Comparison

ArtRage vs Zen Brush 2

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

Head to head
About

ArtRage

This app offers a realistic digital painting experience, simulating the behavior of real-world art supplies like oils, watercolors, and pencils. It allows for smearing, blending, and texture application, making it accessible for aspiring artists without the mess or expense of traditional materials.

Highlights
  • Realistic paint simulation (oils, watercolors, etc.)
  • Smearing and blending capabilities
  • Layer support with blend modes
  • Import images as reference or tracing
  • Apple Pencil pressure and tilt support
  • Customizable interface
Features
Read full description

The most advanced simulation of real paint on iOS! Get creative on a digital canvas with smearing, blending oils, delicate watercolor, and much more! Ever wanted to try painting your masterpiece but were put off by the mess and expense? Now you can! ArtRage isn't just about color: It knows how much paint you've used so you can smear it around to spread it over the canvas. It knows how wet your paint is so you can blend it with other paints. It even knows about the roughness of your paper so your pencils can be used for soft shading. It's not just a special effect either - ArtRage is a live simulation of the properties of real artistic media that lets you can get creative with colors and textures using tools you already know how to use! ArtRage takes full advantage of the features of your device like larger canvases on iPad Pro, Apple Pencil support for pressure & tilt, and 3D touch on your iPhone. Join the ArtRage community: Forums: forums.artrage.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/artrage Features: Real world painting tools: Oils, Watercolors, Paint Rollers, Pencils, Crayons and more. Each tool has a range of familiar properties such as how much thinner is applied to the paint, or how soft a pencil tip is. Tools apply texture as well as color, and blend under the brush. Add Layers to your painting and work on individual elements without damaging others. ArtRage supports a wide range of Layer Blend Modes, and layer contents can be scaled moved and rotated independently. Import images, converting them to oil for smearing or as Reference Images pinned to the canvas as a visual guide. Load photos as Tracing Images which are overlaid on the canvas, and have ArtRage select colors automatically as you paint. The interface has been designed to maximize your creative space without hiding away critical functions such as tool and color selection. As you paint, it gets out of the way so that you don’t have to stop and manually adjust panels. Record your paintings! The ArtRage Script system lets you record strokes while you paint for playback in desktop versions of the product at higher resolution. Import and Export using external services such as Dropbox, and iCloud Drive. Share your images on Facebook, Twitter, and any other sharing app on your device. Tools: • Oil Brush, Watercolor, Airbrush, Palette Knife, Paint Roller, Paint Tube, Inking Pen, Pencil, Marker Pen, Chalk, Crayon, Glitter Tube, Gloop Pen, Eraser, Flood Fill. • Paint simulation monitors the physical properties of your paints to allow natural blending, smearing, and other real world behavior. • Preset support to save your favorite settings for later use. • Supports the Apple Pencil's Pressure and Tilt properties, and 3D Touch where available to add realism to the simulated paint strokes. Layers: • Unlimited layers with Photoshop standard blend modes, visibility and opacity controls. Scale, rotate, and position layer contents independently. Utilities: • Record your paintings as Scripts then play them back in a desktop version of ArtRage. • Unlimited Undo / Redo. Load photos as References or Tracing images. Store color samples for later use. Files: • Create paintings up to 2048 x 2048 or 4096 x 4096 on iPad Pro. • Control the texture and color of the canvas to create different effects. Canvas presets can be stored to save your favorite settings for later. • Export PTG, JPG or PNG to services such as Email, iOS11 Files, Adobe Creative Cloud, Dropbox, and more. Share images on Facebook or Twitter. Import photos to a new file or a layer, with camera support. Interface: • Easy access pods provide functionality without getting in the way. Elements vanish as you paint so you can paint underneath. Multi-Touch shortcuts for canvas manipulation, Undo/Redo, and Brush Size. • Adapts to suit iPhone layouts. Stylus & Input Support: • Apple Pencil Pressure & Tilt. • Supports 3D Touch. • Includes support for Wacom, Adonit, Adobe, and Pogo styluses.

About

Zen Brush 2

This app offers a drawing experience inspired by East Asian ink brush art. Its intuitive interface and new engine provide a fluid and expressive way to create unique artwork, with options to share and edit your creations.

Highlights
  • East Asian ink brush simulation
  • New expressive brush engine
  • Gallery for saving work
  • Red ink option
  • Ink dispersion effect
  • 92 background templates
  • Pressure sensitive stylus support
Features
Read full description

Zen Brush 2 is a drawing app focused on the strong yet beautiful feel of the East Asian ink brush. With a new drawing engine that brings to life a feeling of silky fluent painting and the delicacy of an ink brush, providing a simple and intuitive user interface imbued with the Zen spirit, this app is designed to be optimal for performing Zen art. Simply start the app and you are immediately ready to draw. Anyone can create superb Zen art anywhere and at any time with this app’s uniquely rich expressiveness. You can publish your work to Facebook and Twitter with the "Share" and "Open in" functions. You can also share or edit your images by opening them in other apps such as Instagram, WhatsApp, LINE, Photoshop Mix, etc. - The next step in the evolution of the Zen Brush app which achieved more than 1.5 million downloads on all platforms combined. - Includes a new brush engine providing an even stronger, beautiful expressiveness. - Includes a gallery feature that makes it possible to save your work in progress. - Includes red ink in addition to the black ink (*). - Ink dispersion effect enables a three-dimensional feeling of depth. * Actual colors vary depending on the template. Features: - 92 background style templates. - Simple brush size adjustment with slider. - Simple main tools: Ink brush, red brush, eraser brush. - 3 levels of ink dispersion. - 3 levels of ink tone. - Canvas zoom (zoom in and out with pinch gestures). - Guide lines (9 types). - Undo / redo (5 levels). - Save your work to the photo library. - Open in other apps (Formats: JPEG, PNG, transparent PNG (no background)). - Share artwork (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). - Simulated finger pressure. - Support for pressure sensitive styluses. * Apple Pencil / Wacom Bamboo Stylus / Adonit / Scriba / SonarPen - Support for iPad Pro. - Support for 3D Touch. - Adjustable brush pressure sensitivity (5 levels). - Adjustable tilt sensitivity (5 levels). * Requires a pen that supports tilt. - Supports multitasking (Slide Over / Split View). - Support for iMessage App.

