Comparison

iPastels vs Infinite Painter

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

Head to head
About

iPastels

This app offers a realistic digital painting experience with lifelike pastel simulation and interactive textures. It allows for precise color blending and adjustable stroke sizes, catering to both beginners and experienced artists. Explore your creativity without the cost of traditional art supplies.

Highlights
  • Lifelike pastel simulation
  • Realistic paper/canvas textures
  • Precise color blending
  • Fingertip stroke size adjustment
  • Left-handed toolbar option
  • Live parameter changes
  • Multiple layers
Features
Read full description

A painting app for all artists, whether you’re experienced or just starting out. Perfect for creating beautiful works of art or a quick sketch whenever and wherever you have a burst of inspiration. You can also try out ideas and compositions before starting on a new painting in real life, or practise and refine your skills, all without the added cost of art supplies. • LIFELIKE PASTEL SIMULATION • The app features live-calculated brushes and strokes, making a realistic pastel simulation possible. Painting tools include soft pastels, oil pastels, pastel pencils, smudge tool, and more. • REALISTIC PAPER/CANVAS TEXTURES • When creating a new picture, a unique, non-repeating paper texture is generated that will interact in real-time with the live-calculated strokes you paint. You can change the default-generated texture to, for example, canvas, which goes great with oil pastels! • PRECISE COLOR BLENDING • When painting, especially with soft pastels, use Smudge or the Cotton Swab to blend and smoothen the colors right on the paper, as you would in real life. With oil pastels, in addition to smudging, the blending is often done by the pastel sticks themselves (for best results, reduce the force or use a similar or lighter color). If you use an Apple Pencil, it will feel incredibly realistic if you use the stylus to draw and use your finger to Smudge (assigned as a 2nd tool)! • FINGERTIP = STROKE SIZE • When you paint, 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! • 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 • SEAMLESS PATTERN EDITING MODE • • DARK MODE • LANDSCAPE • PORTRAIT • WIDE COLOR • • MULTIPLE LAYERS • PHOTO TRACING MODE (Pro feature) •

About

Infinite Painter

Create stunning digital art with a powerful painting, sketching, and drawing app. It offers a vast array of brushes, intuitive tools, and advanced features for artists of all skill levels. Share your creations with time-lapse recordings and enjoy a seamless creative workflow.

Highlights
  • Hundreds of built-in and custom brushes
  • Intuitive and customizable interface
  • Advanced layer management
  • Time-lapse recording
  • Perspective guides
  • Selection and transformation tools
  • Color correction and filters
Features
Read full description

Experience one of the best-designed painting, sketching, and drawing apps created for iPad and iPhone. Used by millions, this award-winning app brings a rich, powerful feature set to artists of all levels, whether art is your hobby, passion or career. HIGHLIGHTS - Best-in-class pencils - Minimal and intuitive interface - Easily group layers - Share Time-lapse recordings with your social networks - Convert any stroke into an editable shape REIMAGINING BRUSHES - Hundreds of built-in brushes: Airbrushes, Calligraphy, Chalk, Charcoal, Glow, Lasso Fills, Pencils, Markers, Oil Paint, Paint Splatter, Spray Paint, Screentones, and Watercolor - Realistic brush to canvas interaction - Over 100 customizable settings for every brush - Organize and share your favorite brushes and brush sets - Designed for the Apple Pencil with full pressure and tilt support - Apply real-time color adjustments and live filters to any brush - Sample lower layers when blending - Import and export custom brushes and sets GETTING THE MOST OUT OF YOUR SPACE - More canvas, less clutter with a clean, customizable interface - Assign finger functions separate from the Apple Pencil - Expand and collapse layers with a flick - Dock brushes and brush settings for quick, easy editing - Quick access eyedropper - Rotate and flip canvas - Group layers with a pinch MAKING ART LESS WORK - Pin tools and actions to the main interface - Pull the color wheel right on the canvas with two fingers - Add multiple reference images - Lighting-fast saving and loading - Step back in time with Project History DIVERSIFYING TOOLS - Simple or complex symmetry with Radial or Kaleidoscope - Draw with precision using Guides or Shapes - Smart shape detection by pausing when drawing - Innovative Hatching guide NEVER LOSING PERSPECTIVE - Design 3D cityscapes with five different perspective guides or a standard 2D grid - Drag Rectangle and Circle shapes in perspective PIXEL-PERFECT EDITING - Seamless pattern projects - Selection tools: Lasso, Rectangle, Circle, Poly, Path, Wand, Brush, and Color Range - Industry-leading Transformations - Transform multiple layers at once - Gradient and Pattern Fill tools - Target separate layers or all layers with Fill tools - Drag with Fill tool or Magic Wand for live tolerance adjustment - Bring your painting to life with Time-lapse - Canvas Navigator with flip and grayscale support (for proportions and value checking) - Clone tool with offset - Tools for pattern creation EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO CREATE - 64-bit color when painting - Layer support with 30 blend modes - Masks for layers, adjustments, and groups - Clipping masks - Gradient map, Color Curves, and Filter layers - Industry-leading color correction - Over 40 live Filters - Focus and Tilt-shift masking - Liquify - Crop and Resize tool - Pattern and Array tools - Powerful selection workspace - Photoshop®-like smart layers for multiple transformations without loss of quality - Solo & Trace modes - Print presets & CMYK color modes ACCELERATE YOUR WORKFLOW - Import from Photos, Camera, Clipboard, or Image Search - Search over 1 million free for commercial-use images - Export images as JPG, PNG, ZIP, layered PSD files, or Painter projects - Share artwork to Infinite Painter's ever-growing community and see what others are creating, #InfinitePainter WHAT’S FREE? - 7 days to try out everything - 5 layers at the device resolution - Solid Fill, Lasso selection, Basic Transform and Symmetry - Seamless pattern projects - All the built-in brushes and brush editing - Smart shape detection WHAT’S PRO? - HD canvas sizes and tons of layers* - Adjustments and live Filter layers - Layer groups - Layer masks - Over 40 powerful, professional tools * Maximum number of layers depends on the canvas size and your device TAKE INFINITE PAINTER WITH YOU See what you can do.

