alternatives
Procreate alternatives for iPhone and iPad
Procreate is an illustration app that people often buy hoping for a scrapbook app. These are the apps that answer the thing you actually wanted.
The short answer
Most people looking for a Procreate alternative are not looking for a better drawing app. They want page and book structure, photo cutouts, or something on iPhone without a second purchase. Procreate is excellent at drawing and offers none of those, which is what sends people looking.
Disclosure: Nooka is our app, so read this with that in mind — including the places below where the honest answer is another app. Prices were checked in August 2026 and change often; confirm before buying.
Why people look for a Procreate alternative
It is a drawing app, not a scrapbook app
Procreate gives you a canvas and a brush engine. There are no books, no shelves, no pages that group into anything. If you wanted somewhere your finished pages live together, you have to build that yourself, outside the app.
The iPhone version is a separate purchase
Procreate on iPad and Procreate Pocket on iPhone are two different apps at two different prices. Buying one does not give you the other, which surprises people who expected a single purchase to cover both devices.
You wanted to assemble photos, not draw them
Cutting a subject out of a photo in Procreate means selection tools and layer masks. That is a drawing-app workflow. Apps built around cutouts do it in a tap, and that gap is the most common reason people move.
The learning curve is real
Procreate rewards time spent learning it. If you opened it to make one page about a trip and closed it again, the problem is not you — it is a professional tool being used for a casual job.
When to keep Procreate instead
- You draw or paint, and brush and layer control is the point
- You own an Apple Pencil and use pressure and tilt
- You would rather pay once than subscribe — Procreate is $12.99 one-time on iPad
- Your pages are mostly drawn rather than mostly assembled
Procreate: iPad (Procreate), iPhone (Procreate Pocket) · $12.99 one-time on iPad; Procreate Pocket $5.99 on iPhone · Go to Procreate
Which alternative, depending on why you left
The right replacement depends entirely on which of the reasons above is yours. These are not interchangeable apps.
You wanted scrapbook pages that live in books
Nooka
Nooka is built around the structure Procreate has none of: pages go into books, books go on a shelf you style. You cut subjects out of photos, layer them on a blank page, then draw and sticker over the top. iPhone and iPad, one app, no second purchase.
You wanted templates and something you can print
Canva
Canva has a very large scrapbook template library and exports print-ready files, which nothing else on this list does. If the plan was always to order a physical copy at the end, go to Canva and skip the rest of this page.
You still want to draw, but more casually
Paper
Paper keeps the sketching and adds collage, in a single ongoing journal rather than a folder of separate canvases. It is a gentler tool than Procreate for people who want to draw without operating a full brush engine.
You mainly wanted automatic cutouts, for free
Shuffles by Pinterest
Shuffles cuts objects out of images automatically and costs nothing. The trade is that it wants a Pinterest account and works best with images you found rather than photos you took, and your collages live inside Pinterest rather than on your device.
You want it on iPhone without buying a second app
Nooka or Paper
Both run on iPhone and iPad from a single install. This is the one reason where Procreate has no answer at all: Procreate Pocket is a separate $5.99 purchase from the $12.99 iPad app.
The alternatives in full
Grouped by what each one is for, not ranked. Every entry has a reason to skip it, Nooka included. The full case for each app, with the reasons to pick it, is in the iPhone roundup and the iPad roundup.
Nooka
our appFreeform scrapbook pages kept in books on a shelf · iPhone, iPad (iOS/iPadOS 17+) · Free, with an optional Nooka Pro subscription
Everything Procreate leaves you to build yourself — pages, books, somewhere for them to live — is what Nooka starts with. Cutting a subject out takes a tap rather than selection tools and layer masks, and one install covers both iPhone and iPad.
Skip it if
- You need Android or a web version — Nooka is iPhone and iPad only
- You want ready-made templates to drop photos into; Nooka starts you on a blank page
- You want to order a printed photo book at the end; Nooka exports images, it does not print
- You need to collaborate with other people on the same page
Paper: Sketch, Draw & Create
Sketching and collage in a single ongoing journal · iPad, iPhone (iOS 13+) · Free; optional Paper Pro subscription
The closest thing here to a gentler Procreate. You keep pencils and brushes and lose the depth of the brush engine, and you gain scissors for collage and journals that hold the work together.
