Report updated May 19, 2026
ibis Paint X
For digital artists and manga creators ranging from hobbyists to professionals who require high-performance drawing tools on mobile and desktop devices.
ibis Paint X is a well-regarded graphics & design app that is free with in-app purchases. With a 4.5/5 rating from 3.2M reviews, it maintains solid user satisfaction. Users particularly appreciate beginner-friendly drawing tools and intuitive interface design facilitate rapid skill development for new artists, though lack of cloud-based account synchronization prevents progress recovery after app reinstallation or device changes remains a common concern.
What is ibis Paint X?
ibis Paint X is a high-performance digital painting and manga creation app for iOS and Android.
Users hire ibis Paint X to bridge the gap between casual sketching and professional illustration through a low-friction, ad-supported entry point.
Current Momentum
v14.0 · 1mo ago
Active- Added Lasso Selection to Vector tools.
- Added Speech Bubble and Arrow shapes.
- Added Brush Cursor for stylus hover.
Active Nemesis
FlipaClip: Draw 2D Animation
By Visual Blasters
Other Rivals
7-Day Rank Pulse 🇺🇸
Graphics & DesignRating Pulse 🇺🇸
Recent User Mood
What makes this app unique?
What Does It Look Like?
What Are The Key Features?
Records the entire drawing process as a video for playback and sharing
Access to over 47,000 brushes
Unlocks 20GB cloud storage, premium materials, and advanced filters
How much does it cost?
- Free version with advertisements
- Paid version (Ad Removal Upgrade)
- Premium Membership (Monthly/Yearly plan)
Freemium model uses ad-supported free access to drive volume, with a clear path to monetization via one-time ad removal or recurring premium subscriptions.
Who Built It?
ibis
Empowering digital artists with professional-grade illustration tools and a social ecosystem for sharing the creative process on mobile.
Portfolio
2
Apps
What other apps does ibis make?
Explore the full ibis report
Portfolio breakdown, audience, momentum, and every app published by ibis.
What do users think recently?
High confidence · Latest 71 of 149 total reviews analyzed · Based on 149 reviews. Signal may be noisy.
How did the latest release land?
What is the recent mood?
Recent user voice shows a excited sentiment. Users appreciate beginner-friendly drawing tools and intuitive interface design facilitate rapid skill development for new artists, but report lack of cloud-based account synchronization prevents progress recovery after app reinstallation or device changes.
What Users Love
What Frustrates Users
What Users Want
How have ratings & review volume moved?
Rating, review sentiment, and total reviews over time, with release markers showing the post-launch impact.
Vertical markers = app releases. Hover any release for the post-release impact delta.
View the full user-sentiment analysis
Mood gauge, ratings & review-volume history, every praise / complaint / request, and sentiment over time.
What is the competitive landscape for ibis Paint X?
Where is it available?
Localized markets (11)
How's The Graphics & Design Market?
How does it evolve in the Graphics & Design market?
ibis Paint X holds a consistent #9 Grossing rank across multiple international markets, signaling strong monetization efficiency despite its free-to-start model. The gap between its high Free chart placement and stable Grossing rank suggests the ad-removal and premium-membership tiers are effectively converting the massive user base.
Rank progression
227 active rankings tracked — 30-day window
The rivals identified
Nemeses(1)
With over 770k reviews and a high-velocity release cadence, it dominates the mobile-first animation niche that ibis Paint X also targets.
Differentiators
- Dedicated frame-by-frame animation timeline interface optimized for mobile touch interaction
- Integrated audio recording and lip-sync tools specifically designed for short-form animation creators
- Community-driven contest platform that drives high daily active usage and user retention
Head to head
The target app should focus on deepening its animation feature set to prevent user churn toward specialized animation-first platforms.
Contenders(4)
A strong alternative for comic and manga artists with a focus on cloud-based collaboration.
Differentiators
- Built-in team collaboration features allow multiple users to work on the same project file
- Extensive library of cloud-based backgrounds and tones specifically tailored for manga production
Leverages the Adobe ecosystem and unique live-brush technology to capture professional illustrators.
