iCanvas Pro vs Artista
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
iCanvas Pro
Create digital art with a streamlined interface and a variety of brushes and tools. Offers layers, selection options, and AI-powered style assistance for sketches, icons, and finished pieces. Save and share your creations easily.
- Variety of drawing tools and brushes
- Layer support with blend modes
- Selection and transformation tools
- AI-assisted style application
- Project saving and auto-save
- Image import and export options
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Create a great picture without confusion or clutter. iCanvas Pro is a simple, fast drawing app rebuilt from the ground up in native SwiftUI. Familiar tools, a clean workspace, and just enough power for sketches, icons, doodles, and finished art. DRAWING TOOLS • Studio Pen, Sketch Pencil, Charcoal, and webInk • Soft, Oil, Watercolor, Neon, Spray, Calligraphy, Hair, and Halftone brushes • Smudge, Eraser, Soft Eraser • Paint Bucket and Gradient Fill • Line, Rectangle, and Ellipse shapes • Color picker with brush size, opacity, and symmetry options LAYERS & SELECTION • Multiple layers with opacity, blend modes, and rename • Freehand, rectangle, and ellipse selection • Cut, copy, paste, and move selections • Multi-step Undo and Redo PROJECTS & CANVAS • Save and open .icanvas projects (layers preserved) • New canvas sizes and presets • Autosave so you don’t lose your work • Zoom, pan, and rotate canvas 180° • Light and Dark appearance PHOTOS & SHARE • Open images from Photos or take a photo with Camera • Export PNG (transparency) or JPG • Save to Photos and share AI ASSIST • Optional on-device Apple Intelligence styles. Made for people who want to draw — not dig through a complicated studio.
Artista
Access thousands of high-quality reference photos for your art. Share your creations, learn from others' interpretations, and track your artistic progress over time. This app also features an art community for inspiration and feedback.
- Thousands of reference photos
- Share your drawings
- View others' interpretations
- Track progress
- Art community
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A photo reference tool and art community! - Thousands of high quality reference photos - Share your drawings with others - See how others drew a reference to help improve your own - See previous sessions and your progress over time
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Artista at every 3 weeks against iCanvas Pro's every 165 months. Artista also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.3). iCanvas Pro's advantage is review sentiment (100% vs 89%). On price, ratings volume, 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.
Artista holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 11 and 22 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 100% of iCanvas Pro's written reviews are positive against 89% of Artista's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
iCanvas Pro ships an update every 165 months, Artista every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | iCanvas Pro | Artista |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (11 ratings) | 4.7 (22 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 88.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 11 | 22 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 165 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1 MB | 18 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Dan Ristea | Max Buster |
Customer experience
iCanvas Pro
Artista
In-app purchases
iCanvas Pro
No in-app purchases
Artista
No in-app purchases
