Comparison

Procreate Pocket vs Artstudio Pro

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

Head to head
About

Procreate Pocket

Create expressive sketches, rich paintings, and beautiful illustrations on your iPhone. This app offers a complete art studio with hundreds of brushes, advanced layering, and powerful design tools.

Highlights
  • Hundreds of handmade brushes
  • Advanced layer system
  • High resolution canvases
  • Revolutionary QuickShape feature
  • Frame-by-frame animation
  • Customizable brush studio
Read full description

App of the Year winner Procreate Pocket is the most feature-packed and versatile art app ever designed for iPhone. Procreate Pocket has everything you need to create expressive sketches, rich paintings, gorgeous illustrations, and beautiful animations. Offering hundreds of handmade brushes, a suite of intuitive artistic tools, an advanced layer system, and the powerful Valkyrie graphics engine. Work on the couch, on the train, at the beach, or while waiting in line for coffee. It’s a complete art studio in the palm of your hand. Highlights: • High resolution canvases — up to 16k by 4k on compatible devices • Intuitive Dark Mode interface made for iPhone • Revolutionary QuickShape feature for perfect shapes • Smooth and responsive smudge sampling • Powered by Valkyrie, the lightning-fast 64-bit painting engine • Create art in stunning 64-bit color • 250 levels of undo and redo • Continuous auto-save — never lose work again Breakthrough brushes: • Packed with 100s of beautifully crafted brushes • Brush sets keep your painting, sketching, and drawing brushes organized • Over 100 customizable settings for every brush • Brush Studio — design custom brushes • Import and export custom Procreate brushes • Import Adobe® Photoshop® brushes, and run them faster than Photoshop® Full-featured layering system: • Layer your art for precise control over details and composition • Create Layer and Clipping Masks for non-destructive editing • Stay organized by combining layers into groups • Transform objects simultaneously across multiple layers • Access over 25 layer blend modes for industry-grade compositing Color without compromise: • Fill your line work with ColorDrop • Disc, Classic, Harmony, Value, and Palette color panels • Import color profiles for color matching • Assign Color Dynamics to any brush Precision design tools: • Add vector text to your illustrations • Easily import all your favorite fonts • Crop and resize your canvas for perfect composition • Perspective, isometric, 2D, and symmetry visual guides • Drawing Assist perfects your strokes in real time • StreamLine smooths your strokes for beautiful lettering and expert inking Animation Assist: • Easy frame-by-frame animation with customizable onion skinning • Create storyboards, GIFs, animatics, and simple animations • Export your animations in the full resolution of your canvas Dramatic finishing effects: • Gradient Map — remap your image’s colors with a customizable gradient • Glitch, Chromatic Aberration, Glow, and Halftone to add new dimensions to your work • Gaussian and Motion Blur filters for depth and movement, or use Sharpen for perfect clarity • Advanced Noise filter gives you more control for a classic, retro look • Adjust Hue, Saturation, or Brightness in real time • Powerful image adjustments including Color Balance, Curves, and HSB • Bring your art to life with the fun, intuitive, and creative Warp, Symmetry, and Liquify Dynamics Time-lapse replay: • Relive your creative journey with Procreate's celebrated Time-lapse Replay • Export your Time-lapse recording in 4K for high-end video production • Share a short, 30-second version of your Time-lapse on your socials Reference Companion: • Keep a full canvas or reference image with you at all times • Paint on your face with AR • Color-pick right from the reference window Import assets and share your creations: • Import or export your art as Adobe® Photoshop® PSD files • Import Adobe® ASE and ACO Color Palettes • Import images files such as JPG, PNG, and TIFF • Drag and drop artworks, brushes, palettes, and fonts between applications• Export to AirDrop, iCloud Drive, Photos, iTunes, Dropbox, Google Drive, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, Weibo, Mail, and more • Share your art as PDF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, HEVC, or MP4 files

About

Artstudio Pro

This powerful app offers advanced drawing, painting, and photo editing tools for creative professionals and enthusiasts. It features a robust engine, flexible layer system, and an advanced brush engine for realistic strokes. Users can also create animations and import/export various image formats.