Skip it if
- You want a bookshelf or a styled place to keep finished work
- You mostly assemble photos rather than draw
- You want everything stored locally rather than synced to an account
Canva
Template-driven layouts and anything you need to print or post · iPhone, iPad, Android, web · Free tier; paid Pro subscription (monthly or annual)
The opposite trade from Procreate: no drawing worth the name, but a large template library and the only print-ready export on this page. If the plan was always to print the result, this is the one to go to.
Skip it if
- You want the page to feel handmade — templates tend to read as templates
- You want to work offline; Canva is cloud-first
- You dislike subscription pricing for personal, non-commercial use
Shuffles by Pinterest
Cutout moodboards built from Pinterest images · iPhone, iPad, Android · Free, Pinterest account required
Does in one tap what takes selection tools and masks in Procreate. It costs nothing, but it wants a Pinterest account and works best on images you found rather than photographs you took.
Skip it if
- You want your work private and stored on your own device
- You don't want a Pinterest account
- You are collaging your own photos rather than found images
PicCollage
Fast grid collages to post the same day · iPhone, iPad, Android · Free with ads; VIP $4.99/month or $35.99/year
Where Procreate is slow and deep, PicCollage is fast and shallow — grids, stickers, finished in five minutes. A fair landing spot if you never really used Procreate's brushes in the first place.
Skip it if
- You want a blank canvas rather than a grid
- Ads in the free tier bother you
- You want your work organized into books over time
Milanote
Professional moodboards and project planning · iPhone, iPad, web · Free tier with a note limit; paid subscription for unlimited
Not a drawing app at all. It is on this list for the people who bought Procreate to arrange reference images, which Milanote does properly, with notes and links sitting beside them.
Skip it if
- You want something personal and playful rather than professional
- You want cutouts, drawing, and stickers
- You want it to feel like a scrapbook, not a workspace
Apple Journal
Written journaling with the occasional photo · iPhone (built in) · Free, included with iOS
Free and already on your iPhone. It is the answer if what you wanted from Procreate was somewhere to record a day rather than somewhere to draw one.
Skip it if
- You want visual pages — this is not a layout tool
- You want to cut out, layer, or draw
- You want your journal on iPad too
questions
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free alternative to Procreate?+
Several, though none of them are drawing apps of the same class. Nooka, Shuffles, and Apple Journal are free to start; Canva has a free tier. If you specifically want free drawing with a brush engine, none of these replace Procreate — that is the one job it holds outright.
What is the best Procreate alternative for scrapbooking?+
Nooka, because scrapbooking is what it is for. Pages are cut-and-layer rather than draw-from-scratch, and finished pages go into books on a shelf. Procreate can produce a scrapbook page, but you build the structure yourself every time.
Is Procreate available on iPhone?+
Yes, as Procreate Pocket, which is a separate app and a separate purchase from the iPad version. Buying Procreate on iPad does not unlock Pocket on iPhone. Apps like Nooka and Paper run on both from one install.
Are there Procreate alternatives with a one-time price?+
Procreate itself is the one-time purchase on this list. Most alternatives are free with an optional subscription — Nooka, PicCollage, Canva, and Milanote all work this way. If avoiding subscriptions is your priority, Procreate is already the answer.
Can I open my Procreate files in another app?+
Not directly. Procreate's own format does not open elsewhere, but you can export a flattened image or a layered PSD and bring that into most apps. Exported images import into Nooka like any other photo.
Is Procreate hard to learn?+
It is a professional illustration tool, so it takes real time. That is a fair trade if you draw. If you opened it to make a page about a holiday, a purpose-built scrapbook app will get you there in minutes instead.
Keep reading: Nooka vs Procreate, head to head, Best scrapbook apps for iPad, and Nooka as a scrapbook app.