Pixel Diffusion's.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Sprite Pencil versus Pixel Diffusion: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSprite PencilPixel Diffusion
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (61 ratings) — better2.0 (4 ratings)
Positive reviews69.0% of reviews — better33.3% of reviews
Number of ratings61 — better4
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeks—
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS27.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size12 MB79 MB
Age rating4+9+
Developer256 ArtsFarida Yarullina

Customer experience

Sprite Pencil

All ratings61 ratings
Positive90.2%
Neutral6.6%
Negative3.3%
Written reviews42 reviews
Positive69.0%
Neutral7.1%
Negative23.8%

Pixel Diffusion

All ratings4 ratings
Positive25.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative75.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive33.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative66.7%

In-app purchases

None

Sprite Pencil

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Pixel Diffusion

One-time2
  • 100 credits$4.99
  • 1000 credits$19.99

Questions

Is Sprite Pencil free?
Sprite Pencil is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Pixel Diffusion free?
Pixel Diffusion is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Sprite Pencil or Pixel Diffusion?
Sprite Pencil is rated higher. Sprite Pencil averages 4.6 out of 5 from 61 ratings, while Pixel Diffusion averages 2.0 from 4 ratings.
Do Sprite Pencil or Pixel Diffusion have ads?
Sprite Pencil shows ads; Pixel Diffusion does not.

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