Comparison

Wordsalad vs Brushes Redux

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

Head to head
About

Wordsalad

Transform text into visually appealing word clouds with customizable shapes, colors, and fonts. Bring your creations to life with animations and export them as videos or high-quality images for sharing and printing.

Highlights
  • Text to word cloud conversion
  • Customizable shapes and colors
  • Font selection and import
  • Word arrangement and sizing
  • Animation effects
  • Video and image export
  • AR preview for printing
Features
Read full description

Turn any text into a word cloud you'll want to print, frame or share. Paste a speech, a poem, wedding vows or class notes, pick a shape, and Wordsalad packs the words that matter most into it. Then bring it to life with an animation and share it as a video. MAKE IT YOURS • Pour your words into a shape, from hearts and animals to letters, maps and Christmas trees, or fill the whole page • Color it with ready-made palettes, or make your own • Pick fonts, mix font styles, or import your own fonts • Tune spacing, size variation, the biggest word and word orientations, from horizontal to dancing • Drag words to set their size, star the one to put in the middle, and leave out the ones you don't want • Arrange: place pin words exactly where you want them, at any size, angle and color, and drag or pinch the shape to move or resize it • Paper sizes from A4 to 70 × 100 cm, portrait or landscape ANIMATE IT • Six animations: Pop, Ink, Gather, Cascade, Compress and Dissolve • Set the duration, the pace and the order the words come in • Export the animation as a video for messages and social posts YOUR TEXT, YOUR WAY • Type or paste text, import .txt and PDF files, or a Wikipedia article • Wordsalad detects the language and skips the filler words, or keeps every word if you prefer • Out of ideas? Type a topic and Apple Intelligence suggests the words (on supported devices) SHARE AND PRINT • Export a PNG for messages, wallpapers and social posts • See it on your wall in AR before you print, or export it as USDZ • PDF for sharp prints at any size, SVG for design apps and cutting machines, and Photoshop files with a layer per word BUILT FOR iPHONE AND iPAD • Rebuilt for iOS 26, with an inspector for every setting • Undo and redo for every change • iPad: menu bar, keyboard shortcuts, mouse and trackpad • VoiceOver reads every word in the cloud • Your documents live in Files and iCloud Drive Teachers love Wordsalad for introducing a topic, revising vocabulary and decorating the classroom. UPGRADE WORDSALAD PRO Wordsalad is free to use, with dozens of shapes, palettes and fonts and PNG export. Wordsalad Pro unlocks all 438 shapes, every palette and font, your own palettes and fonts, Arrange, Animate, and PDF, SVG, Photoshop and video export. Payment will be charged to your Apple ID account at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions automatically renew unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage or cancel your subscription anytime in your App Store account settings. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://www.libeapps.com/wordsaladpro/privacy.html

About

Brushes Redux

This app offers a powerful and responsive painting experience on iOS devices. Create large, detailed artwork with a versatile brush engine, layer management, and import/export options. Relive your creative process with step-by-step playback.

Highlights
  • OpenGL-based painting engine
  • Record and replay paintings
  • Up to 10 layers
  • Import/export JPEG, PNG, PSD
  • Simulated pressure
  • Unlimited undo/redo
Features
Read full description

