Alchemist Rose vs Drawing Box
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Alchemist Rose
This app creates dynamic, interactive mandalas that respond to your movements and music. It offers stunning visuals and can be mirrored to a big screen for parties or performances.
- Interactive animated mandalas
- Responds to touch and tilt
- Music visualization
- AirPlay screen mirroring
- Video-out support for big screens
- Adjustable speed and color palettes
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Five-Stars! ***** "This App is absolutely amazing... Visually stunning. It makes me tingle all over when I use it. Breathtaking!" Five-Stars! ***** "Insane interactivity" Five-Stars! ***** "I have most of the particles apps on my iPad and this one ranks at the top." *** AirPlay Screen Mirroring is amazing !!! *** * Wirelessly stream video from your iPad to your Apple TV and watch Alchemist Rose on your Big Screen HDTV ! * Beautiful, Magical, Colorful, Delightful... • • • ...put on some Music ...pick up your iPad... and DANCE ! Alchemist Rose creates animated Interactive colorful Mandalas that groove and pulsate to your every move. Video-Out supported. Plug into your Big-Screen TV or Video Projector and perform for your friends !!! All Video-Out cables supported (VGA is Best). Great for Parties ! Perfect for VJ-ing. Alchemist Rose is designed to be Intuitive and Exploratory. The Rose is aware of your Posture and Energy. Lying back in Bed with your feet up and iPad in Portrait mode: AR assumes a slow mellow evolution. iPad Resting Flat on its back: AR goes full speed ahead. For the Ultimate… Pick up the iPad… Dance… Tilt… Sway… Touch… Twist… Bounce… The Mandala becomes the Music Visualized through your movements… ( … when you find that moment… it is really fun! :^) Controls: • Speed : Tilt Up & Down. Up for Slow and Down for Fast. • Color Palette change : Double-Click • Clear Screen : Double-Click • 10 Finger MultiTouch • Spin Adjust : Tilt Left & Right • Gravity Tilt affects Touches after release • Bounce the iPad up and down to Visualize the Beat • Video-Out Aspect Ratio in Settings : 16x9 widescreen & 4x3 standard - both supported Settings: • AlchemistRose Settings are in the iOS Settings app. • Video Out - Plug into a Video Projector or HDTV for the Big Screen AR Experience. All Aspect Ratios are supported: 4x3 standard; 16x10 wide Computer Monitor; 16x9 wide HDTV. • Vertical Video-Out - An External Monitor placed in Vertical Portrait orientation is now supported. A 16x9 vertical external monitor is Especially Beautiful. • Keep Display On - Disables the Auto-Lock feature on your iPad, which automatically turns off the display after a certain amount of time.* ( *Note: Remember the longer the iPad Display is on, the more Battery is used. ) • Touch for New Color: Every Touch will change to a new Color Palette. • Speed - "Always Fast" is the full-on pedal-to-the-metal experience all the time. At 60Hz it can be quite intense. - "Variable Control" gives you a more relaxed, subtle and controllable experience. Slow down the pace by Tilting the iPad. Upright in Portrait mode is Slowest. iPad Flat on it's Back Fastest. Tilt anywhere in-between for just the perfect speed for you! Alchemist Rose is an ongoing project, drawing on 25 years of visual music making experience. Enjoy the ride. Tell your Friends :^) Love to hear from you ! Email us at: alchemistrose [at] opticalalchemy [dot] com
Drawing Box
Unleash your creativity with a comprehensive digital art studio. Explore a vast array of drawing and painting tools, special effects, and interactive features for both artistic expression and fun recreational activities. Share your masterpieces as images or animated movies.
