Crayon Maestro vs MetaBrush
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Crayon Maestro
This app simulates wax crayon drawing with realistic stroke variations based on fingertip pressure. It offers a dynamic color palette, adjustable drawing parameters, and full Apple Pencil support for creating detailed art and sketches. Pro features like photo tracing are available via a one-time purchase.
- Fingertip-based stroke size adjustment
- Live parameter changes (color, size, force)
- Full Apple Pencil support
- Customizable color palette
- Multiple layers
- Photo tracing mode (Pro feature)
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This full-fledged wax crayon simulator lets you create art, whether a complete drawing or just a sketch, with a striking resemblance to its real life counterpart. • FINGERTIP = STROKE SIZE • When you draw, the app measures how much of your finger is touching the screen and changes the stroke size accordingly. Apply just the corner of your fingertip for a thin line, or the whole fingerprint area for a broad stroke. A 2nd tool assigned to your finger will still use this feature, so don’t ignore it just because you have an Apple Pencil! • PARAMETERS CAN BE CHANGED LIVE • Use any buttons or controls to change/adjust color, size, force, simultaneously while drawing. • APPLE PENCIL • Full support for Apple Pencil and Apple Pencil 2. In addition, you can assign a second drawing tool, such as Eraser, to the finger. • EASY AND QUICK TO USE COLOR PALETTE • Changing the color is only a tap away. The colors in the palette can be rearranged, adjusted, added and removed. • 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++). • FULL SCREEN DRAWING • SEAMLESS PATTERN EDITING MODE • • DARK MODE • LANDSCAPE • PORTRAIT • WIDE COLOR • • MULTIPLE LAYERS • PHOTO TRACING MODE (Pro feature) •
MetaBrush
Transform your photos into artistic paintings with a variety of brush presets and advanced settings. This app offers layers support and the ability to import Photoshop brushes, allowing for detailed customization of your artwork.
- 30 brush presets
- Layers support
- Import Photoshop brushes (.abr)
- Customizable stroke settings
- Paint with images
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With Metabrush you can easily turn your photos into paintings. The result images are very artistic, as you brush with different presets and settings. Visit the gallery at http://instagram.com/metabrush for many examples. Features: • 30 brush presets for artistically clone your original image. • Layers support • 500+ brushes bitmaps • Support for importing directly Photoshop brushes (.abr) • Include many settings for the strokes as dynamical size, rotation, shadow, and opacity. • You can assign colors to the strokes, but also paint with images (as if they were colors). Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Crayon Maestro at 4.6 against MetaBrush's 3.7. Crayon Maestro also leads on update cadence (monthly vs every 2 months) and ratings volume (225 vs 21). On price, ads, 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
Both are free to download. Crayon Maestro sells 6 one-off in-app purchases and MetaBrush sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Crayon Maestro holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Crayon Maestro has 225 ratings behind it against 21, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 76% of Crayon Maestro's written reviews are positive against 65% of MetaBrush's.
Crayon Maestro ships an update monthly, MetaBrush every 2 months. Both last shipped on October 16, 2026.
| Parameter | Crayon Maestro | MetaBrush |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (225 ratings) — better | 3.7 (21 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 76.0% of reviews — better | 65.4% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 225 — better | 21 |
| Update frequency | Monthly — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 16.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 22 MB | 253 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Norbyte | talonsodev |
Customer experience
Crayon Maestro
MetaBrush
In-app purchases
Crayon Maestro
- Tip Jar: Smallest Tip$1.00
- Tip Jar: Small Tip$2.00
- Pro Upgrade$3.00
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- Tip Jar: Medium Tip$5.00
- Tip Jar: Big Tip$10.00
- Tip Jar: Biggest Tip$25.00
MetaBrush
- Metabrush PRO3 Days trial$0.997 Days
- Metabrush PRO3 Days trial$6.991 Year
- Metabrush PRO$9.99








