Comparison

HuePaint vs Procreate Pocket

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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)
Features
Read full description

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) •

About

Procreate Pocket

Create expressive sketches, rich paintings, and beautiful illustrations on your iPhone. This app offers a complete art studio with hundreds of brushes, advanced layering, and powerful design tools.

Highlights
  • Hundreds of handmade brushes
  • Advanced layer system
  • High resolution canvases
  • Revolutionary QuickShape feature
  • Frame-by-frame animation
  • Customizable brush studio
Read full description

App of the Year winner Procreate Pocket is the most feature-packed and versatile art app ever designed for iPhone. Procreate Pocket has everything you need to create expressive sketches, rich paintings, gorgeous illustrations, and beautiful animations. Offering hundreds of handmade brushes, a suite of intuitive artistic tools, an advanced layer system, and the powerful Valkyrie graphics engine. Work on the couch, on the train, at the beach, or while waiting in line for coffee. It’s a complete art studio in the palm of your hand. Highlights: • High resolution canvases — up to 16k by 4k on compatible devices • Intuitive Dark Mode interface made for iPhone • Revolutionary QuickShape feature for perfect shapes • Smooth and responsive smudge sampling • Powered by Valkyrie, the lightning-fast 64-bit painting engine • Create art in stunning 64-bit color • 250 levels of undo and redo • Continuous auto-save — never lose work again Breakthrough brushes: • Packed with 100s of beautifully crafted brushes • Brush sets keep your painting, sketching, and drawing brushes organized • Over 100 customizable settings for every brush • Brush Studio — design custom brushes • Import and export custom Procreate brushes • Import Adobe® Photoshop® brushes, and run them faster than Photoshop® Full-featured layering system: • Layer your art for precise control over details and composition • Create Layer and Clipping Masks for non-destructive editing • Stay organized by combining layers into groups • Transform objects simultaneously across multiple layers • Access over 25 layer blend modes for industry-grade compositing Color without compromise: • Fill your line work with ColorDrop • Disc, Classic, Harmony, Value, and Palette color panels • Import color profiles for color matching • Assign Color Dynamics to any brush Precision design tools: • Add vector text to your illustrations • Easily import all your favorite fonts • Crop and resize your canvas for perfect composition • Perspective, isometric, 2D, and symmetry visual guides • Drawing Assist perfects your strokes in real time • StreamLine smooths your strokes for beautiful lettering and expert inking Animation Assist: • Easy frame-by-frame animation with customizable onion skinning • Create storyboards, GIFs, animatics, and simple animations • Export your animations in the full resolution of your canvas Dramatic finishing effects: • Gradient Map — remap your image’s colors with a customizable gradient • Glitch, Chromatic Aberration, Glow, and Halftone to add new dimensions to your work • Gaussian and Motion Blur filters for depth and movement, or use Sharpen for perfect clarity • Advanced Noise filter gives you more control for a classic, retro look • Adjust Hue, Saturation, or Brightness in real time • Powerful image adjustments including Color Balance, Curves, and HSB • Bring your art to life with the fun, intuitive, and creative Warp, Symmetry, and Liquify Dynamics Time-lapse replay: • Relive your creative journey with Procreate's celebrated Time-lapse Replay • Export your Time-lapse recording in 4K for high-end video production • Share a short, 30-second version of your Time-lapse on your socials Reference Companion: • Keep a full canvas or reference image with you at all times • Paint on your face with AR • Color-pick right from the reference window Import assets and share your creations: • Import or export your art as Adobe® Photoshop® PSD files • Import Adobe® ASE and ACO Color Palettes • Import images files such as JPG, PNG, and TIFF • Drag and drop artworks, brushes, palettes, and fonts between applications• Export to AirDrop, iCloud Drive, Photos, iTunes, Dropbox, Google Drive, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, Weibo, Mail, and more • Share your art as PDF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, HEVC, or MP4 files

Screenshots

HuePaint4 screens
Procreate Pocket4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: HuePaint at Free against Procreate Pocket's $5.99. HuePaint also leads on rating (4.7 vs 3.8) and review sentiment (69% vs 61%). Procreate Pocket's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 6) and ratings volume (13K vs 164). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

HuePaint is free to download; Procreate Pocket costs $5.99 up front. HuePaint sells 6 one-off in-app purchases. Procreate Pocket asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

HuePaint holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Procreate Pocket has 13K ratings behind it against 164, 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 61% of Procreate Pocket's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

HuePaint ships an update every 2 months, Procreate Pocket every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on September 17, 2026 and September 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard9 real differences · 2 level
HuePaint versus Procreate Pocket: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHuePaintProcreate Pocket
PriceFree — better$5.99
Rating4.7 (164 ratings) — better3.8 (13K ratings)
Positive reviews69.4% of reviews — better61.1% of reviews
Number of ratings16413K — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
Best chart rank—#1 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS12.0 — better15.4.1
Further details — not scored
Size23 MB372 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNorbyteSavage Interactive Pty Ltd

Customer experience

HuePaint

All ratings164 ratings
Positive93.9%
Neutral1.2%
Negative4.9%
Written reviews36 reviews
Positive69.4%
Neutral11.1%
Negative19.4%

Procreate Pocket

All ratings12,700 ratings
Positive69.3%
Neutral8.3%
Negative22.4%
Written reviews2,073 reviews
Positive61.1%
Neutral13.7%
Negative25.2%

Bugs and requests

HuePaint

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Procreate Pocket

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Imported images/brushes not showing up
  • Layers merging unexpectedly
  • Color issues when tracing or filling
  • Navigation bar disappearing during use

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add blending and smudge tools
  • Increase layer limit and canvas size
  • Implement dark mode option
  • Add text and fill tools
  • Improve undo/redo functionality

In-app purchases

6 purchases

HuePaint

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$6.00
  • Tip Jar: Big Tip$10.00
  • Tip Jar: Biggest Tip$25.00
None

Procreate Pocket

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is HuePaint free?
HuePaint is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Procreate Pocket free?
Procreate Pocket costs $5.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, HuePaint or Procreate Pocket?
HuePaint is rated higher. HuePaint averages 4.7 out of 5 from 164 ratings, while Procreate Pocket averages 3.8 from 13K ratings.
Do HuePaint or Procreate Pocket have ads?
Neither HuePaint nor Procreate Pocket shows ads.
Which is updated more often, HuePaint or Procreate Pocket?
HuePaint ships an update every 2 months, and Procreate Pocket every 3 months. Most recently, HuePaint was updated on September 17, 2026 and Procreate Pocket on September 25, 2026.

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