Arrette Sketch drafting tools vs Arkio
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Arrette Sketch drafting tools
Create hand-drawn designs at a measurable scale, ideal for architects and designers. This app offers a simplified drawing experience with tools like freehand pens and an adjustable grid, allowing for easy sharing via email or saving to your device.
- Freehand drawing pens with vector scaling
- Adjustable grid system (metric/decimal feet)
- Load base images to draw on
- Lasso tool for selections
- Easy sharing via email
- Save drawings to device
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Rated #1 Technical App for Architects by ArchDaily! Arrette Sketch for iPad is an app for designers who want to draw freehand while maintaining a measurable drawing scale like vector drafting tools. Architects, urban planners, surveyors, home remodelers, field archaeologists and dozens of other kinds of professionals will find this app useful. Unlike other vector drawing tools, Arrette Sketch is simple to learn and use. Arrette Sketch is the basic version of Arrette Scale for iPad, available separately in the iTunes App Store. Compared to our professional version, Arrette Sketch is limited only in three ways: 1) distance and area measurement tools are disabled, 2) Edge drawing tools are disabled, and 3) users cannot export to PDF for sharing. For those functions, ideally suited for professionals working in business, Arrette Scale is the appropriate tool. Arrette Philosophy Arrette provides the platform to begin design work and generate ideas without moving too quickly to rigid straight lines and curves. We want to help you draw much as you would normally draw on paper, but to give you the extra tools and ways to share your work that make your life easier and make the design process simpler and more productive. The basic drawing structure is a familiar one - drawing layers which can be overlayed on a base image. The Grid keeps you aware of the size of what you're drawing at any scale. When you're ready, you can easily share drawings by email or save them to your device. We've designed Arrette to be extremely easy to learn. In a few minutes, you'll understand how to zoom and scale your canvas, draw lines, and load base images to work on top of. Our tools will seem familiar from other structured drawing applications, but every tool we've built has been simplified and optimized with scale in mind. Uses for Arrette Sketch for iPad: * An urban designer drafts plans for a new sub-division in a small town * A real estate agent snaps a photograph of a living space and begins to sketch out ideas for staging * A new home owner sketches the plan for an elaborate garden in the back yard * A construction manager notes progress on a work site, sending annotated precision-scale documents back to the general contractor live from the work site For these uses Arrette Sketch is a great tool for drawing freehand scale sketches, whether at home, on the go, or at work. For professional work, which includes sharing original Arrette documents for review, annotation, and modification, Arrette Scale is better suited for those purposes. Included drawing tools in Arrette Sketch (free application): * Freehand drawing pens that scale like vector lines but are as easy to use as pencil and paper * An adjustable grid system that you can easily flip between the metric system and decimal feet * The ability to load base images to draw on top of; base images respect their original scale and direction when the document is zoomed or panned * A lasso tool to select, move, copy and paste previously drawn lines * Layers, for separating out parts of composite objects or for adding new ideas to an existing document that overlay earlier designs * An eraser tool, for revising your designs or removing objects from previous work * The ability to adjust the width of all lines globally even after the lines have been drawn Additional professional features in Arrette Scale (available separately): * A tool for drawing perfectly straight lines, arrays of parallel lines, arcs and circles * Distance and area measurement tools for measuring the lengths, perimeters and areas of arbitrary pathways in your drawing at precise scale Document sharing features in Arrette Sketch: * Save your work to your Photo Gallery * Share raster versions of your work with anyone via email, Twitter, or Facebook Additional sharing features in Arrette Scale: * Send PDFs with scale and direction information to colleagues, clients, and other parties via email
Arkio
Collaboratively design and review 3D architectural models in immersive VR or on desktop and mobile devices. Import projects from popular AEC tools, add annotations, and generate AI-powered renders. Offers a free tier with options to upgrade for advanced features.
- Collaborative 3D design environment
- VR and multi-device support
- Import from AEC tools (Revit, SketchUp, etc.)
- AI rendering and image generation
- Voice and text note-taking
- Augmented Reality collaboration
- Export to AEC design tools
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Design better buildings, together. With Arkio, you can ideate, review and present your work in a powerful collaborative design environment, saving time and money. The new Arkio 2.0 elevates design collaboration to a new level with built-in AI rendering, layers, voice transcription, issue export, and more. Immerse yourself in Arkio using VR or work on your PC, Mac, tablet or phone. Import large 3D models, including Revit, Rhino, SketchUp, Archicad and Navisworks projects to experience them at 1:1 scale, fully immersed, or in Mixed Reality. Mark up, comment and try new design ideas with ease. With Arkio, you can make good designs great! - Load large 3D models from your favorite AEC tools - Present your designs and guide up to 24 users around your scene - Generate beautiful renders with the Arkio AI camera that can be converted into collaborative frames - Capture notes and issues using text or voice and share them with others via Arkio Cloud - Load your models in Augmented Reality to collaborate with users in VR and other devices - Ideate together using Arkio’s built-in modeling tools and shapes, and export your work back to your favorite AEC design tool - Toggle layers, add sections, do sun studies, add maps and 3D buildings and more! Visit the Arkio website to learn more about Arkio. Some features require a paid plan. Start for free, then upgrade to Plus, Pro or Enterprise to experience the full power of Arkio. Terms of use: https://www.arkio.is/terms/ Privacy policy: https://www.arkio.is/privacy/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Arrette Sketch drafting tools at none against Arkio's 5. Arrette Sketch drafting tools also leads on rating (3.4 vs 3.1) and iOS requirement (12.4 vs 15.0). Arkio's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (80% vs 56%). On price and ratings volume 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
Both are free to download. Arkio sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $19.99 per month. Arrette Sketch drafting tools asks for nothing beyond the download.
Arrette Sketch drafting tools holds the better App Store score, 3.4 against 3.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 9 and 7 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 56% of Arrette Sketch drafting tools's written reviews are positive against 80% of Arkio's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Arrette Sketch drafting tools ships an update every 3 months, Arkio monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Arrette Sketch drafting tools | Arkio |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.4 (9 ratings) — better | 3.1 (7 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 55.6% of reviews | 80.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 9 — better | 7 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Monthly — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Ad-supported — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 12.4 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 53 MB | 334 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Arrette, Inc. | Arkio |
Customer experience
Arrette Sketch drafting tools
Arkio
In-app purchases
Arrette Sketch drafting tools
No in-app purchases
Arkio
- Arkio Plus Montly$19.991 Month
- Arkio Pro Subscription$44.991 Month
- Arkio Plus 3 Months$44.993 Months
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- Arkio Plus Yearly$119.991 Year
- Arkio Plus Asset Pack$9.99
Questions
Is Arrette Sketch drafting tools free?
Is Arkio free?
Which has better reviews, Arrette Sketch drafting tools or Arkio?
Do Arrette Sketch drafting tools or Arkio have ads?
Which is updated more often, Arrette Sketch drafting tools or Arkio?
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