In this episode of Procreate FAQs, I am going to answer one of your popular questions: “Is there an app like Procreate for Android?” Let’s have a look …
💡 If you are interested to learn why Procreate is not on Android, I have included more details below.
What is a Good Alternative to Procreate on Android?
Here are the most popular Procreate alternatives for Android among the artists. Scroll down for more details
- #1 Popular Alternative: Ibis Paint X (FREE)
- #2 Great Alternative: Infinite Painter
- #2 Well Optimized Alternative: Clip Studio Paint
- #3 Vector Based Alternative: Concepts App
- #4 “New Old” Alternative: Sketchbook App
- #6 Open Source Alternative: Krita (FREE)
- #7 Trending Alternative: HiPaint (FREE)
- #8 Comic Books Alternative: MediBang Paint (FREE)
#1 Popular Alternative: Ibis Paint X (FREE)
Highlights
- Link: Ibis Paint X App on Google Play
- Rating: 100M+ downloads with 4.3★ from 2.4M reviews
- Trial: Yes, free basic version
- Price: One-time purchase for $9.99 with a subscription model for additional tools and features at $2.99/month or $27.99/year
- System requirements: Android 5+; more system requirements are here
- Manual: Official tutorials
- Creator: Ibis
- I recommend this Android drawing tablet: Samsung Galaxy Tab S9+ with Samsung S Pen
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ➕ The common two-finger undo and pinch to zoom gestures are implemented smoothly. | ➖ Ad banner at the top takes up space on canvas and unless you remove it with purchase |
| ➕ There is an extensive brush library with nicely calibrated options perfect for inking manga illustrations. | ➖ The huge brush selection makes it hard to remember and find favorites again. |
| ➕ Stabilizer helps smooth out strokes. The stabilization option makes drawing curves and lines much smoother. | ➖ Certain actions like opening files have unclear or unintuitive flows compared to other apps. |
| ➕ Paint bucket fills shapes perfectly. | ➖ Loading features like fonts is slow. |
| ➕ Reference layers enable separating line art from colors. | ➖ Some advertised capabilities like PSD import don’t work properly or fail to import files |
| ➕ The specialized comic tools help quickly add panels and experiment with page layout options. |
Preview
Artist KocoFruit shares her experience with IBIS Paint X in the video below:
#2 Great Alternative: Infinite Painter
Highlights
- Link: Infinite Painter on Google Play
- Rating: 10M+ downloads with 4.3★ from 140K reviews
- Trial: Yes, 7 days
- Price: One-time $9.99 or your local currency equivalent
- System requirements: Android 7+
- Manual: Reference manual
- Creator: Infinite Studio
- I recommend this Android drawing table: Samsung Galaxy Tab S9+ with Samsung S Pen
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ➕ Infinite Painter is a one-time $9.99 so similarly priced compared to Procreate | ➖ Procreate has a much larger following and there are many more tutorials available compared to the Infinite Painter |
| ➕ Infinite Painter has a minimalist interface focused on drawing experience. It surfaces only the relevant tools while drawing, avoiding on-screen clutter. | ➖ Because there are so many Android device types, it may cause that the Infinite Painter won’t work smoothly on some of the tablets |
| ➕ The brushes and painting engine mimic real artistic media, feeling very natural and responsive. | ➖ The Infinite Painter can freeze up or crash unexpectedly in some situations, like when working on complex projects with a lot of layers. This could mean that the app has difficulty using the RAM of your tablet efficiently. |
| ➕ Infinite Painter has lots of tutorials built into the app to help you learn it | ➖ Combining filters and masks can sometimes corrupt artwork files, resulting in lost work and time. |
| ➕ You can share and view others’ artwork made in Infinite Painter through the app | ➖ There are bugs that prevent properly importing and exporting PSD project files to transfer between software. |
| ➕ Developers actively improve the app and release new features and updates regularly. This ensures the experience keeps getting better |
Preview
Have a look at the preview of the app from the creators:
#2 Well Optimized Alternative: Clip Studio Paint
Highlights
- Link: Clip Studio Paint on Google Play
- Rating: 5M+ downloads with 3.3★ from 15K reviews
- Trial: Yes, but not clear if 30 days, 3 months, or 6 months
- Price: Many purchase options, including one-time purchases and subscription models
- System requirements: Android 8+, more system requirements here
- Manual: Official tutorials
- Creator: Celsys
- I recommend this Android drawing table: Samsung Galaxy Tab S9+ with Samsung S Pen
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ➕ Clip Studio Paint provides professional-grade features for drawing and illustration | ➖ Confusing pricing model and trial – I counted more than 10 purchase options on their pricing page and I am not sure what I am getting with each |
