Art Software reviews from Reddit
Summary
We analyzed 204 Reddit reviews across 25 subreddits and 55 posts to rank the best Art Software brands recommended by redditors, including communities like r/DigitalArt, r/gamedev, r/PixelArt, r/surfaceprox, r/DigitalPainting. Top-rated brands include Krita (4.4/5), Aseprite (4.5/5), GIMP (3.9/5).
Stats
Reviews204
Subreddits25
Posts55
Brands66
Products34
204 reviews from
and
By Brand
/By Product
#1
Krita
4.4
(34)
"Krita is a great choice – you don't really need another drawing software"
"Krita, it's free."
"Absolutely vote for Krita on a non Apple device."
"Krita"
"Krita is your best on here"
"Don't let the fear of unknown stop you—download Krita and let your creativity soar into the realms of fantasy."
"Krita is a good software for digital art."
"Krita is free and very good."
"Krita is great!"
"Krita is a great option since its free on PC and has a variety of mediums to use. Its relatively user friendly."
#2
Aseprite
4.5
(20)
"Aseprite is technically free if you compile it yourself, and it's capable of making sprite sheets for you with little effort."
"Pirate aseprite"
"Aseprite is $20. It's a steal."
"I would pay for Aseprite (pixel art)."
"Aseprite is excellent for pixel art."
"It's my first Pixel art software but I love it."
"It's amazing."
"I'm a big fan of Aesprite myself, but I confess it's worked so well I've never shopped around."
"Aseprite is pretty popular."
"Aseprite is an excellent tool for pixel art creation."
#3
GIMP
3.9
(18)
"GIMP is great for image editing."
"GIMP is a powerful and versatile image editing tool."
"GIMP is a great free open source photoshop alternative."
"I actually like to make them in GIMP and then copy/paste into the sprite editor"
"GIMP is a great alternative for general art."
"Gimp is excellent for drawing and painting, suitable for pixel art."
"General purpose ones : Photoshop or Gimp (last one is free)"
"GIMP also supports multiple layers, making it a good alternative."
"GIMP is better for photo processing, especially with GMIC plugin."
"Gimp"
#4
Clip Studio Paint
4.5
(11)
"Clip Studio Paint"
"Clip Studio Paint is a great diverse tool that is affordable with a one-time purchase."
"I recently started on Clip Studio Paint and love it."
"I love Clip Studio Paint even more."
"It's amazing! The software costs like $50 USD and usually has 50% off sales."
"It's a good and fairly cheap program for cartoons and manga. You can't beat the lineart in it."
"Clip studio has for a couple days 60% off and it's one buy, like around 20$ the basic version I think. Worth trying it."
"Clip Studio is a great software for digital art."
"It's definitely similar and is a one time purchase instead of needing an Adobe subscription."
"Clip Studio Paint is also recommended."
#5
Adobe
4.9
(10)
"Adobe Fresco is $10 / year which is a bargain imo. It does drawing and paint and supports both vector and raster art."
"Photoshop"
"Photoshop is great for painting."
"Adobe Illustrator is excellent for vector art and clean UI."
"General purpose ones : Photoshop or Gimp (last one is free)"
"Once you learn how to use it the power is UNBELIEVABLE"
"Adobe Illustrator is an excellent tool for graphic design."
"I recommend Photoshop ARM64 Beta with OPENGL compatibility pack."
"Photoshop CS2 is available for free, making it a great option for users."
"Photoshop is versatile with multiple layers and a timeline."
#6
Autodesk
4.7
(9)
"The interface looks very optimized for touch."
"SketchUp is an incredible free software for tablets, it's on Android and iOS."
"Autodesk Sketchbook is the best for beginners and is now free."
"The predictive stroke feature makes drawing lines and circles neater and easier."
"Autodesk Sketchbook is really good, I've used them for years, and they went completely free some time ago."
"I like Autodesk Sketchbook Pro...also free"
"Sketchbook Pro is definitely easy to learn!"
"Clips Studio Paint is a good app, but it's not very beginner friendly. Sketchbook Pro is a simple yet powerful alternative."
"If you still want to use Sketchbook, you can search for the 32bit version."
#7
Fire Alpaca
4.2
(6)
"It's free and I enjoyed using it as a beginner digital artist!"
"Firealpaca is also a good choice for drawing."
"Fire Alpaca is free and I absolutely loved it."
