Comparison

Resprite vs Pastela

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

Head to head
About

Resprite

This professional pixel art editor offers desktop-class features optimized for touch and pen input. Create pixel illustrations, animations, and game assets with an extensive toolset, advanced layers, and a high-performance renderer, all on your mobile device.

Highlights
  • High-performance drawing engine
  • Innovative palette and coloring tools
  • Advanced layers and timeline system
  • Optimized gesture and pen controls
  • Flexible interface layout
  • Import/export GIF, spritesheet, and PSD files
Features
Read full description

Resprite is a professional pixel art editor. Desktop-class features combined with touch/pen optimizations let you create efficiently anywhere. Resprite brings together a complete pixel toolset, an innovative coloring system, advanced layers and timelines, and a Metal-powered high-performance renderer so you can easily make pixel illustrations, spritesheets, GIF animations, and game art assets. Wherever you are—at home, camping, on the beach, or waiting at the gate—you can start creating. Resprite is your mobile pixel art studio. Resprite includes: - High-performance drawing engine - Innovative and efficient palette and coloring tools - Complete dithering pattern support - Flexible interface layout, always one tap away - Optimized gesture and pen controls for precision Flexible interface layout: - Arrange floating panels freely - All panels can be minimized - Shorten the distance between pen and target to boost efficiency - Cohesive pixel-styled UI All-in-one toolset: - Brushes, innovative coloring tools, three selection tools, eyedropper, paint bucket, three shape tools, plus rich sub-options - Pixel Perfect, Alpha Lock, dithering textures, and other advanced features - Place the toolbar anywhere for instant access - Copy, paste (including across files), flip horizontally/vertically, rotate, scale - Zoom and transform both canvas and image - Quick outline, HSV tuning, brightness/contrast adjustment, blur filter - Insert multi-line or vertical text, with custom fonts Convenient reference images: - Load multiple reference images - References can be zoomed and minimized - Place them anywhere Innovative palette: - Free placement layout - Linked workflow with coloring tools - Interpolate to create intermediate colors - Palette import and export - Automatically sample palettes from the canvas Import and sharing: - Import/export GIF, spritesheet, and Resprite packages - Export with scale, frame margin, spritesheet layout options, and more - Export per animation clip or by row - Import/export palettes (GPL, RPL formats) - Export PSD files - Import/export APNG animations - Export timelapse recordings of your drawing Layer and timeline system: - Comprehensive features for flexible layer-based creation - Copy, merge, flatten, rasterize, and other advanced operations - Onion Skin support - Set multiple animation clips and select them individually - Reliable performance—smooth even with hundreds of frames - Color tags, multi-level grouping, and opacity control Fast gesture operations: - Supports low-tilt and heavy-press stylus gestures - Two-finger/three-finger tap for undo/redo - Customizable pen Double-Tap actions - One-finger gestures to switch frames, play, and toggle onion skin - Long-press gesture - Flexibly map gestures to actions Pixel art in the demos comes from these artists: 史大巴、斯尔娜娜、扑倒奥利奥、吱小墨、妘归、KATLEE十三、石睐暮 PREMIUM: Your Resprite PREMIUM unlocks: - Remove export limits - Color adjustments - Stroke - Symmetry tool - Text tool All app features are available, and Premium is shared between iPad and iPhone. Customer support: Docs: https://resprite.fengeon.com/ Email: support@fengeon.com Optional in-app purchases: Charges are deducted from your iTunes account. Subscriptions renew automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the current period ends. After purchase, you can manage auto-renewal anytime in your Apple ID account settings. Terms and conditions: Your use of this app is governed by the Terms at https://resprite.fengeon.com/terms and the Privacy Policy at https://resprite.fengeon.com/privacy, including future versions.

About

Pastela

This app offers a seamless drawing and illustration experience with a spacious canvas, a wide variety of brushes, and cloud-based autosave. It features screen customization for iPad users and integrates with pixiv for easy sharing of your artwork.