Highlights
  • GPU accelerated ArtEngine
  • Unlimited layers and large canvas sizes
  • Advanced brush engine with 150+ brushes
  • Flexible layer system with groups and masks
  • Professional photo editing tools
  • Animation creation and export
  • Import/Export ABR/TPL brush and pattern formats
Features
Read full description

Introducing Artstudio Pro, the most powerful painting and photo editing app available for both iOS and macOS. The successor to our famous ArtStudio app has been redesigned bringing many new features and improvements taking full advantage of the latest technologies Metal, iCloud Drive, Apple Pencil, and optimized for 64-bit multi-core processors to achieve the smoothest possible workflow. Powerful engine App is based on the powerful GPU accelerated ArtEngine developed by Lucky Clan. It allows working with multiple documents, supports large canvas sizes and an unlimited number of layers. Incredible optimization ensures smooth work even with large canvases. • Realistic Color Pigment Blending • Canvas size up to 64Mpix • Unlimited layers • Multiple open documents • 27 tools: Move, Select, Crop, Eyedropper, Paint, Wet Paint, Eraser, Bucket/Pattern/Gradient Fill, Smudge, Dodge, Burn, Sponge, Text, Heal, Clone, and more • Full iCloud integration Flexible layer system Artstudio Pro introduces a new layer system with grouping, non-destructive layer effects, and adjustment layers. • Groups • Masks, clipping masks • Adjustment Layers • 9 layer effects: Bevel/Emboss, Stroke, Inner Shadow, Inner Glow, Outer Glow, Color/Gradient/Pattern Overlay, Drop Shadow • Text layers Advanced Brush engine Perfectly optimized, lag free mechanism generating smooth, real looking strokes, making the most of Apple Pencil. • Brush size up to 4000x4000 • 64-bit painting with pattern, double stamp, wet brush, dynamics • Brush editor with over 100 customizable settings • Over 150 built-in brushes divided into multiple groups: Pens, Pencils, Oil Painting, Inking, Charcoals, Airbrushes, Watercolor and many more • Symmetric painting Professional photo editor Photo editing options developed in cooperation with professional photographers. Each feature was tested in several scenarios and light conditions. • 15 adjustments available as non-destructive layer or simple adjustment: Brightness/Contrast, Levels, Curves, Exposure/Gamma, Shadows/Highlights, Vibrance, Hue/Saturation, Color Balance, Temperature/Tint, Black and White, Gradient Map and more • 4 auto adjustments: Auto Contrast, Levels, Lightness, Saturation • Transform: Basic, Perspective, Warp • Dozens of filters with realtime preview and the ability to generate seamless patterns • Inpaint, Elastify (Liquify) • Retouching tools: Heal, Dodge, Burn, Sponge and more • Image resize, Canvas resize • Crop and Trim Animation Create animation from layers or groups and finally export it to one of the most popular animation format • Scrollable timeline view with Play/Pause • Onion skin • Customizable Frame duration • Always visible layers • Export to MP4, HEVC, Animated GIF/PNG Import/Export We have implemented many parsers from the most popular assets/images formats and we are especially proud of our ABR/TPL parser which not only reads brush stamps and patterns, but also most settings which are converted to Artstudio Pro brush engine values. Import • Images - PNG, JPEG, PSD, HEIC, TIFF, GIF, PDF, most raw formats • Brushes - ABR, TPL • Color swatches - ASE, ACO • Patterns - PAT • Gradients - GRD • Fonts - TTF, OTF Export • Images - PNG, JPEG, PSD, TIFF, PDF Other features • Floating panels for Colors, Layers, Brushes etc • Screen recording • Customizable Quick menu • Customizable Shortcuts • Snapping to guidelines, dynamic guidelines, grid • Perspective grid assist • Mirror (flipped) view • Support of iPad Drag and Drop, Split View, Sharing Extension, Open In, Clipboard Free version limitations: • locked Saving • canvas size limited to device screen size • layers count limited to 3 • export only to jpg • locked animation export Minimum System Requirements Artstudio Pro for iOS requires iPhone or iPad running iOS 15.0 or above Privacy policy: https://luckyclan.com/privacy-policy Terms of use: https://luckyclan.com/terms-use