"Firealpaca is user-friendly and a solid choice for beginners."
"It's not specifically designed for pixels, but I use FireAlpaca."
"FireAlpaca is a decent free app for PC."
#8
InkScape
4.0
(6)
"Inkscape might work. Use the bezier tool, click to start and end."
"Inkscape, Adobe Illustrator and Vectr might be decent choices."
"Vector art? Inkscape."
"Inkscape is a solid free alternative for vector art."
"Overpaint sketches in InkScape - vector graphics with easily editable edges."
"Inkscape works well for vector images."
#9
Blender
4.8
(5)
"Blender for the rest of 3D stuff"
"Retopo and bake in blender"
"Blender is a fantastic tool for 3D modeling and animation."
"Blender is a powerful tool for 3D modeling."
"3D (probably) everything? Blender."
#10
Paint Tool SAI
4.4
(5)
"Paint tool SAI is a great diverse tool that is affordable with a one-time purchase."
"I swear by Paint Tool SAI for my digital art!"
"Paint Tool SAI is super outdated but pretty simple to use with tutorials and such."
"I personally like Paint tool SAI, the only downside is that if you have a free version like I do you can't really create an image with a transparent background without using a third party application."
"SAI is fairly cheap and often goes on sale."
#11
Celsys
4.7
(3)
"I use Clip Studio Paint for all my digital art projects and love its features!"
"Clip Studio Paint is highly recommended for those willing to invest a bit of money."
"Clip Studio Paint is a great tool for digital art."
#12
Medibang
4.0
(3)
"Medibang. thats the one that is the most similar to paid softwares for me."
"Medibang is another option for digital art."
"Medibang is way better."
#13
Microsoft
4.0
(3)
"MSPaint is a fantastic tool for quick and easy image editing."
"An intuitive tool for beginners to create sketches easily."
"Microsoft's old SketchPal app is also great for a casual drawing session, though it doesn't get updates anymore."
#14
Photoshop
3.7
(3)
"Photoshop is a powerful tool, but it comes with a subscription cost."
"Photoshop is a great alternative."
"I never got huge into Photoshop because it was always insanely expensive."
#15
ZBrush
5.0
(2)
"I use Zbrush for sculpting"
"I usually sculpt in zbrush"
#16
Procreate
5.0
(2)
"Procreate isn’t free - but very very cheap - and one of the highest rated art tools on tablet."
"Procreate is great for portability and easy to use."
#17
Substance Painter
5.0
(2)
"Textures on Substance Painter"
"Texture in substance painter these days."
#18
PyxelEdit
4.5
(2)
"PyxelEdit is still the best program for tilesets, hands down."
"PyxelEdit is amazing if you have $9 to spare."
#19
Ibispaint
4.5
(2)
"Ibispaint is amazing and available on most operating systems."
"There are free drawing programs like ibis paint and krita"
#20
Apple
4.5
(2)
"I personally use Procreate but I use an iPad."
"Procreate is recommended for iPad users, especially with manga style brushes."
#21
Concepts
4.5
(2)
"On the vector side I use Concepts - also available a native ARM64 app."
"I enjoy using Concepts, I'd say it's a sketching app more than an art app (everything is vectors). Works great on the SPX."
#22
Leonardo
4.5
(2)
"Its a great painting/drawing app, which has native ARM64 support."
"Leonardo is a good recommendation."
#23
Sketchable
4.5
(2)
"Sketchable has an ARM64 version as well."
"Sketchable is praised for being good for hybrid laptops with seamless zoom."
#24
ArtRage
4.0
(2)
"Artrage and Rebelle are very similar."
"ArtRage is a good option for a realistic watercolour, it works well on my Surface."
#25
Piskel
4.0
(2)
"Check out https://www.piskelapp.com/ it's amazing and free."
"Piskel can be used in browser and you can save your work online to a gallery which can be private or public. Its has its limitations... But its pretty good for a free app."
#26
Stable Diffusion
4.0
(2)
"It's free and amazing and easy to use once you understand some settings."
"The best free software is Stable Diffusion."
#27
Paint.NET
4.0
(2)
"Paint dot net, game maker 8.1 sprite editor and aimp"
"Paint.Net (drawing sprites and tile sets) and Tiled (map editor)😉☺"
#28
Pixaki
4.0
(2)
"I'm using Pixaki and really liking it."
"Pixaki is great for pixel art, though it has some limitations with tiles."
