Comparison

Sketchbook® vs Tracing Buddy

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

Head to head
About

Sketchbook®

This app provides a professional-grade drawing and painting experience for artists and illustrators. It offers a natural drawing feel with customizable tools, layers, and guides for precision. Unlock advanced features like custom brushes and canvas resizing with an optional premium purchase.

Highlights
  • Full complement of brush types
  • Highly customizable brushes
  • Guides, rulers, and stroke tools
  • Layers with blend modes
  • Clean and unobtrusive interface
  • Custom brush creation (premium)
  • Canvas resizing (premium)
Read full description

From quick sketches to fully finished artwork, Sketchbook goes where your creativity takes you. Sketchbook is an award-winning sketching, painting, and drawing app for anyone who loves to draw. Artists and illustrators love Sketchbook for its professional-grade feature set and highly customizable tools. Everyone loves Sketchbook for its elegant interface and natural drawing experience, free of distractions so you can focus on capturing and expressing your ideas. • A full complement of brush types: pencils markers, airbrushes, smear and more that look and feel just like their physical counterparts • Brushes are highly customizable so you can create just the look you want • Guides, rulers and stroke tools support precision when you need it • Layers with a full complement of blend modes deliver the flexibility to build up and explore drawings and color • Purpose-built for sketching, the interface is clean and unobtrusive so you can focus on drawing Purchase the Premium Bundle to unlock more... • Import and export brushes • Create your own custom brushes • Resize your canvas or image • Set canvas resolution in px/inch or px/cm • Clipping masks • Time-lapse recording: choose fixed canvas view or show pan/zoom navigation • Additional layer adjustments including blur, sharpen, brightness/contrast, greyscale, and invert • Additional color harmonies • Additional custom gradients • Select color from reference images • Extract color palettes from images • Import and export color palettes • Layer grouping • Layer masking Blend Modes • Draw Outline tool • Lasso Fill tool • Export to PDF • plus more to come!

About

Tracing Buddy

Easily transfer images to a drawing surface using a grid system. Create drawing illusions with perspective distortion and anamorphic images. Offers various image filters and grid customization options.

Highlights
  • Drawing grid with customizable lines and subdivisions
  • Perspective distortion for anamorphic illusions
  • Image filters: line art, black & white, background removal
  • AR-guided distortion process
  • Manual distortion control
  • Save grid settings in projects
Features
Read full description

Tracing Buddy is a drawing grid and anamorphic images creation tool. Built for simplicity, Tracing Buddy allows you to easily transfer pictures to a drawing surface Using the perspective distortion functionality, now you can enter the world of drawing illusions. First, apply the distortion to your images and then transfer them to a drawing surface with a grid The app is optimized for both iPhone and iPad use, including Dark Mode support Grid Features: - Square divisions or choose the preferred aspect ratio - Change color and transparency of grid lines - Choose from four subdivision styles and change color and transparency as you wish - Change the grid background color and the transparency of your image - Change the scale and position of your image relative to the whole grid - Save grid settings in projects Image Features: - Choose from a regular image, line art style, black & white values, or remove backgrounds with the person detection filter -With the B&W and values filter you change your image to black & white, adjust shadows and highlights to you liking with the included tone curve and reduce the number of values in the picture to a more manageable amount. With the value selection tool you can inspect where values are placed in your image - Use the person detection filter to remove the backgrounds of pictures with people in them, change to a transparent or solid color background instead Anamorphic images: - Add perspective distortion to your images choosing from two method: AR or using a picture - In AR method let Tracing Buddy guide you through the whole process, you only need an iOS device equipped with AR capabilities - If you need more control about the distortion, you can take a picture from your phone or with external camera and apply the distortion manually, for this method to be effective, you need to know the dimensions of the surface you want to transfer your picture to Premium Features Add-on (either by subscription or lifetime purchase) required for: - Ad removal - Premium Image filters - Multiple Project management - PNG type export Privacy Policy: https://lafappbrica.com/tracing-buddy-privacy-policy Terms of use https://lafappbrica.com/tracing-buddy-terms/

