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We put the best drawing apps for iOS and Android to the test to see which ones give you all the tools you need to create professional artwork on your tablet or phone.
For most users, Photoshop is easily the pick of the bunch. Available across Android, iPhone, and iPad (as well as desktop devices), the industry-standard ranks among the best digital art and drawing software you can get thanks to a mass of features and an intuitive design process.
Our top alternatives include the excellent and free Krita, iOS Photoshop rival Pixelmator, and cross-platform Infinite Painter, which is perfect for more realistic painting. Check out our full thoughts below, as well as more options for Android, iOS, and Windows tablets.
We’ve tried out each app featured in this guide, with options for professional artists, beginners, and those who just want to have fun.
Best drawing app overall
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When it comes to pro-grade art apps, there’s really no beating Photoshop – from editing images to graphic design and drawing, it does it all. Better still, it’s now available on desktops, browsers, iPad, iPhone, and (finally) Android devices.
You can download the mobile app for free, but in order to unlock loads of extra tools, want a subscription, which unlocks loads of extra tools, including the thoroughly impressive Firefly AI tools. Better still, if you already subscribe to Adobe’s Creative Cloud All Apps, or Pro, you can unlock this mobile app for free.
When we tested out the latest version, we found it delivered all the functions an artist, designer, or photographer needs to produce high-quality, high-res drawings and designs. Even on the iPhone, it’s surprisingly powerful.
Whichever way you access these tools, you’ll have in front of you a powerful drawing application, with industry-standard features, and a virtual unlimited ability to create.
Read our full Adobe Photoshop review
Best free drawing app
Krita is available on most platforms, the only one of note that’s missing is iOS, but if you’re running a Windows, Mac, or have an Android tablet, there’s a version of Krita waiting for you. You can even run it on Linux machines. On top of which, as it’s open source, and maintained by volunteers, Krita is not only free, it gets updated regularly.
For us, this has effectively become a Photoshop alternative without the ongoing price tag. It can even read PSD files, works with layers, has a wealth of brushes, and if you’re used to image editing interfaces, it won’t take you long to feel right at home in Krita. Support for Android is a definite plus, where it offers pen support on top of everything else.
As with most modern apps, you’ll also find AI support here, should you want, need, demand, or desire it. Definitely one worth exploring, and maybe even switching to if you want to escape endless subscriptions.
See what our sister site Creative Bloq thought in its Krita review
Best drawing app for beginners
We chose this app because of its originality. In a sense it’s not quite a drawing app for iPad: although you are free to freestyle whenever you want, its purpose is to teach beginners how to draw.
With that in mind, you have at your disposal thousands of drawing tutorials to choose from. The app guides you through the stages of copying an existing drawing, only moving to the next stage once you’ve completed the current one. Slowly, you’ll acquire the skills needed to draw whatever you fancy. The app also encourages you and even reminds you, if you let it, to draw a little something every day.
One course is free, the rest of its ever growing list, can only be accessed via a subscription which will set you back $7.99 a month or $49.99 for the year. As with all subscriptions on iOS, you’re also offered a 7-day free trial – just make sure to cancel it before that time, if you decide this is not for you.
Best drawing app for Android and iOS
Infinite Painter is an excellent drawing app for both Android and iOS, and I really like it when developers manage to create their vision to cater for multiple platforms. Best of all, Infinite Painter comes in two versions, a free one (which has, as you’d expect, a limited number of features), and the full experience. This is the drawing app I use on my Samsung tablet and I find it well-designed, packed with features, easy to use (and, like real painting, hard to master).
The price for all this is the highly impressive one-time purchase of $5 on the phone or $10 for tablet and phone support. You’re even offered a 7-day free trial. That’s right: no subscription here; you pay once and it’s yours forever, all future updates included. Don’t you just love this customer-friendly business model?
As far as the experience itself goes, the app is very well designed, with tools that are well-organised, easy to find, and hundreds of brushes designed to replicate actual real-world tools like pencils, watercolours, chalks, and so on. Krita may be free, but for such a low price, it may well be worth checking out Infinite Painter.
