Comparison

WowPaint vs Brushes

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

Head to head
About

WowPaint

Create seamless patterns for backgrounds, textures, and more with intuitive drawing tools. Adjust parameters live while painting and utilize fingertip-based stroke sizing. Supports Apple Pencil and multiple layers.

Highlights
  • Seamless pattern creation
  • Wrapped painting mode
  • Fingertip stroke size adjustment
  • Live parameter changes
  • Multiple layers
  • Photo tracing mode (Pro)
Features
Read full description

Pattern/texture designers: You’ll find the app’s unique feature set very useful when making repeatable images (patterns). Other artists: WowPaint is great for drawing and painting “normal” art as well! • CREATE SEAMLESS PATTERNS • Use the Seamless Pattern Options to aid you in creating seamless patterns that can be used as website or desktop backgrounds, in print, or for textures in 3d modeling. When you have switched on Wrap X/Y, any strokes you paint that go over the picture’s edge will continue on the opposite side. That means that there will be no hard edges where strokes are cut off (since they continue instead), which makes the picture a perfect candidate for being seamlessly repeated. A tremendous help when using the Wrapped Painting mode is the option of having the picture displayed as tiles next to each other. You’re free to paint anywhere on these tiles, and you will see the results in real time. You can also switch on Edge Indicators, to make it easier to see where the picture being repeated begins and ends. • FINGERTIP = STROKE SIZE • When you paint, the app measures how much of your finger is touching the screen and changes the stroke size accordingly. There’s a huge difference between using just the corner of your fingertip and pressing down the whole fingerprint area! A 2nd tool assigned to your finger will still use this feature, so don’t ignore it just because you have an Apple Pencil! • LEFT-HANDED? • Just swipe the toolbar over to the other side! • PARAMETERS CAN BE CHANGED LIVE • Use any buttons or controls to change/adjust color, size, force, simultaneously while painting. • UNIVERSAL PURCHASE • If you choose to buy the Pro upgrade, this one-time in-app purchase will unlock all Pro features in the app on all available platforms (iPad-iPhone-Mac)! • METAL • The engine is based on Metal, with 128-bit color and floating-point arithmetic. • SWIFT • The app was developed entirely using Swift (earlier versions used C++). • APPLE PENCIL SUPPORT • FULL SCREEN PAINTING • • DARK MODE • LANDSCAPE • PORTRAIT • WIDE COLOR • • MULTIPLE LAYERS • PHOTO TRACING MODE (Pro feature) •

About

Brushes

This app offers a powerful digital painting and sketching experience with a modern interface and advanced features. Create detailed artwork with customizable brushes, layers, and color tools. Optimized for Apple Pencil and various devices.

Highlights
  • Customizable parameterized brushes
  • Advanced layer management
  • Apple Pencil support with pressure curve
  • Light and dark mode interface
  • Unlimited undo/redo
  • Cloud Drive import/export
Read full description

Brushes 4 is the latest iteration of the app that started the iPhone and iPad painting revolution. Redesigned with a clean and modern user interface, Brushes supports iPhone and iPad with optimisation for the iPhone X, iPhone XS, iPhone Pro and iPad with Apple Pencil. • Highlights: - Clean and modern user interface with light and dark modes. - Files based painting gallery. - New canvas interface. - Apple Pencil support with pressure curve. – Unlimited undo and redo. - Continuous auto-save. - Cloud Drive import and export. • Parameterized Brushes: - Selection of ready to use brushes with customisable settings. - Create your own custom brushes from millions of permutations. - Generate random brushes for inspiration. - Dynamic adjustment of brush size and opacity. • Layers: - Layer your artwork for greater control. – Lock and hide layers. – Use alpha lock to only paint where pixels already exist. – Adjust individual layer opacity. – Duplicate, rearrange and merge layers. – Apply layer blending modes: normal, multiply, screen, exclude. - Color fill any layer. – Invert layer color and desaturate. – Flip and arbitrarily transform layers. – Adjust the color balance per layer. – Adjust layer hue, saturation and brightness. • Colors: - Colour picker with hue ring and saturation square. - Store and recall your favourite colors in swatches. - Sample painting colors with the eyedropper tool. • Apple Pencil: - Intuitive and powerful pressure curve to match your style. - Configurable realtime pressure based adjustment of brush size and opacity. • Creation: - Preset canvas sizes for paper, photographs, iPhone and iPad screens, film and television displays. - Custom canvas size. • Import, export and sharing: - Import images directly from your camera roll. - Import PNG and JPEG images from cloud services. - Export your paintings for sharing or importing into other apps as PNG and JPEG to all cloud storage services or as photos directly to your camera roll. - Compatible with paintings created by Brushes 3 and Brushes Redux. • Light and dark appearances: - Choose between light and dark monochrome appearances, or current system setting. - Minimal use of user interface color so that tints in the user interface do not distract from or influence your artwork color choices. Acknowledgements. Thank you to Angela Ali, Jason M., Jeff Parker, Sandra Perez and Yoshiyuki Uchida for contributing artwork to the App Store screenshots. Please visit our website to see more of their artwork and for links to their portfolios. History. Brushes was originally created by Steve Sprang for iPhone in 2009 and for iPad in 2010. His last version, Brushes 3 was released in 2012, but was removed from the App Store in 2015. I took over development to modernise and support an app that has continued to be enjoyed by so many artists.