Screenshots

iPastels4 screens
Infinite Painter4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: iPastels at 4.7 against Infinite Painter's 4.1. iPastels also leads on review sentiment (82% vs 67%) and device support (4 vs 2). Infinite Painter's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 6 weeks) and ratings volume (10K vs 2.1K). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. iPastels sells 6 one-off in-app purchases and Infinite Painter sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

iPastels holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2.1K and 10K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 82% of iPastels's written reviews are positive against 67% of Infinite Painter's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

iPastels ships an update every 6 weeks, Infinite Painter every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on September 29, 2026.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
iPastels versus Infinite Painter: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteriPastelsInfinite Painter
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (2.1K ratings) — better4.1 (10K ratings)
Positive reviews81.7% of reviews — better67.4% of reviews
Number of ratings2.1K10K — better
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS12.0 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size24 MB104 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNorbyteSean Brakefield

Customer experience

iPastels

All ratings2,142 ratings
Positive91.6%
Neutral4.3%
Negative4.1%
Written reviews229 reviews
Positive81.7%
Neutral7.4%
Negative10.9%

Infinite Painter

All ratings10,099 ratings
Positive78.6%
Neutral6.9%
Negative14.5%
Written reviews1,755 reviews
Positive67.4%
Neutral13.4%
Negative19.2%

User reviews

iPastels

From 2.1K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🎨 Realistic pastel simulation
  • 💡 Useful for beginners and professionals
  • 🌈 Wide range of colors and shades
  • 🔍 Good blending and smudging tools

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes or glitches
  • 🔒 Limited free features, need to pay for more
  • 🔍 Lack of zoom or detailed control
  • 🎨 Difficulty finding/reusing specific colors
  • 🔀 Confusing layer management

Infinite Painter

From 10K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Smooth brushstrokes
  • 👍 Intuitive and easy to use
  • 💎 Powerful and feature-rich
  • 🎨 Excellent brush and color selection
  • 🖌️ Realistic painting experience

Room to improve

  • 🔒 Layers locked behind paywall
  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and stability issues
  • 🔍 Lack of clear instructions and guidance
  • 🔋 High battery consumption
  • 💰 Expensive compared to alternatives

Bugs and requests

iPastels

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes when importing images
  • Layers sometimes disappear or get lost
  • Undo button deletes entire drawing sections

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add color picker tool
  • Improve layer management and visibility
  • Implement pressure-sensitive brush support
  • Provide more paper/canvas texture options
  • Allow saving and recalling custom palettes
Show 1 more
  • Add undo/redo functionality for individual strokes

Infinite Painter

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Layers disappearing or becoming corrupted
  • Brush behavior changing unexpectedly
  • Canvas resizing causing crashes
  • Inability to export projects properly

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add text tool
  • Improve layer management and organization
  • Implement better palm rejection
  • Allow more customization of UI and tools
  • Add support for Photoshop brushes

In-app purchases

6 purchases

iPastels

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
5 purchases

Infinite Painter

One-time5
  • Get Everything!$3.99
  • Get Everything! (iPhone-only)$4.99
  • Get Everything$6.99
Show 2 more
  • Get Everything (Trial Discount)$7.99
  • Get Everything$9.99

Questions

Is iPastels free?
iPastels is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Infinite Painter free?
Infinite Painter is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, iPastels or Infinite Painter?
iPastels is rated higher. iPastels averages 4.7 out of 5 from 2.1K ratings, while Infinite Painter averages 4.1 from 10K ratings.
Do iPastels or Infinite Painter have ads?
Neither iPastels nor Infinite Painter shows ads.
Which is updated more often, iPastels or Infinite Painter?
iPastels ships an update every 6 weeks, and Infinite Painter every 2 weeks. Most recently, iPastels was updated on September 29, 2026 and Infinite Painter on September 29, 2026.

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