Brushes Redux is a painting app designed exclusively for iOS. Rewritten from the ground up, Brushes Redux is universal — the same version runs on both your iPhone and your iPad. Move paintings between your devices and keep working wherever you go. An accelerated OpenGL-based painting engine makes painting smooth and responsive — even with huge brush sizes. Brushes also records every step in your painting. Show off your creative process by replaying your paintings directly on your device. General Features: – Create paintings with dimensions up to 4096x4096 – Full support for all Retina devices – Background autosave – Unlimited undo and redo – Simple and approachable interface Painting: – Full screen painting – Record and replay paintings – Ultrafast OpenGL-based painting engine – Huge brush sizes up to 512x512 pixels – Simulated pressure – 64-bit painting on the latest hardware – 14 parameterized brush shapes – Adjustable brush settings (spacing, jitter, scatter, etc.) – Adjustable color opacity – Invert color and desaturate – Flip and arbitrarily transform layers – Adjustable color balance (iPad only) – Adjustable hue, saturation and brightness (iPad only) Layers: – Create up to 10 layers – Lock and hide layers – Lock layer transparency – Adjust layer opacity – Duplicate, rearrange, and merge layers – Change blending modes: normal, multiply, screen, exclude Import and Export: – Integrated with Dropbox – Import native Brushes 3 files, JPEG, and PNG files – Export as native Brushes 3 files, JPEG, PNG, and Photoshop files (with layers) – Place images from your photo album into paintings – Copy paintings to the pasteboard Gestures: – Zoom with two finger pinch – Zoom in with two finger double tap – Zoom to fit with two finger double tap – Toggle interface visibility with a single tap (this can be changed to a two finger tap in the app settings) – Tap and hold to access eyedropper tool Screenshot credit: "Portrait of Ally" by John Bavaro (http://johnbavaro.com)

Screenshots

Wordsalad4 screens
Brushes Redux4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Wordsalad at 4.5 against Brushes Redux's 3.6. Wordsalad also leads on update cadence (every 3 months vs every 9 months). Brushes Redux's advantage is review sentiment (63% vs 21%) and in-app purchases (none vs 10). On price, ratings volume, ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Wordsalad sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Brushes Redux asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Wordsalad holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 415 and 303 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 21% of Wordsalad's written reviews are positive against 63% of Brushes Redux's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Wordsalad ships an update every 3 months, Brushes Redux every 9 months. The most recent releases landed on November 8, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Wordsalad versus Brushes Redux: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWordsaladBrushes Redux
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (415 ratings) — better3.6 (303 ratings)
Positive reviews21.1% of reviews62.8% of reviews — better
Number of ratings415 — better303
Update frequencyEvery 3 months — betterEvery 9 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS26.08.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size25 MB15 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLibero SpagnoliniChristoffer Hoel

Customer experience

Wordsalad

All ratings415 ratings
Positive88.4%
Neutral3.6%
Negative8.0%
Written reviews218 reviews
Positive21.1%
Neutral11.5%
Negative67.4%

Brushes Redux

All ratings297 ratings
Positive62.0%
Neutral8.8%
Negative29.3%
Written reviews288 reviews
Positive62.8%
Neutral12.8%
Negative24.3%

Bugs and requests

Wordsalad

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Brushes Redux

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Drawings disappearing or unable to open
  • Color picker issues causing unintended color changes
  • Dropbox integration problems
  • Compatibility issues with newer iOS versions

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add blending tool
  • Increase layer limit
  • Implement video export
  • Add text tool
  • Improve Apple Pencil support
Show 1 more
  • Add color stabilizer

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Wordsalad

Subscriptions2
  • Wordsalad Pro$4.991 Month
  • Wordsalad Pro7 Days trial$19.991 Year
One-time8
  • Font Spring Pack$0.99
  • Font Summer Pack$0.99
  • Export to Photoshop$2.99
Show 5 more
  • Full Resolution Pack$5.99
  • Basic Edition$6.99
  • Standard Edition$9.99
  • Premium Edition$12.99
  • Commercial Edition$19.99
None

Brushes Redux

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Wordsalad free?
Wordsalad is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Brushes Redux free?
Brushes Redux is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Wordsalad or Brushes Redux?
Wordsalad is rated higher. Wordsalad averages 4.5 out of 5 from 415 ratings, while Brushes Redux averages 3.6 from 303 ratings.
Do Wordsalad or Brushes Redux have ads?
Neither Wordsalad nor Brushes Redux shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Wordsalad or Brushes Redux?
Wordsalad ships an update every 3 months, and Brushes Redux every 9 months. Most recently, Wordsalad was updated on November 8, 2026 and Brushes Redux on November 1, 2026.

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