Comparison

ibis Paint vs Pastela

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

Head to head
About

ibis Paint

This app offers a comprehensive suite of tools for drawing and animation, suitable for beginners and experienced artists alike. It provides a vast array of brushes, materials, and filters, enabling the creation of illustrations, animations, and even videos with music. The ad-free experience ensures uninterrupted creativity.

Highlights
  • Over 130,000 brushes
  • 30,000+ materials
  • Frame-by-frame animation
  • Vector tools
  • 86 image filters
  • Time-lapse video recording
Features
Read full description

For everyone around the world who wants to draw and animate, freely and without pressure. ibisPaint is a full-featured illustration and animation app for smartphones and tablets, with over 500 million cumulative downloads across the series. "Drawing looks hard" — this app is made especially for people who think that. A creative experience that doesn't compromise, an interface simple enough to use without hesitation, and a comfortable familiarity that grows the more you use it. ibisPaint keeps serving as an easy entry point for anyone to start "drawing," while continually expanding what's possible — from a single illustration to frame-by-frame animation, and on to videos with background music and audio. This app is the ad-free version of ibisPaint X. Unlocking all features additionally requires purchasing Premium Membership (an in-app purchase); in that case, downloading ibisPaint X and purchasing Premium Membership there works out cheaper. With over 130,000 brushes, 30,000+ materials, 3,000+ fonts, 86 image filters, 46 screentones, 27 layer blending modes, vector tools, a reference window, radial and symmetry rulers, animated filters, and an AI Disturbance feature, ibisPaint packs in serious functionality that rivals PC illustration software. It's a one-stop app that goes beyond drawing illustrations — into animation production, and even recording and sharing your creative process as a time-lapse video. It's chosen by people of all ages, countries, and experience levels around the world. *Drawing Tutorial YouTube Channel We post lots of videos on how to make the most of ibisPaint. Please subscribe! https://youtube.com/ibisPaint *Supported Digital Styluses https://ibispaint.com/stylus/supported_digital_stylus.jsp?platformType=1 *About Purchase Plans https://ibispaint.com/lecture/index.jsp?no=26 * If you do not cancel auto-renewal at least 24 hours before the free trial ends, you will be automatically charged upon renewal. *About App Access Permissions This app may access various device features to provide the service and improve usability. No access permission is required to use this app — all of the following are optional. You may decline any of these optional permissions. Even if declined, the app's core features remain available, but some features that require the relevant permission may be limited. •Photos/videos in your photo library To import artwork files and images, and to save the artwork files, images, and videos you create •Microphone audio input To connect and communicate with supported peripherals such as digital styluses •Bluetooth communication To connect and communicate with supported peripherals such as digital styluses •Push notifications To deliver notifications related to your artwork, app update information, and important announcements *Questions & Bug Reports We're unable to respond to questions or bug reports left in reviews. Please contact our support desk below instead. https://ssl.ibis.ne.jp/en/support/Entry?svid=25 *ibisPaint Terms of Service https://ibispaint.com/agreement.jsp

About

Pastela

This app offers a seamless drawing and illustration experience with a spacious canvas, a wide variety of brushes, and cloud-based autosave. It features screen customization for iPad users and integrates with pixiv for easy sharing of your artwork.

Highlights
  • Spacious canvas
  • Variety of brushes
  • Cloud-based autosave
  • iPad screen customization
  • Pixiv integration
  • Detailed brush customization
Read full description

− Enhance your drawing experience, day by day.− With a spacious canvas, a variety of brushes, and cloud-based autosave, Pastela has everything you need for a smooth illustration process. Draw freely, anytime, anywhere. ____ Pastela features ■ An experience tailored for iPad users - Screen customization options that suit your dominant hand - Move panels to fit your creative style ■ A wide range of illustration tools - An extensive collection of brushes, including pencils, G pens, round pens, watercolors, sprays, markers, and more - Detailed brush customization options - Bucket tool: fill closed path, lasso fill - Easily set layer names from a list with one tap - Many filters including chromatic aberration and Gaussian blur ■ Cloud storage (*1) - Automatically save your work to the cloud - Restore data to any previous version - 1 GB of cloud storage included * To learn more about Pastela, please check out the official website. ■ pixiv account integration (*2) - Post your work directly to pixiv - With Pastela Plus (*3), you can even update your pixiv posts with new versions of your art. (*1) To use cloud sync, you need to log in with your pixiv account. (*2) To post your work from Pastela to pixiv, you need to log in with your pixiv account. (*3) To learn more about Pastela Plus, please check out the official website.

Screenshots

ibis Paint4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Pastela at Free against ibis Paint's $15.99. Pastela also leads on update cadence (every 10 days vs monthly). ibis Paint's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and ratings volume (4.1K vs 100). On rating, review sentiment, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

Pastela is free to download; ibis Paint costs $15.99 up front. ibis Paint sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $4.49 per month and Pastela sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for ibis Paint against 4.6 for Pastela. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ibis Paint has 4.1K ratings behind it against 100, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 86% and 87% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ibis Paint ships an update monthly, Pastela every 10 days. Both last shipped on November 4, 2026.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
ibis Paint versus Pastela: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
Parameteribis PaintPastela
Price$15.99Free — better
Rating4.7 (4.1K ratings) — better4.6 (100 ratings)
Positive reviews86.3% of reviews86.8% of reviews — better
Number of ratings4.1K — better100
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 10 days — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#4 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size118 MB203 MB
Age rating+44+
Developeribis inc.pixiv Inc.

Customer experience

ibis Paint

All ratings4,115 ratings
Positive94.0%
Neutral2.3%
Negative3.7%
Written reviews1,198 reviews
Positive86.3%
Neutral5.3%
Negative8.4%

Pastela

All ratings98 ratings
Positive92.9%
Neutral4.1%
Negative3.1%
Written reviews174 reviews
Positive86.8%
Neutral9.8%
Negative3.4%

Bugs and requests

ibis Paint

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Speedpaint feature not recording all actions
  • Blurring tool causing color leakage
  • Layers not working as expected on certain devices
  • Crashes when opening large files

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add animation tools and features
  • Implement better organization options like folders
  • Improve search and filtering for brushes
  • Add blending and liquify tools
  • Allow importing custom brushes and textures
Show 1 more
  • Improve speed and stability for larger canvases

Pastela

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

7 purchases

ibis Paint

Subscriptions2
  • Premium Membership (Monthly plan)7 Days trial$4.491 Month
  • Premium Membership (Yearly plan)1 Month trial$27.991 Year
One-time5
  • Smart Credit 300pt$2.99
  • Smart Credit 900pt$8.99
  • Smart Credit 2,500pt$23.99
Show 2 more
  • Smart Credit 5,000pt$44.99
  • Smart Credit 10,000pt$79.99
4 purchases

Pastela

Subscriptions4
  • Light plan$3.991 Month
  • Standard plan$7.991 Month
  • Advanced plan$15.991 Month
Show 1 more
  • Deluxe plan$23.991 Month

Questions

Is ibis Paint free?
ibis Paint costs $15.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Pastela free?
Pastela is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, ibis Paint or Pastela?
ibis Paint is rated higher. ibis Paint averages 4.7 out of 5 from 4.1K ratings, while Pastela averages 4.6 from 100 ratings.
Do ibis Paint or Pastela have ads?
Pastela shows ads; ibis Paint does not.
Which is updated more often, ibis Paint or Pastela?
ibis Paint ships an update monthly, and Pastela every 10 days. Most recently, ibis Paint was updated on November 4, 2026 and Pastela on November 4, 2026.

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