Procreate is one of the market’s best apps for digital paintings and drawings. It has accumulated many accolades over the years and is among the top choice for professional artists. However, this great app is only available for iOS devices, focusing primarily on iPads. Sadly, it means there is no Procreate for Windows, and you need to find an alternative.
Luckily, the internet is full of excellent apps that easily rival Procreate. In this article, we have chosen the top 15 free and paid Procreate alternatives for Windows for you to choose from.
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Top 15 Alternatives to Procreate for Windows
Numerous graphic editors are available for Windows online, and many of them can compete with Procreate on equal footing. Below are the top 15 Procreate alternatives for Windows:
Krita – Best for All Digital Painting
The best and free alternative to Procreate for Windows is Krita, a free and open-source graphics editor designed for artists who want to create digital art. It is primarily used for digital painting and illustration but also supports image manipulation, animation, and other features. This tool supports pressure-sensitive graphics tablets to allow for a natural and intuitive painting experience.
Pros
- It has the onion skinning feature that is used to see the previous and next frames while working on the current one when creating frame-by-frame animations.
- This tool offers a wide range of filters and effects that can be used to enhance or alter your images.
Cons
- Krita has a lot of features and tools, which can be overwhelming for new users or those coming from simpler programs.
Price
- Free from Official Website
- Paid Version from Microsoft Store: $14.99
Concepts – Best for Advanced Sketching
Specifically optimized for Microsoft Surface devices, Concept is a great Procreate alternative for Windows. It is a powerful tool for creating and sharing hand-drawn designs, diagrams, and other visual content. With Concepts, you can draw using a variety of pen and brush styles, insert text and shapes, and import images and other media.
Pros
- It allows you to insert pre-drawn shapes or create custom shapes using the shape library.
- The Concepts app provides an unlimited canvas to draw your desired illustrations, designs, etc.
Con
- The app’s user experience is not uniform and can differ greatly depending on different Windows laptops.
Price
- Free Trial
- Monthly: $4.99
- Yearly: $29.99
Microsoft Fresh Paint – Best for Newbie Painters
Released in 2012, Microsoft Fresh Paint is designed to provide a realistic and intuitive painting experience. It allows users to create digital artwork using a variety of brushes, paints, and tools. This Procreate alternative for Windows offers a straightforward and user-friendly interface. You get options for customizing the size and type of brush, as well as the color and texture of the paint, when using this tool.
Pros
- It has several pre-made templates and tutorials to help users get started with creating digital art.
- The tool simulates the look and feel of traditional media, such as watercolors, oils, and pastels, giving users a realistic painting experience.
Con
- Microsoft Fresh Paint does not have a layer feature, which can be a significant drawback for users.
Price
- Free
Microsoft Paint – Best for Basic Level Graphics
One of the oldest graphic design applications, Microsoft Paint, has been a part of the Microsoft Windows operating system since its first release in 1985. If your graphic tasks are of simple nature, there is no better free app like Procreate for Windows than Microsoft Paint. This tool is primarily used for creating and editing bitmap images and includes various tools for drawing, coloring, and adding text to images.
Pros
- The text tool in Microsoft Paint allows you to add text to your images. You can customize the font, size, and color of the text, as well as the alignment and orientation.
- It also includes a few basic image effects such as blur, emboss, and negative.
Con
- Microsoft Paint is a basic-level graphic editor and is unsuited for complex tasks.
Price
- Free
AutoDesk SketchBook – Best for Drawing
Want to find a drawing alternative to Procreate for Windows 11? SketchBook by Autodesk is the best digital drawing and sketching software. It is designed for both professional artists and casual users and offers a wide range of features and tools for creating digital art. The major features include customizable brushes, layers, a symmetrical drawing mode, and perspective guides.
Pros
- The symmetrical drawing mode in SketchBook allows you to draw symmetrical shapes and patterns quickly and easily.
- Perspective guides in the tool allow you to choose from one, two, or three-point perspectives, depending on the complexity of your work.
Con
- The free version of the tool has minimal features, and you need to buy the tool to use all features.
