iPastels vs Sketches
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Lifelike pastel simulation
- Realistic paper/canvas textures
- Precise color blending
- Fingertip stroke size adjustment
- Left-handed toolbar option
- Live parameter changes
- Multiple layers
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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) •
Sketches
This drawing app is designed for beginners, offering features to help you start your artistic journey. You can trace images, record your drawing process, and export your creations as videos or PNG files. Your work is automatically saved locally.
- Trace uploaded images
- Record drawing progress
- Export sketches as PNG
- Export progress videos
- Manage multiple sketches
- Auto-save functionality
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Sketches — Draw & Trace Turn inspiration into your own artwork. Sketches is a simple, focused drawing and tracing app designed to help you turn reference images into sketches and finished artwork. Import an image, trace over it, add your own drawings, use a customizable grid for precision, and export your creation when you're done. DRAW A clean, distraction-free canvas for sketching and drawing. Use your Apple Pencil or your finger to bring your ideas to life. TRACE Import a reference image and use it as a guide while you draw. Adjust your image and control its visibility as you work. USE A GRID Add a customizable grid to help with proportions and placement. Choose your grid color and line width to fit your workflow. MAKE IT YOURS Combine your reference image, tracing, and original drawing into a finished piece. Keep your workspace simple and focused on the artwork. EXPORT When you're finished, export your artwork with control over what you include, including your drawing, reference image, and grid. Sketches keeps drawing simple so you can focus on creating.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: iPastels at none against Sketches's shown. iPastels also leads on ratings volume (2.2K vs 4) and device support (4 vs 2). Sketches's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.7) and review sentiment (100% vs 81%). On price, update cadence, 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. iPastels sells 6 one-off in-app purchases and Sketches sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Sketches holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: iPastels has 2.2K ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 81% of iPastels's written reviews are positive against 100% of Sketches's.
iPastels ships an update every 6 weeks, Sketches monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | iPastels | Sketches |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (2.2K ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 81.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 2.2K — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Monthly — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 24 MB | 46 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Norbyte | Ricardo Miron |
Customer experience
iPastels
Sketches
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 moreShow fewer
- Add undo/redo functionality for individual strokes
Sketches
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
iPastels
- Tip Jar: Smallest Tip$1.00
- Tip Jar: Small Tip$2.00
- Tip Jar: Medium Tip$5.00
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- Pro Upgrade$7.00
- Tip Jar: Big Tip$10.00
- Tip Jar: Biggest Tip$25.00
Sketches
- Remove ads$2.99
Questions
Is iPastels free?
Is Sketches free?
Which has better reviews, iPastels or Sketches?
Do iPastels or Sketches have ads?
Which is updated more often, iPastels or Sketches?
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