drawsta vs ibis Paint
drawsta is a free sketchbook with no ads in it and nothing to cancel. That is most of the difference here, because nothing comes close to ibis Paint's sheer quantity of stuff — and what you trade for it is ads, or a subscription, or both apps.
| Feature | drawsta | ibis Paint |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free. | Three ways, from ibis's own pricing page: the free ibis Paint X carries ads; Ad Removal is $15.99 as a one-off; and there is a separate paid app, ibis Paint, at $15.99. ibis notes prices vary by store and region. |
| Subscription | None. | Yes, optional. Premium Membership is $4.49 a month with a 7-day free trial, or $27.99 a year with a first month free. It adds 20GB of cloud storage, no ads, premium filters, vector tools and animation. |
| Platforms | iPhone and iPad. iOS 17 or later. | iPhone and iPad, iOS 15 or later. Also on Android. |
| Tracing | A feed of pictures, and one tap puts the one you like on your canvas as a ghosted trace layer you draw straight over. Turn the ghost off and your line is what is left. | A reference window, listed among its features. Like Procreate's, it is a picture you look at rather than one your line sits on top of, and you supply it. |
| Who it is for | People who want to draw more and keep not drawing, usually because they cannot think of what to draw. | Manga and anime artists above all — the screentones and fonts are the giveaway — and anyone who wants to record and share the making of a drawing. |
Where ibis Paint wins
- The library, which is not a close contest: its listing counts over 130,000 brushes, 30,000+ materials, 3,000+ fonts, 86 filters and 46 screentones.
- Screentones and comic tooling, which make it the obvious pick for manga.
- Time-lapse recording of your drawing, built in and made to be shared.
- An enormous user base to learn from — ibis puts the series past 500 million downloads.
The honest version
If you are drawing manga, this is the app and this page is not going to pretend otherwise. If what you want is a quiet sketchbook with no ads in it and nothing to cancel, that is a different app, and the free tier of ibis Paint is not it.
Where these claims come from
Every statement about ibis Paint on this page is from one of these, checked 29 September 2026. Prices move and differ by region — go and look rather than taking our word for it. If something could not be verified from a listing or an official site, it is not here.