Alternatives to Procreate
A digital painting and illustration app for iPad, sold as a one-time purchase. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Procreate
A digital painting and illustration app for iPad, sold as a one-time purchase.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Procreate.
Clip Studio Paint
A commercial drawing and painting app for illustration, comics and animation across desktop and mobile.
Clip Studio Paint runs on Windows, macOS, Android and iOS with comic and animation tools, but it is paid after a trial rather than a one-time iPad purchase.
Adobe Fresco
Adobe's free drawing and painting app for iPad and iPhone, built for stylus and touch.
Adobe Fresco is a free iPad and iPhone painting app with thousands of brushes and animation tools, replacing Procreate's one-time purchase with no cost.
Krita
A free digital painting program built for illustrators, with over a hundred brushes ready to use.
Krita is a free, open-source painting program for Windows, macOS and Linux desktops, so moving from Procreate means drawing with a tablet on a computer instead of an iPad.
Sketchbook
Drawing and painting app for sketching and illustration on macOS, Windows, Android and iOS.
Sketchbook is a freemium sketching app on Windows, macOS, Android and iOS with an uncluttered canvas, though desktop and mobile are separate products.
Tayasui Sketches
A drawing and painting app with realistic brushes for iPad, iPhone, Mac and Android.
Tayasui Sketches is a freemium app for iPad, iPhone, Mac and Android with realistic watercolor and acrylic brushes and iCloud sync between Apple devices.
Infinite Painter
A painting and sketching app for Android and iOS with natural brushes and realistic blending.
Infinite Painter is a freemium painting app with natural brushes on both Android and iOS, extending beyond Procreate's Apple-only availability.
ibisPaint
A mobile drawing and painting app for illustration, manga and animation, with an online gallery.
ibisPaint is a freemium Android and iOS drawing app aimed at illustration, manga and animation, with an online gallery and tutorials.
MediBang Paint
A free painting and comic creation app for desktop, tablet and phone.
MediBang Paint is a free painting and comic app for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS, closed source and with a website now focused on Paletta.
Also worth comparing
These listings name Procreate as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
ArtRage
A natural-media painting program with realistic paint blending and textures for desktop, tablet and phone.
Procreate is a one-time purchase for iPad with a separate iPhone version, so moving to it drops Windows, macOS and Android support.
Concepts
Infinite-canvas sketching app where every stroke is an editable vector, for iOS, Android and Windows.
Procreate is a one-time purchase painting app designed around the iPad, with raster brushes instead of editable vector strokes, and no Windows or Android version.
Corel Painter
A digital painting program from Corel that simulates natural media brushes for illustration and photo painting.
Procreate moves painting to the iPad as a one-time purchase, with no Windows or macOS version available.
Paintstorm Studio
A paid digital painting program with deeply customizable brushes for Windows, macOS, Linux and iPad.
Procreate is a one-time purchase painting app built around the iPad, with no Windows, macOS or Linux version.
Rebelle
Painting software for Windows and Mac that simulates real color mixing, wet diffusion and drying.
Procreate is a one-time-purchase painting app for iPad only, so switching means moving from a Windows or Mac computer to an iPad.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Procreate Dreams
iPad app for 2D animation, combining frame-by-frame flipbook drawing with keyframes and video editing.
Pixelmator Pro
Apple's image editor for Mac and iPad with nondestructive layers, vector tools and AI features.
