iPastels vs Ugoru
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) •
Ugoru
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Make your art “Ugoru”! Your illustrations and text wiggle, wobble, and squirm. Ugoru is an easy-to-use animation app that brings your drawings to life. Give the lines you draw subtle movements to create “Ugoru” animations that make your artwork feel alive. Export your creations as MP4 videos to share on social media, or display them directly on your Home Screen as a widget! ■ Draw Ugoru Images Draw illustrations and text freely to create your own unique Ugoru images. Adjust the strength of the movement with “Ugo Value.” Create anything from subtle wobbles to bigger, more energetic movements. You can also draw a background image. The background stays still while only the illustrations on the “Ugo” layer move. ■ Adjust Your Animation Change the FPS (frames per second) to freely adjust the animation speed. Preview your animation as you adjust the Ugo Value and FPS to create the movement you like. ■ Add to Your Home Screen Set your favorite Ugoru images directly as widgets! Without using any other app, enjoy your own wiggling, wobbling artwork anytime on your Home Screen. ■ Share You can easily export your finished Ugoru images as animated GIFs or MP4 videos. Share your wiggling creations on social media and chat apps and enjoy them with others! ■ Premium Features ・Unlimited Ugoru image storage ・Remove the app logo (watermark) from widgets and videos ※The free version includes all basic features, including creating Ugoru images, adjusting animations, exporting videos, and adding widgets. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/us/terms.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Ugoru at weekly against iPastels's every 6 weeks. iPastels's advantage is device support (4 vs 1) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.5). On price, ads 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
Both are free to download. iPastels sells 6 one-off in-app purchases and Ugoru sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
iPastels ships an update every 6 weeks, Ugoru weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 11, 2026 and September 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | iPastels | Ugoru |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (2.1K ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 81.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 2.1K — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 17.5 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 24 MB | 11 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Norbyte | Kosei Suzuki |
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
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- Add undo/redo functionality for individual strokes
Ugoru
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
Ugoru
- Monthly3 Days trial$0.991 Month
- Buy Me a Coffee$0.99
- Treat Me to a Snack$0.99
- Treat Me to a Sushi Plate$0.99
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- Lifetime Access$1.99









