Comparison

Procreate vs Concepts

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

Head to head
About

Procreate

This app provides a comprehensive digital art studio for iPad, offering tools for sketching, painting, illustration, and animation. It features a vast brush library, advanced layering, color management, and precision design tools for creative professionals and aspiring artists.

Highlights
  • Hundreds of handmade brushes
  • Advanced layer system
  • High resolution canvases
  • 3D Painting with Lighting Studio
  • Frame-by-frame animation
  • Precision design tools
  • Continuous auto-save
Read full description

Loved by creative professionals and aspiring artists alike, Procreate is the leading creative application made for iPad. Procreate has everything you need to create expressive sketches, rich paintings, gorgeous illustrations, and beautiful animations. Offering 100s of handmade brushes, a suite of industry-leading artistic tools, an advanced layer system, and the powerful Valkyrie graphics engine. It’s a complete art studio you can take anywhere. Highlights: - High resolution canvases — up to 16k by 8k on compatible iPad Pros - Beautifully intuitive interface made for iPad and Apple Pencil - Revolutionary QuickShape feature for perfect shapes - Smooth and responsive smudge sampling - 3D Painting with Lighting Studio, exportable as models, images, or animations - Powered by Valkyrie, the lightning-fast 64-bit painting engine - Speed up your workflow with keyboard shortcuts - Create art in stunning 64-bit color - Continuous auto-save — never lose work again Breakthrough brushes: - Packed with hundreds of beautifully crafted brushes - Organize your brushes into sets and libraries - Add Metallic and Roughness for painting in 3D - Brush Studio — with over 100 customizable settings - Import and export custom Procreate brushes - Import Adobe® Photoshop® brushes, and run them faster than Photoshop® Full-featured layering system: - Layer your art for precise control over details and composition - Create Layer Masks and Clipping Masks for non-destructive editing - Stay organized by combining layers into Groups - Select multiple layers to move or Transform objects simultaneously - Access over 25 layer blend modes for industry-grade compositing Color without compromise: - Fill your line work with ColorDrop and SwatchDrop - Disc, Classic, Harmony, Value, and Palette color panels - Import color profiles for color matching - Assign Color Dynamics to any brush Precision design tools: - Add vector text to your illustrations - Easily import all your favorite fonts - Crop and resize your canvas for perfect composition - Perspective, Isometric, 2D, and Symmetry visual guides - Drawing Assist perfects your strokes in real time - StreamLine and stabilization smooths strokes for beautiful calligraphy and expert inking - Use Scribble to name layers, change settings, and create text Accessibility features: - Advanced stroke stabilization - Dynamic Type, VoiceOver, and Feedback Sounds - Assignable single-touch gestures - Color naming Animation and Page Assist - Easy frame-by-frame animation with customizable onion skinning - Create storyboards, GIFs, animatics, and simple animations - Sketch page-by-page concepts or begin a comic with Page Assist - Import, edit, and share PDFs Dramatic finishing effects: - Brush in image adjustments and effects with Apple Pencil - Glitch, Chromatic Aberration, Bloom, Noise, and Halftone add new dimensions to your work - Gaussian, Motion, and Perspective Blur filters create depth and movement - Powerful image adjustments including Color Balance, Curves, HSB, and Gradient Map - Bring your art to life with the fun, intuitive, and creative Warp, Symmetry, and Liquify Dynamics Time-lapse replay - Relive your creative journey with Procreate’s Time-lapse Replay - Export your Time-lapse recording in 4K for high-quality video production - Share a shorter 30-second Time-lapse on your socials Import assets and share your creations: - Import or export your art as Adobe® Photoshop® PSD files - Import Adobe® ASE and ACO Color Palettes - Import image files such as JPG, PNG, and TIFF - Export your working files in layered .procreate or PSD file formats - Share your art as TIFF, transparent PNG, multi-page PDF, web-ready JPEG, OBJ, USDZ, and animated GIFs, PNGs, and MP4s

About

Concepts

This flexible vector-based sketchbook offers an infinite canvas for ideation and design. Easily sketch, take notes, and create detailed designs with editable strokes and powerful tools. Share your work in various formats for seamless collaboration and professional output.