#29
Affinity
3.5
(2)
"Affinity Designer 2 is a great one-time payment option for vector art."
"Affinity Designer is too laggy on the SPX."
#30
Corel
3.5
(2)
"The brushes are excellent, the watercolor and oil paints are spot on."
"Corel Painter is the most robust but it is also the most expensive by a large margin. I also find it quite buggy."
#31
Savage Interactive
5.0
(1)
"Procreate is the best option for iPad users."
#32
Twilight Edge
5.0
(1)
"PikoPixel is a fantastic free, open-source pixel-art editor for Mac OS X."
#33
XP PEN
5.0
(1)
"I am using one that comes with my XP PEN Deco Fun tablet. ArtRage Lite is great!"
#34
Libresprite
5.0
(1)
"Libresprite is great for animation with features like layering and onion skins."
#35
Drawing Desk
5.0
(1)
"It's great for both beginners and professionals, and it's super easy to use."
#36
SketchClub
5.0
(1)
"I highly recommend SketchClub for pixel work; it works like how you wish Photoshop worked."
#37
Wacom
5.0
(1)
"Freeware Inkscape rocks, it kicks ass too."
#38
Magma
5.0
(1)
"Https://magma.com is excellent"
#39
Scenario
5.0
(1)
"I have seen amazing art generated from prompts like photo realistic picture of a beautiful woman in the 1930s standing on a street in London."
#40
Pixelorama
5.0
(1)
"[https://orama-interactive.itch.io/pixelorama]"
#41
Sketchbook Designer
5.0
(1)
"Sketchbook designer is awesome"
#42
Adobe Photoshop
5.0
(1)
"Photoshop."
#43
dotpict
4.0
(1)
"User-friendly for creating pixel art with a canvas size up to 192x192."
#44
Systemax
4.0
(1)
"Paint Tool SAI is a close second choice for digital painting."
#45
PixelStudio
4.0
(1)
"PixelStudio is a free app on iOS and Android, it was pretty fleshed out and easy to figure out."
#46
Rebelle
4.0
(1)
"I currently use Rebelle 7 Pro."
#47
Realistic Paint Studio
4.0
(1)
"It would definitely be the easiest to pick up for someone new to digital art."
#48
Sketchbook Pro
4.0
(1)
"Sketchbook Pro is also pretty easy to pick up."
#49
Godot Engine
4.0
(1)
"Godot Engine is a great option for game development."
#50
Greenfish Icon Editor Pro
4.0
(1)
"It was great, but I've decided to invest in Aseprite."
#51
Pyxel Edit
4.0
(1)
"Pyxel Edit is great for tile making with a built-in system to save and modify tiles."
#52
Huion
4.0
(1)
"Huion Kamvas can be used on mobile phones and pc as an accessory/screen if you get an adapter cable"
#53
Leonardo AI
4.0
(1)
"Leonardo AI is pretty damn solid."
#54
Topogun
4.0
(1)
"Sometimes I also use Topogun when I have to retopo Tricky models."
#55
Photopea
4.0
(1)
"It's for photo editing, but maybe [Photopea](https://www.photopea.com/)?"
#56
Octopath Traveler
4.0
(1)
"Modern indie games imitating them and 'HD-2D' games like Octopath Traveller."
#57
Maya
4.0
(1)
"My son used to be really into maya i think it was when it first came out"
#58
Gpick
4.0
(1)
"See if gpick will help, it has some color generation functionality."
#59
Tilesetter
4.0
(1)
"There's Tilesetter and there's a demo as well."
#60
Affinity Photo
4.0
(1)
"Affinity Photo (much cheaper but excellent ) or Corel Painter."
#61
Autodesk SketchBook
4.0
(1)
"Autodesk Sketchbook."
#62
PaintStorm Studio
4.0
(1)
"PaintStorm Studio."
#63
Autodesk SketchBook Pro
4.0
(1)
"Have you looked at autodesk sketchbook pro?"
#64
MS Paint
3.0
(1)
"I sometimes still use MS Paint, there are a lot of tips and tricks you can actually use to create /Layers/ without the program actually having layers within itself."
#65
GameMaker
3.0
(1)
"I use an older version of Gamemaker, since I really don't like the sprite creation on the newer versions."
#66
Grafx2
2.0
(1)
"Grafx2 is oldschool and far from perfect due to a badly ported version."
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