Screenshots

Procreate Pocket4 screens
Artstudio Pro4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Artstudio Pro at Free against Procreate Pocket's $5.99. Artstudio Pro also leads on rating (4.6 vs 3.8) and update cadence (monthly vs every 3 months). Procreate Pocket's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and chart position (#1 vs unranked). On ads, device support and iOS requirement 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

Artstudio Pro is free to download; Procreate Pocket costs $5.99 up front. Artstudio Pro sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.49 per year. Procreate Pocket asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Artstudio Pro holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 13K and 4K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 61% of Procreate Pocket's written reviews are positive against 74% of Artstudio Pro's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Procreate Pocket ships an update every 3 months, Artstudio Pro monthly. Both last shipped on September 28, 2026.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Procreate Pocket versus Artstudio Pro: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterProcreate PocketArtstudio Pro
Price$5.99Free — better
Rating3.8 (13K ratings)4.6 (4K ratings) — better
Positive reviews61.1% of reviews74.2% of reviews — better
Number of ratings13K — better4K
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#1 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS15.4.115.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size372 MB385 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSavage Interactive Pty LtdLucky Clan

Customer experience

Procreate Pocket

All ratings12,700 ratings
Positive69.3%
Neutral8.3%
Negative22.4%
Written reviews2,078 reviews
Positive61.1%
Neutral13.7%
Negative25.2%

Artstudio Pro

All ratings4,037 ratings
Positive88.8%
Neutral3.6%
Negative7.6%
Written reviews1,192 reviews
Positive74.2%
Neutral8.6%
Negative17.2%

User reviews

Procreate Pocket

From 13K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Excellent drawing app for iPhone
  • 👍 Customizable brushes and palettes
  • 👍 Convenient for on-the-go sketching
  • 👍 Affordable price point
  • 👍 Seamless integration with iPad version

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs
  • 🔍 Limited features compared to iPad version
  • 🔍 Lack of undo/redo buttons
  • 🔍 Pixelated output when transforming layers
  • 🔍 Difficult to draw precise lines and shapes

Artstudio Pro

From 4K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Powerful and feature-rich
  • 👍 Familiar Photoshop-like interface
  • 💡 Supports Photoshop brushes
  • 🎨 Excellent brush engine and painting experience
  • 🔍 Robust selection and adjustment tools

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and freezes
  • 🤔 Steep learning curve
  • 🔀 Confusing UI and navigation
  • 🖌️ Inconsistent palm rejection and input issues
  • 💾 Unreliable saving and file management

Bugs and requests

Procreate Pocket

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Imported images/brushes not showing up
  • Layers merging unexpectedly
  • Color issues when tracing or filling
  • Navigation bar disappearing during use

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add blending and smudge tools
  • Increase layer limit and canvas size
  • Implement dark mode option
  • Add text and fill tools
  • Improve undo/redo functionality

Artstudio Pro

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Gradient tool not working as expected
  • Brush settings not saving properly
  • Unexpected canvas resizing and cropping
  • Layers disappearing or not rendering correctly

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add custom brush creation
  • Improve canvas resizing and previewing
  • Implement better layer and mask management
  • Add more blending and color adjustment tools
  • Introduce keyboard shortcuts and gesture support
Show 1 more
  • Provide a comprehensive user manual or tutorials

In-app purchases

None

Procreate Pocket

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Artstudio Pro

Subscriptions1
  • Yearly Subscription3 Days trial$3.491 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime License$14.99

Questions

Is Procreate Pocket free?
Procreate Pocket costs $5.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Artstudio Pro free?
Artstudio Pro is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Procreate Pocket or Artstudio Pro?
Artstudio Pro is rated higher. Procreate Pocket averages 3.8 out of 5 from 13K ratings, while Artstudio Pro averages 4.6 from 4K ratings.
Do Procreate Pocket or Artstudio Pro have ads?
Neither Procreate Pocket nor Artstudio Pro shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Procreate Pocket or Artstudio Pro?
Procreate Pocket ships an update every 3 months, and Artstudio Pro monthly. Most recently, Procreate Pocket was updated on September 28, 2026 and Artstudio Pro on September 28, 2026.

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