Best Drawing Apps Compared: Which One Suits You?

There is no single best drawing app. The right one depends on what you draw, what you draw on and how much you want to learn. This guide compares the main drawing apps and who each suits: Procreate, Clip Studio Paint, Krita, Adobe Fresco, ibis Paint X and our own Drawing Canvas. If you illustrate seriously on an iPad, look at Procreate. If you make comics, look at Clip Studio Paint. If you want a full painting program on a computer at no cost, try Krita. If you want to open a page and start drawing on any device, with nothing to set up, Drawing Canvas is the simpler fit.

This comparison is based on what each product is designed for. Apps change their features, plans and prices over time, so check each app's own site for the current details.

The short version

App	Built for	Platforms	Works offline	Free to use
Procreate	Illustration and painting on iPad	iPad	Yes	Paid
Clip Studio Paint	Comics, manga and line art	Windows, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android, Chromebook	Check their site	Paid
Krita	Full digital painting on a computer	Windows, Mac, Linux	Yes	Yes
Adobe Fresco	Painting with live watercolour and oil brushes	iPad, iPhone, Windows	Check their site	Check their site
ibis Paint X	Drawing and comics on a phone	Mainly phones and tablets: iPhone, iPad, Android	Check their site	Has a free version
Drawing Canvas	Quick sketches, doodles, kids, marking up photos	Any modern browser on iPhone, Android, tablets and computers	Yes, once installed	Yes

Procreate

Procreate is a professional illustration app for iPad. It is built around the Apple Pencil, with pressure- and tilt-sensitive brushes, a brush library and a tool for making your own brushes. It has layers, blend modes, selection and transform tools, and it can record a time-lapse of your drawing. Professional illustrators use it for finished work.

It suits you if you own an iPad and a stylus and want to make polished illustrations. It is not for you if you draw on Android, Windows or a Mac, because there is no version of it for those.

Clip Studio Paint

Clip Studio Paint is built for comics, manga and line art. It has panel tools, speech balloons, screentones, rulers and perspective guides, and line smoothing and correction. It also has vector layers, which let you adjust lines after you draw them.

It runs on most platforms, from desktop computers to tablets and phones. It suits comic artists and anyone who cares about clean ink lines. It has a lot of tools, so expect to spend time learning it.

Krita

Krita is a free and open-source painting program for computers. It offers layers, several brush engines, pressure support for drawing tablets, a wrap-around mode for seamless textures and basic animation tools. Artists use it for concept art, illustration and texture painting.

It suits you if you draw on a Windows, Mac or Linux computer, ideally with a pen tablet, and want a full painting program with no cost. It is a desktop-style program with many panels, so it is more than you need for a quick doodle.

Adobe Fresco

Adobe Fresco is a drawing and painting app from Adobe. It has live brushes: watercolours that bleed and oils that blend on the canvas, much like real paint. It also has vector brushes for crisp, scalable strokes, layers, and links with other Adobe apps through an Adobe account.

It suits painters who want natural-looking media, and people who already work in Adobe's tools. It runs on iPad, iPhone and Windows. Check Adobe's site for current pricing.

ibis Paint X

ibis Paint X is a drawing app made for phones and tablets. It has many brushes, layers, a stabiliser for smooth lines, comic frame and text tools, and it can record a video of your drawing process. Its tools suit fan art and comics drawn on a phone.

It suits you if your main device is a phone or a tablet and you want a full feature set in your pocket. It has a free version, and some features need a paid upgrade. Check their site for the current details.

What Drawing Canvas does well

Drawing Canvas is a free drawing app that runs in your browser. You open it and start drawing with a finger, a pen or a mouse.

• The tools you need for everyday drawing. Brush, marker, pencil, spray, eraser, fill bucket, line, rectangle and ellipse, plus a colour picker. Choose any colour, size and opacity. Hold Shift to snap a line straight or draw a perfect square or circle.
• A fill bucket for colouring in. It has a Fill similar colours setting, so it fills cleanly up to soft edges.
• Draw over a photo. Add a picture and it becomes part of the drawing. Circle, underline or point an arrow at the part that matters, then send it on.
• Ready-made canvas sizes. Landscape, portrait, square, widescreen and phone wallpaper, with white, cream, yellow, dark or see-through backgrounds. A see-through canvas downloads as a PNG with a transparent background.
• Saved as you draw. Each drawing is kept in My drawings, on this device and in this browser, a moment after each change, with a thumbnail. You can close the page and carry on later. Up to 200 drawings are kept.
• Undo and shortcuts. Undo goes back up to 40 changes. Single-key shortcuts switch tools on a keyboard, and [ and ] change the size.
• Download in full size. Save a PNG or JPG at the full size of the canvas, such as 1600 × 1200 for landscape.
• Installs from the browser. On iPhone, open it in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. On Android, open it in Chrome and tap Install. It also installs on computers. You don't need an app store.
• Works offline once installed. You can draw, open My drawings and download pictures with no connection.
• Private by design. Your drawings stay on your device. Nothing is uploaded unless you choose to save a copy to My files.

It is free to use. My files, which keeps a copy of a picture in your EveryApp account, is part of Pro and needs a connection. You never need it to draw or download.

What Drawing Canvas doesn't do

Be clear about the limits. Drawing Canvas has no layers, so everything you draw sits on one picture. Its brushes don't respond to pen pressure or tilt. It has no custom brush maker, no selection or transform tools, no vector strokes, no comic panels and no animation. It doesn't record a time-lapse.

That makes it the wrong choice for finished illustration, comics or detailed painting. For those, use Procreate, Clip Studio Paint, Krita or Fresco. Drawing Canvas is for the quick jobs: a sketch, a doodle, a child's drawing, a diagram for a lesson, or a note drawn on a screenshot.

How to choose

Start with the device you draw on, then think about the kind of drawing you do.

You draw on an iPad with a pencil and want to make finished art. Procreate is the natural fit. Fresco is worth a look if you love watercolour and oil effects.

You make comics or manga. Clip Studio Paint has the panel, balloon and inking tools built in. On a phone, ibis Paint X covers a lot of the same ground.

You draw on a computer with a pen tablet. Krita gives you a full painting program at no cost on Windows, Mac and Linux. Clip Studio Paint is the alternative if you focus on line art.

You draw mainly on a phone. ibis Paint X gives you layers and many brushes on a small screen. Drawing Canvas is simpler, and good for quick drawings and marking up photos.

You want to draw right now, with nothing to install or learn. Open Drawing Canvas in a browser tab. It works the same on a Mac, a Chromebook, a Windows PC, an iPad or a phone, and keeps your drawings as you go.

You are setting up a tablet for a child. Drawing Canvas has simple tools, a fill bucket for colouring in and undo for slips. Install it once and it works with no internet. There's no account to make before they can draw.

You care where your drawings go. Drawing Canvas keeps them on your device unless you choose to save a copy. For other apps, read their privacy policy, especially if they rely on an online account.

Related tools

If you need more than freehand drawing, EveryApp has other tools that run in the browser. Use the Photo Editor to edit photos with layers, masks, selections and brushes. Use the Vector Editor to draw logos, icons and illustrations with a pen tool and shapes. Use the Sprite Maker for pixel-art sprites you can animate frame by frame.