Comparison

Pixaki 4 Pro vs Looom

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

Head to head
About

Pixaki 4 Pro

Create detailed pixel art and animations with a comprehensive suite of tools. Features include pixel-perfect painting, advanced animation layers, and versatile import/export options. Ideal for game sprites, animated backgrounds, and more.

Highlights
  • Pixel-perfect painting mode
  • Dither brushes and line tool
  • Animation layers with scrubbable timeline
  • Onion skinning and blend modes
  • Multiple color selection modes
  • Advanced selection and transform tools
  • Import/export Aseprite, PSD, GIF, PNG
Read full description

Pixaki is the best pixel art app for iPad. It packs a whole load of features into a clean, modern interface, and it works great with Apple Pencil. So now you can make game sprites on the couch, animated backgrounds on your commute, or music videos in the park. DRAWING • Pixel perfect painting mode automatically removes double pixels when doing line art. • Round, square, and matrix dither brushes. • Line tool, which can be locked to isometric angles. • Rectangle and ellipse tools. LAYERS OF ANIMATION • Layers are shared across the whole project, which means every layer has its own timeline. • Static image layers for background and foreground elements that are the same on every frame. • 18 layer blend modes. • Rename layers. • Reorder layers and frames by using drag and drop. • Scrubbable timeline. • Advanced onion skin options. • Select multiple layers or frames at once to quickly make bulk adjustments. • Use high resolution reference layers to pixel over your sketches and photos. COLOR • Four color selection modes: a square picker with an infinitely scrolling hue slider, sliders for HSB and RGB, hex code input, and the project palette. • Eyedropper to sample any color from the canvas. • Bucket fill, with contiguous or discontiguous options. • Color replace across the whole project. SELECTION • Freehand, rectangular, and color selection. • Use the active selection as a mask. • Cut or copy the selected pixels and paste them to any app that supports pasting images. TRANSFORM • Move without needing to select. Position the image on or off the canvas without clipping. • Scale uniformly up and down, or squash and stretch. • Rotate by any angle. • Flip horizontally and vertically. IMPORT & EXPORT • Import any static image, or a GIF. • Import and export Aseprite documents (requires iPadOS 13 ore newer). • Import and export Photoshop documents (PSDs). • Use magnification when sharing to upscale without the results looking blurry. • Export as a single image or image sequence as PNG, TIFF, or JPEG-2000. • Export animated images as GIF or APNG. • Export QuickTime movies with H264 or HEVC codecs. • Export as a sprite sheet, with configurable columns. Screenshot artwork by Genuine Human, waneella, Chelsea Faust, and rachels_ham. Find out more at pixaki.com.

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: Looom at $9.99 against Pixaki 4 Pro's $20.00. Looom also leads on chart position (#14 vs unranked) and device support (3 vs 1). Pixaki 4 Pro's advantage is rating (4.0 vs 3.8) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 4 months). On review sentiment, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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

Pixaki 4 Pro costs $20.00 and Looom $9.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Pixaki 4 Pro holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 3.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 123 and 122 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 65% of Pixaki 4 Pro's written reviews are positive against 62% of Looom's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pixaki 4 Pro ships an update every 2 months, Looom every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and September 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Pixaki 4 Pro versus Looom: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPixaki 4 ProLooom
Price$20.00$9.99 — better
Rating4.0 (123 ratings) — better3.8 (122 ratings)
Positive reviews65.2% of reviews — better61.7% of reviews
Number of ratings123 — better122
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 4 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
Best chart rank—#14 — better
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS12.0 — better13.0
Further details — not scored
Size29 MB43 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRizer Creative LtdIORAMA AB

Customer experience

Pixaki 4 Pro

All ratings123 ratings
Positive69.1%
Neutral16.3%
Negative14.6%
Written reviews164 reviews
Positive65.2%
Neutral14.0%
Negative20.7%

Looom

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

User reviews

Pixaki 4 Pro

From 123 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Efficient workflow
  • 👍 Intuitive user interface
  • 💡 Powerful animation tools
  • 🚀 Seamless Apple Pencil integration
  • 👍 Great for pixel art on iPad

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Buggy and crashes frequently
  • 🐛 Glitches causing loss of work
  • 🐛 Unintuitive color picker and palette management
  • 🐛 Unreliable file management and saving
  • 🐛 Lack of layer management 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

Pixaki 4 Pro

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Crashes when exporting animated images
  • Layers disappearing or getting corrupted
  • Selection tool issues causing unintended changes
  • Unreliable cloud/file sync
  • Zooming and panning glitches

Requested features

9 requests
  • Layer groups/folders
  • Clipping masks
  • Layer blend modes
  • Gradient tools
  • Symmetry/mirroring tools
Show 4 more
  • Keyboard shortcuts
  • Spritesheet import/export
  • Onion skinning improvements
  • Multiple animation sequences per file

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

None

Pixaki 4 Pro

No in-app purchases

None

Looom

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pixaki 4 Pro free?
Pixaki 4 Pro costs $20.00, with no in-app purchases.
Is Looom free?
Looom costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Pixaki 4 Pro or Looom?
Pixaki 4 Pro is rated higher. Pixaki 4 Pro averages 4.0 out of 5 from 123 ratings, while Looom averages 3.8 from 122 ratings.
Do Pixaki 4 Pro or Looom have ads?
Neither Pixaki 4 Pro nor Looom shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pixaki 4 Pro or Looom?
Pixaki 4 Pro ships an update every 2 months, and Looom every 4 months. Most recently, Pixaki 4 Pro was updated on September 25, 2026 and Looom on September 28, 2026.

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