Comparison

Drawing Pad vs Paintstorm Studio

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Photo-realistic art tools
  • Crayons, markers, paint brushes, colored pencils
  • Stickers and roller pens
  • Photo background import
  • Color blending tool
  • Export and sharing options
Features
Read full description

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

About

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.

Highlights
  • Advanced brush customization
  • Stroke post-correction
  • Perspective-aware parameters
  • Dynamic and custom interface
  • Mask brush functionality
  • Photoshop PSD and ABR support
  • Apple Pencil integration
Read full description

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 call

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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

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.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

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.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Drawing Pad versus Paintstorm Studio: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDrawing PadPaintstorm Studio
Price$5.99 — better$12.99
Rating4.2 (123 ratings)4.4 (368 ratings) — better
Positive reviews82.7% of reviews — better59.6% of reviews
Number of ratings123368 — better
Update frequencyMonthly — betterEvery 4 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
Best chart rank#121 — better—
DevicesiPadiPad
Requires iOS11.0 — better13.1
Further details — not scored
Size223 MB103 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMurtha Design LLCSergei Komarov

Customer experience

Drawing Pad

All ratings123 ratings
Positive80.5%
Neutral4.1%
Negative15.4%
Written reviews583 reviews
Positive82.7%
Neutral7.0%
Negative10.3%

Paintstorm Studio

All ratings368 ratings
Positive84.2%
Neutral4.3%
Negative11.4%
Written reviews178 reviews
Positive59.6%
Neutral9.0%
Negative31.5%

User reviews

Drawing Pad

From 123 App Store ratings

What 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 ratings

What 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 more
  • 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

11 purchases

Drawing Pad

One-time11
  • Occupations Coloring BookFree
  • More Fun Coloring BookFree
  • Fairy Tale Coloring BookFree
Show 8 more
  • 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
None

Paintstorm Studio

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Drawing Pad free?
Drawing Pad costs $5.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Paintstorm Studio free?
Paintstorm Studio costs $12.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Drawing Pad or Paintstorm Studio?
Paintstorm Studio is rated higher. Drawing Pad averages 4.2 out of 5 from 123 ratings, while Paintstorm Studio averages 4.4 from 368 ratings.
Do Drawing Pad or Paintstorm Studio have ads?
Neither Drawing Pad nor Paintstorm Studio shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Drawing Pad or Paintstorm Studio?
Drawing Pad ships an update monthly, and Paintstorm Studio every 4 months. Most recently, Drawing Pad was updated on September 24, 2026 and Paintstorm Studio on September 6, 2026.

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