| ➕ The app developers ported the app very well from the original desktop version, so it performs smoothly on Android devices with a user interface optimized for touchscreens | ➖ Because there are so many Android device types, it may cause that the Clip Studio Paint may not work smoothly on some of the tablets |
| ➕ The 3D figure posing tools in Clip Studio Paint provide helpful visual references for illustrating people or characters in different positions and angles |
Preview
Check out how stationery artist Carri uses Clip Studio Paint on her Android tablet in the video below:
#3 Vector-Based Alternative: Concepts App
Highlights
- Link: Concepts App on Google Play
- Rating: 1M+ downloads with 4.3★ from 15K reviews
- Trial: Yes, 7 days
- Price: 3 purchase options – Basic for free; Pro is subscription-based at $4.99/month or $29.99/year; or one-time purchases of tools and features
- System requirements: Android 9+, more system requirements here
- Manual: Official manual and Q&As
- Creator: TopHatch
- I recommend this Android drawing table: Samsung Galaxy Tab S9+ with Samsung S Pen
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ➕ The limited tools and UI are easy to learn. There is a large canvas space to draw without on-screen clutter | ➖ Filling shapes with color is challenging without a fill bucket. Gaps often occur when you try to manually color shapes |
| ➕ Concepts app is vector-based, so the lines stay sharp when zooming in, unlike pixelation with raster apps like Procreate | ➖ You can’t use handy modes like multiply for shadows, you have to manually draw separate shadow shapes which can be tedious |
| ➕ Infinite canvas, so you can continually draw without hitting an edge and then crop later. Useful for sketching scenes going beyond a frame. There are no size limits. | ➖ Selecting and deleting masks takes many steps. |
| ➕ Complex illustrations with many layers take up little storage since it’s vectors. Layers have a negligible impact on file size. | ➖ Has fewer brushes to choose from compared to apps like Procreate |
| ➕ Concepts can open files across Windows, Android, and iPad (with some limitations currently). This provides you with a lot of flexibility. |
Preview
Check out how the awesome urban sketching artist Teoh Yi Chie uses the Concepts app in his video below:
#4 New Old Alternative: Sketchbook App
Highlights
- Link: Sketchbook App on Google Play
- Rating: 100M+ downloads with 4.2★ from 640K reviews
- Trial: Yes
- Price: FREE with in-app purchases
- System requirements: Android 8+; more system requirements are here
- Manual: Official manual and Q&As
- Creator: Sketchbook
- I recommend this Android drawing table: Samsung Galaxy Tab S9+ with Samsung S Pen
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ➕ Drawing experience feels fluid and responsive | ➖ Due to recent sale, it may be unclear what’s the future direction for the app. It used to be owned by Autodesk (big company in 3D, engineering and construction) who decided to discontinue Sketchbook app, but sold it to new owners |
| ➕ It supports layers for complex drawings | ➖ Because there are so many Android device types, it may cause that the Sketchbook app may not work smoothly on some of the tablets |
| ➕ Allows exporting layered PSD files to work on the art in Photoshop. | |
| ➕ Suitable for professional illustration work | |
| ➕ Sketchbook has a huge variety of different brushes | |
| ➕ Available on many platforms – iPad, Android, Windows, Mac |
Preview
#6 Open Source Alternative: Krita (FREE)
Highlights
- Link: Krita App on Google Play
- Rating: 1M+ downloads
- Trial: N/A
- Price: Free because it’s open source project (donations to the development fund are welcome)
- System requirements: N/A
- Manual: Official tutorials
- Creator: Krita Foundation
- I recommend this Android drawing table: Samsung Galaxy Tab S9+ with Samsung S Pen
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ➕ It is free to use with no costs | ➖ Krita is still in beta on Android, so the interface is not well optimized for Android tablets. The many interface panels surround your canvas and feel cramped on a tablet versus having desktop space. |
| ➕ Krita is extremely robust and full-featured like Photoshop, giving you professional-level tools for digital art and design on an Android tablet. | ➖ It lacks common gestures like two-finger undo/redo which would improve workflow. |
| ➕ It has animation features, making it good for digital art and animation. Krita supports digital animation with its timeline and frame-by-frame animation tools. | ➖ Certain functionality expects precision mouse input and doesn’t translate perfectly to touch. |
Preview
Illustrator and animator Brad Colbow shares his impressions with Krita for Android in the video below:
#7 Trending Alternative: HiPaint (FREE)
Highlights
- Link: HiPaint App on Google Play
- Rating: 500K+ downloads 4.6★ from 10K reviews
- Trial: N/A
- Price: FREE
- System requirements: N/A
- Manual: Official manual
- Creator: Aige
