Drawing Pad vs Paintstorm Studio
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Drawing Pad
Unleash your creativity with a mobile art studio for all ages. This app offers a wide array of realistic art tools, from crayons and markers to paint brushes and colored pencils. Easily import photos as backgrounds or stickers, blend colors, and share your masterpieces.
- Photo-realistic art tools
- Crayons, markers, paint brushes, colored pencils
- Stickers and roller pens
- Photo background import
- Color blending tool
- Export and sharing options
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Get the app that was mentioned on TV ABC 7 CHICAGO as a top school app! Watch http://abc7chicago.com/education/back-to-school-tech-shopping-tips/952242/ short link: abc7.ws/1h5RDj9 Previously iPad App of the Week in 12 countries! (http://drawingpadapp.com/apple-features-drawing-pad-as-ipad-app-of-the-week) Drawing Pad is a mobile art studio for all ages! Create your own art using photo-realistic crayons, markers, paint brushes, colored pencils, stickers, roller pens and more! ■ ACCOLADES Winner of a Parents’ Choice Gold Award (bit.ly/parents-choice) Featured on nytimes.com (bit.ly/nytimes-drawingpad) Featured on usatoday.com (usat.ly/2x5xrKx) Featured on the iLounge 2011 Buyer's Guide 100 Essential Apps of 2010! Featured by iLounge as First runner up to kids' iPad App of the Year! Featured on Gizmodo's 2010 Gift Guide (bit.ly/gizmodo-drawingpad) Featured in November 2010 MacWorld Magazine in the UK 4 out of 5 stars Awarded Editor's Choice Award from Children's Technology Review ■ IN BOOKS Featured in the book “iPad Apps for Kids for Dummies” - by Jinny Gudmundsen Featured in the O’Reilly book “Best iPad Apps” - by Peter Meyers ■ IN MUSEUMS As seen in the Star Studio Exhibit at the Indianapolis Museum of Art! (bit.ly/ima-museum) ■ QUOTES "Drawing Pad is a fantastic drawing app!" 9to5mac.com “Wonderful chalk tools! You can almost taste the dust!” Mickey Paraskevas, Illustrator and Creator of the Maggie and the Ferocious Beast TV show. "Drawing Pad is a fun and easy to use iPad art app for kids and adults alike. It has very visual menus giving you instant access to a broad range of useful art tools. There are amazing features for kids including downloadable colouring books and additional advanced features for more ambitious artists." Kyle Lambert - Artist - www.kylelambert.com ■ HOW TO USE DRAWING PAD Watch the video inside the App! (or drawingpadapp.com/tutorial) Tap a tool, choose a color, and start drawing. It’s really that simple. Your artwork is automatically saved in the Drawing Pad album. For brush options like size and spacing, tap the brush thumbnail at the bottom of the drawer. Import photo backgrounds by first tapping the stationary icon in the drawer, then the filmstrip. Import photo stickers by first tapping the sticker icon, then the stack of photos. Use one finger to move your photo and two fingers to rotate and resize. Blender tool allows you to soften and blend colors! ■ SHARING OPTIONS Export to the Device Camera Roll, print via AirPrint, share via Email, and other favorite apps like Instagram & Facebook. Even assign your artwork to a contact in your address book! ■ ALL THESE TOOLS ARE INCLUDED! Crayons Markers Paint Brushes Colored Pencils Sketch Pencils Roller Stamp Pens Erasures Stickers Construction Paper Blenders Text Sticker Tool Photo Background Import Photo Stickers Gradient Brushes & Crayons Advanced Brush Control Color wheel and Gradient Panel Pinch Zoom Autosave Two Coloring Books ■ EXTRA FUN Download extra coloring books via in app purchase! Restore prior "Coloring Book in app purchases" by tapping the "Redeem prior purchase" button on the Coloring Book store details page. See drawingpadapp.com/restore ■ DEMONSTRATION Video at http://drawingpadapp.com ■ CONTACT Email us at "support" -at- "drawingpadapp.com" BUY NOW! Don't have an iPad yet? Don't let it stop you! Great price today! Buy now and tell your friends. CREDITS: "Birds," "Panda Bear," and "Turtle" by Igor Cheban instagram.com/icheban "Dinosaur," and "Kitten" by Kyle Lambert www.kylelambert.com
Paintstorm Studio
This app offers a professional digital painting experience on iOS devices, leveraging Apple Pencil for advanced control. It provides a vast array of customizable brushes, stroke correction, and intuitive tools for artists of all levels to create masterpieces on the go.
