Comparison

HEAVYPAINT vs Pocket Easel

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

Head to head
About

HEAVYPAINT

This app offers a raw digital painting experience with unique tools for creating textured art and quick studies. It's designed for artists who embrace digital chaos and seek a streamlined, mobile art studio.

Highlights
  • Unique digital brushes
  • Color Jitter for texture
  • Fast color blocking tools
  • Line Blend for gradients
  • Liquify tool
  • Minimalist interface
  • Gallery for creations
Features
Read full description

Raw digital painting with unique brushes & color chaos. The painter's painting app that celebrates digital chaos. HEAVYPAINT is unapologetically digital and a bit unhinged. It’s a celebration of digital impressionism. Whether you're sketching on the train, painting outdoors, or creating quick color studies, this is your pocket art studio. Unique Digital Tools Color Jitter: Unleash beautiful digital chaos and texture Fan Fill and Lasso Fill for fast color blockins, textured foliage, notan, organic shapes. Rake tool for softening up edges in a graphic way Line Blend for instant gradients
Liquify to adjust proportions and shapes Built for Speed & Mobility Perfect pochade box replacement for pleinair painting. Great for quick paintings on public transit, many will finger paint on their phones. Streamlined interface.Focus on pure color and shape without digital clutter. Streamlined Experience Minimalist interface puts painting first Customizable tools that adapt to your style Strong shape design tools for bold, crisp artwork Gallery to review and organize your creations + Plein air painters who want to ditch heavy supplies + Quick color studies and concept sketches + Figure painting and gesture drawing + Artists wanting to rediscover digital painting joy + Anyone seeking a uniquely digital aesthetic HEAVYPAINT balances professional capabilities with unhinged creativity. Embrace procedural randomness / crunchiness / glitchiness that digital enables. Touch grass. Ideal for pleinair painting and quick studies This app is subject to Apple's standard EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Pocket Easel

This app helps artists study color harmony on the go using traditional painting techniques. It offers tools for quick color selection, fine-tuning, and precise shape drawing, with options for exporting time-lapses of your creative process. Designed for efficient mobile use, it focuses on color studies rather than detailed illustration.

Highlights
  • Gamut masking for harmonious color palettes
  • Joystick color adjustment for fine control
  • Canvas zoom, pan, and reset
  • Precise shape drawing tools
  • Color-process time-lapse export
  • Landscape mode for two-handed painting
Read full description

Pocket Easel is a color-study tool for painting on the go. Built around gamut masking — a color theory used by traditional painters — it helps you capture harmonious color quickly, right from your phone. Gamut Mask Color Picker Choose from preset mask shapes on the color wheel to constrain your palette. Every color you pick stays in harmony with the rest, without needing color theory expertise. Joystick Color Adjustment Drag or long-press the current color swatch to bring up a joystick for fine color control. Adjust hue and saturation with your thumb, designed for one-handed use while holding your phone. Canvas Zoom & Pan Pinch to zoom in on details, pan to reposition, and reset with one tap. Shape Tools Draw lines, circles, and rectangles with precise geometry alongside your freehand brush and fill tools. Color-Process Time-Lapse Export a time-lapse of your painting session that shows not just your strokes, but where each color came from on the gamut wheel. Landscape Mode for Two-Handed Painting Rotate your phone and the toolbar and color dock move to either side, so both thumbs stay free to paint and pick color. Pocket Easel is built for quick color studies, not detailed illustration — the constraint is the point. All painting tools are free, including watermarked export. A one-time purchase unlocks high-resolution export and time-lapse video.

Screenshots

HEAVYPAINT4 screens
Pocket Easel3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Pocket Easel at 5.0 against HEAVYPAINT's 4.0. Pocket Easel also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 58%) and update cadence (every 3 days vs every 5 weeks). HEAVYPAINT's advantage is ratings volume (66 vs 6) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.6). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. HEAVYPAINT sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and Pocket Easel sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Pocket Easel holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: HEAVYPAINT has 66 ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 58% of HEAVYPAINT's written reviews are positive against 100% of Pocket Easel's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

HEAVYPAINT ships an update every 5 weeks, Pocket Easel every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 18, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
HEAVYPAINT versus Pocket Easel: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHEAVYPAINTPocket Easel
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.0 (66 ratings)5.0 (6 ratings) — better
Positive reviews58.4% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings66 — better6
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size37 MB4 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHEAVYPOLY, Inc.彬 王

Customer experience

HEAVYPAINT

All ratings66 ratings
Positive68.2%
Neutral13.6%
Negative18.2%
Written reviews77 reviews
Positive58.4%
Neutral15.6%
Negative26.0%

Pocket Easel

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

HEAVYPAINT

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Gallery crashes
  • Artwork files not saving properly
  • Eyedropper tool not working as expected

Requested features

3 requests
  • Improved layer management
  • More customization options
  • Better color controls and eyedropper tool

Pocket Easel

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

3 purchases

HEAVYPAINT

Subscriptions2
  • Gallery Sync Monthly7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Gallery Sync Yearly$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • Unlock Full Version$9.99
1 purchases

Pocket Easel

One-time1
  • Pocket Easel Pro$5.99

Questions

Is HEAVYPAINT free?
HEAVYPAINT is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Pocket Easel free?
Pocket Easel is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, HEAVYPAINT or Pocket Easel?
Pocket Easel is rated higher. HEAVYPAINT averages 4.0 out of 5 from 66 ratings, while Pocket Easel averages 5.0 from 6 ratings.
Do HEAVYPAINT or Pocket Easel have ads?
Neither HEAVYPAINT nor Pocket Easel shows ads.
Which is updated more often, HEAVYPAINT or Pocket Easel?
HEAVYPAINT ships an update every 5 weeks, and Pocket Easel every 3 days. Most recently, HEAVYPAINT was updated on October 24, 2026 and Pocket Easel on October 18, 2026.

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