Sprite Pencil vs PxPad
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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
PxPad
Create pixel art and game sprites with a powerful native editor for iOS. Offers a full suite of tools, layers, and export options for retro art enthusiasts and game developers.
- Brush, eraser, fill, select, move, eyedropper tools
- Layers and undo/redo functionality
- Zoom, pan, and rotate gestures
- Image import and export (PNG, JPG, GIF, WebP, ICO, PX)
- iCloud integration and Files app previews
- Dark mode and left-handed mode
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Create stunning pixel art with PxPad, a powerful native sprite editor for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Perfect for game developers, artists, and retro art enthusiasts. Features • Brush, eraser, fill, select, move, and eyedropper tools • Undo / redo feature • Zoom / pan / rotate gestures • Layers • Multiple artboards in one document • Image imports • iCloud integration • Files app icon previews • Dark mode • Export PNG / JPG / GIF / WebP / ICO / PX • Export multiple artboards at once • Canvas resizing • Full color picker • Haptics • Apple Pencil support on compatible iPads • Left-handed mode • Sample files • 41 Languages Create retro art, game graphics and sprite sheets across iPhone, iPad and Mac, with iCloud integration, native sharing and file previews. Touch shortcuts and gestures • Double-tap with the brush to fill an area (enable in Settings). • Press and hold on the canvas while using the brush, eraser or fill tool to pick a color. • 2 finger tap: Undo • 3 finger tap: Redo • 2 finger pan: Pan view • 2 finger pinch: Zoom view • 2 finger rotate: Rotate canvas • Swipe gesture on folder previews, in the grid view, to cycle through previews. • Drag eyedropper onto canvas to activate with one gesture. Notes • When editing, an orange circle by the file name indicates the file is unsaved. Green briefly confirms a successful save. Red indicates a save error. • Import .px files by moving them into the PxPad folder (see Settings). If you like PxPad, please let me know in a review! Thank you, Andy (The Developer) License Agreement: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: PxPad at none against Sprite Pencil's shown. PxPad also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 69%) and rating (5.0 vs 4.6). Sprite Pencil's advantage is ratings volume (61 vs 1). On price, in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
PxPad holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Sprite Pencil has 61 ratings behind it against 1, 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 100% of PxPad's.
Sprite Pencil ships an update every 5 weeks, PxPad fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Sprite Pencil | PxPad |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (61 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 69.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 61 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro — better | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 27.0 | 18.5 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 12 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 256 Arts | Andrew Moloney |
Customer experience
Sprite Pencil
PxPad
In-app purchases
Sprite Pencil
No in-app purchases
PxPad
No in-app purchases








