Review Summary
Procreate Pocket brings the power of iPad Procreate to iPhone — full brushes, layers, animation, and all professional drawing features in the palm of your hand.
About This Product
2011
Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
James Cuda (CEO) at Savage Interactive
Detailed Review
Procreate was developed by Savage Interactive in Hobart, Tasmania — a small city on an island in the south of Australia, far from any global tech hub. James Cuda and a small team created Procreate 1.0 in 2011 simultaneously with the launch of the first iPad. The vision was simple: build the best possible drawing app on iPad using a custom-built Metal rendering engine.
Procreate became a case study in successful bootstrapped startups: no VC funding, no subscription, just $12.99 one-time. Revenue comes entirely from app sales and selling instructional books. With 25 million users and the all-time top-grossing paid iPad app, this model proves that a quality product with a fair price can beat freemium in the creative tools market.
Savage Interactive built the Valkyrie rendering engine entirely custom in Metal API, enabling brush stroke response with no lag even at high drawing speeds. The library of 200+ brushes was hand-crafted by real artists, not generated by algorithms. Each brush has real-world texture and behavior — soft charcoal smudge, ink bleed, watercolor bloom — making it the best analog-feeling digital art experience available.
Current Developments (2025–2026)
Procreate 6 with a Reference layer for tracing a reference image on a separate layer. Procreate Layers 3.0 with better-integrated Clipping Masks and References. Procreate Folio — a portfolio showcase app from Savage Interactive — is under development. Procreate Dreams — an animation application — launched in 2023 as an important product expansion into motion design. Savage Interactive has stated it will never move to a subscription model.
Strengths
- 200+ handcrafted brushes with pressure sensitivity identical to the Apple Pencil experience on iPad
- Layers, blend modes, and opacity — professional workflow like desktop Photoshop, right on iPhone
- Time-lapse recording automatically captures the drawing process — share process videos effortlessly
- One-time purchase at $4.99 — no subscription, all updates free forever
Areas for Improvement
- iPhone only — Android artists miss out on the best mobile drawing app available
- iPhone screen is much smaller than iPad — drawing details and complex illustrations is still harder
- Photoshop PSD import/export with full layers is not fully supported — transferring files between Procreate and Photoshop is limited
Verdict
Procreate Pocket is an excellent choice for anyone needing a powerful tool in the Mobile App category. Founded in 2011 by James Cuda (CEO) at Savage Interactive, this product has undergone years of development and continuous improvement. With a rating of 9.3/10, it ranks among the best in its segment. We encourage you to try the free version before deciding to upgrade.