Screenshots

ArtRage4 screens
Zen Brush 24 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: Zen Brush 2 at free against ArtRage's paid. Zen Brush 2 also leads on rating (3.9 vs 3.5) and review sentiment (67% vs 57%). ArtRage's advantage is iOS requirement (10.0 vs 12.0). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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

ArtRage costs $2.99 and Zen Brush 2 $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Zen Brush 2 holds the better App Store score, 3.9 against 3.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 171 and 129 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 57% of ArtRage's written reviews are positive against 67% of Zen Brush 2's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly monthly. Both last shipped on October 19, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
ArtRage versus Zen Brush 2: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterArtRageZen Brush 2
Price$2.99$2.99
Rating3.5 (171 ratings)3.9 (129 ratings) — better
Positive reviews57.3% of reviews67.1% of reviews — better
Number of ratings171 — better129
Update frequencyMonthlyMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS10.0 — better12.0
Further details — not scored
Size62 MB72 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAmbient Design Ltd.PSOFT

Customer experience

ArtRage

All ratings171 ratings
Positive57.9%
Neutral11.7%
Negative30.4%
Written reviews737 reviews
Positive57.3%
Neutral14.8%
Negative28.0%

Zen Brush 2

All ratings129 ratings
Positive67.4%
Neutral14.7%
Negative17.8%
Written reviews289 reviews
Positive67.1%
Neutral11.8%
Negative21.1%

User reviews

ArtRage

From 171 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🎨 Realistic paint simulation
  • 👍 Intuitive and easy-to-use interface
  • 💡 Variety of tools and customization options
  • 🎨 Blending and mixing of colors works well
  • 🎨 Simulates traditional media like oil, watercolor, and pastels

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and freezes
  • 🐛 Laggy performance, especially with larger brushes
  • 🔍 Limited canvas size and resolution
  • 🐛 Bugs with layer handling and saving progress
  • 🔍 Missing some basic features like shapes and text

Zen Brush 2

From 129 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🎨 Realistic brush simulation and stroke quality
  • 😌 Meditative and relaxing user experience
  • ⚡ Quick and responsive performance
  • 🎯 Simple, minimalist interface design
  • ✍️ Excellent for calligraphy and character practice

Room to improve

  • 🎨 Limited color options (primarily black and red)
  • 📱 No iCloud sync or cloud backup support
  • 🐛 Occasional app crashes and freezes
  • ⚠️ Confusing interface for new users
  • 🗑️ Delete button placement causes accidental deletions

Bugs and requests

ArtRage

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes and loss of unsaved work
  • Bugs with color picker and blending tools
  • Inconsistent behavior when switching between tools

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to resize and rotate canvas
  • Improved palm rejection and touch controls
  • Larger brush sizes and more customization options
  • Support for higher resolution canvases and export
  • Autosave and cloud sync functionality

Zen Brush 2

Reported bugs

9 issues
  • Background menu freezes
  • App crashes during export/save operations
  • Blank canvas loads despite recent saves
  • Unable to export artworks (ALAssetsLibraryErrorDomain error)
  • Brush stroke continues in straight line after stylus lift
Show 4 more
  • Performance issues on newer iPad Pro models
  • Inconsistent undo button behavior
  • File loading issues with previously saved images
  • Pressure sensitivity not working with certain styluses

Requested features

19 requests
  • Expanded color palette beyond black and red
  • iCloud synchronization across devices
  • Layer support for more complex artwork
  • Import background photos for tracing and reference
  • Custom guides and grid overlays
Show 14 more
  • Zoom functionality
  • Ability to adjust canvas/paper size
  • Move and scale drawing tools
  • Increased undo/redo history (25-30 steps)
  • Landscape mode support with adaptive layouts
  • Tutorials and user guidance documentation
  • Option to disable finger input when using stylus
  • Disappearing ink effect option
  • Pre-wet paper option for ink interaction
  • Numeric brush size adjustment
  • Save default brush size settings
  • Landscape orientation paper backgrounds
  • More brush variety and customization
  • EPS, SVG, and PDF export formats

In-app purchases

None

ArtRage

No in-app purchases

None

Zen Brush 2

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is ArtRage free?
ArtRage costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Zen Brush 2 free?
Zen Brush 2 costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, ArtRage or Zen Brush 2?
Zen Brush 2 is rated higher. ArtRage averages 3.5 out of 5 from 171 ratings, while Zen Brush 2 averages 3.9 from 129 ratings.
Do ArtRage or Zen Brush 2 have ads?
Neither ArtRage nor Zen Brush 2 shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ArtRage or Zen Brush 2?
ArtRage ships an update monthly, and Zen Brush 2 monthly. Most recently, ArtRage was updated on October 19, 2026 and Zen Brush 2 on October 19, 2026.

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