Procreate Pocket vs Ricalko
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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, gorgeous illustrations, design concepts, enhanced photos, and beautiful animations. Offering hundreds of handmade brushes, a suite of intuitive artistic tools, and an advanced layer system. Work on the couch, on the train, at the beach, or while waiting in line for coffee. It’s a creative companion in the palm of your hand. Highlights: • Sketch ideas when inspiration strikes • Create engaging photo collages and draw-overs • Add filters and captivating effects to your images • Mark-up documents and give feedback on the fly Breakthrough brushes: • Packed with hundreds of beautifully crafted brushes • Organize your brushes into sets and libraries • Over 100 customizable settings for every brush • 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 Masks and Clipping Masks for non-destructive editing • Stay organized by combining layers into Groups • Select multiple layers to move or Transform objects simultaneously • Access over 25 layer blend modes for industry-grade compositing Color without compromise: • Fill your line work with ColorDrop and SwatchDrop • Disc, Classic, Harmony, Value, and Palette color panels • Import color profiles for color matching • Assign Color Dynamics to any brush Precision design tools: • Revolutionary QuickShape feature for perfect shapes • 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 and stabilization smooths strokes for beautiful calligraphy and expert inking Animation and Page Assist • Easy frame-by-frame animation with customizable onion skinning • Create storyboards, GIFs, animatics, and simple animations • Sketch page-by-page concepts, or begin a comic, with Page Assist • Import, edit, and share PDFs Dramatic finishing effects: • Gradient Map — remap your image’s colors with a customizable gradient • Glitch, Chromatic Aberration, Glow, and Halftone 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 Time-lapse Replay • Export your Time-lapse recording in 4K for high-quality video production • Share a shorter 30-second 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 image files such as JPG, PNG, and TIFF • Export your working files in layered .procreate or PSD file formats • Share your art as TIFF, transparent PNG, multi-page PDF, web-ready JPEG, and animated GIFs, PNGs, and MP4s Accessibility • Global stroke stabilization, Dynamic Type, VoiceOver, and color naming
Ricalko
This app projects photos onto any surface, allowing you to trace them with your own hands. It's designed for both beginners learning to draw and experienced artists looking to refine their skills. Features include layer separation, creative filters, and AR projection.
- Project photos onto surfaces
- Trace images with your hand
- Layer separation for learning
- Creative filters
- Perspective mode for angled projection
- Augmented Reality (AR) mode
- Zoom for precision
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Ricalko lets you create incredible artwork, see how your drawings take shape, like magic! It is great for beginners who want to learn drawing and it is perfect for advanced users who want to improve even more! Ricalko has many smart features that let you achieve the results your aiming to, but in few words it is able to virtually project photos, so you can trace them on a paper sheet, an easel or on any other surface! You don't have to be a professional artist to reach amazing results. How is it able to do that? In normal mode you have to put your device onto a stand (DIY works too, like a simple glass), with the camera pointing to a sheet of paper below for example. On your screen an overlay will be shown and you will be able to see both the photo and your hand below so you can trace it! See below for more details... CRAFT REALISTIC ARTWORK FROM ANY PHOTO You can choose any photo and then create art from it. Pencil and paper? Brush and watercolours? You choose! LEARN TO DRAW AND SEPARATE LAYERS Split photos to different layers, in colors or grayscale, see them one by one individually and trace them on your art to create the final result. Perfect for learning! CREATIVE FILTERS Turn your photo into a drawing, a comic or apply a posterisation, Ricalko filters are great for creativity. PERSPECTIVE MODE You don't have to keep your device perpendicularly if you don't have a stand, you can also keep it angled, perspective mode will remove any distortion and you will be able to create your artworks without any particular effort. You just have to set it with the guidelines helper image! AR MODE Don't like keeping your device still? You don't have to with the augmented reality. You can select a marker, the app will recognise it and place your photo virtually next to it, so you can trace it! USE ANY CAMERA You can use any camera on your device, wide angle, zoom lens, ultra wide angle or even the front camera, this one with the perspective mode and a reflector (to be purchased in online stores, such as OSMO and not included). ZOOM TO BE PRECISE After you have setup your environment you can zoom on the area where you are drawing to see even more clearly, with natural gestures like pinch to zoom or by moving your device closer in AR Mode. NO SUBSCRIPTIONS AND NO IN APP PURCHASES You get what you see, there are no in app purchases or additional subscriptions! Buy the app once and keep it forever. PREMIUM CUSTOMER SUPPORT Need help? Have a suggestion? See it included in future releases and drop an email to support@genovasoftworks.com REQUIREMENTS Ricalko does not have any particular requirement since supports iOS 14+ devices only. If you can download it, it will work on your device. A printer is suggested in order to print markers for AR Mode and the guidelines image for Perspective mode, even if they could also be displayed on an additional supporting device.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Procreate Pocket at 61% against Ricalko's 0%. Procreate Pocket also leads on ratings volume (13K vs 4) and update cadence (every 3 months vs every 12 months). Ricalko's advantage is rating (4.3 vs 3.8) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, ads, 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
Procreate Pocket costs $5.99 and Ricalko $5.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Ricalko holds the better App Store score, 4.3 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 complicate that: 61% of Procreate Pocket's written reviews are positive against 0% of Ricalko's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Procreate Pocket ships an update every 3 months, Ricalko every 12 months. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Procreate Pocket | Ricalko |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $5.99 | $5.99 |
| Rating | 3.8 (13K ratings) | 4.3 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 61.1% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 13K — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months — better | Every 12 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #1 — better | #131 |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 14.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1.1 GB | 39 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Savage Interactive Pty Ltd | GENOVA Softworks |
Customer experience
Procreate Pocket
Ricalko
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
Ricalko
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Procreate Pocket
No in-app purchases
Ricalko
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Procreate Pocket free?
Is Ricalko free?
Which has better reviews, Procreate Pocket or Ricalko?
Do Procreate Pocket or Ricalko have ads?
Which is updated more often, Procreate Pocket or Ricalko?
Which is more popular, Procreate Pocket or Ricalko?
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