Comparison

Procreate Pocket vs Hockney AR

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
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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

Hockney AR

Experience David Hockney's iPad paintings come alive through augmented reality. Explore selected works from his "The Arrival of Spring" series, featured in the Royal Academy of Art's 2021 exhibition.

Highlights
  • Augmented Reality experience
  • View iPad paintings
  • Explore "The Arrival of Spring" series
  • Features Royal Academy exhibition works
Features
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Watch David Hockney's iPad paintings spring to life in Augmented Reality. Featuring selected works from his recent series, "The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020", now on view in the Royal Academy of Art's 2021 exhibition and catalogue.

Screenshots

Procreate Pocket4 screens
Hockney AR3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Hockney AR at Free against Procreate Pocket's $5.99. Hockney AR also leads on rating (5.0 vs 3.8) and update cadence (weekly vs every 3 months). Procreate Pocket's advantage is ratings volume (13K vs 4) and chart position (#1 vs unranked). On review sentiment, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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

Hockney AR is free to download; Procreate Pocket costs $5.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Hockney AR holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Procreate Pocket has 13K ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 61% of Procreate Pocket's written reviews are positive against 67% of Hockney AR's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Procreate Pocket ships an update every 3 months, Hockney AR weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and September 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Procreate Pocket versus Hockney AR: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterProcreate PocketHockney AR
Price$5.99Free — better
Rating3.8 (13K ratings)5.0 (4 ratings) — better
Positive reviews61.1% of reviews66.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings13K — better4
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
Best chart rank#1 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS15.4.111.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size372 MB92 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSavage Interactive Pty LtdDavid Hockney, Inc

Customer experience

Procreate Pocket

All ratings12,700 ratings
Positive69.3%
Neutral8.3%
Negative22.4%
Written reviews2,073 reviews
Positive61.1%
Neutral13.7%
Negative25.2%

Hockney AR

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative33.3%

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

Hockney AR

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Procreate Pocket

No in-app purchases

None

Hockney AR

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Procreate Pocket free?
Procreate Pocket costs $5.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Hockney AR free?
Hockney AR is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Procreate Pocket or Hockney AR?
Hockney AR is rated higher. Procreate Pocket averages 3.8 out of 5 from 13K ratings, while Hockney AR averages 5.0 from 4 ratings.
Do Procreate Pocket or Hockney AR have ads?
Neither Procreate Pocket nor Hockney AR shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Procreate Pocket or Hockney AR?
Procreate Pocket ships an update every 3 months, and Hockney AR weekly. Most recently, Procreate Pocket was updated on September 25, 2026 and Hockney AR on September 10, 2026.

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