Astropad Studio Drawing Tablet

I tried this out when it was in it’s closed beta phase and loved using it. I have a monitor tablet at home that’s huge so I can’t take it with me on the go, so being able to use it on my iPad was really nice. I was looking forward to buying it, only to find out it’s now subscription only… I don’t understand why more and more art and design apps are going down this route. It’s so anti consumer to only have subscriptions as an option, especially if you tested it out through their closed beta. I’m more than willing to pay a good chunk of money for it if it’s a one time or semi one time purchase, like every 5-8 years, but having to pay monthly or yearly makes this unaffordable for most artists. I saw your Wacom vs Astropad comparison article on your website and it made me laugh. Even though wacoms are overpriced themselves, there’s plenty of great alternatives out there of the same quality like Huion and XP-Pen, and even then, if you pay for Astropad monthly/annually along with getting the ipad AND the Apple Pencil, you’re just wasting money in the long run by paying for the subscription. At least clip studio paint is only charging $2-$5 a month for their monthly subscription service. I’m adding a star just because you give students half off the subscription, which is the only way most artists can afford your app. Please consider adding a one time purchase, you’d get an awful lot more customers and users outside of big tech and design corporations.

With so many great painting apps out there that you can actually *buy* it always amazes me how these subscription apps stay in business. This app costs $12 per month, every month. It’s like you’re automatically buying a new app every month. Just do the math, how many subscription apps can you afford? Say you subscribe to 5 apps at $10, that’s $50 per month! If that’s your spending limit that means you can’t buy any more new apps unless you stop subscription to one of the existing apps. But then you lose that app. All the money you paid them - gone! Subscription model for apps just doesn’t work for the consumers. I will only subscribe to services or content providers. But subscribe to a product? Never. Put a price on it. $50, $80, whatever, if it’s worth it we’ll buy it. But the subscription model “hides” the costs making it seem less expensive. Well let me “unhide” it. If you use this app for 5 years you will pay $400. And even then if you stop paying you lose it. Does it worth it? It might be to some people. I buy a lot of music apps, if even 10% of them were subscription based I would be paying $1,000 each month. Some of the painting apps I *bought* and enjoy are: Procreate, Affinity Photo, SketchBook (before it went free). If they make the next version of these apps, I’ll happily pay again. But when I’m ready. Not automatically. I want to be in control of my spendings. This month I’m dropping $100 on apps next few months could be zero.

I have hundreds of apps. Some for film making, some for games, some for productivity. This one is the one that truly transforms my iPad into another tool. I don’t know why apple didn’t build these tools in, but Astropad certainly covered it when it comes to working with Apple Pencil in graphic programs. There is no comparison to other apps that share or mirror screens and allow for pen input. This one is in its own league. Its great that they are inventing new hardware to allow for second screen use. If you use this regularly then Studio Annual is helpful but not needed to get most benefits. My only improvement request would be a way to enable apple pencils (which are the best stylus IMHO) to have an optional hover feature so you can have the curser move without making contact. But without hacking them, thats on apple to figure out. And for all I know maybe that feature exists, I just haven’t seen it yet. Bravo to this app!