Screenshots

Sketchbook®4 screens
Tracing Buddy4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Sketchbook® at none against Tracing Buddy's shown. Sketchbook® also leads on ratings volume (221K vs 956) and rating (4.8 vs 4.5). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Sketchbook® sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Tracing Buddy sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $0.49 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Sketchbook® holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Sketchbook® has 221K ratings behind it against 956, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 77% of Sketchbook®'s written reviews are positive against 63% of Tracing Buddy's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Sketchbook® ships an update every 2 months, Tracing Buddy every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 9, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Sketchbook® versus Tracing Buddy: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSketchbook®Tracing Buddy
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (221K ratings) — better4.5 (956 ratings)
Positive reviews76.6% of reviews — better63.5% of reviews
Number of ratings221K — better956
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 6 weeks — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#32 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS1515.0
Further details — not scored
Size144 MB28 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSketchbook, Inc.La Fáppbrica

Customer experience

Sketchbook®

All ratings220,588 ratings
Positive95.8%
Neutral2.4%
Negative1.8%
Written reviews1,733 reviews
Positive76.6%
Neutral7.1%
Negative16.3%

Tracing Buddy

All ratings935 ratings
Positive88.4%
Neutral4.0%
Negative7.6%
Written reviews63 reviews
Positive63.5%
Neutral3.2%
Negative33.3%

User reviews

Sketchbook®

From 221K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Amazing, free, and no ads
  • 👍 Lots of brushes and customization options
  • 👍 Intuitive and easy to use
  • 👍 Great for beginners and professionals
  • 👍 Smooth performance and no lag

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional freezing and crashing issues
  • 🐛 Blurry or corrupted images when saving or copying
  • 🐛 Glitches with color selection and layers
  • 🐛 Inability to rotate canvas or access gallery easily
  • 🐛 Lack of blurring and clipping mask tools

Tracing Buddy

From 956 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fantastic app
  • 👍 Great app
  • 👍 Versatile and easy to use
  • 👍 Cheap and has just the perfect amount of help
  • 👍 Awesome app for pencil drawing and watercolor

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Zoom feature not working
  • 🐛 Grid feature not working as expected
  • 🐛 Lock feature not working properly
  • 🐛 Instructions and customer support not helpful
  • 🐛 Ads cover drawing area

Bugs and requests

Sketchbook®

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Layers randomly deleted or corrupted
  • Freezing when using certain tools like the eyedropper
  • Saving issues leading to loss of progress
  • Incompatibility with newer iPad Pro devices

Requested features

7 requests
  • Add blurring and clipping mask tools
  • Improve gallery and canvas rotation functionality
  • Allow custom font import
  • Add effects like glow, stroke, and drop shadow
  • Implement layer grouping and organization
Show 2 more
  • Add real-time collaboration features
  • Improve time-lapse recording and saving

Tracing Buddy

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Zoom feature not working
  • Grid feature not working as expected
  • Lock feature not working properly
  • App only works once, can't reuse

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to crop photo inside the app
  • Easier way to start a new drawing
  • Ability to rotate image
  • Grid with numbered overlay and adjustable starting point
  • Grid size based on specific measurements

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Sketchbook®

One-time1
  • Premium Bundle$2.99
4 purchases

Tracing Buddy

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Subscription$0.491 Month
  • Yearly subscription7 Days trial$3.991 Year
One-time2
  • Premium Features$9.99
  • Premium Features$12.99

Questions

Is Sketchbook® free?
Sketchbook® is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Tracing Buddy free?
Tracing Buddy is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Sketchbook® or Tracing Buddy?
Sketchbook® is rated higher. Sketchbook® averages 4.8 out of 5 from 221K ratings, while Tracing Buddy averages 4.5 from 956 ratings.
Do Sketchbook® or Tracing Buddy have ads?
Tracing Buddy shows ads; Sketchbook® does not.
Which is updated more often, Sketchbook® or Tracing Buddy?
Sketchbook® ships an update every 2 months, and Tracing Buddy every 6 weeks. Most recently, Sketchbook® was updated on November 9, 2026 and Tracing Buddy on November 3, 2026.

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