Comparison

PIXIO Pixel Studio vs Pixel Forge

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

Head to head
About

PIXIO Pixel Studio

Features
Read full description

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 • 8×8, 16×16, 32×32 and 64×64 canvases. Switching size is lossless: the picture is always kept at 64×64, 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 2048×2048 PNG to Photos. • Export the whole animation as a looping 512×512 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.

About

Pixel Forge

Features
Read full description

Pixel Forge is a fast, playful pixel art editor built for your iPhone. Pick a canvas, grab a color, and start drawing sprites, icons, avatars and retro game art in seconds. START WITH THE RIGHT CANVAS Choose a square grid from 16x16 up to 128x128 pixels. Small canvases for chunky retro sprites, big ones for detailed scenes. DRAW YOUR WAY • Pencil to paint pixel by pixel or drag to draw lines • Eraser to clear pixels back to transparent • Eyedropper to pick any color already on your canvas and keep drawing with it • Undo and redo for every stroke, so you can experiment without fear COLORS THAT FIT YOUR STYLE • A ready-to-use palette right at your thumb • A custom color picker with a color square, hue slider and HEX input for exactly the shade you want WORK COMFORTABLY • Zoom in for precise pixel work and zoom out to see the whole picture • Pan mode to move around large canvases without accidentally drawing • Fit to screen to jump back to a full view instantly YOUR GALLERY OF SPRITES • All your projects live in one colorful grid • Rename projects, reopen them any time, and delete the ones you no longer need • Your work is stored on your device, no account required SHARE YOUR ART • Card: a stylish, ready-to-post picture of your artwork with the Pixel Forge look • Image: a clean PNG of just your pixels, with real transparency for the empty areas, ready to use as an asset in games and other projects • Share to any app, or save straight to your Photos library Whether you are making your first sprite or your hundredth, Pixel Forge keeps the tools simple and the fun high. Download Pixel Forge and start forging pixels today.

Screenshots

PIXIO Pixel Studio2 screens
Pixel Forge4 screens

Verdict

The call

PIXIO Pixel Studio and Pixel Forge are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
PIXIO Pixel Studio versus Pixel Forge: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPIXIO Pixel StudioPixel Forge
PriceFreeFree
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.4 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size56 MB23 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBitfarm ASIllia Hroshev

In-app purchases

None

PIXIO Pixel Studio

No in-app purchases

None

Pixel Forge

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is PIXIO Pixel Studio free?
PIXIO Pixel Studio is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Pixel Forge free?
Pixel Forge is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do PIXIO Pixel Studio or Pixel Forge have ads?
Neither PIXIO Pixel Studio nor Pixel Forge shows ads.

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