Side by side
Clip Studio Paint vs Paintbrush
Both stand on digital painting software. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.
Free trial AndroidiPhoneMac+2
Clip Studio Paint offers drawing, comic, and animation tools across desktop and mobile platforms. Compare PRO and EX against the features you need, and note that perpetual licenses and Update Passes have different terms.
Visit Clip Studio Paint Free plan Mac
Paintbrush covers basic image tasks on macOS, including cropping, text, doodling, and handling several common formats. Its stated scope is simple image work, rather than high-end editing.
Visit PaintbrushThe facts
| Clip Studio Paint | Paintbrush | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | A free trial | Yes |
| Open source | Not published | Not published |
| Runs on | Android, iPhone, Mac, Web, Windows | Mac |
| Lowest paid plan | Clip Studio Paint PRO Update Pass: $10.99 a year | Free or on request |
| Plans published | 10 | 1 |
| Maker | Clip Studio Paint | Not published |
| Website | clipstudio.net | paintbrush.sourceforge.io |
| On digital painting software | #29 of 46 | #25 of 46 |
Clip Studio Paint: what it does well
- Customizable brushes and adjustable 3D reference models.
- Comic tools include multi-page project management.
- EX includes full-length animation tools.
- Monthly and annual plans include 10GB of cloud data.
- Free trials are available for up to six months, varying by platform.
What to know first
- No free plan is listed.
- Perpetual Ver. 5.0 licenses are limited to Windows and macOS.
- Feature updates for perpetual licenses require a separately purchased Update Pass.
- Cloud plans include 10GB, with increased capacity optional.
Paintbrush: what it does well
- Opens and saves five listed image formats
- Supports transparency in PNG and GIF
- Pastes images from common Mac applications
- Completely open source
- Free plan listed as free
What to know first
- Requires macOS
- Not intended to replace high-end image editors
- Latest listed download requires OS X 10.10 or higher
Alternatives to Clip Studio Paint Alternatives to Paintbrush The whole list