Instead of Drawpile
Drawpile alternatives
Drawpile brings people onto one canvas for drawing, painting, sketching, and animation, while also supporting offline work. Its 200-plus built-in brushes, multiple brush engines, editable brush settings, stroke stabilizer, layered blend and masking controls, and animation timeline with onion skins cover collaborative and individual projects. OpenRaster and PSD saves help move canvas files between applications. Free official community servers avoid infrastructure setup, while self-hosting and external authentication provide other hosting arrangements. Drawpile is free and open source, with web, Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and browser access on iPhone and iPad.
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Light Brush
Free plan AndroidLinuxMac+2Browser-based painting with masks and selections — Light Brush is a free digital-painting app with browser access, selection and transform tools, masks, and many import formats.
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Pixia
Free plan AndroidiPhoneLinux+1Windows image processing with tablet and ruler tools — Pixia adds tone and color corrections, ruler shapes, tablet compatibility, and PSD conversion, while Linux support is discontinued.
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Sketchbook
Free plan AndroidiPhoneMac+1Cross-platform sketching with stylus pressure and tilt — Sketchbook emphasizes solo sketching with symmetry, rulers, stylus tilt, and layered PSD exchange across mobile and desktop platforms.
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Tux Paint
Free plan AndroidLinuxMac+1Children, classrooms, and accessible computer art — Tux Paint is designed for children, adding 90-plus Magic effects, classroom controls, accessibility options, slideshows, and animated GIF export.
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FireAlpaca
by FireAlpacaFree plan LinuxMacWindowsFree desktop illustration with animation and perspective tools — FireAlpaca provides desktop illustration tools such as mesh deformation, gradient maps, CMYK display, halftone, 3D perspective, and reference windows.
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Adobe Fresco
Free plan iPhoneWindows - 9
Concepts
Free plan AndroidiPhoneWindows - 10
HEAVYPAINT
Free plan AndroidiPhoneLinux+3 - 11
Artstudio Pro
Free plan iPhoneMac - 12
Artweaver
Free plan MacWindows - 13
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Art Set 4
Free plan iPhone - 15
GrafX2
Free plan LinuxWindows - 16
InkForge
Free plan LinuxMacWindows - 17
Infinite Painter
Free plan AndroidiPhone - 18
KolourPaint
Free plan LinuxMac - 19
Limner
Free plan iPhoneMacWindows - 20
MyPaint
Free plan LinuxMacWindows - 21
Milton
Free plan LinuxWindows - 22
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Tayasui Sketches
Free plan AndroidiPhoneMac - 24
Paintbrush
Free plan Mac
An alternative may fit better when you need a native iOS app, a larger brush or materials library, specialized manga and image-editing tools, or software designed for children. Drawpile's native iOS application is unavailable, and its built-in server is not recommended because browsers cannot connect to those sessions and exposing a home computer creates security and privacy implications. Compare solo versus shared-canvas work, platform availability, file formats, pressure and layer controls, selection tools, and classroom or accessibility needs. The products below range from mobile social drawing apps to desktop painting tools and browser-based editors.