Highlights
  • Infinite canvas
  • Vector-based sketching
  • Realistic pens, pencils, and brushes
  • Editable vector elements
  • Unlimited layers
  • Scale and measurement tools
  • Object libraries
Features
Read full description

Think, plan & create – Concepts is a flexible vector-based sketchbook where you can take your ideas from concept to reality. Concepts reimagines the ideation process – offering a safe and dynamic workspace to iterate and explore your ideas, organize your thoughts, and experiment with designs. With our infinite canvas, you can: • Sketch plans and whiteboard ideas • Make notes, doodles, and mindmaps • Draw storyboards, product sketches and designs Concepts is vector-based, making every stroke editable and scalable. With our Nudge, Slice and Select tools, you can easily change any element of your sketch without redrawing it. Talented creators at Disney, Playstation, Philips, HP, Apple, Google, Unity and Illumination Entertainment use Concepts to develop and realize extraordinary ideas. Join us! Concepts has: • An infinite canvas with optional paper types and grids • Realistic pens, pencils and brushes that flow with pressure, tilt and velocity or create your own • A tool wheel or bar you can personalize • HSL, RGB and COPIC color wheels • Editable vector-based sketching – move, organize and edit the tool, color, size, scale, smoothing, opacity; transform or nudge lines to shape them • Unlimited layers • Scale and measurement tools that calculate real-world dimensions With Concepts, you can: • Drag + drop images + PDF files • Create, store and share vector Object libraries • Export images, vector SVG + PDFs to scale for printing or efficient flow between apps (including Procreate, Sketchbook, AutoCAD and Adobe) • Share directly to email, text, Files, cloud, photos, or your favorite social apps and present with AirPlay or a second screen • Store your work safely in your personal iCloud Drive FREE FEATURES • Infinite canvas • A selection of paper, grid types & tools to get you started • The full COPIC color spectrum, RGB and HSL color wheels • Five layers • Unlimited drawings • JPG exports PAID FEATURES Subscription: • 200+ brush and Object libraries, features, and services • Enjoy Team Sharing for smooth collaboration, including live-sharing of object libraries, color palettes & brushes, with new updates arriving all the time • Unlocks everything across platforms • TRY PREMIUM FREE FOR 7 DAYS One-time-purchases: • Buy the Essentials for life and unlock selection & editing tools, infinite layers, shape guides, custom brushes, custom grids, and exports to PNG / PSD / SVG / DXF. • Pay for advanced features as you need them – object packs & professional brushes are sold separately • Limited to the platform you purchase on Terms & Conditions: • Monthly and yearly subscription payments are charged to your iTunes account at the time of purchase. • Your plan will renew automatically at the end of the billing period unless canceled 24 hours before the billing period ends. • You can cancel or make changes to your subscription at any time in your iTunes Account settings. • Unused portions of any free trial period are forfeited if you make changes to your subscription. We’re dedicated to quality and update frequently based on your feedback. Your experience matters to us. Chat with us in-app via Ask Us Anything, email us at concepts@tophatch.com, or find us anywhere with @ConceptsApp. COPIC is the trademark of Too Corporation. Many thanks to Lasse Pekkala and Osama Elfar for the cover art!

Screenshots

Concepts4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Concepts at Free against Procreate's $12.99. Concepts also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.4) and device support (3 vs 1). Procreate's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 13). On review sentiment, 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

Concepts is free to download; Procreate costs $12.99 up front. Concepts sells 13 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Procreate asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Concepts holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 51K and 27K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 70% of Procreate's written reviews are positive against 77% of Concepts's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Procreate ships an update every 2 weeks, Concepts fortnightly. Both last shipped on October 11, 2026.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Procreate versus Concepts: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterProcreateConcepts
Price$12.99Free — better
Rating4.4 (51K ratings)4.7 (27K ratings) — better
Positive reviews69.6% of reviews77.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings51K — better27K
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterFortnightly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#84 — better#201
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.315.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size1.1 GB267 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSavage Interactive Pty LtdTopHatch, Inc.

