Comparison

iPencil vs Imaengine

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

Head to head
About

iPencil

Create sophisticated vector graphics on your iPad with unlimited layers, powerful editing tools, and extensive import/export options. Customize your workspace with light, dark, or tinted themes.

Highlights
  • Unlimited layers
  • Path and text manipulation
  • Gradient fills
  • Boolean operations
  • Color wheel and swatch library
  • SVG, PDF, PNG, JPEG import/export
Features
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iPencil is a vector illustration app designed from scratch for the iPad . It supports paths, compound paths, text, text on a path, images, groups, masks, gradient fills, and an unlimited number of layers. * Take control with unlimited layers. Feel free to add as many or as few elements in each layer to organise your drawings. Rename, rearrange, delete, hide and lock layers as you draw. Isolate the active layer for easy editing. Adjust each layers transparency independently to get your ideal composition. * Powerful editing at your fingertips. Easily manipulate single or multiple elements with powerful scale and rotate tools. Associate individual elements into groups. Interactively edit gradient fills on the canvas. Perform a range of Boolean operations on paths, including Unite, Intersect, Exclude and Subtract Front. * Colors to match your imagination. Picking the perfect color is easy with the freedom of the expressive color wheel. Or modify colors using RGB and HSB sliders. Enter the hexadecimal value to precisely match existing artwork colors. Sample colors using the dropper. Store and recall colors from the swatch library. * Import, export and sharing. Import drawings from desktop vector applications as SVG and include photos directly from your camera roll, or import PNG and JPEG images from cloud services. Export your drawings for sharing or importing into other apps as SVG, PDF, PNG and JPEG to all cloud storage services. Send drawings as photos directly to your camera roll. * Light, dark or tinted themes. Choose between the light and dark monochrome themes or the classic Inkpad with user interface tints. The light and dark themes make minimal use of color so that tints in the user interface do not distract from or influence your artwork color choices. Geti Pencil Premium. Unlimited access to the tools during the subscription period. The subscriptions are $0.99 week with 3 day trial period, $2.99 for 1 Months or equal to the same price tier as Apple App Store Matrix, determined as the equivalent of subscription price in USD. You may cancel a subscription or free-trial anytime via the subscription setting through your iTunes account. This must be done 24 hours before the end of the free trial or subscription period to avoid being charged. The subscription will automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. No cancellation of the current subscription is allowed during active subscription period. Any unused portion of a free trial period will be forfeited when the user purchases a Sketch Pad Unlimited subscription. Terms & Conditions : http://ipencilpro.com/terms-of-use.html Privacy Policy : http://ipencilpro.com/privacy-policy.html

About

Imaengine

Transform photos and videos into stylized vector art with various filters and editing tools. Create pop-art effects, remove backgrounds with black and white vectorization, and generate rotoscope-style videos from imported footage.

Highlights
  • Color vectorization
  • Pop-art style filters
  • Black and white vectorization
  • Video and movie import
  • Rotoscope-style videos
  • User-friendly editor
Features
Read full description

Color vectorization, pop-art style filters, black and white for background removing. Video and movie import to get rotoscope-style videos. User-friendly editor with selection tools, brush and eraser. Now we have 3 different vector apps, you can choose the one fit your necessities: - 'Imaengine': filter section with all the vectorization capabilities, with smart controls and clean interface, editor section with only the essential tools. - 'Vector Q': the most powerful, full control over vectorizing with advanced parameters and a complete vector editor. - 'Vinilo': the simpler, only black and white vectorization and single-tool editor.

Screenshots

Imaengine4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Imaengine at 59% against iPencil's 0%. Imaengine also leads on ratings volume (35 vs 4) and device support (3 vs 1). iPencil's advantage is rating (3.5 vs 3.1) and iOS requirement (10.0 vs 15.6). On price, update cadence, 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

Both are free to download. iPencil sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per 7 days and Imaengine sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

iPencil holds the better App Store score, 3.5 against 3.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Imaengine has 35 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 0% of iPencil's written reviews are positive against 59% of Imaengine's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on June 1, 2026 and September 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
iPencil versus Imaengine: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteriPencilImaengine
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.5 (4 ratings) — better3.1 (35 ratings)
Positive reviews0.0% of reviews58.6% of reviews — better
Number of ratings435 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS10.0 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size26 MB18 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBon TranLuis Rivas

Customer experience

iPencil

All ratings4 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral25.0%
Negative25.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral100.0%
Negative0.0%

Imaengine

All ratings35 ratings
Positive51.4%
Neutral8.6%
Negative40.0%
Written reviews29 reviews
Positive58.6%
Neutral10.3%
Negative31.0%

In-app purchases

4 purchases

iPencil

Subscriptions4
  • Activity tools in a week$0.997 Days
  • Activity tools in month$3.491 Month
  • Activity tools in 3 month$6.493 Months
Show 1 more
  • Activity tools in year1 Year trial$49.991 Year
1 purchases

Imaengine

One-time1
  • Unlimited Sharing$5.99

Questions

Is iPencil free?
iPencil is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Imaengine free?
Imaengine is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, iPencil or Imaengine?
iPencil is rated higher. iPencil averages 3.5 out of 5 from 4 ratings, while Imaengine averages 3.1 from 35 ratings.
Do iPencil or Imaengine have ads?
Neither iPencil nor Imaengine shows ads.
Which is updated more often, iPencil or Imaengine?
iPencil ships an update every 3 weeks, and Imaengine every 3 weeks. Most recently, iPencil was updated on June 1, 2026 and Imaengine on September 28, 2026.

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