Comparison

iPastels vs Artstudio Pro

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

Artstudio Pro

This powerful app offers advanced drawing, painting, and photo editing tools for creative professionals and enthusiasts. It features a robust engine, flexible layer system, and an advanced brush engine for realistic strokes. Users can also create animations and import/export various image formats.

Highlights
  • GPU accelerated ArtEngine
  • Unlimited layers and large canvas sizes
  • Advanced brush engine with 150+ brushes
  • Flexible layer system with groups and masks
  • Professional photo editing tools
  • Animation creation and export
  • Import/Export ABR/TPL brush and pattern formats
Features
Read full description

Introducing Artstudio Pro, the most powerful painting and photo editing app available for both iOS and macOS. The successor to our famous ArtStudio app has been redesigned bringing many new features and improvements taking full advantage of the latest technologies Metal, iCloud Drive, Apple Pencil, and optimized for 64-bit multi-core processors to achieve the smoothest possible workflow. Powerful engine App is based on the powerful GPU accelerated ArtEngine developed by Lucky Clan. It allows working with multiple documents, supports large canvas sizes and an unlimited number of layers. Incredible optimization ensures smooth work even with large canvases. • Realistic Color Pigment Blending • Canvas size up to 64Mpix • Unlimited layers • Multiple open documents • 27 tools: Move, Select, Crop, Eyedropper, Paint, Wet Paint, Eraser, Bucket/Pattern/Gradient Fill, Smudge, Dodge, Burn, Sponge, Text, Heal, Clone, and more • Full iCloud integration Flexible layer system Artstudio Pro introduces a new layer system with grouping, non-destructive layer effects, and adjustment layers. • Groups • Masks, clipping masks • Adjustment Layers • 9 layer effects: Bevel/Emboss, Stroke, Inner Shadow, Inner Glow, Outer Glow, Color/Gradient/Pattern Overlay, Drop Shadow • Text layers Advanced Brush engine Perfectly optimized, lag free mechanism generating smooth, real looking strokes, making the most of Apple Pencil. • Brush size up to 4000x4000 • 64-bit painting with pattern, double stamp, wet brush, dynamics • Brush editor with over 100 customizable settings • Over 150 built-in brushes divided into multiple groups: Pens, Pencils, Oil Painting, Inking, Charcoals, Airbrushes, Watercolor and many more • Symmetric painting Professional photo editor Photo editing options developed in cooperation with professional photographers. Each feature was tested in several scenarios and light conditions. • 15 adjustments available as non-destructive layer or simple adjustment: Brightness/Contrast, Levels, Curves, Exposure/Gamma, Shadows/Highlights, Vibrance, Hue/Saturation, Color Balance, Temperature/Tint, Black and White, Gradient Map and more • 4 auto adjustments: Auto Contrast, Levels, Lightness, Saturation • Transform: Basic, Perspective, Warp • Dozens of filters with realtime preview and the ability to generate seamless patterns • Inpaint, Elastify (Liquify) • Retouching tools: Heal, Dodge, Burn, Sponge and more • Image resize, Canvas resize • Crop and Trim Animation Create animation from layers or groups and finally export it to one of the most popular animation format • Scrollable timeline view with Play/Pause • Onion skin • Customizable Frame duration • Always visible layers • Export to MP4, HEVC, Animated GIF/PNG Import/Export We have implemented many parsers from the most popular assets/images formats and we are especially proud of our ABR/TPL parser which not only reads brush stamps and patterns, but also most settings which are converted to Artstudio Pro brush engine values. Import • Images - PNG, JPEG, PSD, HEIC, TIFF, GIF, PDF, most raw formats • Brushes - ABR, TPL • Color swatches - ASE, ACO • Patterns - PAT • Gradients - GRD • Fonts - TTF, OTF Export • Images - PNG, JPEG, PSD, TIFF, PDF Other features • Floating panels for Colors, Layers, Brushes etc • Screen recording • Customizable Quick menu • Customizable Shortcuts • Snapping to guidelines, dynamic guidelines, grid • Perspective grid assist • Mirror (flipped) view • Support of iPad Drag and Drop, Split View, Sharing Extension, Open In, Clipboard Free version limitations: • locked Saving • canvas size limited to device screen size • layers count limited to 3 • export only to jpg • locked animation export Minimum System Requirements Artstudio Pro for iOS requires iPhone or iPad running iOS 15.0 or above Privacy policy: https://luckyclan.com/privacy-policy Terms of use: https://luckyclan.com/terms-use

Screenshots

iPastels4 screens
Artstudio Pro4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: iPastels at 12.0 against Artstudio Pro's 15.0. On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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 Artstudio Pro sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.49 per year. 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 iPastels against 4.6 for Artstudio Pro. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2.1K and 4K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 82% of iPastels's written reviews are positive against 74% of Artstudio Pro's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

iPastels ships an update every 6 weeks, Artstudio Pro monthly. Both last shipped on September 25, 2026.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
iPastels versus Artstudio Pro: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteriPastelsArtstudio Pro
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (2.1K ratings) — better4.6 (4K ratings)
Positive reviews81.7% of reviews — better74.2% of reviews
Number of ratings2.1K4K — better
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size24 MB385 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNorbyteLucky Clan

Customer experience

iPastels

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

Artstudio Pro

All ratings4,037 ratings
Positive88.8%
Neutral3.6%
Negative7.6%
Written reviews1,192 reviews
Positive74.2%
Neutral8.6%
Negative17.2%

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

Artstudio Pro

From 4K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Powerful and feature-rich
  • 👍 Familiar Photoshop-like interface
  • 💡 Supports Photoshop brushes
  • 🎨 Excellent brush engine and painting experience
  • 🔍 Robust selection and adjustment tools

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and freezes
  • 🤔 Steep learning curve
  • 🔀 Confusing UI and navigation
  • 🖌️ Inconsistent palm rejection and input issues
  • 💾 Unreliable saving and file management

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

Artstudio Pro

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Gradient tool not working as expected
  • Brush settings not saving properly
  • Unexpected canvas resizing and cropping
  • Layers disappearing or not rendering correctly

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add custom brush creation
  • Improve canvas resizing and previewing
  • Implement better layer and mask management
  • Add more blending and color adjustment tools
  • Introduce keyboard shortcuts and gesture support
Show 1 more
  • Provide a comprehensive user manual or tutorials

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
2 purchases

Artstudio Pro

Subscriptions1
  • Yearly Subscription3 Days trial$3.491 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime License$14.99

Questions

Is iPastels free?
iPastels is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Artstudio Pro free?
Artstudio Pro is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, iPastels or Artstudio Pro?
iPastels is rated higher. iPastels averages 4.7 out of 5 from 2.1K ratings, while Artstudio Pro averages 4.6 from 4K ratings.
Do iPastels or Artstudio Pro have ads?
Neither iPastels nor Artstudio Pro shows ads.
Which is updated more often, iPastels or Artstudio Pro?
iPastels ships an update every 6 weeks, and Artstudio Pro monthly. Most recently, iPastels was updated on September 25, 2026 and Artstudio Pro on September 25, 2026.

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