Comparison

SpritePixels vs Mandelbrot Metal

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

Head to head
About

SpritePixels

Create pixel art with intuitive multi-touch controls for fluid painting and precise editing. Zoom in for detail, copy and paste sections, and customize extensive color palettes. Save and export your creations as high-resolution PNGs.

Highlights
  • Multi-touch painting
  • Zoomable canvas
  • Drag-and-drop copying
  • Area fill tool
  • Rectangular region copy
  • Customizable 16-color palettes
  • Large canvas size
  • iCloud sync
Read full description

Designed for multi-touch! No more pecking one pixel at a time – fluidly paint pixel art using several touches at once. Tap a tile to zoom in and work with precision. The companion mini-view shows what it looks like at normal size. Drag any tile to instantly copy it to another tile. Great for making similar versions of a sprite. Press and hold with one touch to fill an area. Press and hold with two touches to lift and copy a rectangular region. Customize a palette of up to an incredible 16 colors! Expand your canvas to a staggering 512 by 512 pixels! Press and hold any color in the palette to adjust it to any of a mind-blowing 4,096 possible values! Experiment with color sets by pressing and holding the palette to replace an entire row of colors. Save your work in iCloud and resume it from another device. Export your art as a pixel-perfect PNG image.

About

Mandelbrot Metal

Create stunning fractal art with real-time GPU rendering. Explore infinite detail with ultra-deep zooming, vibrant color palettes, and high-resolution exports. Perfect for artists and designers.

Highlights
  • Ultra-deep zooming
  • 150+ handcrafted color palettes
  • Custom gradient creation
  • Gallery-quality exports (up to 8K)
  • Real-time GPU rendering
  • Wide-gamut and HDR color support
Features
Read full description

Explore Mandelbrot and Julia fractals on your iPhone or iPad, shape them with color and light, and turn discoveries into artwork. Supports both the outer and inner displays of iPhone Duo, in all orientations. Over 50 of our favorite Mandelbrot and Julia bookmarks are included, ready to explore from your first launch of version 3.0. Free includes five personal bookmarks in addition to the starter collection; Pro removes the personal bookmark limit. THE INFINITY ENGINE Version 3.0 brings GPU perturbation rendering to deep Mandelbrot exploration. Adaptive precision, responsive gesture previews, and center-out refinement help you keep your place as detailed views render. Depth and rendering speed are shared by Free and Pro. COLOR AND EXPLORATION Choose from 156 built-in palettes, including 55 Ultra-Wide ramps. Adjust iterations and contrast, explore the Julia set associated with a Mandelbrot point, and use Back and Forward to revisit recent creative steps. Save exact views as bookmarks and exchange bookmark files. FREE EXPLORATION Explore both fractal families with the full rendering engine and built-in palette library. Save up to five personal bookmarks and export complete PNG images at Canvas Size. PRO CREATIVE TOOLS Pro adds unlimited bookmarks, photo and custom palette tools, adjustable 3D lighting, and 4K, 6K, 8K, and custom-size PNG capture. Choose a monthly subscription, annual subscription, or one-time Lifetime purchase. PREVIOUS OWNERS Verified owners who first acquired the app before v3 receive permanent Legacy Pro access without another purchase. Use Restore Purchases if needed. BUILT FOR IPHONE AND IPAD Device-specific controls, exploration history, portable bookmarks and palettes, and support for 16 languages. Requires iOS or iPadOS 26 or later. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the current period ends. Manage or cancel subscriptions in your App Store account settings. Prices are shown before purchase. Lifetime is a one-time purchase. Privacy: https://www.mandelbrot-metal.com/privacy-policy Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

SpritePixels2 screens
Mandelbrot Metal4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Mandelbrot Metal at 100% against SpritePixels's 0%. Mandelbrot Metal also leads on price (Free vs $0.99) and update cadence (every 6 days vs every 15 months). SpritePixels's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and rating (5.0 vs 4.8). On ads, monetization model 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

Mandelbrot Metal is free to download; SpritePixels costs $0.99 up front. Mandelbrot Metal sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. SpritePixels asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

SpritePixels holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Mandelbrot Metal has 30 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 0% of SpritePixels's written reviews are positive against 100% of Mandelbrot Metal's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

SpritePixels ships an update every 15 months, Mandelbrot Metal every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
SpritePixels versus Mandelbrot Metal: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSpritePixelsMandelbrot Metal
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better4.8 (30 ratings)
Positive reviews0.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings130 — better
Update frequencyEvery 15 monthsEvery 6 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size4 MB113 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSteve BarnesMichael Stebel

Customer experience

SpritePixels

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

Mandelbrot Metal

All ratings29 ratings
Positive96.6%
Neutral0.0%
Negative3.4%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

SpritePixels

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Mandelbrot Metal

Subscriptions2
  • Pro Monthly$2.991 Month
  • Pro Annual$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • Pro Lifetime$39.99

Questions

Is SpritePixels free?
SpritePixels costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Mandelbrot Metal free?
Mandelbrot Metal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, SpritePixels or Mandelbrot Metal?
SpritePixels is rated higher. SpritePixels averages 5.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while Mandelbrot Metal averages 4.8 from 30 ratings.
Do SpritePixels or Mandelbrot Metal have ads?
Neither SpritePixels nor Mandelbrot Metal shows ads.
Which is updated more often, SpritePixels or Mandelbrot Metal?
SpritePixels ships an update every 15 months, and Mandelbrot Metal every 6 days. Most recently, SpritePixels was updated on October 24, 2026 and Mandelbrot Metal on October 30, 2026.

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