Best drawing app for iPad
When it comes to the best drawing apps on a tablet, Procreate is the one most talk about. It truly is the go-to tool for drawing on an iPad (and iPhone thanks to Procreate Pocket, a version designed for a smaller screen).
Procreate costs $13 as a one-time fee, whereas Procreate Pocket is only $6). No watered down free version like Infinite Painter, but a seven day free trial is available.
We greatly appreciate the fact Procreate’s website includes video tutorials teaching you the basics of the interface, helping any beginner hit the ground running.
As far as the interface is concerned, it’s like it’s designed to get out of your way. All the tools are there, but they’re neatly tucked away to the sides, devoting most of the screen to your canvas.
You get to play with over 200 brushes, have the ability to customize them, and even create new ones from scratch. It works seamlessly with the Apple Pencil and is incredibly responsive. A truly excellent app.
See the full review from our sister site Creative Bloq
Best drawing app for painting
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If you’re into painting, Adobe Fresco is a top free drawing app that offers a satisfying, real-world-style painting experience on Apple devices. Android users are really missing out with this app, and we’d love to see Adobe bring it to the platform at some point.
If Android compatibility isn’t a deal-breaker, you’ll find Fresco a very pleasing app for painting. Using it is simple enough. There’s a big brush selection, with three core categories – Photoshop’s Pixel brushes, Illustrator’s Vector brushes, and Live brushes. For us, the stand-out is recreating the effect of painting in oils and watercolors. A must-try for any artist.
It’s completely free to use, but an Adobe subscription unlocks a handful of extra features some artists may need, and you’ll also find it bundled with certain apps and plans, including the Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps plans.
This drawing app attempts to replicate how paint interacts with other paints in the real world, but in a virtual digital setting, coupled with powerful layer controls, and even motion paths and animation. There’s a lot to like here, and to top it all, you can also export your project to work on it further in Photoshop.
Read our full Adobe Fresco review
Best sketching app
It’s lucky that Sketchbook is a very good sketching app, as searching for ‘Sketchbook’ is a lot more difficult when you perform a Google search.
Best of all, unlike Procreate which focuses its efforts on the iPad, Sketchbook is as inclusive as it can be, offering a version of its software for Macs, PCs, Androids and iOS devices, and best of all, it’s (mostly) free for mobile devices; desktop users will need to fork out substantially more to use their own versions.
As with other apps on this list, you’ll find a full complement of drawing tools, from pens, to brushes, and more, and we really like that the interface gets out of your way as much as possible, turning your tablet into almost a real drawing pad.
If you’re a pro or a beginner, you’ll find a lot to love here, and for an extra £2 for mobile users, you can access additional tools such as layer grouping, the ability to create your own brushes, additional gradients and more.
Best drawing app alternative to Photoshop
Pixelmator Pro is a highly impressive Photoshop-competitor on the Mac, and those developers have also produced a separate app solely for iPhone and iPad.
It boasts an impressively compact interface, which doesn’t feel cramped, even when working on it on an iPhone (or maybe I’m biased as I was experimenting with it on a Pro Max!). You’re offered a handful of templates, are able can bring in photos from your device’s Photos library, and even gain access to files created in Pixelmator Pro, as long as you’ve saved them to your iCloud Drive.
As you’d expect, you’re able to work with multiple layers, add shapes and new text layers, have access to customisable brushes, and a vast array of colour correcting and retouching tools.
On top of this, just like its bigger Mac sibling, it’s compatible with Photoshop files, enabling you to open and edit them, and even save your work back to that format. It’s a very flexible and versatile app that’s definitely worth the $10 one-off asking price.
Best drawing app for Windows
To think that Macs are best for art and design is as antiquated as believing London is still smothered with smog. Times change, and this particular myth was extinguished long ago. In fact there are some design apps that only exist on the PC, like Artweaver.
It’s available in two versions, one pared down, which is free, which offers basic functionalities and can only be used for non-commercial and academic uses. The full-featured version is honestly the one worth getting, for a one-time fee for a single license (the more licences you purchase, the cheaper they get).
