Comparison

iPastels vs Sketchbook

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

Sketchbook

This app provides a versatile and user-friendly digital art creation experience for mobile devices. It offers a professional-grade toolset with customizable brushes and layers, allowing users to sketch, paint, and illustrate with ease. Perfect for both beginners and experienced artists looking to bring their ideas to life on the go.

Highlights
  • 60+ realistic brushes and tools
  • Multiple layers with settings
  • Import photos for reference
  • Shape draw assist and rulers
  • Customizable color wheel
  • Undo/Redo functionality
  • Instant sharing
Features
Read full description

SketchBook is the most practical, versatile and user-friendly sketching app designed for mobile gadgets. This exhaustive artist's toolbox helps users create dazzling sketches, cheerful paintings and smashing illustrations on the go. A reflexive way to produce a custom drawing! Whether you want to create graffiti or you want to create a doodle, or you want to learn to paint and draw, SketchBook is your tool of choice. Sketchbook is an award-winning sketching, artwork, and drawing app for anyone who loves to draw. Artists and illustrators love Sketchbook for its professional-grade characteristic set and highly customizable mechanisms. Everyone loves Sketchbook for its elegant interface and natural drawing experience, free of distractions so you can focus on capturing and articulating your idea. FEATURES - Shape draw assist - Paint. Draw, Sketch. Repeat - Draw smoothly like never before on iPad or iPhone with super realistic brushes. - Draw creative sketches using 60 brushes and tools - Enhance your drawing by importing pictures and photos - Zoom to paint fine details - Share instantly - Import photos for Reference - Ruler - 16 Shape Rulers - Color Palette - Custom Color Wheel - Multiple Layers drawings - Layer settings - Undo - Redo steps - Hard and soft Eraser with opacity settings Beautiful tools make beautiful drawings, we endlessly refined SketchBook brushes to create the most realistic drawing tools. List of BRUSH tools - Basic - Texture Essentials - Copic - Pen Brush - Synthetic Paint - Traditional - Texture - Shape - Splatter - Designer - Artist - Pastel - Eraser - Cutter - Smudge tool Create amazing drawing ideas to life. Use SketchBook state-of-the-art brushes and tools to sketch, type, paint, and draw. Take your drawing creations to wherever your thoughts want to go! Unlimited access to all the premium features and future updates during the subscription period. The subscriptions are $6.99 per month with 3 days trial period and $24.99 yearly or equal to the same price tier as Apple App Store Matrix, determined as the equivalent of subscription price in $USD. You may cancel a subscription or free-trial anytime via the subscription setting through your iTunes account. This must be done 24 hours before the end of the free trial or subscription period to avoid being charged. The subscription will automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. No cancellation of the current subscription is allowed during the active subscription period. Any unused portion of a free trial period will be forfeited when the user purchases a SketchBook Premium Features subscription. Privacy Policy and Terms of Use : https://www.loyal.app/privacy-policy

Screenshots

iPastels4 screens
Sketchbook4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: iPastels at 81% against Sketchbook's 21%. iPastels also leads on rating (4.7 vs 3.9) and monetization model (free with in-app purchases vs subscription). Sketchbook's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 6 weeks). On price, ratings volume and in-app purchases 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 Sketchbook sells 14 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per 7 days. 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 3.9. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2.2K and 1.3K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 81% of iPastels's written reviews are positive against 21% of Sketchbook's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

iPastels ships an update every 6 weeks, Sketchbook fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
iPastels versus Sketchbook: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteriPastelsSketchbook
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (2.2K ratings) — better3.9 (1.3K ratings)
Positive reviews81.0% of reviews — better20.5% of reviews
Number of ratings2.2K — better1.3K
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksFortnightly — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterSubscription
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS12.0 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size24 MB82 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNorbyteLoyal Foundry, Inc.

Customer experience

iPastels

All ratings2,142 ratings
Positive91.6%
Neutral4.3%
Negative4.1%
Written reviews231 reviews
Positive81.0%
Neutral7.8%
Negative11.3%

Sketchbook

All ratings1,282 ratings
Positive71.3%
Neutral5.6%
Negative23.1%
Written reviews156 reviews
Positive20.5%
Neutral4.5%
Negative75.0%

User reviews

iPastels

From 2.2K 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

Sketchbook

From 1.3K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Great for sketching
  • 👍 Intuitive interface
  • 💡 Potential for more features

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and bugs
  • 💰 Aggressive monetization
  • 🤖 Lack of free features
  • 📵 Difficult to use without paying

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

Sketchbook

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • App crashes on launch
  • Drawings not saving properly
  • Unreliable performance

Requested features

3 requests
  • Add undo/redo functionality
  • Improve brush quality and customization
  • Implement a true free version

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
14 purchases

Sketchbook

Subscriptions12
  • Weekly Subscription3 Days trial$3.997 Days
  • Premium Features - One Week$4.997 Days
  • Weekly Subscription3 Days trial$5.997 Days
Show 9 more
  • Premium Features - One Month$8.991 Month
  • Monthly Subscription3 Days trial$9.991 Month
  • Monthly Subscription3 Days trial$11.991 Month
  • Premium Access$19.991 Year
  • Yearly Subscription3 Days trial$22.991 Year
  • Annually Subscription$24.991 Year
  • Yearly Subscription1 Month trial$24.991 Year
  • Premium Features - One Year3 Days trial$29.991 Year
  • Annually Subscription3 Days trial$39.991 Year
One-time2
  • Appsgonefree Deal$4.99
  • Lifetime Deal - Limited Period$35.99

Questions

Is iPastels free?
iPastels is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Sketchbook free?
Sketchbook is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, iPastels or Sketchbook?
iPastels is rated higher. iPastels averages 4.7 out of 5 from 2.2K ratings, while Sketchbook averages 3.9 from 1.3K ratings.
Do iPastels or Sketchbook have ads?
Sketchbook shows ads; iPastels does not.
Which is updated more often, iPastels or Sketchbook?
iPastels ships an update every 6 weeks, and Sketchbook fortnightly. Most recently, iPastels was updated on November 1, 2026 and Sketchbook on November 3, 2026.

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