Screenshots

WowPaint4 screens
Brushes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: WowPaint at Free against Brushes's $3.99. WowPaint also leads on review sentiment (76% vs 57%). Brushes's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 6) and chart position (#79 vs unranked). On rating, 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

WowPaint is free to download; Brushes costs $3.99 up front. WowPaint sells 6 one-off in-app purchases. Brushes asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for WowPaint against 4.6 for Brushes. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 119 and 177 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 76% of WowPaint's written reviews are positive against 57% of Brushes's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

WowPaint ships an update every 2 months, Brushes every 6 weeks. Both last shipped on October 20, 2026.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
WowPaint versus Brushes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWowPaintBrushes
PriceFree — better$3.99
Rating4.7 (119 ratings) — better4.6 (177 ratings)
Positive reviews75.9% of reviews — better57.1% of reviews
Number of ratings119177 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 6 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
Best chart rank—#79 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.0 — better13.0
Further details — not scored
Size22 MB13 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNorbyteEnvoza

Customer experience

WowPaint

All ratings119 ratings
Positive94.1%
Neutral2.5%
Negative3.4%
Written reviews29 reviews
Positive75.9%
Neutral10.3%
Negative13.8%

Brushes

All ratings177 ratings
Positive91.5%
Neutral2.8%
Negative5.6%
Written reviews42 reviews
Positive57.1%
Neutral9.5%
Negative33.3%

Bugs and requests

WowPaint

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Brushes

Reported bugs

9 issues
  • Brush tips not staying (switching to square)
  • Auto-save not working
  • Cannot place images from gallery
  • Brush size slider jumps
  • Circular lines icon appears unexpectedly
Show 4 more
  • App quits unexpectedly without saving
  • Canvas doesn't rotate
  • Won't load photos
  • Empty app after purchase

Requested features

6 requests
  • More save color slots
  • Full Chinese menu translation
  • Instructions/manual
  • Smudge tool
  • Documentation
Show 1 more
  • Screen rotation feature

In-app purchases

6 purchases

WowPaint

One-time6
  • Tip Jar: Smallest Tip$1.00
  • Tip Jar: Small Tip$2.00
  • Tip Jar: Medium Tip$5.00
Show 3 more
  • Pro Upgrade$7.00
  • Tip Jar: Big Tip$10.00
  • Tip Jar: Biggest Tip$25.00
None

Brushes

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is WowPaint free?
WowPaint is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Brushes free?
Brushes costs $3.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, WowPaint or Brushes?
WowPaint is rated higher. WowPaint averages 4.7 out of 5 from 119 ratings, while Brushes averages 4.6 from 177 ratings.
Do WowPaint or Brushes have ads?
Neither WowPaint nor Brushes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, WowPaint or Brushes?
WowPaint ships an update every 2 months, and Brushes every 6 weeks. Most recently, WowPaint was updated on October 20, 2026 and Brushes on October 20, 2026.

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