Brushes Redux vs Paintstorm Studio Lite
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Brushes Redux
This app offers a powerful and responsive painting experience on iOS devices. Create large, detailed artwork with a versatile brush engine, layer management, and import/export options. Relive your creative process with step-by-step playback.
- OpenGL-based painting engine
- Record and replay paintings
- Up to 10 layers
- Import/export JPEG, PNG, PSD
- Simulated pressure
- Unlimited undo/redo
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Brushes Redux is a painting app designed exclusively for iOS. Rewritten from the ground up, Brushes Redux is universal — the same version runs on both your iPhone and your iPad. Move paintings between your devices and keep working wherever you go. An accelerated OpenGL-based painting engine makes painting smooth and responsive — even with huge brush sizes. Brushes also records every step in your painting. Show off your creative process by replaying your paintings directly on your device. General Features: – Create paintings with dimensions up to 4096x4096 – Full support for all Retina devices – Background autosave – Unlimited undo and redo – Simple and approachable interface Painting: – Full screen painting – Record and replay paintings – Ultrafast OpenGL-based painting engine – Huge brush sizes up to 512x512 pixels – Simulated pressure – 64-bit painting on the latest hardware – 14 parameterized brush shapes – Adjustable brush settings (spacing, jitter, scatter, etc.) – Adjustable color opacity – Invert color and desaturate – Flip and arbitrarily transform layers – Adjustable color balance (iPad only) – Adjustable hue, saturation and brightness (iPad only) Layers: – Create up to 10 layers – Lock and hide layers – Lock layer transparency – Adjust layer opacity – Duplicate, rearrange, and merge layers – Change blending modes: normal, multiply, screen, exclude Import and Export: – Integrated with Dropbox – Import native Brushes 3 files, JPEG, and PNG files – Export as native Brushes 3 files, JPEG, PNG, and Photoshop files (with layers) – Place images from your photo album into paintings – Copy paintings to the pasteboard Gestures: – Zoom with two finger pinch – Zoom in with two finger double tap – Zoom to fit with two finger double tap – Toggle interface visibility with a single tap (this can be changed to a two finger tap in the app settings) – Tap and hold to access eyedropper tool Screenshot credit: "Portrait of Ally" by John Bavaro (http://johnbavaro.com)
Paintstorm Studio Lite
This app offers professional digital painting tools for artists of all levels. It provides extensive brush customization, stroke correction, and intuitive controls to enhance the mobile art creation experience. Discover new possibilities for digital drawing with advanced features and Apple Pencil support.
- Extensive brush customization
- Stroke post-correction
- Apple Pencil support
- Dynamic interface
- Mirror drawing
- Standard tools pack
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Paintstorm Studio is the first iOS App designed not only for simple sketches, but professional digital painting of any level, genre and technique. Paintstorm helps you to discover the magnificence and unleash the full potential of Apple Pencil and brings you to a whole new level of drawing. Creating an art masterpiece has never been so mobile. A major feature of Paintstorm Studio is the array of brushes to choose from. We did our best so that you can easily and quickly adjust the brushes suitable to your painting style. Anyone who has ever painted knows it's hard to overestimate the painting tool and the importance of all the seemingly insignificant details. We tried not to miss any of them. Our goal was to create an intuitive, simple-to-use but at the same time functionally powerful tool that brings the process of digital painting to a new level, making it as comfortable as possible. - Full control of all brush options (Incredible possibilities for brush settings) - Bristle brushes of any form and kind - Stroke post correction (You can take an action on any option. Not only on the stroke thickness) - Parameters binding to the perspective - Dynamic interface (Global interface scale, panels scale, opacity, color) - Custom panels - Full controlled mask-brush (Each brush can work as mask for other brush) - Takes underlayer's color while blending - "Close gaps" function when you fill or select - Dirty brush mode - Stroke stabilizer - Usable color mixer - Different gradient strokes - Mirror drawing - Standard tools pack (Lasso, Magic wand, Crop, Fill, Gradient and etc) - Control of the random amounts - Apple Pencil support (Pressure, Tilt, Direction) Lite version restrictions: - It is not possible to load and save psd files - A watermark is added to the picture Upgrade to the full version and get rid of the limits!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Brushes Redux at 63% against Paintstorm Studio Lite's 24%. Brushes Redux also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 13.1). Paintstorm Studio Lite's advantage is monetization model (free vs paid) and rating (4.0 vs 3.6). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Paintstorm Studio Lite holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 3.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 297 and 262 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 63% of Brushes Redux's written reviews are positive against 24% of Paintstorm Studio Lite's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Brushes Redux ships an update every 9 months, Paintstorm Studio Lite every 4 months. Both last shipped on October 15, 2026.
| Parameter | Brushes Redux | Paintstorm Studio Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.6 (297 ratings) | 4.0 (262 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 62.8% of reviews — better | 24.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 297 — better | 262 |
| Update frequency | Every 9 months | Every 4 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 13.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 15 MB | 103 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Christoffer Hoel | Sergei Komarov |
Customer experience
Brushes Redux
Paintstorm Studio Lite
User reviews
Brushes Redux
From 297 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use
- 🎨 Great for drawing and painting
- 💯 No ads or in-app purchases
- ⭐ Excellent for beginners
- 🎨 Customizable brushes
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes frequently
- 🔍 Limited selection of tools (no blending, fill, etc.)
- 🔍 Pixelated output when zoomed in
- 🔍 Inconsistent color output
- 🔍 Difficulty using with Apple Pencil
Paintstorm Studio Lite
From 262 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 💎 Excellent brushes and color mixing
- 🎨 Sophisticated drawing tools
- 🖌️ Advanced interface like desktop apps
- 🖥️ Powerful features on par with desktop software
Room to improve
- 🚧 Cluttered and confusing interface
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and performance issues
- 💦 Annoying watermark on exported artwork
- 🔍 Lack of clear instructions and tutorials
Bugs and requests
Brushes Redux
Reported bugs
4 issues- Drawings disappearing or unable to open
- Color picker issues causing unintended color changes
- Dropbox integration problems
- Compatibility issues with newer iOS versions
Requested features
6 requests- Add blending tool
- Increase layer limit
- Implement video export
- Add text tool
- Improve Apple Pencil support
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- Add color stabilizer
Paintstorm Studio Lite
Reported bugs
3 issues- App crashes when opening or switching between projects
- Brush settings and color wheel disappearing unexpectedly
- Inability to save or recover unsaved artwork
Requested features
4 requests- Remove watermark option
- Ability to import photos and images
- Better organization and customization of UI
- More intuitive brush and tool controls
In-app purchases
Brushes Redux
No in-app purchases
Paintstorm Studio Lite
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Brushes Redux free?
Is Paintstorm Studio Lite free?
Which has better reviews, Brushes Redux or Paintstorm Studio Lite?
Do Brushes Redux or Paintstorm Studio Lite have ads?
Which is updated more often, Brushes Redux or Paintstorm Studio Lite?
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