Comparison

Chroma8 vs PixelPad

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

Head to head
About

Chroma8

Features
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Chroma8 is a focused pixel-art studio for iPhone and iPad — draw, colour, layer and animate at true pixel resolution, then export your work anywhere. No account required to start creating. NEW: COLOUR & PALETTES • A palette bar under the canvas with 11 classic palettes: PICO-8, Game Boy, NES, Commodore 64, CGA, DawnBringer, Sweetie 16, Endesga 32, AAP-64, Resurrect 64 • Make your own: generate palettes from a colour harmony, a gradient, a photo or your art, with hue-shifted shading ramps • Import and export .hex, .gpl, .pal, .txt, .ase, .act and PNG palettes for Aseprite, Photoshop and game engines • Replace any colour across a layer, a frame or the whole animation, or remap art to a palette with dithering • Colour groups recolour a whole shade family at once, keeping shading intact • Colour versions: switch a sprite between looks — a night version, a red team — without changing a pixel, and export a sprite-sheet row per version • Add a palette card with hex codes to your exports AI ASSIST Describe what you want and Chroma8 draws it onto your canvas, where you can edit every pixel. Free for everyone. • Text to sprite — "a small green slime with a highlight" becomes pixel art, not a photo • Photo to pixel art on a reduced palette • Auto-shade, auto-outline and a clean-up pass for stray pixels • Turn one sprite into a walk, run, idle, attack, hit, death, explode or spin cycle • Tween between two keyframes, or retarget a video of yourself onto your sprite • Split a sprite sheet into frames automatically • Every generation kept in a history you can revisit or branch into a new Art It all runs on your device, with no network, no account and no API key. Already pay for an AI service? Optionally connect any OpenAI-compatible endpoint or Anthropic — OpenRouter, OpenAI, Groq or your own Ollama. Your key stays in the Keychain on that device. DRAW WITH PRECISION • Grid-accurate canvas with brush, eraser, fill and selection tools • Round or square brush tips, 1 to 6 pixels across • Recolour Only — paint only where there is already colour • Eyedropper, recent colours and any colour from the system picker • Select, move and turn a block of pixels • Reference photos with quarter-turn rotation • Undo and redo across the whole frame LAYERS & FRAMES • Unlimited layers with visibility, lock and opacity • Frame-by-frame animation with onion skinning • Adjustable playback speed ORGANIZE YOUR WORK • Group related Arts into Projects • Search your library by name, or by what a piece looks like • Everything saved on your device — works fully offline EXPORT ANYWHERE • PNG, animated GIF, MP4 video and scalable SVG • Game-ready sprite sheets with a JSON sidecar CHROMA8 PRO Chroma8 is free to use, supported by ads. Chroma8 Pro removes ads and unlocks Cloud Sync (sign in with email, Google or Apple to back up and access your library across devices), offered as an auto-renewing subscription: • Monthly: $3.99/month after a 7-day free trial • Yearly: $24.99/year after a 7-day free trial Payment is charged to your Apple ID account at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions automatically renew unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your Apple ID account settings. Any unused portion of a free trial is forfeited when you purchase a subscription. A complete guide is built in, covering every feature. Terms of Use: https://colondev.com/apps/chroma8/Terms.html Privacy Policy: https://colondev.com/apps/chroma8/Privacy.html Chroma8 — pixel art, the way it's meant to be made.

About

PixelPad

Features
Read full description

PixelPad is a focused pixel art and sprite animation studio for iPad and iPhone. Draw precise pixels with Apple Pencil or touch, build frame-by-frame animations, and export assets without leaving your device. DRAW WITH PRECISION • Work on crisp 8Ɨ8 to 128Ɨ128 canvases • Use Pencil, Eraser, Fill, Eyedropper, and Selection tools • Pan and zoom without losing the pixel grid • Undo and redo complete strokes ANIMATE FRAME BY FRAME • Add, duplicate, delete, and reorder frames • Set a project frame rate or tune timing per frame • Compare neighboring frames with color-coded onion skins • Preview animation with the same timing used for GIF export BUILD YOUR PALETTE • Add, remove, and reorder colors • Start with built-in palettes • Save reusable custom palette presets EXPORT GAME-READY ASSETS • Export transparent or solid-background PNGs • Create animated GIFs • Arrange sprite sheets by rows and columns • Control frame spacing and 1Ɨ, 2Ɨ, or 4Ɨ scale PRIVATE BY DEFAULT PixelPad currently works offline, requires no account, and stores projects on your device. Export through the standard share sheet whenever you are ready. The app starts in English. Korean is available at any time in Settings.

Screenshots

Chroma84 screens
PixelPad4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: PixelPad at none against Chroma8's 2. On price, update cadence, ads and device support 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. Chroma8 sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. PixelPad asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chroma8 ships an update every 10 days, PixelPad every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference Ā· 5 level
Chroma8 versus PixelPad: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChroma8PixelPad
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 10 daysEvery 9 days — better
AdsYesYes
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size22 MB14 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developerseer99 PVT LTDDAEHONG MIN

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Chroma8

Subscriptions2
  • Chroma8 Pro7 Days trial$3.991 Month
  • Chroma8 Pro7 Days trial$24.991 Year
None

PixelPad

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Chroma8 free?
Chroma8 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PixelPad free?
PixelPad is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Chroma8 or PixelPad have ads?
Both Chroma8 and PixelPad show ads.
Which is updated more often, Chroma8 or PixelPad?
Chroma8 ships an update every 10 days, and PixelPad every 9 days. Most recently, Chroma8 was updated on November 10, 2026 and PixelPad on November 6, 2026.

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