KaleidoPaint vs watAR
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
KaleidoPaint
Create intricate, repeating designs by mirroring your brushstrokes in real-time. Offers extensive editing tools for precise control over every element of your artwork. Export your creations as tileable images or standard graphics.
- Real-time mirrored brushstrokes
- 17 symmetry patterns
- Vector graphics editing
- Curve smoothing and area fill
- Undo/Redo functionality
- Export tileable rectangles
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As you draw, KaleidoPaint mirrors your brushstrokes to create a beautiful infinitely repeating design. Image Gallery: http://www.geometrygames.org/KaleidoPaint/Gallery Features: - vector graphics - 17 symmetry patterns - scroll, rotate, zoom - curve smoothing - area fill - Edit Mode: reshape and recolor any dot, line or area - unlimited Undo/Redo - export your favorite paintings - export tileable rectangles Screenshots by Amber van Hoek.
watAR
Transform real-world surfaces into dynamic water features using augmented reality. Add realistic waves and raindrops, interact with the effects, and capture unique images and videos.
- Augmented reality water effects
- Wave and rain simulations
- Interactive water effects
- Capture images and videos
- Adjustable effect scale
- Hand/foot interaction with water (LiDAR required)
- Foreground occlusion (LiDAR required)
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Use augmented reality to distort real world surfaces as if they were made of water. Add waves and raindrops to any flat vertical or horizontal surfaces. watAR is great for creating unique images and videos to share. Or you can just have fun trying the effects on different surfaces around you. Highlights: • Add waves and rain effects to the real world surfaces around you using AR. watAR's unique AR really makes it look like the surface is being distorted! • Fine grained control over wave and rain effects. Create everything from a light drizzle to a downpour. • Interact with the water effect on your screen by touching and dragging. • Capture ready to share images and videos of the water effect in action. • Scale the water effect up to epic sizes! • Use your hands, feet, or anything else to physically interact with the water effect (note that this requires a device with a LiDAR sensor and you must enable the "interactive surface" option) • Adjust lighting and optionally enable "foreground occlusion" so that the water effect blends into the world (note that foreground occlusion requires a device with a LiDAR sensor) So give watAR a try and let us know if you create anything cool using it!
Screenshots
Verdict
KaleidoPaint and watAR both sit at 4.6 stars, but that hides the real split: 81% of KaleidoPaint's written reviews are positive against 0% of watAR's. KaleidoPaint also leads on ratings volume (77 vs 12). watAR's advantage is monetization model (free vs paid) and update cadence (every 11 days vs every 5 months). On price, rating, 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for KaleidoPaint against 4.6 for watAR. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: KaleidoPaint has 77 ratings behind it against 12, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 81% of KaleidoPaint's written reviews are positive against 0% of watAR's.
KaleidoPaint ships an update every 5 months, watAR every 11 days. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | KaleidoPaint | watAR |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (77 ratings) | 4.6 (12 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 80.9% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 77 — better | 12 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Every 11 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 17.1 | 14.5 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Jeff Weeks | Rare Realities, LLC |
Customer experience
KaleidoPaint
watAR
Bugs and requests
KaleidoPaint
Reported bugs
10 issues- App opens files app and no files are selectable
- App opens an empty page without any controls
- App immediately opens files without allowing creation
- App doesn't work, opens files app and doesn't allow creation
- Old drawings ruined by updates
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- Fill color not changing with line color
- Color and background tabs no longer work
- Sharing button not working
- Tileable rectangle export not working
- Saving as JPG only
Requested features
28 requests- Ability to break a line from a selected point
- Eraser tool
- Export as SVG option
- More features like different brushes, blending colors, more symmetrical choices, and better stroke control
- Ability to export in a square format
Show 23 moreShow fewer
- Transparent background option
- Export function for tilable squares
- Layers
- RGB color value sliders
- Opacity, blending modes
- Selection tool
- Ability to switch mirroring on and off
- Ability to export layers to Photoshop
- More control over drawing strokes
- Adjustable stroke smoothing
- More precise color selection (e.g., RGB or HLS)
- Ability to change grid line color
- Designs that save evenly in any size for multiple tiling
- Export and import patterns within the app
- Basic block repeat option
- Zoom in color selector
- More patterns to choose from and purchase
- Ability to set custom image size
- Export .png files with a transparent background
- More symmetry options
- Line and shape tools
- Apple Pencil support
- Option to minimize tool windows
watAR
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
KaleidoPaint
No in-app purchases
watAR
No in-app purchases
