Comparison

Simple Pixel Art Maker vs PIXIO Pixel Studio

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

Head to head
About

Simple Pixel Art Maker

Features
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Pixel art, made simple. Simple Pixel Art Maker is a clean, fast drawing studio for iPhone and iPad — designed for the way pixel art actually works: a precise grid, a tight set of tools, and colors that snap to curated palettes. Tap a square. Pick a color. Build a tiny world, one pixel at a time. EVERYTHING YOU NEED, NOTHING YOU DON'T • Pencil, Eraser and Fill — the three tools you actually use • Adjustable brush size from 1 to 8 pixels • Eyedropper to sample any pixel on the canvas • Pixel-perfect Line, Rectangle and Circle tools • Move tool to nudge layer pixels around • Unlimited Undo and Redo CANVAS SIZES FROM 8Ɨ8 TO 128Ɨ128 Pick a preset — 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 — or set a custom width and height up to 256 px. Lock the 1:1 aspect or go rectangular. Pixel grid lines and a checkerboard background are toggles, not requirements. LAYERS Build sky, mountains and the cactus on separate layers. Hide them, lock them, and reorder them as you sketch. The free version supports a comfortable starting stack; Pixel Pro unlocks unlimited layers for more ambitious scenes. CURATED COLOR PALETTES Swipe through Basics, Beach, Forest, Sunset, Retro and more — each carefully picked so your art looks intentional from the first pixel. Or use the eyedropper to grab any color already on the canvas. MIRROR MODE Horizontal, vertical, or both. Perfect for sprites, faces and symmetrical icons — every stroke mirrors instantly. EXPORT TO PHOTOS Save your art to the Photo Library as a PNG at 1Ɨ, 2Ɨ, 4Ɨ or 8Ɨ scale, with an optional transparent background. Your pixel art stays crisp at every size. PIXEL PRO — $2.99, ONCE Simple Pixel Arts Maker is free to download with non-personalized ads. A single in-app purchase unlocks Pixel Pro for $2.99: • Unlimited Layers — build complex scenes with as many layers as you need • Unlimited Projects — the free version keeps 4 recent projects; Pixel Pro removes that ceiling • No Ads — no banners, no interstitials, ever • One-time purchase. No subscriptions. Yours forever. QUIETLY PRIVATE No account. No sign-up. No analytics. Your pixel-art projects are stored locally on your device and are never uploaded anywhere. The free version uses Google AdMob to serve ads; if you choose "Ask App Not to Track," only non-personalized ads are served. PERFECT FOR • Game designers prototyping sprites and tile art • Kids and beginners discovering pixel art for the first time • Logo, icon, and emoji designers who want pixel-perfect output • Anyone who finds drawing on a grid relaxing

About

PIXIO Pixel Studio

Features
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PIXIO is a small, focused pixel-art studio for iPhone and iPad. Pick a canvas, pick a colour and start painting; when the picture is done, bring it to life as a looping animation. DRAW • 8Ɨ8, 16Ɨ16, 32Ɨ32 and 64Ɨ64 canvases. Switching size is lossless: the picture is always kept at 64Ɨ64, and a coarser size simply paints whole blocks. • Pencil, eraser, flood fill and colour picker. • Horizontal, vertical or both-ways symmetry, plus flip and rotate. • Layers on every frame: add, reorder, hide and delete them, with 50 steps of undo and redo per layer. • A quick palette of the colours already in your picture, a 132-colour grid, a saturation/brightness panel and a hue slider. ANIMATE • A frame timeline with duplicate and delete. • Onion skin with adjustable opacity, so the previous frame shows through while you draw the next one. • Playback from 1 to 60 frames per second. GESTURES • One finger paints. Two fingers pan, and pinch to zoom around your fingers. • Two-finger tap to undo, three-finger tap to redo. • Tap the zoom percentage to snap back to 100 %. EXPORT • Save the current frame as a crisp 2048Ɨ2048 PNG to Photos. • Export the whole animation as a looping 512Ɨ512 GIF and share it anywhere. Optional chiptune background music, silent until you choose a song. No accounts, no ads, no in-app purchases and no tracking: your artwork stays on your device.

Screenshots

Simple Pixel Art Maker4 screens
PIXIO Pixel Studio2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: PIXIO Pixel Studio at none against Simple Pixel Art Maker's 1. PIXIO Pixel Studio also leads on ads (none vs shown). On price, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. Simple Pixel Art Maker sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. PIXIO Pixel Studio asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard2 real differences Ā· 3 level
Simple Pixel Art Maker versus PIXIO Pixel Studio: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSimple Pixel Art MakerPIXIO Pixel Studio
PriceFreeFree
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.016.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size6 MB56 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperChaleepa MallawaBitfarm AS

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Simple Pixel Art Maker

One-time1
  • Pixel Pro$2.99
None

PIXIO Pixel Studio

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Simple Pixel Art Maker free?
Simple Pixel Art Maker is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PIXIO Pixel Studio free?
PIXIO Pixel Studio is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Simple Pixel Art Maker or PIXIO Pixel Studio have ads?
Simple Pixel Art Maker shows ads; PIXIO Pixel Studio does not.

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