The interface is filled with tools – which can end up feeling cluttered, but thankfully you can move everything around and out of the way to focus on the project you’re working on. You get to work with layers, filters, and you’ll find a good selection of brushes, which are also customisable, helping you get that unique look you’re after.
Best drawing apps: Frequently asked questions
What is the best drawing app?
This is a highly subjective question, and will depend on your budget, platform of choice and skill level. Whether you’re a professional or beginner, Photoshop is always worth trying – it’s the industry-standard for all kinds of art and design work. If that’s not for you, a pro should probably go for Procreate or Infinite Painter, while a beginner could be tempted by ShadowDraw to teach themselves how to draw.
What is the best drawing app for iPad?
There really are two type of drawing apps – those that emulate what Photoshop offers, and those that aim for a more artistic approach, with brushes that simulate how real-world ones interact.
If you’re looking for the former, you could of course download Photoshop, but as with most things from Adobe, it needs an ongoing subscription to get it working. So if cost is a concern, try your hand at Pixelmator. It has a lot of tools for image manipulation and colour correction, might just be what you’re after, and won’t cripple your wallet.
However, should you wish to flex your artistic muscles, I’ll have to say, go with Procreate. It’s a fantastic creative app, with a one-off, highly affordable price, offering you hundreds of brushes, turning your screen into a true canvas.
How do I use drawing apps?
Using a drawing app on a tablet is like using any other app: just use your fingers to draw. But no matter how thin your appendages are, they’re still way more chunky than a stylus. Anyone serious about drawing on a tablet needs to get at least one. Depending on your device, options include Apple Pencil and Samsung’s S Pen (and a range of stylus alternatives).
If you’re new to drawing apps, ShadowDraw is a great place to start. As are lighter weight software like PenUp, which is free and loaded onto Samsung tablets.
What is the best app for drawing with Apple Pencil?
Procreate, Photoshop, and Pixelmator are all exceptionally good apps to use with the Apple Pencil stylus. This lets you use your tablet as a canvas and the pencil as, well, a pencil (or paint brush).
Generally speaking, any iPad drawing app will work well with the Apple Pencil. It’s more a case of which features each app has that you want to use.
How to choose the best drawing app for you
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When choosing which drawing app is best for you, there are several factors.
Hardware
Your tablet or phone will dictate which drawing app you can download – and while many work across Android, iOS, and iPadOS, some like Photoshop are only compatible with Apple devices. Others won’t work on older Android and Apple operating systems, so check system requirements.
For more hardware, we’ve reviewed the best laptops for graphic design, the best laptops for drawing and digital art, and the best drawing tablets.
Price
Most of the best drawing apps offer free trials, and a handful are completely free to use forever. Mostly, though, you’ll need to choose between a subscription, as with most Adobe apps, or a perpetual license. This is a better option if you want to avoid on-going subscriptions.
Features and styles
Different drawing apps offer different brush selections, design workflows, tools, assets, and features. So, depending on your artistic style, a tool like Adobe Fresco or Krita may suit you more than Photoshop.
Cloud
It’s always worth checking cloud storage services included in your chosen drawing app . That way, if anything happens to your tablet or phone, you can still access your art. If not, ensure you’ve set up a back-up process. For more in this, we tested out the best cloud storage services.
How we test the best drawing apps
Our team of expert reviewers have tested hundreds of creative apps and software, including the best graphic design software, and the best interior design software.
With this long experience, we have a good feel for how they work straight out the gate. This helps us find our way around an interface quickly, as innovative many of them are, there are aspects of any software that is similar, no matter which app we’re reviewing. Thankfully, there are also many unique and interesting features that come to the fore once we get past the basics.
Artistic applications are more unique, so we set about creating projects from scratch, experimenting with as many features as we can to get a good feel for how the software works, and how easy it is to perform each task. It helps that as well as reviewing these packages, we also use many professionally, giving us a good idea of what works, how it should work, and how efficient it is – or should be.
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