Comparison

Pickalator vs Palette Studio+

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

Head to head
About

Pickalator

Features
Read full description

Create, edit, and share design assets with unmatched precision. Powerful, tactile, and completely free, Pickalator empowers designers, digital artists, and iOS developers with professional-grade creation tools. Whether you’re crafting multi-stop gradients for your next app, calibrating harmonious color palettes, or synthesizing custom vibration waveforms with Apple’s Taptic Engine, Pickalator gives you complete creative control. Zero ads. Zero subscriptions. 100% private. All your creation tools, ready when inspiration strikes. 6 CORE ASSET PRIMITIVES IN ONE STUDIO β€’ Pure Calibrated Colors: Sample and dial in exact colors using Hex input, RGB sliders, and HSB coordinates with sub-pixel gamut accuracy. β€’ Harmonic Color Palettes: Build cohesive swatch sets with mathematical color theory and contrast validation. β€’ Linear Gradients: Effortlessly drag multi-pin angle vectors, position stops, and calibrate mid-point tension. β€’ Radial Gradients: Adjust focal point displacement, elliptic stretch, and dynamic depth fields. β€’ Angular & Conic Sweeps: 360-degree color sweeps ideal for dials, activity rings, radar visuals, and gauge interfaces. β€’ Tactile Haptic Patterns: Visually compose custom haptic rhythms, transient clicks, and buzz waveforms directly mapped to device motors. BUILT FOR DESIGNERS & DEVELOPERS β€’ Generate from Existing: Instantly create algorithmic variationsβ€”shift hue intervals, randomize palettes, and discover unexpected harmonies with a single tap. β€’ Universal Multi-Format Export: Export clean code and assets ready for production: SwiftUI LinearGradient structs, CSS3, SVG gradients, JSON color dictionaries, and Adobe Swatch Exchange (.ase). β€’ iCloud Sync Across All Devices: Seamlessly transition between iPhone, iPad, and Mac with automatic cloud backup and instant library synchronization. β€’ Deep Search, Notes & Sorting: Attach design rationale notes to any token, sort by last edit, and filter by asset primitive. PRIVACY BY DESIGN: ZERO DATA COLLECTED Pickalator respects your privacy. β€’ No analytics or third-party trackers β€’ No telemetry or account required β€’ 100% of your color processing and haptic synthesis runs on-device COMPREHENSIVE IN-APP SUPPORT Need assistance or have an idea? β€’ Built-in interactive Learning Center with guided tool tutorials β€’ Direct in-app Support Chat β€’ One-tap Bug Reporting Form β€’ Feature Request Submission

About

Palette Studio+

Features
Read full description

Design color palettes you can see in three dimensions β€” and trust to work together. Palette Studio places every color in a palette inside a 3D sphere by lightness, chroma, and hue. Instead of a row of swatches, you see how your colors relate in space, and move them until the spacing feels just right. It's built on perceptual color spaces like Oklch and CIE LCh, so even steps look even to the human eye. Create β€’ Generate a balanced palette in a single tap, then lock, reorder, or fine-tune any color β€’ Arrange colors in a grid, or edit them as CSS color strings like oklch() and lch(), with edits syncing both ways β€’ Build tints and shades toward white and black β€’ Step around the color wheel for complementary and triadic schemes Check β€’ WCAG contrast ratios for every pair of colors β€’ Perceptual difference (Ξ”E 2000) so near-duplicates stand out β€’ Preview your palette through common color vision deficiencies, like deuteranopia and protanopia β€’ Compare any two colors side by side Import and Export β€’ Bring in GIMP palettes, palette images, or palettes from lospec.com β€’ Export to GIMP, macOS color lists, palette images, or CSS, hex, HSL, and other text formats Your palette library syncs across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro with iCloud.

Screenshots

Pickalator4 screens
Palette Studio+4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Palette Studio+ at every 13 months against Pickalator's every 27 months. Palette Studio+ also leads on device support (4 vs 2). Pickalator's advantage is iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS

CostPrice Β· In-app purchases Β· Ads Β· Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pickalator ships an update every 27 months, Palette Studio+ every 13 months. The most recent releases landed on November 14, 2026 and November 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences Β· 3 level
Pickalator versus Palette Studio+: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPickalatorPalette Studio+
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 27 monthsEvery 13 months β€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro β€” better
Requires iOS18.0 β€” better26.0
Further details β€” not scored
Size24 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKieran Brown256 Arts

In-app purchases

None

Pickalator

No in-app purchases

None

Palette Studio+

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pickalator free?
Pickalator is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Palette Studio+ free?
Palette Studio+ is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Pickalator or Palette Studio+ have ads?
Neither Pickalator nor Palette Studio+ shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pickalator or Palette Studio+?
Pickalator ships an update every 27 months, and Palette Studio+ every 13 months. Most recently, Pickalator was updated on November 14, 2026 and Palette Studio+ on November 8, 2026.

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