- I recommend this Android drawing table: Samsung Galaxy Tab S9+ with Samsung S Pen
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ➕ The gallery is very similar to Procreate, so it’s easy to organize projects | ➖ The interface mimicry makes it feel like a Procreate clone rather than a unique app |
| ➕ Has basic illustration tools like layers, selections, transformations | ➖ Brushes lack tilt sensitivity and per-brush customization |
| ➕ Stabilizer works very well and gives a natural drawing experience on par with Procreate. | ➖ Transforming multiple layers simultaneously doesn’t work well. |
| ➕ The radial and other symmetry tools are useful for geometric art, like mandalas. | ➖ The fill tool could be improved to avoid pixelated edges and be more precise. |
| ➕ The fill tool works quite OK for basic work | ➖ Text in the app is sometimes blurry and sometimes not fully translated from Chinese |
| ➕ Has most layer blending modes needed for illustration | |
| ➕ PSD export allows taking work to other programs like Photoshop. |
Preview
Artist Yasmin Sofea showcases the HiPaint app on her Android tablet in the video below:
#8 Comic Books Alternative: MediBang Paint (FREE)
Highlights
- Link: MediBang Paint App on Google Play
- Rating: 10M+ downloads 4.2★ from 300K reviews
- Trial: N/A
- Price: FREE, Premium option with subscription model
- System requirements: Android 8+; more details are here
- Manual: Official tutorials
- Creator: MediBang
- I recommend this Android drawing table: Samsung Galaxy Tab S9+ with Samsung S Pen
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ➕ Medibang is free on all major desktop and tablet platforms, making it easily accessible to try. | ➖ Some lag/latency when drawing. |
| ➕ Your artwork can be automatically saved to Medibang’s cloud storage for backup and syncing between devices. | ➖ The basic palm rejection introduces stray lines occasionally when drawing, so it needs to be switched to stricter mode. |
| ➕ Many useful comic panel layouts and templates are available to support comic creation. And many material templates like comic backgrounds can be downloaded for use in your art. | ➖ Text and photo manipulation tools are lacking compared to advanced software like Photoshop |
| ➕ You can customize the shortcut panel with your most used functions for efficient access | |
| ➕ Layers have blend modes like multiply to composite drawings, a useful feature. | |
| ➕ Magic wand and selection tools work well | |
| ➕ Can export as PSD to use in Photoshop – PSD export allows moving your art to Photoshop for further editing. |
Preview
Here you have MediBang Paint in action on Android by SiomaiArts:
Why is Procreate not on Android?
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I think there are a few reasons why Procreate is not on Android:
- Platform differences – Procreate is designed to leverage the unique features of the Apple Pencil, the excellent touch capabilities of iPadOS/iOS, and the seamless integration between iPadOS and iPads. Replicating the same experience on Android could be difficult due to so many Android-supporting tablets.
- Exclusivity – Procreate is developed by Savage Interactive, which is a small team focused just on iPadOS and iOS. They have built Procreate specifically for Apple’s ecosystem and have no immediate plans to port to Android. Keeping it exclusive helps market it as a unique selling point of iPadOS/iOS.
- Development costs – Porting Procreate to Android would require significant development work and ongoing upkeep. As a small team, Savage Interactive likely doesn’t have the resources or has made the decision not to allocate resources to maintain both iPadOS/iOS and Android versions.
- Licensing limitations – Certain technologies or SDKs (Apple’s software development kit) used in Procreate may be proprietary to Apple or deeply integrated into iPadOS/iOS, making direct porting to Android impossible.
FAQs
Is there an Android equivalent to Procreate?
Yes, there are several Android equivalents to Procreate. The most popular are: Infinite Painter, Clip Studio Paint, Concepts, Sketchbook, Krita, HiPaint and MediBang Paint.
Why is Procreate only on Apple?
Procreate is only on Apple quite likely because of the following reasons: Android vs iPadOS/iOS platform differences; business decision by Procreate creators to keep the app exclusive to Apple ecosystem; development costs associated with developing for more than one platform; licensing limitations in Apple’s SDK
Hi, I am Iva (rhymes with “viva”). I am a full-time self-taught artist behind Art Side of Life® and a Top Teacher on Skillshare. I have 15 years of experience in the creative field as a concept designer, illustrator, art director, and now freelance artist, content creator, and art instructor. My goal is to help you get your creative groove on with Procreate and make awesome art through practical classes, tutorials, Procreate brushes, and guides on art tools, supplies and resources. About me »