- Extensive drawing and painting tools
- Special effects and magic pens
- Symmetry and duplication modes
- Artwork movie recording and sharing
- Whiteboard for presentations
- Recreational activities like mazes and sudoku
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Drawing Box is recommended by schools for their students for its creativity tools and recreational features. Bring a painting studio in your pocket, and enjoy unlimited painting activities. 1/ Creativity: painting tools are amazingly funny to use. Discover dozens of hidden features for drawing and painting. More than only painting with your device, you can automatically send a movie of your artwork. Drawing Box also includes a white board for tutorial and pitch recording. Eight symmetry and duplication painting modes will create drawings you never can only imagine. 2/ Leisure: practice painting with fun and pleasure. With a large choice of incredible magic pens and 3D clay pens, free your imagination. Stencils, stickers and other icons let you enjoy long quiet moments of recreational activities. 3/ Training: besides drawing lessons, you can use the color mixer to create your personal palette. The “crop and move” tool help you to resize properly your work. Apply photo effects to your creations. 4/ Share: save and send your artwork with or without background. Share a movie of your painting on social networks. What you will find: • Drawing tools: pencils, chalks, ink pens, Chinese brush, harmony pens, erasers. • Painting: air brush, watercolor, hair brushes, blending brushes, sand brush, grid paint roller, pattern paint roller, cloud paint roller, hair and cloud paint roller, splash paint roller, dry smudge, fill bucket, rainbow pens and brushes, light effect, single color brush. • Colors: 10 color palettes (pastel, oil, cool, warm, night, sky and earth, fire and water, skin), color wheel, light and dark color adjustment. Real color mixer for creation of personal color palette. • Magic pens: autumn leaves, spring leaves, color splash, animal foot prints, lips, cartoon drawings, bubbles, butterflies, random squares, diamonds, candies, planets, musical signs, flowers, snow flakes, numbers, random circles, 3 pens, flashing stars, local symmetry, alternated colors, 3D clay pens, 3D sand pens, 3D noodle pens. • Clip arts, decorative patterns. • Text editor • Stencils • Background selection from the photo library, camera, preset models (wood, wall, concrete, textile, wallpaper, colors, grids, music lines, post card. • Leisure: coloring pages, mazes, sudoku. • Photography: import image, puzzles, photo effects (gray, sepia, fax, tonal, vignette, lemo, radial) • White board tool: talk, draw and record your presentation. • Drawing lessons. • Symmetrical painting: horizontal, vertical, 4 corners symmetry, • Duplication: simultaneously duplicate all your strokes to 3 or 4 directions. • Auto record your work as a movie. Replay and send movies. • Other functions: baby mode, toolbar customization, full page zooming, crop image, hide toolbar, export paintings with or without background, small painting views, multi painting deletions, quick navigation in the paintings gallery, painting rotation in the gallery. ============================================================ * Fall 2012 Mobile Apps: winner of a Parents’ Choice Silver Honor (www.parents-choice.org) * Reviewed and rated 5 stars by the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (www.merlot.org) * Rankings: France #1 Overall, China #2 Overall and #1 in Entertainment, Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg #1 in Entertainment * Top10 Entertainment in 12 countries
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Alchemist Rose at Free against Drawing Box's $2.99. Alchemist Rose also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 3 months). Drawing Box's advantage is review sentiment (96% vs 68%) and ratings volume (31 vs 5). On rating, ads, in-app purchases 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
Alchemist Rose is free to download; Drawing Box costs $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Alchemist Rose holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Drawing Box has 31 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 68% of Alchemist Rose's written reviews are positive against 96% of Drawing Box's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Alchemist Rose ships an update every 3 weeks, Drawing Box every 3 months. Both last shipped on November 1, 2026.
| Parameter | Alchemist Rose | Drawing Box |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $2.99 |
| Rating | 4.8 (5 ratings) — better | 4.6 (31 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 67.5% of reviews | 96.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 5 | 31 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPad | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 | 9.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 122 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Mark Buchanan | Etienne Nguyen Tan Hon |
Customer experience
Alchemist Rose
Drawing Box
Bugs and requests
Alchemist Rose
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Drawing Box
Reported bugs
3 issues- Crashes when using undo/redo
- Disappearing drawings after updates
- Inconsistent performance on older devices
Requested features
5 requests- Add layers feature
- Improve sharing and export options
- Implement a color picker tool
- Provide more customization options
- Add an eraser that is always accessible
In-app purchases
Alchemist Rose
No in-app purchases
Drawing Box
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Alchemist Rose free?
Is Drawing Box free?
Which has better reviews, Alchemist Rose or Drawing Box?
Do Alchemist Rose or Drawing Box have ads?
Which is updated more often, Alchemist Rose or Drawing Box?
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