HuePaint vs MetaBrush
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
HuePaint
Create digital art with realistic brushes and dynamic stroke sizes based on fingertip pressure. Offers a user-friendly interface with customizable tools and supports advanced features like layers and photo tracing.
- Live-calculated brushes and strokes
- Dynamic stroke size based on fingertip pressure
- Adjustable parameters while painting
- Left-handed toolbar option
- Multiple layers
- Photo tracing mode (Pro feature)
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Paint and create beautiful works of art using this app’s expressive painting tools and workflow-friendly user interface. • COLORFUL PAINTING TOOLS • HuePaint features live-calculated brushes and strokes that interact in real time with a canvas texture that is uniquely generated for each picture. • 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 • • DARK MODE • LANDSCAPE • PORTRAIT • WIDE COLOR • • MULTIPLE LAYERS • PHOTO TRACING MODE (Pro feature) •
MetaBrush
Transform your photos into artistic paintings with a variety of brush presets and advanced settings. This app offers layers support and the ability to import Photoshop brushes, allowing for detailed customization of your artwork.
- 30 brush presets
- Layers support
- Import Photoshop brushes (.abr)
- Customizable stroke settings
- Paint with images
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With Metabrush you can easily turn your photos into paintings. The result images are very artistic, as you brush with different presets and settings. Visit the gallery at http://instagram.com/metabrush for many examples. Features: • 30 brush presets for artistically clone your original image. • Layers support • 500+ brushes bitmaps • Support for importing directly Photoshop brushes (.abr) • Include many settings for the strokes as dynamical size, rotation, shadow, and opacity. • You can assign colors to the strokes, but also paint with images (as if they were colors). Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: HuePaint at 4.7 against MetaBrush's 3.8. HuePaint also leads on ratings volume (164 vs 22) and device support (4 vs 1). On price, review sentiment, update cadence and ads 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. HuePaint sells 6 one-off in-app purchases and MetaBrush sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
HuePaint holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: HuePaint has 164 ratings behind it against 22, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 69% of HuePaint's written reviews are positive against 65% of MetaBrush's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | HuePaint | MetaBrush |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (164 ratings) — better | 3.8 (22 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 69.4% of reviews — better | 65.4% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 164 — better | 22 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 16.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 23 MB | 253 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Norbyte | talonsodev |
Customer experience
HuePaint
MetaBrush
Bugs and requests
HuePaint
Reported bugs
6 issues- App gets rid of work
- Colors keep changing
- Inability to save
- Disappearing menu
- Low-resolution output
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- Super slow performance
Requested features
10 requests- Improve tool sizing interface
- Improve layering feature
- Add ability to change background design
- Add vector graphics and text
- Add predefined shapes and straight lines
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- Export directly to Facebook
- Go back to previous update's UI
- Add paper color selection
- Make color samples larger
- Easier eyedropper functionality
MetaBrush
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
HuePaint
- Tip Jar: Smallest Tip$1.00
- Tip Jar: Small Tip$2.00
- Tip Jar: Medium Tip$5.00
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- Pro Upgrade$6.00
- Tip Jar: Big Tip$10.00
- Tip Jar: Biggest Tip$25.00
MetaBrush
- Metabrush PRO3 Days trial$0.997 Days
- Metabrush PRO3 Days trial$6.991 Year
- Metabrush PRO$9.99