Highlights
  • Spacious canvas
  • Variety of brushes
  • Cloud-based autosave
  • iPad screen customization
  • Pixiv integration
  • Detailed brush customization
Read full description

− Enhance your drawing experience, day by day.− With a spacious canvas, a variety of brushes, and cloud-based autosave, Pastela has everything you need for a smooth illustration process. Draw freely, anytime, anywhere. ____ Pastela features ■ An experience tailored for iPad users - Screen customization options that suit your dominant hand - Move panels to fit your creative style ■ A wide range of illustration tools - An extensive collection of brushes, including pencils, G pens, round pens, watercolors, sprays, markers, and more - Detailed brush customization options - Bucket tool: fill closed path, lasso fill - Easily set layer names from a list with one tap - Many filters including chromatic aberration and Gaussian blur ■ Cloud storage (*1) - Automatically save your work to the cloud - Restore data to any previous version - 1 GB of cloud storage included * To learn more about Pastela, please check out the official website. ■ pixiv account integration (*2) - Post your work directly to pixiv - With Pastela Plus (*3), you can even update your pixiv posts with new versions of your art. (*1) To use cloud sync, you need to log in with your pixiv account. (*2) To post your work from Pastela to pixiv, you need to log in with your pixiv account. (*3) To learn more about Pastela Plus, please check out the official website.

Screenshots

Resprite4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Resprite at none against Pastela's shown. Resprite also leads on ratings volume (1.5K vs 100). Pastela's advantage is update cadence (every 10 days vs every 5 weeks). On price, rating, review sentiment 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. Resprite sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and Pastela sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Resprite against 4.6 for Pastela. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Resprite has 1.5K ratings behind it against 100, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 80% of Resprite's written reviews are positive against 87% of Pastela's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Resprite ships an update every 5 weeks, Pastela every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and November 4, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Resprite versus Pastela: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterRespritePastela
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (1.5K ratings) — better4.6 (100 ratings)
Positive reviews79.6% of reviews86.8% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1.5K — better100
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksEvery 10 days — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPad
Requires iOS16.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size31 MB203 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFengeonpixiv Inc.

Customer experience

Resprite

All ratings1,441 ratings
Positive92.9%
Neutral2.4%
Negative4.7%
Written reviews285 reviews
Positive79.6%
Neutral7.0%
Negative13.3%

Pastela

All ratings98 ratings
Positive92.9%
Neutral4.1%
Negative3.1%
Written reviews174 reviews
Positive86.8%
Neutral9.8%
Negative3.4%

Bugs and requests

Resprite

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Tools disappearing from the UI
  • Importing Aseprite files not working properly
  • Export function counting against trial limit even when cancelled

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add keyframe animation support
  • Implement tile set creation tools
  • Allow importing/exporting more file formats
  • Improve undo/redo functionality
  • Add cursor/crosshair display option
Show 1 more
  • Increase free export limit

Pastela

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Resprite

Subscriptions2
  • 1 Month$1.991 Month
  • 12 Months$14.991 Year
One-time2
  • Lifetime$19.99
  • Lifetime Standard$29.99
4 purchases

Pastela

Subscriptions4
  • Light plan$3.991 Month
  • Standard plan$7.991 Month
  • Advanced plan$15.991 Month
Show 1 more
  • Deluxe plan$23.991 Month

Questions

Is Resprite free?
Resprite is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Pastela free?
Pastela is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Resprite or Pastela?
Resprite is rated higher. Resprite averages 4.7 out of 5 from 1.5K ratings, while Pastela averages 4.6 from 100 ratings.
Do Resprite or Pastela have ads?
Pastela shows ads; Resprite does not.
Which is updated more often, Resprite or Pastela?
Resprite ships an update every 5 weeks, and Pastela every 10 days. Most recently, Resprite was updated on November 7, 2026 and Pastela on November 4, 2026.

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