Customer experience

Procreate

All ratings50,591 ratings
Positive85.3%
Neutral5.0%
Negative9.7%
Written reviews3,389 reviews
Positive69.6%
Neutral10.8%
Negative19.6%

Concepts

All ratings26,540 ratings
Positive94.3%
Neutral3.0%
Negative2.8%
Written reviews1,917 reviews
Positive77.0%
Neutral8.9%
Negative14.1%

User reviews

Procreate

From 51K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Smooth and intuitive drawing experience
  • 💡 Vast selection of customizable brushes
  • 👍 Simple and clean user interface
  • 🚀 Efficient workflow with gestures and shortcuts
  • 👍 Great value for the one-time purchase price

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional freezing and crashing issues
  • 🔧 Limitations in the animation and audio features
  • 🔧 Frustrations with the fill bucket tool and color selection
  • 🔧 Lack of advanced organization tools like folders within folders

Concepts

From 27K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Infinite canvas
  • 👍 Intuitive and customizable interface
  • 🎨 Powerful drawing and sketching tools
  • 💡 Versatile for various use cases (architecture, design, note-taking)
  • 🔒 Responsive customer support

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes and bugs
  • 🔍 Steep learning curve for some users
  • 💰 Subscription model can be expensive for casual users
  • 🔧 Limited text handling and editing capabilities
  • 🔀 Inconsistent behavior of certain tools (e.g., eraser, alignment)

Bugs and requests

Procreate

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Random freezing and crashes, especially after recent updates
  • Issues with the fill bucket tool not working as expected
  • Problems with exporting animations and preserving the animation quality

Requested features

4 requests
  • Implement a proper stroke stabilizer and shape tools
  • Add the ability to import audio and sync animations to audio
  • Improve the fill bucket tool to work across layers
  • Introduce a folder system for better organization of artworks

Concepts

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Memory issues when working with large, complex drawings
  • Inconsistent behavior of the eraser tool
  • Inaccuracies in the snap-to-grid and measurement tools
  • Exporting issues, such as loss of data or poor quality

Requested features

5 requests
  • Improved text editing and formatting options
  • Better color selection and customization tools
  • Collaboration and real-time sharing features
  • Seamless integration with other design/productivity apps
  • Syncing and backup capabilities across devices

In-app purchases

None

Procreate

No in-app purchases

13 purchases

Concepts

Subscriptions4
  • Everything Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Everything Monthly + Trial7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Everything Yearly$29.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Everything Yearly + Trial7 Days trial$29.991 Year
One-time9
  • Shape Library$1.99
  • Pen Brush Pack$1.99
  • Body Forms$1.99
Show 6 more
  • Make Your Own Objects$3.99
  • Essentials (iPhone Only)$4.99
  • PDF Essentials$4.99
  • Pro Pack [Legacy]$7.99
  • 10 Object Packs$14.99
  • Essentials$39.99

Questions

Is Procreate free?
Procreate costs $12.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Concepts free?
Concepts is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Procreate or Concepts?
Concepts is rated higher. Procreate averages 4.4 out of 5 from 51K ratings, while Concepts averages 4.7 from 27K ratings.
Do Procreate or Concepts have ads?
Neither Procreate nor Concepts shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Procreate or Concepts?
Procreate ships an update every 2 weeks, and Concepts fortnightly. Most recently, Procreate was updated on October 11, 2026 and Concepts on October 11, 2026.
Which is more popular, Procreate or Concepts?
Procreate currently peaks at #84 in the App Store charts, and Concepts at #201. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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