Differentiators
- Live brushes simulate real-world watercolor and oil paint physics for authentic traditional media results
- Deep integration with Adobe Creative Cloud allows for frictionless asset transfer to Photoshop
A direct competitor in the manga and comic creation space with a robust, feature-rich professional toolset.
Differentiators
- Advanced comic-specific features like panel border creation and speech bubble management tools
- Seamless cloud synchronization between mobile and desktop versions for professional production pipelines
The industry standard for professional digital illustration on tablets, representing the primary threat for high-end creative users.
Differentiators
- One-time purchase model appeals to professional users avoiding subscription-based or ad-supported creative software
- Highly optimized rendering engine provides a tactile, low-latency drawing experience unmatched by cross-platform competitors
Same space(3)
Focuses on infinite canvas and vector-based design, catering to designers and architects.
Differentiators
- Infinite canvas architecture allows for non-linear brainstorming and large-scale project planning
- Fully vector-based engine enables infinite scaling and post-stroke editing of every individual line
A long-standing, widely recognized tool for sketching and conceptual design.
Differentiators
- Distraction-free UI design prioritizes the canvas area for a more immersive sketching experience
- Predictive stroke technology provides superior line smoothing for users without specialized hardware
A highly capable painting app that serves as a direct alternative for general digital artists.
Differentiators
- Advanced perspective guides and 3D rendering tools provide unique utility for architectural and concept art
- Clean, minimalist interface design reduces visual clutter compared to the feature-dense target app
Compare ibis Paint X against every rival
All rivals in one side-by-side table — identity, store metrics, ratings & sentiment, and strategic intel — plus a head-to-head page for each.
The outtake for ibis Paint X
Strengths to defend, gaps to attack
Core Strengths
- Social-sharing recording feature drives organic acquisition velocity
- 47,000-brush library creates a high-value asset barrier
- Freemium model sustains high install volume across 500M+ downloads
Critical Frictions
- Lack of account-based cloud sync causes permanent data loss
- System-level gesture interference disrupts brush strokes on Android
- Aggressive premium-gating of custom brush exports limits power users
Growth Levers
- Education partnerships offer untapped B2B distribution channels
- Cross-device sync would significantly reduce power-user churn
Market Threats
- FlipaClip's animation-first workflow drains the motion-creative segment
- Generative AI tools like Kling AI disrupt static illustration workflows
- Procreate's one-time purchase model attracts professional-grade users
What are the next best moves?
Ship cloud-based account synchronization because it is the top-requested feature → reduce permanent churn from data loss
User reviews consistently cite data loss upon reinstallation as the primary pain point.
Trade-off: Pause the AI Disturbance feature expansion — cloud sync has a higher impact on long-term retention.
Audit Android gesture-interference logic because input-sticking reports disrupt the core drawing flow → stabilize Android rating
Android rating (4.46) lags behind iOS (4.71) due to reported pointer input issues.
Trade-off: Same-quarter capacity available — no major lever displaced.
A counter-intuitive read
The app's massive 500 million download count is a liability, not an asset, because it forces a maintenance-heavy support cycle that prevents the rapid iteration needed to compete with agile, animation-first rivals.
Feature Gaps vs Competitors
- Frame-by-frame animation timeline (available in FlipaClip but missing here)
- Seamless cloud synchronization between mobile and desktop (available in Clip Studio Paint but missing here)
Key Takeaways
ibis Paint X dominates the entry-level digital art market through its massive brush library and social-sharing loops, but the lack of cloud-based account sync creates a critical churn risk that threatens long-term retention, so the PM must prioritize account-based data persistence over new feature releases.
Where Is It Heading?
Stable
The digital art market is consolidating around tools that offer seamless cross-device workflows, leaving ibis Paint X exposed to churn if it does not address its local-only storage model. While the current feature-expansion cadence is strong, the PM must shift focus toward infrastructure stability to prevent power users from migrating to cloud-native competitors.
The lack of cloud-based account synchronization causes permanent data loss, which erodes trust among power users and increases churn risk.
The latest release added Lasso Selection and Shape tools, indicating the team is actively expanding the professional-grade toolset for creators.