HuePaint vs FocalPaint
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) •
FocalPaint
This app offers a unique brush engine for realistic paint simulation, pigment mixing, and canvas textures. It allows for custom brush and layer creation using Metal GPU or Javascript code, with advanced features like spectral color models and Apple Pencil Pro support.
- Realistic paint and pigment mixing
- Custom brush and layer creation
- Transparent ink simulation
- Apple Pencil Pro support
- Spectral color model
- Open source shader code library
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FocalPaint's unique brush engine simulates thick paint and real pigment mixing with accurate physics models. Features: - Realistic color blending behaves like real paint! - Real canvas texture and paint thickness - Transparent Ink simulation - Open Source GPU shader code library for reference and customization - Write your own custom brush with Metal GPU or Javascript code - Write your own custom layer modes with Metal GPU code - Apple Pencil Pro support with hover - 16 channel "spectral" color model (256 bits per pixel) - Wide color gamut (P3) Please note: Apple A12 GPU or newer is required Terms of Use: https://www.focalpaint.com/p/terms-of-use.html Privacy Policy: https://www.focalpaint.com/p/privacy.html Special Thanks to: Scott Allen Burns Troy James Sobotka & Friends colour-science.org python library MyPaint painting software team Anna Timm (@anti-art)
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: HuePaint at Free against FocalPaint's $4.99. HuePaint also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.2) and ratings volume (164 vs 13). FocalPaint's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 6) and review sentiment (79% vs 69%). On 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
HuePaint is free to download; FocalPaint costs $4.99 up front. HuePaint sells 6 one-off in-app purchases. FocalPaint asks for nothing beyond the download.
HuePaint holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: HuePaint has 164 ratings behind it against 13, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 69% of HuePaint's written reviews are positive against 79% of FocalPaint's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
HuePaint ships an update every 2 months, FocalPaint monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | HuePaint | FocalPaint |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $4.99 |
| Rating | 4.7 (164 ratings) — better | 4.2 (13 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 69.4% of reviews | 78.6% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 164 — better | 13 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Monthly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 23 MB | 557 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | +4 |
| Developer | Norbyte | brien dieterle |
Customer experience
HuePaint
FocalPaint
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
FocalPaint
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
FocalPaint
No in-app purchases








