Comparison

Rainstick vs Fluid Art

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

Head to head
About

Rainstick

Features
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Volume up! Your phone is now a rainstick. Flip it to make the rain fall. Change the tilt to speed it up or slow it down

About

Fluid Art

Features
Read full description

Touch the screen and paint with living liquid light. Fluid Art turns your fingertips into brushes of glowing paint. Swirls, waves, flames and oil — six worlds of real physics respond to every touch, every drag, even your music. ASMR touch sounds turn each gesture into a soft, satisfying texture. SIX PHYSICS WORLDS • Fluid — classic swirling ink: vortices, curls and glowing trails • Ripple — drops become expanding rings; drag your finger for a wake through refracted colors • Oil — thick glossy paint that sags, pools and shimmers; tilt and shake your device to stir it • Fire — heat rises into living flame with flicker and sparks; drag to paint with a torch • Orbit — gravity wells wind matter into spirals; hold a finger and pull the streams toward you • Slime — thick, deeply coloured goo that swells, settles and lags behind your finger like soft putty SEVEN COLOR MOODS Classic, Neon, Ink, Calm and Storm — plus Aurora and Blossom with Fluid Art Pro. Each mood has its own palette, glow and feel. Your choice applies live, right behind the settings panel. PAINT WITH SOUND Turn on Sound mode and the canvas paints itself to your music or voice. Audio is analyzed on your device in real time — nothing is ever recorded or stored. ASMR TOUCH SOUNDS Tap the headphones and the canvas answers your fingers — and every world answers in its own voice: water swirls and drips in Fluid, drops plink across the film in Ripple, Oil gurgles thick and low, Fire hisses and crackles, Orbit breathes airy swells, Slime squishes and sticks. Everything is synthesized live — never the same twice — and it mixes with your music instead of interrupting it. RECORD AND SHARE (PRO) Capture the canvas as a smooth video and share it straight from the app — your flowing paintings, ready for your feed or a friend. SESSION TIMER (PRO) Set a session of 3, 5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes — for meditation, breathing exercises or a focused break. A gentle chime ends the session, and the painting stays. FLUID ART PRO One simple, one-time unlock adds seven new worlds — Coral (a living reef grows wherever you touch), Marble (suminagashi ink folding in laminar swirls), Sand (a living desert that builds itself, storm by storm), Watercolor (wet paint bleeding into soft paper), Kaleidoscope (perfect mirrored mandalas from every touch), Frost (living ice crystals that grow, melt and glisten) and Smiley (a neon face of glowing rings that ripples under your finger and springs back) — plus the Aurora and Blossom color palettes, the session timer and video recording. Purchased once, yours forever, on every device with your account. Restore anytime from the unlock dialog. SHUFFLE Tap the shuffle button and the canvas reinvents itself: every half minute or so a new world and a new palette take over, like a channel of living paintings. IT LIVES ON ITS OWN Leave the app open and Fluid Art keeps painting in ambient mode — a living lava lamp for your desk or nightstand. MULTITOUCH Every finger is its own brush. Paint with a friend. CALM BY DESIGN No ads. No accounts. No scores or pressure. Works fully offline. Everything you need to start is free — six worlds, five color moods, sound and ASMR modes. The optional Pro unlock is a single one-time purchase: no subscriptions, ever. Fluid Art collects no personal data. The optional Sound mode uses the microphone only to measure loudness in the moment — audio never leaves your device.

Screenshots

Rainstick1 screens
Fluid Art4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Rainstick at none against Fluid Art's 1. Fluid Art's advantage is update cadence (every 3 months vs every 12 months). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. Fluid Art sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Rainstick asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Rainstick ships an update every 12 months, Fluid Art every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 6 level
Rainstick versus Fluid Art: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterRainstickFluid Art
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 12 monthsEvery 3 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.6 — better16.3
Further details — not scored
Size10 MB9 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPaul MillerdDmitry Shurco

In-app purchases

None

Rainstick

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Fluid Art

One-time1
  • Fluid Art Pro$2.99

Questions

Is Rainstick free?
Rainstick is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Fluid Art free?
Fluid Art is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Rainstick or Fluid Art have ads?
Neither Rainstick nor Fluid Art shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Rainstick or Fluid Art?
Rainstick ships an update every 12 months, and Fluid Art every 3 months. Most recently, Rainstick was updated on October 24, 2026 and Fluid Art on October 25, 2026.

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