- Advanced brush customization
- Stroke post-correction
- Perspective-aware parameters
- Dynamic and custom interface
- Mask brush functionality
- Photoshop PSD and ABR support
- Apple Pencil integration
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Paintstorm Studio is the first iOS App designed not only for simple sketches, but professional digital painting of any level, genre and technique. Paintstorm helps you to discover the magnificence and unleash the full potential of Apple Pencil and brings you to a whole new level of drawing. Creating an art masterpiece has never been so mobile. A major feature of Paintstorm Studio is the array of brushes to choose from. We did our best so that you can easily and quickly adjust the brushes suitable to your painting style. Anyone who has ever painted knows it's hard to overestimate the painting tool and the importance of all the seemingly insignificant details. We tried not to miss any of them. Our goal was to create an intuitive, simple-to-use but at the same time functionally powerful tool that brings the process of digital painting to a new level, making it as comfortable as possible. - Full control of all brush options (Incredible possibilities for brush settings) - Bristle brushes of any form and kind - Stroke post correction (You can take an action on any option. Not only on the stroke thickness) - Parameters binding to the perspective - Dynamic interface (Global interface scale, panels scale, opacity, color) - Custom panels - Full controlled mask-brush (Each brush can work as mask for other brush) - Takes underlayer's color while blending - "Close gaps" function when you fill or select - Dirty brush mode - Stroke stabilizer - Usable color mixer - Different gradient strokes - Mirror drawing - Standart tools pack (Lasso, Magic wand, Crop, Fill, Gradient and etc) - Control of the random amounts - Photoshop PSD and ABR supported - Apple Pencil support (Pressure, Tilt, Direction)
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Paintstorm Studio at none against Drawing Pad's 11. Paintstorm Studio also leads on rating (4.4 vs 4.2). Drawing Pad's advantage is price ($5.99 vs $12.99) and review sentiment (83% vs 60%). On ratings volume, ads 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
Drawing Pad costs $5.99 and Paintstorm Studio $12.99 up front. Drawing Pad sells 11 one-off in-app purchases. Paintstorm Studio asks for nothing beyond the download.
Paintstorm Studio holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 4.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 123 and 368 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 83% of Drawing Pad's written reviews are positive against 60% of Paintstorm Studio's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Drawing Pad ships an update monthly, Paintstorm Studio every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Drawing Pad | Paintstorm Studio |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $5.99 — better | $12.99 |
| Rating | 4.2 (123 ratings) | 4.4 (368 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 82.7% of reviews — better | 59.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 123 | 368 — better |
| Update frequency | Monthly — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #121 — better | — |
| Devices | iPad | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 13.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 223 MB | 103 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Murtha Design LLC | Sergei Komarov |
Customer experience
Drawing Pad
Paintstorm Studio
User reviews
Drawing Pad
From 123 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🎨 Great for kids
- 👍 Versatile and fun
- 🎨 Encourages creativity
- 🎨 Lots of drawing tools
- 🎨 Excellent color selection
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes and deletes work
- 🐛 Undo button issues
- 🖌️ Limited brush/pencil options
- 🖌️ Blending tool issues
- 🖼️ No full screen on iPad
Paintstorm Studio
From 368 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Powerful desktop-class features
- 🎨 Excellent brush engine and blending
- 📚 Highly customizable interface
- 💻 Seamless desktop-to-iPad experience
- 🖌️ Realistic painting simulation
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes and stability issues
- 🔍 Cluttered and confusing UI
- 🔋 Performance and memory issues
- 🔒 Lack of cloud/online integration
- 📁 Limited file management and export options
Bugs and requests
Drawing Pad
Reported bugs
5 issues- Crashes and deletes drawings
- Undo button erases too much work
- Drawings disappear from album
- Sticker placement issues
- Incompatible with newer iPads
Requested features
10 requests- Add layers feature
- Implement zoom/pan functionality
- Add text tool
- Provide more advanced drawing tools
- Include more adult-oriented coloring books
Show 5 moreShow fewer
- Improve sticker/stamp UI
- Add sound effects
- Implement auto-save feature
- Add ability to mix/create custom colors
- Provide more brushes/pencils (e.g. HB-9B pencils)
Paintstorm Studio
Reported bugs
5 issues- Crashes on startup or when using certain tools
- Brush lag and performance issues with large canvases
- Unreliable autosave and file management
- Unresponsive or glitchy UI elements
- Incompatibility with older iPad models
Requested features
5 requests- Improved brush customization and management
- Seamless canvas rotation and zooming
- Expanded layer and selection tools
- Better text and typography support
- Integrated cloud/online sync and sharing
In-app purchases
Drawing Pad
- Occupations Coloring BookFree
- More Fun Coloring BookFree
- Fairy Tale Coloring BookFree
Show 8 moreShow fewer
- Sea Life Coloring BookFree
- Winter Holiday Coloring BookFree
- Farm Coloring BookFree
- Dinosaur Coloring BookFree
- Robots Coloring BookFree
- Space Coloring BookFree
- Halloween Coloring BookFree
- Adult Coloring Book 1Free
Paintstorm Studio
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Drawing Pad free?
Is Paintstorm Studio free?
Which has better reviews, Drawing Pad or Paintstorm Studio?
Do Drawing Pad or Paintstorm Studio have ads?
Which is updated more often, Drawing Pad or Paintstorm Studio?
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