Price
- $19.99
ibisPaint – Best for Illustrations
ibisPaint is an amazing tool for creating illustrations on Windows and mobile devices. It uses OpenGL technology to provide a comfortable and highly interactive drawing experience. This tool is used by many users who like to draw illustrations and manga as a hobby. When drawing manga on this tool, you can use its specialized manga features like strokes, fonts, screen tones, etc.
Pros
- The layer parameters, like opacity, blending, adding, etc., can be set for each individual layer.
- It has a powerful brush function with over 15000 types of brushes.
Cons
- Users have reported crashing and freezing issues with the Windows version of ibisPaint.
Price
- Free
- Pro Add-on: $19.99
Corel Painter – Best for Professionals
Among the top choices of professionals for its advanced features, Corel Painter is a graphics editor specifically designed for digital painting and drawing. It offers a wide range of artistic tools and features that allow users to create professional-quality paintings, drawings, and other digital artworks. When using this tool, you can adjust the texture of the canvas to suit your needs.
Pros
- Corel Painter allows you to make changes to your artwork without damaging the original pixels.
- It includes layers and masks, which allow you to create and edit multiple elements separately and combine them in a single image.
Con
- The learning curve for this tool can be steep, especially for users who are new to digital art.
Price
- Lifetime: $429
- Annually: $11.58/monthly
Sketchable – Best for Sketching
Sketchable is a drawing and sketching app that is an excellent alternative to Procreate for Windows 10 and 11. It is developed and designed to be user-friendly and easy to use, so even beginners can use it. This tool has a variety of customizable brushes and tools that allow you to create artwork in various styles. There are also many filters and effects that you can use to modify your drawings and sketches.
Pros
- It includes features for editing and enhancing photos, such as cropping, resizing, and adjusting the color balance.
- When working with this tool, you can create up to 32 layers for a single artwork.
Con
- This software is only available for users with Windows 10 and Windows 11.
Price
- $19.99
Adobe Illustrator – Best for Adobe Experience Users
A member of the Adobe Family, Adobe Illustrator is a powerful vector graphics editor. You can create and edit vector graphics such as logos, diagrams, charts, and other design elements with Illustrator. It is widely used by graphic designers, artists, and publishers to create digital artwork and layouts for print and web media.
Pros
- This tool includes advanced typography features such as glyphs, kerning, and paragraph styles for creating professional-quality text layouts.
- It is the best tool for creating and editing vector graphics, made up of lines, shapes, and curves that can be scaled to any size without quality loss.
Con
- Illustrator is commercial software and requires you to pay a hefty price for its usage.
Price
- Monthly: $20.99
Affinity Designer 2 – Best for Vector Editing
Developed by Serif Labs, Affinity Designer 2 is an excellent program like Procreate for Windows. It is primarily used for vector graphics design, but it also has features for raster graphics editing and desktop publishing. Some of its key features include customizable brushes, advanced selection tools, and support for color profiles.
Pros
- The gradient mesh tool in Affinity Designer allows you to create smooth gradients over complex shapes.
- It has a live perspective grid feature that is used to create designs that look 3D by applying perspective to your shapes and objects.
Con
- This tool has very limited support for third-party plugins, which can be a major drawback
Price
- $69.99 for lifetime
Clip Studio Paint – Best for Graphic Novels
Popular among professional artists and illustrators, Clip Studio Paint (formerly known as Manga Studio) is a graphics editing software used for creating manga, comics, and graphic novels. It has a wide range of features, including drawing, coloring, and page layout tools. The ability to create 3D models, customizable brushes and pens and support for various file formats make it a top-notch tool.
Pros
- It allows you to create and customize the layout of your comic or graphic novel pages, including the size and position of panels, speech bubbles, and text.
- Despite being packed with advanced features, the tool is lightweight and fast.
Con
- This tool doesn’t offer a one-time purchase for iOS or Android devices.
