Comparison

pixiv Sketch vs Paintstorm Studio Lite

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

Head to head
About

pixiv Sketch

This app allows users to draw and communicate with a large community of artists. It offers easy-to-use drawing tools, AI-powered coloring, and collaborative features like "Redraw" and "Reply" to interact with other users' artwork.

Highlights
  • Easy-to-use pens and brushes
  • AI automatic coloring
  • Drawing Motivator Voice
  • Redraw feature for collaboration
  • Reply feature for illustration conversations
  • Community feed with millions of illustrations
Features
Read full description

Over 10 million users! A drawing and communication app that makes your daily creative activities more fun! It includes a Draw feature that allows you to easily draw at any time, and a community with over 11 million illustrations posted! About pixiv Sketch pixiv Sketch is a drawing and communication app by pixiv Inc. ・The Draw feature makes drawing feel just like sketching on paper, so you'll have no trouble getting exactly the results you want. ・The app features the latest drawing support technology, including automatic coloring using AI. About pixiv Sketch's Draw feature pixiv Sketch's Draw feature is the simplest you'll find around! Enjoy drawing digitally right away, even if it's your first time. ● Easy-to-use pens and brushes ・The app comes with pens and brushes that are easy for anyone to use, including first-time painters. ・The Sketch pencil feels as smooth as a real pencil. ・The variety of available brushes covers a wide range of media, including watercolor. ● Simple and intuitive interface ・The clean UI leaves room for a wider drawing canvas. ・The app includes special layouts for both right-handed and left-handed artists. ・No menus or tools getting in the way, allowing you a smooth drawing experience. ● Unique features to enhance your drawing experience ・Color your line drawings with AI! An automatic coloring feature is available for no-hassle coloring. ・The Drawing Motivator Voice feature will let you experience a new height of motivation! ・The Redraw feature allows you to add to other people's illustrations and daily themes. Find new drawing friends with the Community feature Communicate with your drawing buddies in a community where a total of over 11 million illustrations have already been posted. ● Enjoy a constant flow of illustrations on your Timeline ・Many new illustrations are posted every day. Check them out on your very own wall! ・Interact with your favorite illustrations by leaving a heart. ・Follow artists you like and connect with them. ● The Reply feature lets you respond to an illustration with another illustration ・Reply to everyone's posts with your illustrations. ・Use the Reply feature to easily join contests or post your own interpretation of daily themes. ・Send illustrations to other artists, or even have entire conversations using only artwork; how you use the Reply feature is up to you! ● Use the Redraw feature to add to existing illustrations ・Draw on the illustrations that others have posted. ・It's a great way to collaborate with other artists, for example by joining in on the daily theme or by coloring other people's line art drawings. Notes: A pixiv account is required to use some of the features. If you have any questions or to report a problem, please contact pixiv Sketch Support. https://www.pixiv.net/support.php?mode=select_type&service=sketch

About

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.

Highlights
  • Extensive brush customization
  • Stroke post-correction
  • Apple Pencil support
  • Dynamic interface
  • Mirror drawing
  • Standard tools pack
Read full description

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

pixiv Sketch4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: pixiv Sketch at 73% against Paintstorm Studio Lite's 24%. pixiv Sketch also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.0) and update cadence (monthly vs every 4 months). Paintstorm Studio Lite's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). On price, ratings volume, 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

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

pixiv Sketch holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 213 and 262 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 73% of pixiv Sketch's written reviews are positive against 24% of Paintstorm Studio Lite's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

pixiv Sketch ships an update monthly, Paintstorm Studio Lite every 4 months. Both last shipped on September 21, 2026.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
pixiv Sketch versus Paintstorm Studio Lite: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
Parameterpixiv SketchPaintstorm Studio Lite
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (213 ratings) — better4.0 (262 ratings)
Positive reviews72.8% of reviews — better23.6% of reviews
Number of ratings213262 — better
Update frequencyMonthly — betterEvery 4 months
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPad
Requires iOS16.013.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size90 MB103 MB
Age rating12+4+
Developerpixiv Inc.Sergei Komarov

Customer experience

pixiv Sketch

All ratings213 ratings
Positive91.1%
Neutral3.8%
Negative5.2%
Written reviews81 reviews
Positive72.8%
Neutral12.3%
Negative14.8%

Paintstorm Studio Lite

All ratings262 ratings
Positive72.9%
Neutral7.3%
Negative19.8%
Written reviews140 reviews
Positive23.6%
Neutral13.6%
Negative62.9%

User reviews

pixiv Sketch

From 213 App Store ratings

What we love

  • ✨ Kind and supportive community
  • 🎨 Simple and fun to use
  • 👍 Easy to upload art
  • 🖼️ Great for showcasing artwork
  • 💖 Feels safe to share art

Room to improve

  • 🌐 Mostly in different languages
  • 🤔 Hard to draw on
  • 📉 Live stream quality is bad
  • 🚫 No full screen/high quality option
  • 🗣️ User base mostly Japanese

Paintstorm Studio Lite

From 262 App Store ratings

What 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

pixiv Sketch

Reported bugs

11 issues
  • App freezes when trying to sketch/stream
  • App crashes when trying to remove photo layer
  • App crashes on opening
  • Login always failed
  • Live stream quality is very bad
Show 6 more
  • No full screen and high quality option for live stream
  • Cannot save art to photos
  • New update drawing feature is hard to adapt
  • Cannot login with existing Pixiv account
  • Verification code not sent for account creation
  • Newest update: unable to see new posts, notifications, follows, followers, posted works, or liked works.

Requested features

19 requests
  • Add translations for non-Japanese users
  • Add furigana on posts
  • Add layer zooming edit tool
  • Add month-by-month history section
  • Improve image quality on upload
Show 14 more
  • Better censorship options
  • Add image editing options (pen, lasso, stickers)
  • Add English translation feature
  • Add option to choose highest quality for live stream
  • Co-stream live function on iPad
  • Allow importing more than one photo
  • Add an eyedropper/color picker tool
  • Add a mirror option for drawings
  • Add landscape drawing mode
  • Add finger canvas rotation
  • Add image transform tool (resize on canvas)
  • Add English version of the app
  • Add Facebook, Twitter, and Google login options
  • Add a color tool

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

None

pixiv Sketch

No in-app purchases

None

Paintstorm Studio Lite

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is pixiv Sketch free?
pixiv Sketch is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Paintstorm Studio Lite free?
Paintstorm Studio Lite is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, pixiv Sketch or Paintstorm Studio Lite?
pixiv Sketch is rated higher. pixiv Sketch averages 4.7 out of 5 from 213 ratings, while Paintstorm Studio Lite averages 4.0 from 262 ratings.
Do pixiv Sketch or Paintstorm Studio Lite have ads?
pixiv Sketch shows ads; Paintstorm Studio Lite does not.
Which is updated more often, pixiv Sketch or Paintstorm Studio Lite?
pixiv Sketch ships an update monthly, and Paintstorm Studio Lite every 4 months. Most recently, pixiv Sketch was updated on September 21, 2026 and Paintstorm Studio Lite on September 21, 2026.

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