Lighting Designer vs No Paint No Gain
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Lighting Designer
Create professional overhead lighting plots for film, TV, theater, and events. Quickly illustrate and communicate lighting setups with a vast library of equipment and intuitive tools. Sync your work across all Apple devices.
- Create overhead lighting plots
- Extensive equipment library (2000+ items)
- Organize setups into Shows
- Custom fixture creation with own images
- Detailed light specifications
- Floor plan drawing tools
- Email editable Plots
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Never draw a lighting setup on a scrap of paper again. Lighting Designer is a quick and intuitive way to create overhead lighting plots for film, theater, television, concerts, and anything else you can light. The wide selection of equipment and simple yet powerful interface makes it easier than ever to illustrate and communicate your lighting setups, from most Apple devices. Your Silicon Mac is powerful and gives you the most screen to work with; your iPad is large and versatile; your iPhone will go with you anywhere. And if you like, your work can sync among all your Apple devices using iCloud, so you can start plotting on one and finish on another. LD is perfect for tech scouts, working while traveling, or just choosing the couch over your desk chair. While expensive drafting programs can take hours to use and years to master, Lighting Designer is an accessible way to plan your next show! Features: • Organize your setups into Shows, with details like shooting dates and crew members • Choose from over 2000 built-in types of lights, grip equipment, camera gear, actors, and objects like furniture and musical instruments • With a Crescit Premium account, you can have access to an additional 25,000+ pieces of lighting equipment, gels, and gobo templates • Use your own images to create custom fixtures on your Plots (read the User Guide for image specs) • For each light, specify wattage, beam spread, light output, DMX address, color, and many other details • Certain fixtures include info for exposure approximation; all can be user-configured and have their exposure reverse-calculated from real-world readings • Use Groups to create flexible collections of lights • Notes allow you to describe every detail of your setup • Pack your Truck to share gear among multiple Plots • Draw a Floor Plan using basic shapes, and images from your device • Lights can target other objects, and objects can rig onto each other for easy adjustments • Email editable Plots to the crew, with images, equipment, and crew lists • Undo/Redo functionality • Dark Mode presents a dark workspace to reduce eyestrain and minimize your device's light in a dark environment
No Paint No Gain
This app offers a pixel art creation tool with multiple editing buffers, zoom capabilities, and a classic C64-inspired mode. Users can easily copy, paste, fill, and move elements, with options for grid display and undo functionality. It also includes a fun bonus game.
- Multiple screen buffers
- Copy/paste functionality
- 2X zoom mode
- C64 mode with limited palette
- Fill and move tools
- Save to photos
- Undo and clear screen
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NO PAINT NO GAIN features: Several screen buffers for editing multiple images Copy/paste for storing images and pasting to the various screen buffers 2X Zoom mode for big fingers C64 mode (wide pixels, limited palette) Fill Move Save to photos (camera roll) Grid on/off Undo Clear screen Help mode .. and... COLOR SNAKE!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Lighting Designer at 46% against No Paint No Gain's 0%. Lighting Designer also leads on rating (4.0 vs 3.0) and ratings volume (144 vs 2). No Paint No Gain's advantage is price (Free vs $24.99) and iOS requirement (9.3 vs 14.0). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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
No Paint No Gain is free to download; Lighting Designer costs $24.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Lighting Designer holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Lighting Designer has 144 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 46% of Lighting Designer's written reviews are positive against 0% of No Paint No Gain's.
Lighting Designer ships an update every 3 weeks, No Paint No Gain every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 15, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Lighting Designer | No Paint No Gain |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $24.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.0 (144 ratings) — better | 3.0 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 46.3% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 144 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #181 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 | 9.3 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 80 MB | 14 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Scenario Software LLC | Jarle Berntsen |
Customer experience
Lighting Designer
No Paint No Gain
In-app purchases
Lighting Designer
No in-app purchases
No Paint No Gain
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Lighting Designer free?
Is No Paint No Gain free?
Which has better reviews, Lighting Designer or No Paint No Gain?
Do Lighting Designer or No Paint No Gain have ads?
Which is updated more often, Lighting Designer or No Paint No Gain?
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