Comparison

MagicalDraw vs Pastela

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

Head to head
About

MagicalDraw

Create and join real-time collaborative drawing sessions instantly, with no registration needed. Enjoy a vast, customizable canvas with layers, shake correction, and undo features. Save, load, and share your creations, or even play drawing games together.

Highlights
  • Instant drawing room creation
  • No registration required
  • Real-time multi-user drawing
  • Vast, resizable canvas
  • Layer support and undo function
  • Save, load, and share drawings
  • Password protection and social login
Features
Read full description

MagicalDraw is a free, no registration required drawing chat service. You can create a drawing chat room in no time. - You can create a drawing chat room in 1 second, all for free. - No registration is required. Just push a button. - All the people on your computer or phone can enter the same room and draw at the same time. - You can change the size of the vast canvas as you wish. - Not to mention the layer function, shake correction and undo! - There is no limit to the number of people in a room, so you can use it for a large group and there is no time limit. - You can use the room you created forever. Your drawings will not be erased. - You can load, save and restore images. - You can set up passwords, of course, as well as Twitter connections and mutual followers! - You can stroke the picture of your precious person. Of course, you can also use the legs of a squid. - You can easily tweet or make a video of the picture you have drawn. - You can also play games such as "Drawing Swamp"!

About

Pastela

This app offers a seamless drawing and illustration experience with a spacious canvas and a variety of brushes. It features cloud-based autosave, iPad-specific customization, and integration with pixiv for easy sharing. Enhance your creative process with powerful tools and flexible options.

Highlights
  • Spacious canvas
  • Variety of brushes
  • Cloud-based autosave
  • iPad customization
  • pixiv integration
  • Layer management
  • Filters
Read full description

− Enhance your drawing experience, day by day.− With a spacious canvas, a variety of brushes, and cloud-based autosave, Pastela has everything you need for a smooth illustration process. Draw freely, anytime, anywhere. ____ Pastela features ■ An experience tailored for iPad users - Screen customization options that suit your dominant hand - Move panels to fit your creative style ■ A wide range of illustration tools - An extensive collection of brushes, including pencils, G pens, round pens, watercolors, sprays, markers, and more - Detailed brush customization options - Bucket tool: fill closed path, lasso fill - Easily set layer names from a list with one tap - Many filters including chromatic aberration and Gaussian blur ■ Cloud storage (*1) - Automatically save your work to the cloud - Restore data to any previous version - 1 GB of cloud storage included * To learn more about Pastela, please check out the official website. ■ pixiv account integration (*2) - Post your work directly to pixiv - With Pastela Plus (*3), you can even update your pixiv posts with new versions of your art. (*1) To use cloud sync, you need to log in with your pixiv account. (*2) To post your work from Pastela to pixiv, you need to log in with your pixiv account. (*3) To learn more about Pastela Plus, please check out the official website.

Screenshots

MagicalDraw3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Pastela at 4.6 against MagicalDraw's 3.5. Pastela also leads on review sentiment (87% vs 64%) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs monthly). MagicalDraw's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 4) and device support (3 vs 1). On price and ads 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. Pastela sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. MagicalDraw asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Pastela holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Pastela has 98 ratings behind it against 19, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 64% of MagicalDraw's written reviews are positive against 87% of Pastela's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MagicalDraw ships an update monthly, Pastela every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 26, 2026 and August 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 2 level
MagicalDraw versus Pastela: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMagicalDrawPastela
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.5 (19 ratings)4.6 (98 ratings) — better
Positive reviews63.8% of reviews86.8% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1998 — better
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsYesYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationAd-supported — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size24 MB209 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperAki Uenopixiv Inc.

Customer experience

MagicalDraw

All ratings19 ratings
Positive52.6%
Neutral21.1%
Negative26.3%
Written reviews69 reviews
Positive63.8%
Neutral21.7%
Negative14.5%

Pastela

All ratings98 ratings
Positive92.9%
Neutral4.1%
Negative3.1%
Written reviews174 reviews
Positive86.8%
Neutral9.8%
Negative3.4%

In-app purchases

None

MagicalDraw

No in-app purchases

4 purchases

Pastela

Subscriptions4
  • Light plan$3.991 Month
  • Standard plan$7.991 Month
  • Advanced plan$15.991 Month
Show 1 more
  • Deluxe plan$23.991 Month

Questions

Is MagicalDraw free?
MagicalDraw is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Pastela free?
Pastela is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, MagicalDraw or Pastela?
Pastela is rated higher. MagicalDraw averages 3.5 out of 5 from 19 ratings, while Pastela averages 4.6 from 98 ratings.
Do MagicalDraw or Pastela have ads?
Both MagicalDraw and Pastela show ads.
Which is updated more often, MagicalDraw or Pastela?
MagicalDraw ships an update monthly, and Pastela every 2 weeks. Most recently, MagicalDraw was updated on September 26, 2026 and Pastela on August 23, 2026.

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