Price
- Free Trial
- Clip Studio Paint Pro: $49.99
- Clip Studio Paint EX: $219
- Clip Studio Paint: $0.99/month
- Clip Studio Paint Pro 12-month: $24.99
- Clip Studio Paint EX 12-month: $71.99
Leonardo – Best for Fast Drawing
Leonardo is the best choice if you are in a hurry and need a quick drawing tool. It is the best Procreate alternative for Windows if you use a Microsoft Surface device. The tool’s interface is simple and easy to follow. Its brush engine is among the most powerful in the market and results in minimum latency when using creating brush strokes.
Pros
- Leonardo provides a wide range of tools for creating and editing vector graphics, including lines, shapes, curves, and text.
- The tool’s interface can be customized to suit your workflow and provide a blazing speed when used.
Con
- It is still in its Beta version and lacks many features compared to its competitors.
Price
- Beta Version: $39
MediaBang Paint – Best for Comics/Manga
MediBang Paint is a graphics editor designed to create and edit digital art, manga, and comics. It includes many specialized tools that are designed explicitly for creating manga and comics, such as speech bubbles and panel layouts. This tool can import and export a variety of file formats, including JPG, PNG, and BMP. A specialized panel with many features can be used for creating manga.
Pros
- It has over 800 pre-made tones and backgrounds to use when creating manga art.
- The user interface of this graphic editor is simple to use and helpful for new manga/comic artists.
Con
- The tool is best for hobbyist and amateur use because it lacks the feature to be used at the advanced level.
Price
- 20GB: $18.56 (2,489 JPY)
- 100GB: $29.79 (3,980 JPY)
- 300GB: $59.73 (7,980 JPY)
Microsoft Paint 3D – Best for 3D Creation
Need to create 3D graphics? Microsoft Paint 3D is a graphics editor that is an excellent tool for creating and editing 3D graphics. It is included with the Windows operating system as Procreate equivalent for Windows. This tool also provides excellent support for 2D graphics. You can draw with 2D shapes and tools or create 3D models using the 3D modeler.
Pros
- Microsoft Paint 3D includes a library of stickers and 3D models you can use in your graphics.
- It is possible to import your 3D models or create stickers using a wide range of text and shape tools.
Cons
- The tool is unsuitable for more complex graphics tasks due to the low number of advanced features.
Price
- Free
Inkscape – Best Open Source Alternative
Inkscape is a free and open-source vector graphics editor. It is used to create and edit vector graphics, such as illustrations, diagrams, and logos. The tool has a wide range of drawing tools, such as pencils, pens, and shapes, as well as advanced tools for creating complex paths and curves. You can work with multiple layers in a single document, making it easy to organize and edit your graphic.
Pros
- Inkscape has robust text support, including support for multi-line text, text on a path, and text in shape.
- It can import and export a variety of file formats, including SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), PDF, and PNG.
Con
- The interface tool is not user-friendly and can be confusing for non-technical users.
Price
- Free
Procreate for Windows FAQs
To help clarify any confusion, here are some frequently asked questions and their answers about Procreate for Windows 10 system or device:
1. Is Procreate available for Windows?
Procreate is a digital illustration and painting app that is available for iOS devices, such as the iPad and iPhone. It is not available for Windows devices. However, many similar drawing and illustration software programs are available for Windows, such as Adobe Illustrator, Krita, and Autodesk Sketchbook.
2. Can you use Procreate on Microsoft Surface?
No, you cannot use Procreate on Microsoft Surface devices, as it is only available for iOS devices. If you have a Microsoft Surface device, you can use tools like Krita, Corel Painter, Concepts, Affinity Designer 2, etc. These tools provide the same functionalities as Procreate.
3. What is the closest thing to Procreate for PC?
The best tool to replace Procreate on PC is Krita. Not only is it a free and open-source tool that can be customized, but it also offers comprehensive features. Like Procreate, Krita is aimed at artists and provides various tools for drawing, painting, and illustrating, including brush engines.
Conclusion
It seems unlikely that there will be a version of Procreate for Windows anytime soon. There are multiple excellent options if you need a perfect tool for creating digital art on Windows. We have explained the top 15 graphic editors that can easily replace Procreate for Windows. The list includes both free and paid tools, so you can make an informed choice.
